Jameson281 wrote:
"The Director's Cut" is the same cut released on DVD a few years, which restored most of the scenes from the original amd kept some of the "Special Edition" footage but not the "Inside the Mothership" finale.

Hmm. I've seen Close Encounters at least 20 times since its original release in 1977 (and I saw it then, too), and I also have the deluxe special edition DVD set out a few years back. The sequences of Dreyfuss throwing the garbage through his living room windows and the oceanliner in the desert were all in the original theatrical release. They weren't added in later or "restored." If Spielberg's director's cut doesn't include the "inside the Mothership" finale, what other "special edition" footage is there for him to "keep?" I've never detected any except for what Dreyfuss sees when he enters the ship--and I gotta agree, it was a BIG letdown! They rereleased this so-called "special" edition to theaters, and I saw it then, too...a completely flat and uninspired tack-on, IMO.

Rod