Close Encounters Comments
Compiled by Lukas Kendall
Oh, we got letters singing the praises of the new Close Encounters
of the Third Kind CD from Arista. See Jeff
Bond's thorough review from last week too.
From: "Liverance, Howard M" <HLIVERANCE@tpa.HealthPlan.com>
21 years ago I, two brothers and a sister-in-law took turns waiting
in line for three hours on a winter Sunday afternoon so the others could
run into the lobby of the New York Hilton for a few moments of warm breathing.
Although it was an early arrival, we were still in the middle of a line
that seemed 5-people deep and stretched around the corner. Make no mistake--it
was cold and dreary! But what anticipation. And we were not let down. The
audience was noisy at the beginning but everyone sat in stunned silence
at the end. Beyond a doubt, Close Encounters was worth the wait in the
bitter cold. It was and remains for me the single greatest trip to the
cinema. You have not seen Close Encounters until you've gone to the Ziegfeld
Theatre with its massive screen and its zillion channel stereo system and
its crushed velvet covering the walls. Unreal.
I would take the trip across the Lincoln Tunnel several more times
before its run ended. Ditto for the Special Edition a few years later.
The enthusiasm in Jeff Bond's review was infectious. He has the
music and scenes memorized by heart. I am going to suspend my personal
Forced Obsolesence Boycott and pick up the CD. For my neighbor to put on
cassette for me, of course (sorry, cannot entirely abandon principles).
The old LP is still in great shape but I've been waiting forever for the
"False Alarm" cue as well as the "When You Wish..."
interpolation. Would have liked the music under the Hyatt Regency--er,
mother ship interior in the SE--but so be it. This to me is the definitive
Williams masterpiece. It led to honorary geekdom. I mean what else can
I say after having detoured to Wyoming during a 32-day, 11,000 mile Kerouac
trek around the country just so I could blast the soundtrack as I approached
The Other Side Of The Moon prior to a 3-mile solo hike around the edge?
(Then again I also went to the cornfield in Iowa)
From: Tom Daish <ns6tod@bath.ac.uk>
I read with interest your review of CE3K and am absolutely wetting
my pants in anticipation (well, I'm quite excited anyway). I just wondered
what you thought was wrong with the ET expanded edition. It's just that
I can't think of anything especially wrong with it. I agree that it isn't
as nicely compact as the original album and doesn't contain Flying and
Over the Moon, but that aside, it's a much better representation of the
score and has stunningly good sound. If you want the two concert arrangements,
they pretty much appear in the end credits combined into one piece (although
I think that may be different to the end credits used in the film). Just
thought I'd ask what you thought was wrong with it, that's all.
From: Zatzrite <Zatzrite@aol.com>
Having become a John Williams fan upon seeing the microfilm killing
scene from The Eiger Sanction. I was a true devotee when his monumental
score for Jaws hit the cinemas the same year. Having only been 11 years
old at the time, to me, this was the epitome of the cohesion of the audio/visual
experience. That was until 2 years later when the soundtrack for Close
Encounters Of The Third Kind was released. Though I was a Spielberg &
Williams fan, and I had purchased the soundtrack in LP format, I must confess
that I did not see this film until the re-release in the Special Edition
format.
For 3 years, from the time when I bought the soundtrack until its
1980 re- release, I imagined how those wonderful atonal notes would fit
the images on the screen, but I couldn't think how "When You Wish
Upon A Star" fit into the score. I played that score over and over
til the point where my siblings and parents couldn't stand that "da,
da, da, da, da ", 5 note motif, usually associated with the score.
At the time I knew that these 5 notes were the basis of the score, but
there was something else grander in this piece of writing that kept at
me.
It was the atonality of "Barry's Abduction," as released
on the original LP, that really made me work my imagination. To my family
it was just a bunch of noise. To me those dark and foreboding chords reminded
me of another score of 2 years earlier by another giant in film scoring,
The Omen, by Jerry Goldsmith. Williams' writing for this scene, for me
at the time, caused me to think of how this "noise" could possibly
fit any visual image on the screen. You have to remember I hadn't seen
this film in its initial release. While I knew the basic plot, good aliens/bad
people, I thought the film might be something along the lines of The Day
The Earth Stood Still. It wasn't until 1980 that I was blown away.
