Director Steven Spielberg's 1977 blockbuster film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a wide-eyed vision of self exploration, hope and optimism which -- unlike the big-budget special effects driven Hollywood blockbusters of the 1980's -- doesn't have the relentless action sequences and quick pace that moviegoers have come to expect from films of this sort today. Instead, Close Encounters proceeds quietly and steadily forward with a studied and introspective pace; more of a character-driven film at its heart.
The plot revolves around two people, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), both of whom have had an encounter with an UFO on a road late one night. The pair soon begin to share a similar experience in that they are compelled to draw or form an object that they keep seeing in their minds, but they do not what it is. Soon, they also share something else in common -- they both "lose" their families. Jillian, a single mother, witnesses the abduction of her son Barry (Cary Guffey) by aliens from her house in the middle of the night and Roy loses his family through the increasing mental instability brought on by his desire to figure out why he keeps having visions of the object, and to discover the truth behind what he has seen. Soon Roy and Jillian embark on their own journey of discovery together; this becomes not only a journey of seeking an outside truth, but a journey that helps them rebuild their lives, and discover themselves, as the pair bond with each other through their shared predicament and seemingly fall in love along the way.
In Spielberg's late-70's, post-Watergate, "Science-Speculation" fantasy, as he refers to it, there is also the subplot of the untrustworthy government which has had "encounters" of their own they are trying to keep from the public, in the form of planes and ships which disappeared a half-century earlier, and have now mysteriously reappeared. But, "Close Encounters" is filled with so much childlike hope and optimism that even the enemies here are quite tame. By the end of the film, they themselves are filled with that same wonder, if you will, that seemingly every character exhibits. This may in fact be the strongest criticism one can levy against "Close Encounters" -- it almost lacks any real conflict; it's like drinking a cup of warm milk. Perhaps that is, however, just what many moviegoers needed in 1977, particularly in the US, when things were bleak.
The most notable aspect of this film may be the fact that Spielberg treats the alien visitors as benevolent, intelligent beings, something that was not only practically unheard of then, but is still an extremely rare occurrence today. So, in many regards, it is not just the special effects that one can point to in this film as groundbreaking, but the social commentary one can take away about treating the unknown with respect and facing it without fear, an idea that somehow seems more relevant today than ever.
It should be mentioned, that this "Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Disc" release contains all three versions of the film, the "Original Theatrical Release," the "Special Edition," and the "Director's Cut." They are presented on one disc using the "seamless branching" feature - just select which version of the film you want to watch and let 'er rip.
The Picture
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Ultimate Edition" is presented on this Blu-ray Disc in 1080p/24 in an MPEG-4/AVC transfer in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The picture on this dual layer, BD-50 disc is nothing short of breath taking. There is very heavy film grain present, but this is not a product of the transfer, but, rather, the original intent of the filmmakers. Grain is a natural byproduct of using film, certain types of film stock and film speeds. Close Encounters was and is a very grainy film. This Blu-ray release captures it all in fine detail; better than any other version I have ever seen. This gives the transfer one of the most film-like appearances I have yet to see on Blu-ray.
The saturation, contrast and black levels are all perfect and flesh tones appear completely natural with no evidence of red push. The mother ship denouement has the vibrant color effects popping from the screen in great detail like never before; it is rather rousing to view. As Steven Spielberg himself is known to have worked very closely on the release of this edition, everyone can rest assured that what is being seen is as intended by the director himself.
The Sound
For this release, Sony has offered not one, but two lossless high resolution audio formats for all three versions of the film; Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) in English and French languages plus DTS-HD Master Audio (48kHz/24-bit) in English only. A dubbed Spanish track is available in standard Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround. As they are both lossless, and therefore bit-for-bit identical to their 48kHz/24-bit PCM source, there should be no difference in sound quality whatsoever between the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA versions of the soundtrack unless they were, for some odd reason, purposely mastered to sound radically different, which is unlikely.
It is also more likely the two soundtracks will sound identical given the fact that Sony, thus far on all releases where they have employed the use of the TrueHD lossless audio codec, have declined to use that bane of every true audiophile's existence, dialog normalization, which would -- despite the fact that the codec itself is lossless -- result in an encoding that was not an identical copy to its PCM source. This would instead, for example, result in a 23-bit file were the source 24-bit. But enough of the technicalities and on to the sound!
Listening to the English TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack for the purposes of this review, it is clear they did excellent work bringing this 1977 recording to Blu-ray, even if the sound of the recording was not up to contemporary standards of clarity. Though the rear channels are used discreetly, that takes place mainly during the scenes where there are "encounters" with the aliens, such as the scene of Roy's first encounter early on. At the film's close, the mother ship's sound design not only uses all 5 main channels, but also makes tremendous use of the LFE; so much so that the foundations of your house may start to shake.
Most of the film, however, is driven by dialog, which is kept to the three front channels with not much use of the surrounds and very little ambience to hold the entire mix together. There is also a thinness to the voices and an ever so slight tendency for dialog to distort in some of the louder passages. It is my opinion that this is due more to the recording techniques of the day than anything at all to do with the mastering for this release and these minor quibbles do not spoil what is obviously an excellent job at bringing the "vintage" sound of this film into the modern era.
The Extras
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition" on Blu-ray Disc offers an abundance of extras that will be a delight and a virtual trove for any completist collector. There is only one flaw to the extras in this release, and that is no one saw fit to include a single featurette on the John Williams score, which has become widely known around the world. This is an unforgivable oversight and forces me to take a mark off the ratings for the extras on this disc.
On Disc 1 of this two-disc set, there is only one supplement offered, the BD-J driven "In-Movie" experience of "View from Above" which, according to the disc’s own description: "provides in-pop-up graphics which point out differences in the ‘Special Edition’ and ‘Director's Cut’ as compared to the original version of the film."
Disc 2 of this set is where the many extras reside. Contained on Disc 2 are:
In addition to all of the extras on the discs themselves the set includes a "View from Above" fold out feature comparison poster and a scrapbook.
Final Thoughts
The only thing that could have made this excellent set more complete is a featurette on John William's widely recognizable score. For what is heralded by many -- film critics and moviegoers alike -- as a modern classic and for the first foray by Steven Spielberg into the high definition optical format arena, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition" is a definitive set, now available on store shelves with stunning sound and perfect film-like picture quality.
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