Friday, July 28, 2017

News: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Returns To Theaters In September

On September 1st, Sony/Columbia Pictures will be re-releasing Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi classic, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind to theaters with a 4K remastered digital presentation. A couple weeks later, on September 19th, this version will be released on both HD Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray.

Based on this official trailer, it looks as if virtually all of the film grain has now been digitally scrubbed from the movie, giving it a modern, digital video appearance.


I have mixed feelings about this. The 2007 Blu-ray was gorgeous, and had a truly "filmic" appearance, awash in glorious, vintage 1970's 35mm filmstock grain. The new transfer looks very sharp and clear, but just doesn't look like a Seventies movie anymore. I get that that's probably what Sony wants - they're trying to keep the property commercially viable - but it bugs me. I'm also annoyed by the fan response to this which is praising it for "cleaning up" the film. But that's where we are today, I'm afraid. 

Countdown: this is Space: 1970 post #998...

10 comments:

  1. Hey, I just picked up the Blu-ray. Happy to know I got it before they ruined it. I can put it next to my Star Trek DVDs and my Star Wars VHS.

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  2. CE3K is my favorite Spielberg film and I've never seen it projected, so I must admit this seemed like good news at first. But when I considered how JAWS looked after the digital scrubbing process, I began to have mixed feelings myself. The earthy quality of '70s film is a big part of the experience.

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  3. Agree, the '70s film grain is something special and should not be lost. Similarly, it is why some like music on vinyl only.

    SGB

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  4. I wonder if this celebratory rerelease will be of the original cut of the film as seen in 1977, or the so-called Special Edition, which in my opinion ruined the film.

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    1. I think it's the version first released in 1998 as the "Collector's Edition", later known as the "Ultimate Edition." This seems to be Spielberg's preferred cut, utilizing elements from both 1977 and 1980.

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  5. What grates on me, watching this trailer, is the contemporary music score they've dubbed in ( I know it's just for the trailer). It doesn't really fit with the tone of the film. I guess it's meant to make it appeal to a newer generation, but I'll bet some newbies to the film are going to have a hard time sitting still until the end. It's definitely an example of filmmaking before the ' FX and explosions every 10 minutes' school took over.

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    1. I totally agree. As a kid I remember hearing how people wept during the end of this film. And replacing John Williams' music with ANYTHING else is a cinematic crime, even for a trailer.

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  6. Wow, that trailer was one big spoiler! And it just doesn't look right without the grain.

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  7. I was never a big fan of the film back in the day as I was for the space operas that were coming out at the time but I remember being haunted by the promotional imagery of the bright light at the end of the road that was used in both the movie posters and as the logo on the trading cards. I remember trying to recreate something similar in art class at school without being fully aware of where I got the inspiration.

    Anyway, it's a shame about the new version of this film now not looking like a part of its era. That's one of the problems that I have with modern films; all the imagery seems to be influenced by contemporary cinema rather than the collective memory that inspired older generations. The importance of imagery is evidenced by how the movie poster of Close Encounters left such an impression on me.

    Paul W.

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  8. I just had to post something about this to clear up the confusion in here.

    I was lucky enough to see this at my local theatre last weekend, and it absolutely did not have the grain scrubbed away. It was a stunning 4k restoration, and it truly looked like a 70's film, just one that was restored to it's original brilliance. There's a lot of people in here jumping to conclusions without having seen it for themselves. You can't judge a film's quality by a Youtube trailer - their compression destroys the image quality. I can assure you that this image in no way looked "modern" or "scrubbed". If it did, I would have been very upset myself, but this is not the case. There was also no modern teal color revisions. It was like stepping back into the 70's and seeing it for the first time.

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