From the opening crescendo of the main titles, to the final resolution
at Devil's Tower, I was so stunned by the audio/visual experience I paid
for two more admissions to sit through 2 more screenings of the film. I
knew from interviews and articles written about the film that Spielberg
cut and even filmed some sequences based upon John Williams' score. I wished
at the time that I could have seen the film in its original release, wondering
how and where Williams' music was cut into the movie. About a year ago
on TNT I first saw the film in its original format, and the majority of
the scenes were without music.
Upon finally viewing this masterpiece of filming and scoring, I
knew that, if not for Star Wars, this would have been the film score that
John Williams would have been most remembered for. While Star Wars is based
in a fantasy world, CE3K (it's easier to type this instead of the full
title), is Earth based and makes the viewer think "maybe stuff like
this could happen." I remember upon leaving the theater, it was night
time then, and looking up at the stars in the sky and hearing those 5 notes,
the "bouncy" theme associated with the Richard Dreyfuss character's
quest for "the truth," the wonderful martial theme for the military
cover-up, the chorales that run throughout the score, the and even the
interpolation of "When You Wish Upon A Star."
This is a score that starts almost silently, if that's possible,
and builds to an ultimate conclusion. The new release of the score for
this film is something I have been waiting for for over 20 years. Film
music collectors, even if you are not a Williams fan, should pick this
up. My only negative with this release is the packaging.
This is one of those scores that should be analyzed and talked about
on an academic as well as on an entertainment level. As in the film, the
music is the communicative engine that connects individuals.
From: "David Guay" <DGuay@casdn.neu.edu>
I was frankly amazed when I heard this new presentation. The original
release contained such a hacked up version of the score that it was difficult
to really assess its excellence. Perhaps there was a fear that listeners
would get bored with the subtle, eerie effects Williams employs, so the
cues were truncated and pasted together.
By restoring those cues and others this album provides a much better
sense of what Williams was trying to achieve. Especially surprising is
the track "Wild Signals" (originally called "The Conversation"):
a much clearer mix and greater length showcase the bizarre originality
of this piece as never before. The remix on "The Visitors" is
equally satisfying, and hearing the actual version of "Night Seige"
used in the film, complete with atmospheric bass solos, was a real treat.
The album notes are a disappointment, however. I was hoping for
a brief track-by-track analysis to sort out how the music was used in the
film as well as what orchestration was employed. To add some confusion,
there are mistakes on the indicators which are supposed to tell us which
cues are newly released, and which unused. (I am still baffled, for example,
by the tracks titled "Stars and Trucks" and "Trucking."
These were apparently unused in the film--but where were they originally
supposed to go?) Overall, however, there is little to complain about here
and much to praise.
From: sharol <sharol@jps.net>
Thank you for your excellent review of "Close Encounters of
the Third Kind", I really enjoyed it.
I, being a fan of John Williams for twenty years, have been anxiously
awaiting for the re-release of this score. His music carries us back through
the film and what a wonderful trip that is. He is a fantastic composer!
From: Wdp321 <Wdp321@aol.com>
I went out and bought this CD the day it was released! I love all
of John Williams scores, and although---Please Do Not Shoot Me-- I had
never seen all of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD, becuase I hate trying
to sit through it on TV, and I am hoping for a DVD release soon from COLUMBIA
Tri-Star. I did not know what to expect. I was thrilled!! Although I did
not care to much for the paper case it is great to look at. I hope this
release will bring on more re- releases and restorations of his film scores.
i myself would love to buy HOW TO STEAL A MILLION ! Wouldn't that be exellent!
Even though it seems imposssible I would love to own a restored Spec. ED.
of JAWS----Who Wouldn't?
From: Paul Conway, pwc@bgg.com
Just some thoughts regarding the expanded CE3K CD. Certainly NO
fault with the music presentation. The sound, the unreleased cues, all
remarkable and much appreciated. But where were you guys? I could "forgive"
the digipak case, but not the lack of track-by-track analysis which you
do so well. The Spielberg/Williams interviews add nothing new to what we
already know and a "eollector's edition" would have been more
"complete" with a run-down of what's on screen and how the music
relates to it. Ah well...never satisfied I know, but the music was and
is the most important thing and I'm thrilled to have it, but Arista missed
the boat on this one (should have studied your Retrograde releases!
We haven't seen the final packaging of this CD... as far as we're concerned,
78 minutes of Close Encounters sounding great--we'll take it.
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