That's the spirit!
Brian,
Your list was good, but you missed one little thing: The scene where Neary and companions force their way out of the military helicopter with Neary shouting, "Go for the mountain!" I believe that was only in the theatrical 1977 cut (like the extended "Days of Our Lives" scene, it's not even in the Criterion Collection's "1977 cut").
-Lyle J.P.
Oh, that's right! But the film IS better without it. It's a very hokey escape -- the army guys don't even look like they're trying very hard to hold them in the helicopter. It works much better with them sneaking away.
But its omission does leave one thing unexplained: when Neary says in the helicopter, "How many of you people are for getting out of here," four or five people raise their hands -- yet only three actually sneak out. The original cut does at least explain why only three people left the helicopter.
But, Lyle, the scene is on the CAV Criteron disc. At the end of several sides, they include brief scenes that were left out "at Steven Spielberg's request." This is one of them. So is the longer "Days of Our Lives" opening.
The only shot from the original that was not included at all on the Criteron CAV edition is the shot of them rolling the globe down the hall. They show them starting to roll it, but originally (and other people have confirmed my memory) the camera tracked behind them as they rolled the globe all the way down the hall and out into the warehouse.
Agreed. This thread is making me want to watch the movie again (haven't seen it since the DVD came out). But I have too many other DVDs waiting for a first run!
Does anyone else here often feel like the digital equivalent to Burgess Meredith in Time Enough At Last?
The film used for every composite and effects shot for CE3K rapidly degenerated. Any shot that has an effect (or any shot with the night sky, because all of the skies were dropped in as photographic effects to make them dramatic) had to be either restored from a negative that has nearly nothing left on it or sourced from a later generation print.
Sadly, the night sky shots are hit the hardest because loss of detail in the dark areas of the picture was the first thing that happened when those parts started to degenerate.
Apparently the Criterion "theatrical cut" is also different from the original theatrical cut in that it has many effects shots replaced with better work done for the Special Edition -- basically, the Criterion cut takes the audio from the theatrical cut (for the most part), uses the picture elements from the Special Edition wherever they match up, and adds back some scenes that were removed.
The audio on the Criterion LD is notably limited in both high and low frequency sound -- it sounds like it was sourced from a non-magnetic theatrical print.
I like the original cut a lot, even though it drags in places. That said, I most frequently watch the Collector's Edition.
Not one Spielberg film has had an audio commentary. However, nearly all of his films have an extensive documentary. The one for CE3K is over two hours long. Other than the inclusion of the two previous versions being a good idea for a new disc, this is one film that doesn't need an upgrade until HD.
-Three Audio commentary tracks. Spielberg, Dreyfuss, and Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban(french interrprutor)and the actor that played Barry, Split over 2 commentary tracks. And of course a commentary track by Doug Trumball, and the SFX team.Yeah, unfortunately you can forget about a commentary track out of Spielberg. I'm not sure how he would feel about a cast commentary, but I would imagine he would frown on in. I wonder how he would feel about a text commentary.
The current edition is good, the documentary is excellent. My wishlist would be a four disc edition with each cut of the film on its own disc. For the fourth disc, the doc, featurettes, trailers etc. (I suppose the deleted scenes would be pretty much redundant.)Failing that, I would settle for the 1997 cut only as long as it contained all the footage and alt scenes that appeared in the 1977 and 1980 cuts and the extensive still gallery from the laserdisc. A more extensive featurette on the three cuts of the film (with all the associated footage included) would be nice as well.