Film:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

”Close Encounter of the First Kind: Sighting of a UFO”

”Close Encounter of the Second Kind: Physical Evidence”

”Close Encounter of the Third Kind: Contact”

Spielberg has long been one of the most exciting and stimulating directors to watch for me personally. I’ve loved his entire catalog of films even The Lost World, Temple of Doom, War of the Worlds, and other films that often receive more criticism than praise among critics. You name it, if Spielberg’s name is in the credits, the DVD is in my collection. So, I was especially excited to hear that only after a year, the director had green-lighted a high def release of one of his most celebrated if not instrumental films. Remembering how long it took the director to endorse DVD, and seeing a deliberate, seeming renouncement of support for HD DVD on several occasions this past year by the influential director, I feared, like Lucas, we may not see his body of work come to high def until this so called “war” is over. Most of his catalog resides with Dreamworks and Universal, so as long as those studios chose to go against the crowd of CE companies, studios, retailers, and consumers supporting BD, we may have to wait for more product from directors like Spielberg, who like many other notable directors, has indicated a preference for Blu.

But, back to celebrating the fact that we now at least have CE3K available in a format that’s simply night and day above DVD in its potential to preserve the movies we love in their fullest fidelity. And Sony has gone the extra mile with a 2-disc set that they can be proud of and fans should be elated to place on their shelves. It’s a bit pricy. But ten bucks more than the DVD seems very reasonable, considering what more this disc has to offer.

Like the DVD, the BD contains, for the very first time, all three cuts of the film via seamless branching. And based on experience, seamless is more likely to be literally applied on BD than DVD. Lots of older DVD players still have trouble with branching discs. No BD player should. In addition to superior video and audio that utilizes the formats disc capacity and bandwidth once again in a manner that can’t be duplicated on any other format, the BD includes some well thought out and practical interactivity that the DVD doesn’t, along with some additional extras. But I’ll elaborate on those more below.

As for the film, CE3K features the kind of storytelling that only gets better with age. It’s a sci-fi odyssey from an idealistic young director that remains grounded in the real world, with real life consequence and turmoil - a terrestrial experience more than an extraterrestrial one. But, an experience it is, ripe with meaning and insightfully humanistic storytelling that doesn’t forget to dream.

All three cuts of the film have garnered a PG rating for mild language, sci-fi action, and thematic elements.

Spielberg’s love for film is fully evident in what looks to be some of the most challenging material Sony has had to encode on BD to date. More than most directors, the visual design in a Spielberg film almost becomes a character in and of itself. The director has often been heard commenting on his value of the distinction and character that emulsion brings to his art. Simply put, he likes grain. It’s the brushstrokes on canvas, the textures that make it stand apart. It just wouldn’t be a Spielberg film, if the video weren’t a little noisy. Without filtering, grain hasn’t always hold up so well on DVD. The lossy scaling processes and tendencies for over-enhancement tend to mutate film grain into something more unsightly on lesser formats. But BD’s higher bandwidth and storage sheds a more revealing light at emulsion. Though subjective opinion will forever vary, for the first time grain all the natural aesthetics of film can be handled properly and beautifully with a disc that doesn’t have to compromise the presentation for the sake of spec or to ease the burden of the compressionist.

Expectations that this three decade old film should look like Spider-man 3, need be tempered in other areas as well. Aside from lots of grain, there’s some softening around the edges. A Vaseline effect enshrouds detail, framing many scenes, driving focus toward the center. This largely appears to be a byproduct of the anamorphic processes used to shoot CE3K 30 years ago. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if restoration had a hand in some of it as well. And, the nature of the effects, similar to Coppola’s Dracula, probably has an impact too. Still, the photography, while not always uniform in resolve, can be a striking cut above DVD in detail and especially in overall clarity.

CE3K looks remarkably free from damage and debris for a 30 year old production. No reel-change markers, no unsightly nicks and scratches, no tearing, etc. There were a small handful of dark sequences where blacks fluctuate – something that’s pretty typical for films of this age. But it appears as if film degradation has been minimized in this newly remastered edition. Blacks mostly run dark and deep in shadow. During the day, the image starts to pop more, with more dimension and glorious color rendition that never bleeds and looks deeper than some much newer films. The photography enjoys a natural color balance. Saturation isn’t overdriven, resulting in flesh tones that still look realistic, even after all these years.

