Close Encounters of the Third Kind [1977]

PRODUCTION NOTES

Once Spielberg had finished the film, over schedule and over budget, he was unhappy with what he'd created. There were several scenes he considered to be key to the story that he simply hadn't had the time or finances to complete. When the film proved to be such a massive success, Spielberg approached Columbia with a view to completing the film to his satisfaction. The company agreed that to finance Spielberg's re-editing as well as footing the bill for some new footage, though it was at their insistence that Spielberg added the final scenes set inside the alien mother ship.

Armed with a further $2 million and allowed seven weeks to complete the project [some of which overlapped with his work on 1941 [1979]], Spielberg set about restructuring his masterpiece. He was able to get most of the cast back together, though Francois Truffaut is conspicuous by his absence from the new footage.

When it was complete, The Special Edition, as it came to be known, was three minutes shorter than the original cut. Although Spielberg restored 7 minutes of footage shot in 1977 and added a further 6 minutes of newly shot material [totaling 13 minutes], he removed 16 minutes that he no longer felt was necessary. Additionally, many scenes were repositioned and tweaked slightly.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL CUT AND THE SPECIAL EDITION

In the original cut, we see Barry Guiler running out of his house in pursuit of the aliens and there's a cut to a close-up of a music box playing When You Wish Upon a Star. We're then introduced to the Neary household where Roy Neary is taking a phone call from his boss. In the Special Edition, we cut from Barry leaving the house to an overhead shot of the city at night. We then arrive at the Neary household where Roy is trying to teach fractions to one of his sons by using a model train layout.

Following a brief shot of Jillian Guiler searching the woods for Barry, the original cut featured a scene where Neary visits the power station, engages in a discussion about the mysterious power outages plaguing the city, and being sent out to investigate one such power cut by his supervisor. The entire sequence was cut from the Special Edition and has not been seen again since. It is, however, represented in the now difficult-to-find photo novel.

The original cut featured a brief shot, missing from the Special Edition, of an old man watching the UFOs from the back of a flat-bed truck and commenting: "They can fly rings around the moon, but we're years ahead of them on the highway".

A brief shot of Neary's car seen from the air with the shadow of a UFO passing over it has been added.

During Neary's pursuit of the UFOs, the Special Edition adds a very brief new shot of a UFO flashing its lights over a McDonald's sign.

The first lengthy sequence to be specially shot for the Special Edition features the UN scientific team arriving in the Gobi Desert to find a beached ship.

The scene where Neary and Ronnie argue after he's been fired is shorter in the Special Edition. In the original cut, Neary lay on the bed staring at the pillows which vaguely resemble the Devil's Tower, our first indication of Neary's coming obsession.

The Special Edition deletes completely a press conference at an Air Force base where Jillian is harangued by journalists about her missing son and where Neary and Ronnie hear the military attempt to cover-up what really happened. During the conference, Neary absent-mindedly doodles a sketch of the Devil's Tower on a newspaper.

Neary trying to fashion a representation of the Devil's Tower from a plate of mashed potatoes has been reduced.

A scene shot in 1977, of Neary breaking down in the shower and being found by Ronnie and one of the kids was restored to the Special Edition.

Neary's demolition of his front room and his construction of the scale model of the Devil's Tower is drastically shortened in the Special Edition.

A single shot following Ronnie's angry flight from the family home was removed from the Special Edition - it showed Neary clambering back into the house through a window and we hear breaking things inside.

The Special Edition includes a few brief extra shots of Neary driving towards Moorcroft in Wyoming and struggling with a map. The original cut simply started the sequence with a crane shot of Neary at the railway station.

The subsequent sequence of Neary meeting Jillian at the train station has been shortened in the Special Edition. The original cut featured Neary trying to persuade a soldier [Carl Weathers] to let through the cordon to search for his sister. In the same scene, we see new footage of a second gas mask salesman.

The most contentious change to the Special Edition of course is the addition of the lengthy final sequence in which we see what happens to Neary after he enters the mother ship, a scene imposed on Spielberg by Columbia in return for financing the Special Edition.

The closing music is different, featuring an arrangement of When You Wish Upon a Star.

OTHER VERSIONS

The US Television Version
Muddying the waters even further, there have been at least four other versions of Close Encounters. The first was the version shown on US syndicated TV which is essentially the same as the original cut except for:

• The inclusion of the 5 second shot of the UFO shadow passing over Neary's car from the Special Edition.
• The removal of several very short scenes [totaling some 30 seconds]:
  Neary driving his truck through a tunnel while chasing the UFOs
  A few seconds of Neary watching Days Of Our Lives on TV after completing his Devil's Tower model
  And a brief shot of Neary and Jillian running towards a helicopter.

This version of the film was available for a while as part of the Criterion LaserDisc edition.

The Collector's Edition
The fourth version is the so-called Collector's Edition, released on video in 1998. This is a 137 minute version of the original cut [minus one or two scenes, notably the old-timer's comments about being "light years ahead of them on the highway" and the scene where Neary visits his place of work] edited together with five key sequences from the Special Edition:

• The alternate introduction to the Neary household
• the discovery of the ship in the Gobi Desert
• the shadow of the UFO flying over Neary's truck
• Neary's breakdown in the shower
• the second gas mask salesman at the railway station.

This version restores the press conference scene, omits the unnecessary finale inside the mother ship and restores the original end title music.

US Network Television Version
The granddaddy of all CE3K versions has to be the epic 143 minute version cut shown on US network television. This version featured just about all of the footage seen so far.

Spielberg has consistently argued that the Special Edition is the 'real' Close Encounters and that the original cut was simply a work in progress. Columbia have claimed that the original cut is now lost, except for a handful of prints kept in their vaults for posterity.

The Definitive Director's Edition
And finally - for now at least - came the Definitive Director's Edition, debuted at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Samuel Goldwyn Theater on 12 January 1999 as part of the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films of All Time celebrations.

This edition was put together by the Film Restoration Department at Sony Pictures who worked closely from notes provided by Spielberg. It features footage from both the original cut and the Special Edition and a newly digitally remastered soundtrack. This main features of thsi version include:

• The brief shot of the UFO scanning the McDonald's sign is now missing
• the press conference scene is restored
• shots of Neary throwing dirt and debris through his house window and taking chicken wire from his neighbours' pond is restored
• a few brief shots of people in period costume emerging from the mother ship were also restored
• the ending and the title music are the same as in the original cut.