Anno di produzione: 1977

Stato del film: Catalogo

Paese d'origine: USA
Location del set: Bay Minette, Alabama, USA Bernal, Querétaro, Mexico Bombay, Maharashtra, India Devil's Tower, Wyoming, USA Mobile, Alabama, USA Mojave Desert, California, USA Tequisquiapan, Mexico Palmdale, California, USA
Versioni alternative: - The original production of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was plagued with schedule and budget problems, and many scenes Spielberg had scripted couldn't be filmed as he originally intended. After the movie huge success, Spielberg asked Columbia to allow him to recut the picture and to shoot additional sequences; the studio agreed at the condition that he included new scenes showing the inside of the alien mothership. - Spielberg was given a budget of $2 million and seven weeks to shoot the new sequences (some of which were shot while he was also directing _1941 (1979)_ (qv)). He had to use a different director of photography (Allen Daviau) because Vilmos Zsigmond was unavailable, and he was able to convince most of the original cast to re-appear, with the exception of director Francois Truffaut (who played French scientist Lacombe) who was on location shooting a film at the time. - The original version was 135 minutes long; the new version, titled "Close Encounters of The Third Kind/The Special Edition", debuted in 1980 and is actually three minutes shorter because Spielberg deleted 16 minutes of footage from the original, reinstated 7 minutes of scenes shot for the 1977 version but never included in the final cut and inserted 6 minutes of new additional material. - A special television network version, running 143 minutes, was later assembled combining the material of the original version and the special edition. This network TV version has never been available on home video. - The Criterion Laserdisc version features the syndicated TV version, with the Special Edition scenes tagged onto a supplementary section at the end of the appropriate sides. - Spielberg considers the Special Edition the only "real" version of the movie and dismisses the original as an inferior "work-in-progress". According to Columbia, all prints of the original version have been destroyed (apart from a few copies kept in the studio's vault for historical value only). For many years, only the Special Edition was available on video until Criterion became the first company to release different versions of the film in any video format. - The chronological order of events in many sequences was altered between the two versions. The following are the differences between the Original Version (O.V.) and the Special Edition (S.E.): - In the O.V. after Barry runs outside his house and into the night, there's a cut to a music box playing "When you wish upon the star" and then to Roy Neary's house, where he receives a phone call from his boss at the power station. In the S.E. after Barry leaves the house we see a panoramic shot of the city at night instead; the next scene shows Roy playing with a toy train in order to explain to his son what a fraction is. There's an argument between Roy, his wife and his kids (they want to go play Goofy Golf, he wants to go see "Pinocchio" but is outvoted). Then Roy's boss calls. - After Jillian Guiler looks for her son Barry in the woods, the O.V. version shows Roy Neary at the power station where workers are discussing the power failures and his supervisor tells him to go check an area of the city. The Special Edition deletes this scene. - The S.E. adds a new scene, after Roy Neary is seen chasing the UFOs in his van: a UFO stops in front of a McDonald's sign and flashes its light on it, as if to read it. - An old man sees the UFOs fly by on the road and says "They can fly rings around the moon, but we're years ahead of them on the highway". This scene is missing from the S.E. - The S.E. adds a scene in which U.S. soldiers and scientists discover a ship in the Gobi desert. This scene is inserted right after the one where Roy and his wife watch the sky in the spot where he first saw the UFOs. - The S.E. shortens a scene where Roy and his wife argue right after he's fired from his job. Roy lies on his bed and looks at a pillow (whose shape resembles the Devil's Tower mountain in Wyoming where the aliens will land). - The S.E. deletes a scene at an Air Force base after Lacombe and the military argue about the best way to scare the population away from the alien's landing area. In the original Jillian is interviewed by reporters about her son's kidnapping, and Roy and Ronnie arrive at the base to attend a press conference about UFOs. Roy draws the shape of the Devil's Tower on a newspaper over the photo of Jillian and the headline "Cosmic Kidnapping". - The sequence where Roy makes a sculpture of the Devil's Tower in his plate using mashed potatoes while his family stares at him is shortened in the S.E. - The S.E. adds a sequence where Roy breaks down and he locks himself in the bathroom and goes under the running shower. Ronnie breaks the door open and yells at him, holding him responsible for their family falling apart. - The scene where Roy builds a giant replica of Devil's Tower in his living room using dirt dug from his garden is shortened in the S.E. - When Ronnie leaves Roy and almost runs him over with her car, the O.V. shows him getting back inside the house from a window and we hear him breaking stuff. This scene is missing from the S.E. - S.E. includes extra footage of Neary driving outside or Moorcroft, Wyoming and fumbling with