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Steven Spielberg
The Film: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Years: 1980 and 1998
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What makes it special? Steven Spielberg has famously shied away from recording audio commentary’s for any of his films, but he isn’t immune to tinkering with them after their initial release, such as with Close Encounters Of the Third Kind . Spielberg had final cut privilege on the theatrical release, so when he was forced to release the film six months before he felt it was ready in 1977, and after it proved to be a huge financial success, Columbia agreed to let him work on a special edition release. The one caveat was that he had to show the inside of the mothership, a marketing man’s dream but a colossal artistic error, and the main reason to avoid the special edition like the space flu.
Spielberg was given an astonishing $1.5million for what became seven minutes of additional footage, including several new scenes depicting Roy’s deteriorating mental condition and a dazzling sequence in which the giant SS Cotopaxi is discovered in the Gobi Desert. Unlike most, Close Encounters ’ special edition actually runs a few minutes shorter than the theatrical release owing to the omission of several scenes, including those of Roy at work.
Spielberg still wasn’t satisfied though, and in 1998 created another version of Close Encounters for the Collector’s Edition DVD release. The Collector’s Edition blends the best of the new scenes from the special edition with the theatrical cut, and wisely exorcises the mothership interior. All three versions were made available as part of the beautiful 30th anniversary edition, which also includes a handy infographic of the differences between the three different versions.
The Film: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Year: 2002
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What makes it special? When asked: “Which special edition committed the biggest crimes against cinema?” The answer isn’t Star Wars . We’re happy with some of the changes Lucas made there. ET ’s special edition however is a two-hour corruption of cherished childhood memories . So much so that even Spielberg has disowned the Special Edition, stating in a 2011 interview “When people ask me which E.T. they should look at, I always tell them to look at the original 1982 E.T .”
Created to celebrate the 20th anniversary, the ET special edition suggests that Spielberg had fallen under George Lucas’ nefarious influence. After expressing concern about some of the puppet ET effects in the film, he clearly thought, “Why not use a computer to make it better/easier to develop a toy line from?” Unfortunately every single shot of E.T.’s digital double sticks out like a stumpy alien in middle America, and completely pulls you out of the film. Sure, the puppet looked a bit stiff at times, but it never fails to convince as a tangible object in that world and has charm that made E.T. so endearing in the first place.
The other notorious change was the digital removal of FBI rifles from the film, replaced by walkie-talkies. A needless change which rather than protecting younger viewers patronises them. The same goes for a dialogue alteration that sees the word “terrorist” changed to “hippy”. Still at least Spielberg realised the error of his ways stating, “I realised that what I had done was I had robbed the people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T. And I regretted that.” Listening Lucas?
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