Rod, not all the changes found in the Special Edition were additional new scenes. Some older scenes were re-edited, with bits and pieces trimmed down to tighten things up. If you run the original theatrical edition side by side with the theatrical Special Edition, some of the incidents at the Neary home are cut differently, and the scene with Dreyfus at his job (the power plant) was dropped from the Special Edition.

the scenes inside the mothership were ambitious but the technology of the time wasn't up to creating Spielberg's vision.
Actually, Spielberg didn't have a "vision." The director has said that the mothership's interior ending was a compromise the studio imposed on him, in exchange for allowing him to make the editorial changes he wanted to for the film's theatrical reissue. He never wanted to show the inside of the ship, but felt it should be left mysterious (and up to the audiences' imaginations).

Because---the others were---they were all---eaten.

(LOL) Can you just imagine the audience reaction if that had been the case? There's ol' Roy, standing there in awe at all the pretty lights, as a bunch of cosmic zombies rush him for lunch!

Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm Nov 6 07 11:02 AM. Edited 2 times.