maps. The O.V. cuts directly to the crane shot of Neary at the railroad station. - The sequence when Roy arrives in Wyoming and meets Jillian at the train station while the population is being evacuated by the army is shorter in the S.E.: in the original we saw Roy trying to convince a soldier (played by 'Carl Weathers' (qv)) to let him go look for his sister: the guard says he has orders to shoot anyone that trespasses. - The S.E. adds a new ending that shows what happens after Roy enters the mothership, with light/sound special effects by Douglas Trumbull. - Syndicated TV prints contain the original version, except 30 seconds of it that have been replaced by 5 seconds of footage (the shadow of a UFO) from the 1980 "Special Edition". Among the short deletions: Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) driving through a tunnel; a portion of Roy watching "Days Of Our Lives"; and Roy and Jillian running towards a helicopter. This version has been incorporated into the Criterion LaserDisc edition. - In the S.E. and network TV versions, the end title music is different. Instead of the closing "overture" music originally commissioned for the credits, we hear an arrangement of "When You Wish Upon A Star". - A fifth and final version of "Close Encounters" was released to video in 1998 as "...The Collector's Edition". It is basically a 137-minute re-edit of the original version plus five sequences from the 1980 "Special Edition": - Roy Neary's alternate introduction; - the Gobi Desert Sequence; - the 5-second flyover - the scene where Roy Neary argues with his wife and goes nuts; - and the "other" gas mask salesman. The 1998 version, however, does not contain the mothership ending from the "Special Edition", and retains the original 1977 end title music. - A new director's cut of the film was screened at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Samuel Goldwyn Theater on January 12, 1999. This version was created by Sony Pictures' Film Restoration deparment following an outline prepared by Steven Spielberg and combines material from both the original and the special edition, in addition with a digitally remastered soundtrack This "definitive director's edition" was created for the AFI "Top 100 Films of All Time" and includes the following changes from the "Special Edition": - the shot of a UFO scanning a roadside McDonald's sign is not included; - the Air Force base press conference scene has been restored from the original version; - Roy is shown throwing dirt, plants and bricks through his kitchen window and taking chicken wire from the neighbor's backyard duck pond. This was in the original release but deleted from the Special Edition; - one or two shots showing people dressed in clothing dating back to the early 20th century (and perhaps earlier) and exiting the mothership ramp are missing; - all of the mothership interior scenes have been deleted; the ending is from the original version; - the end credits music is from the original version. - On the Encore! Channel, both the O.V and S.E were shown, and on one night both were spliced into a three hour presentation known as "Close Encounters - The Last Edition"
Genere: Drama Sci-Fi
Lingue: English
Plot: Roy Neary sets out to investigate a power outage when his truck stalls and he is bathed in light from above. After this, strange visions and five musical notes keep running through his mind. Will he find the meaning of the visions, and who - or what - placed them in his mind ? La tranquilla vita familiare di Roy Neary (R. Dreyfuss) viene sconvolta dopo un incredibile incontro con entità aliene. Contemporaneamente il figlio di Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) viene rapito da luci provenienti dal cielo. Insieme, i due, spinti da visioni telepatiche e osteggiati dalle autorita' (ad eccezione del prof. Lacombe - F.Truffaut) scopriranno cosa si nasconde dietro una misteriosa fuga di gas nervino nel Wyoming.. Planes reported missing in 1945 suddenly appear in the Mojave desert. A commercial flight is buzzed by a 'bright' object that the pilot 'wouldn't know how to describe'. Roy Neary, while working one night, has a Close Encounter... The US Government determine where the visitors plan to land and create an elaborate cover-up to keep people away. However, a group of people, including Neary, share a vision which draws them to the place and a meeting with new, and old, friends.
Colonna sonora: - "CHANCES ARE" Words & music by Al Stillman and Robert Allen Published by International Korwin Corp. From the Columbia Records album JOHNNY MATHIS: "ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS" - "WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR" Words: 'Ned Washington' (qv) / Music: Leigh Harline (C) 1940 Bourne Co. - "THE SQUARE SONG" Words & music by Joseph Raposo Published by Jonica Music, Inc. Courtesy of Pickwick International, Inc. - "LOVE SONG OF THE WATERFALL" Words & music by 'Bob Nolan (I)' (qv), Bernard Bames and Carl Winge Published by Unichappell Music, Inc. / 'Elvis Presley' (qv) Music From the United Artists Records album "LOVE SONG OF THE WATERFALL" Sung by Slim Whitman
Visti censura internazionale: Finland:K-12 USA:PG Australia:PG Sweden:11 UK:PG West Germany:12 France:U Norway:12
Date di uscita internazionali: Dati tecnici: Suono: Durata: Movielink - film simili: intrigo internazionale lo squalo firelight lo squalo sentieri selvaggi i dieci comandamenti 2001 odissea nello spazio duck dodgers in the 24½th century pinocchio guerre stellari days of our lives
Cast & Credits