Like grainy films, Spielberg and DTS go hand in hand. In fact he has a vested interest in Digital Theater Sound. So, at the director’s request, as I understand it, Sony included lossless DTS HD (Master Audio) for this release, their first MA title. But, wise to the fact that few people have support for MA right now in their players and audio gear, Sony has also included a lossless Dolby track that most of us can take advantage of here and now. Those that can’t do lossless still get the lossy core from TrueHD or MA, which should still be an improvement over DVD.

There are actually three lossless tracks on this disc. The French dub is also in TrueHD. No need to make excuses here. The consumer is assured of getting the best possible sound that the mix has in it on Blu. But what makes this release even more valuable is it affords the consumer the rare opportunity of actually comparing the two premiere lossless codecs in their own home. Now that’s simply impressive to say the least and worth its weight for any discerning audiophile. Giving consumers the opportunity to hear for themselves whether all lossless codecs are indeed equal, just because the qualify the “lossless” label. I can’t wait to make that comparison myself. But, for this review, it was TrueHD that I was limited to, as we’ve been waiting on suitable replacements to our current gear rather than upgrading to a lesser quality piece in the meantime.

As for the quality of the audio, in short, the TrueHD track gave life to the thirty year old mix that I didn’t know it had in it. It’s a little more aggressive in the surrounds than expected. Yet surround pans and split effects never sounded forced or artificial. The bulk of the energy and focus still remains up front and may even seem slightly lopsided in favor of the front at times. But on other occasions the surrounds are very immersive, neither underplayed in articulation or volume. The TrueHD track has one heck of a low end too. There was some rather minor evidence pointing toward possible deterioration of the stems. And the voice dub, in a few spots, could have been better. But this only affected a small handful of scenes. For the most part the recording still sounds very natural and easily intelligible even in the more complex scenes that feature several characters talking at once.

All of the extras from the DVD, plus a few more are included in this two disc BD set. There’s a very thorough retrospective/making of with lots of interview footage of the cast and crew relating their experiences on the film that should prove insightful for even ardent fans. Spielberg also took the time for an all new retrospective for the 30th anniversary, which is presented in high definition. And then there’s a vast number of still galleries that look fantastic. Some are clearly of HD resolve, while others aren’t quite as crisp, but preserved in HD on the disc, so it would seem the photo’s themselves are a little soft.

The extra that I personally found the most rewarding was how Sony was able to integrate the three cuts of the film, with the option of symbols and editor text commentary that appears on the screen to let you know where and how each cut differs from the original. This interactive viewing feature can be turned on or off and is available with several language options for the text. It was a very nice perk to the release for those that aren’t already intimately familiar with all three cuts, but want to know what they’re missing, as each cut, even the director’s cut, doesn’t contain everything included in the other two. There’s also a poster included in the set, which has a timeline chart on the back comparing each cut as well. And a lot more pics can be found in the booklet included with the set.

Along with the usual lavish main menus and pop-up menu support, this disc features bookmarking like most of Sony’s BDs are starting to. As usual the enhanced java interactivity worked flawlessly with the Panasonic BD10. The discs load time was a little drawn out. But, everything was fine once loaded. The PS3 and most newer players will likely prove even more trouble free.

• 9 deleted scenes
  
• 21 minute 30th Ann. retrospective with Spielberg (HD)
  
• 100 minute making of with much of the cast and crew
  
• original 1977 ”Watch the Skies” promo spot (HD)
  
• 5 storyboard comparisons (HD)
  
• 2 storyboard galleries (HD)
  
• location scouting gallery (HD)
  
• Ralph McQuarrie’s mothership drawings (HD)
  
• 16 behind the scenes galleries (HD)
  
• 5 galleries focused on various members of the production team (Zsigmond, Williams, Alves, Trumbull, and Kahn) (HD)
  
• 8 portrait galleries (Spielberg, Dreyfuss, Garr, Dillon, Truffaut, Guffey, Balaban, and Hynek) (HD)
  
• 4 promotional galleries (HD)
  
• Special Edition gallery (HD)
  
• original theatrical trailer (HD)
  
• special edition trailer (HD)
  
• ultimate edition trailer (HD)
  
• 64 page collector’s book
  
• theatrical poster
  

The first and only Spielberg film to be given a high definition blessing by the director. We can only hope that his other great films one day get the same level of respectful, uncompromising treatment that they so richly deserve. The disc isn’t going to win any awards for best pic and sound. That’ll always be the domain for much newer films. But, for CE3K, it isn’t likely to get any better and the BD adds value to the experience in ways that no other previous or current home video format can. Highly recommended!

"A man can never learn what he thinks he already knows." - author unknown

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