A while back film fans were lamenting the fact that Steven Spielberg had only taken brief dips into the waters of high-definition. At the time “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” were the only films he directed that were available on Blu-ray.
Well the man has made up for that shortfall over the past two years as a good portion of his back catalogue has made the jump. “The Color Purple,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Hook,” “Jurassic Park,” “The Lost World,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Minority Report,” “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” “War of the Worlds” along with recent efforts “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse” are all now out on Blu-ray.
It’s the second half of this year however that the films most have been begging for will come. We’ve already heard of the announcements of “Jaws” in August and the first three “Indiana Jones” films sometime this Fall, today however comes the announcement that Universal will release a Blu-ray edition of “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” sometime in October.
Even better news is that this is the original 1982 theatrical edition of the film, not the altered special edition from 2002 which replaced guns with walkie talkies.
The film will be presented in its 1.85:1 original aspect ratio with a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Extras include featurettes, marketing material, John Toll’s “The E.T. Journals”, and an all-new interview with Spielberg.
Of his remaining titles, “Schindler’s List” and “Catch Me if You Can” are said to be hitting sometime later this year or early next. That leaves only a handful not yet set for the format including his early TV movie classic “Duel,” his 2005 drama “Munich,” and his lesser efforts like “Always,” “1941,” “Sugarland Express,” “Amistad” and “The Terminal”.
About The Critic
