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Posted: |
Oct 19, 2014 - 3:41 AM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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I thought I'd bump this with some thoughts I've had about the film that have never been aired to my knowledge.
Going back to the UFOs themselves, I recall from Cinefantastique each configuration was given an alphabetic designation. The three heralding UFOs that visit the landing strip flashing their light messages before the barnstorming sequence were the "saucer D" variety and we saw them in several shots. They remain amongst the most exposed of the UFO designs seen in the film, probably due to the "smiling face" aura they projected. The most intriguing one to me was "saucer H." That was the one that buzzed Neary on his first encounter at the crossing. After it turns off, Neary leans forward and cautiously looks up and we briefly see it in silhouette blotting out the overhead stars. The short rail, spider-leg like probes hanging downwards on it's edge were made memorable in that shot. In the Special Edition there is an additional aerial shot of Neary's pickup traversing the road and the saucer's shadow is seen crawling along in the same general direction as the pickup. It also appeared at the tail end of the barnstorming sequence. When Spielberg wrote his novelization, Lacombe reaches out to touch the ship. In the film we see Truffaut with his arm reaching upwards and Spielberg is obviously wanting to capture Lacombe in the process of touching saucer H. Unfortunately, the shot is complex from the post production vantage and you can see the ship is hovering much too high to be touched. Unlike the other UFOs which were mainly composed of bright and disembodied neon lighting effects, saucer H had solidity and surface detail as well as the "monster Klieg" surface lighting. There have been lots of pictures published of the Mothership, but I've never seen "saucer H" in any post production publicity shots. It reminded me of the Millennium Falcon to a large extent because it had a little rotating internal type of antenna thingy offset to one side, like the Falcon's dish. I'd wondered if pictures of it had been deliberately suppressed due to any possible resemblace. It would be kind of neat to see what it looked like as a miniature.
And one last thing. When saucer H makes that appearance at the barnstormer, John Williams gave it a resounding musical accompaniment. There are french horns playing a series of complex and rising figures in succession and the playing is particularly impressive.
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Posted: |
Oct 22, 2014 - 2:08 PM
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By: |
dogplant
(Member)
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In the Special Edition there is an additional aerial shot of Neary's pickup traversing the road and the saucer's shadow is seen crawling along in the same general direction as the pickup...
Interesting stuff, Grecchus. I forgot about those saucer designations, although I still have all my old magazines. Are you sure that shot of the shadow following Neary's truck was supposed to be Saucer H? Personally I always felt this shot was disappointing -- not because of its execution, but because as soon as I saw it, in the Special Edition theatrical release in 1980, I thought this was the shadow of the mothership. It was only my familiarity with the film that made me think that (I was obsessed: https://flic.kr/p/cCMBRs) but my gut reaction was, 'Too much, too soon!'
Seeing the mothership for the first time at Devils Tower was so dramatic in 1978, when I first saw the film, because it was unexpected. Up till then, the UFOs had been about the size of a car, or a bit bigger at the rail-crossing, and possibly outside the farmhouse when Barry opens the door. And I loved how Spielberg played that, holding back the reveal of this gargantuan craft till the climax of his film, and added to that, it ascends -- whereas most every other UFO descended from the sky. It was heart-stopping.
I just checked Don Shay's Q&A with Steven Spielberg in Cinefex 53, but he did not specifically address which ship casts its shadow over Neary, nor is it in the Special Edition details in Cinefex 11. I don't like this shadow shot, for reasons cited above, and I'm one of the purists who prefers the original movie in all regards. But maybe you're correct, and I've held a grudge against this shot for the wrong reasons!
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Posted: |
Oct 22, 2014 - 7:57 PM
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By: |
dogplant
(Member)
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The mothership is implicated in the visit to the Guiler houshold when Barry is abducted.
Yes, I gathered that. I always got the feeling we glimpse the mothership's massive, monolith-like landing ramp gliding by, left to right, just as Barry swings open the door. It's so great, though, that we never see outside all that time, as Spielberg plays the scene from Gillian's point-of-view, making it so frightening. From memory, he compared it to "The Birds".
And I agree, in the Special Edition shot looking down on Roy's truck after his first encounter, if that's supposed to be the shadow of 'Saucer H' it feels too big. That's why it confused me.
I had a dream, when I was a kid obsessing about this film, that I visited the 'Big Set' in Mobile Alabama and there, in an an adjoining storage space, were all the UFOs from the barnstorming sequence, all full scale, the size of cars, stacked up on boxes, some covered with sheets, like they were about to go into storage. I'd love to see visual effects supervisor Bill George feature a few of those freaky machines on the runway at http://www.scifiairshow.com
Love this movie, though, including all of its anomalies, and feel it will be time for me to revisit my Blu-ray again soon.
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Just had occasion to watch this with my son and his new wife who was born in China. We picked this because it's one of the few Blu-rays with Mandarin subtitles which helps Lisi keep up with the film. I was struck again by how less than perfect this Blu-Ray looks, although as well explained in the posts above it's about as good as it's ever going to get.
The audio is nothing to write home about either, lacking the real bottom end kick that the 6 track 70mm presentation I saw many times back in '77 possessed. The very first time I saw the film was in an early six-plex in mono. It still worked it's magic but the 70mm 6 track presentation was an out-of-body experience after that. That opening chord out the blackness into the first shot knocked you back in your seat with a noticeable puff of wind from the subwoofer.
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)
