Before I get talking about my concern; earlier today on my way to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind 40th Anniversary; I thought to myself; 1977...that was the same year Star Wars came out. I remember they were close in terms of release dates, but I don't remember it being that close. Star Wars (according to IMDB) came out on May 25th 1977, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out on December 14, 1977...so us as a movie going audience barely had seven months to absorb the kind of success (partially with science fiction films) Star Wars brought to the table. The fact Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out just less than seven months later really meant (at least to me) a dramatic change in the way special effects were going to be handled in these kind of movies for the foreseeable future. When Alien came out in June of 1979; the effects put onto that movie seemed to be a natural progression. Long story short...I've been astonished with how special effects have progressed through these years, and still look forward to the improvements special effects will hold in the future.

Ok; so before traveling to the theatre to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind 40th Anniversary...I did a quick read up on the technical aspect of the kind of behind the scenes work that was done to bring this movie to today's digital theatres. I was glad to learn they didn't use a Blu-ray for the source...as the source turned out to be a fresh 4k transfer. Of course I'm thinking "man; this is going to be great," and of course...the transfer would probably have been from the original negative or very close to 1st generation elements. Not only that; the theatre I chose to see it on is the biggest (regular standard film format in my area) screen possible...my local Harkins Cine Capri; with the screen size of 70' by 30'. Impressive!

Back when the movie was being recorded; the action was shot onto 35mm film using anamorphic lenses. I originally saw the movie in 1977 projected from a 35mm film print though a scope lens that unsqueezed the image giving it the nice wide (scope format) ratio of 2.39:1. (Yes; 2.39:1 not 2.35:1 as listed on IMDB. If you want more info on how that could be...just ask.)

At the start of the movie: I was blown away with the image quality and grain. First off; the grain...of course I expected lots of grain since the movie was shot onto 35mm film back in the day, and the screen I saw it on today was much larger than the screen I originally saw it on. Second; image quality. I purposely looked for the light flairs some of those older Panavision lenses naturally provided, but what I wasn't expecting was areas out of focus. Mostly I accepted these distortions since trying to film in very tight places with ultra wide Panavision lenses (particularly with lenses during that time period) can be less than ideal when recording action onto film. At the same time; there were scenes where the only area out of focus was along the top area of the screen; and other scenes when everything seemed to be clearly in focus, or at least what the film elements could provide. There were two or three scenes where optically (even during ideal lighting conditions...) resolution was lacking causing the image to look somewhat fuzzy and/or smeared. I then noticed a couple times where at the very bottom of the image looked like a small area of the subject was cropped off.

Before and during the time I watched the movie; I was hoping this version would be the original released in 1977, not the special edition which was released at a later date. Of course when the movie showed the aliens towards the end; it became very obvious to me I was watching the special edition...oh well. However, at the very end; I noticed the years 1977 and 1980 being listed, and that's when I started to figure out why the end quality on this 4k transfer looked the way it did.

I don't know for sure; but I'm pretty certain based from what I saw...the transfer was from the best possible elements of a 70mm blow up of the special edition created in 1980...meaning still; several generations away from the original negative elements. Since 70mm film has a ratio of 2.20:1, that would explain why I saw (at least two times) areas along the bottom cutting out a little bit of the scene or action. The fact the movie was originally processed in Metrocolor with at least as far as I know...no prints duped from Technicolor separations explains why the color looks somewhat dated. I will say however, this 40 year old anniversary edition even with it's Metrocolor process doesn't look too bad, but I can see some fading (or a very slight shift in color) in some scenes. If there were any Technicolor prints or separations available...there would be even less apparent grain.

Overall; it didn't look too bad. However; if the original negatives could have been used (or best possible source close to the original elements,) a 4k scan could have brilliantly captured what was originally shot back in the day, would have looked not as aged, and easily provided way better image quality than what I originally saw in 1977 when it first came out.