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Which do you Prefer? Jaws vs. Close Encounters of the Third Kind


WampaRat

Which do you prefer? Jaws or Close Encounters?  

58 members have voted

  1. 1. The Film

  2. 2. The Score (In Film)

  3. 3. The Score (On Album - pick your favorite release;)



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Two Early Spielberg Classics. Two Monolithic Scores in the John Williams cannon. And two scores that I don’t really listen to a ton.

 

Just for fun: Which do you prefer?

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Well both are 5 star films with 5 star scores, so I love both, and this is just choosing one masterpiece over another

 

I suppose I enjoy watching Jaws more, it's more fun, more easy breezy, more amusing.  I've probably seen it over 10 times already.

 

Close Encounters is amazing, but I don't watch it as often.  It's also confusing because different cuts have a different impact and just the existence of different cuts means each person's ideal cut is somewhere between any of them.  I've probably only seen it 5 times or so, but I do love it every time

 

So Jaws is more of a favorite, though both films are of course great.  Close Encounters has more ambition, scope, and emotional climax, but Jaws is amazingly lean and enjoyable.

 

Both scores are incredible.  I love listened to both frequently.  But let's be honest, Close Encounters is one of the finest compositions mankind has ever crafted.  Jaws is "just" a really fantastically great one.

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The child in me would have voted Jaws regarding the movie.

 

The old picky thing I've become now vote for CE3K all the way.

 

BTW I now find Jaws score very intrusive in the movie, but it's okay, after all it was meant to overshadow Bruce's many many defaults!

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7 minutes ago, Bellosh said:

Jaws is so good that even the mothership in close encounters played the jaws theme

 

Pinocchio is so good that... oh wait a minute!

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I’ve only been able to listen to the “collectors edition” CE3k. 
 

How’s the LLL version in comparison? I was actually really curious about the “double LP” listening experience that Matissino created from John Williams original album plans.  

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5 minutes ago, WampaRat said:

I’ve only been able to listen to the “collectors edition” CE3k. 
 

How’s the LLL version in comparison? I was actually really curious about the “double LP” listening experience that Matissino created from John Williams original album plans.  

 

The Collector's Edition with his revised ending is outdated.

 

The Matessino Edition will, how Americans say it... get the shit out of you!

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Crazy impossible. Both films and scores are such masterpieces. But I had to give the edge to CE3K on 1 and 3, and JAWS just barely on 2. But one shouldn't be forced to make such outrageous choices! ;)

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2 minutes ago, Thor said:

Crazy impossible. Both films and scores are such masterpieces. But I had to give the edge to CE3K on 1 and 3, and JAWS just barely on 2. But one shouldn't be forced to make such outrageous choices! ;)

 

WARNING, IT'S A REVIEW BASED ONLY ON THE OSTs! :P

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Jaws for all three. I loved it on first viewing/listening and that's never changed. CE3K has been more of an acquired taste for me, but I'm definitely acquiring it. The LLL release helped. Dunno if it'll ever fully catch up with Jaws for me...we'll see. But both films and scores are iconic for good reason.

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Excellent poll question.  Close Encounters for everything, but they are both masterpieces.   Both scores keep you enjoyably off-balance and anxious throughout, but the musical payoff to CE may never be surpassed (and, no, not even ET pulled that off).  I must see a live to projection version when such things return.  

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Both are absolute classics. But there's a special quality about CE3K, both film and score (and the former partly because of the latter) that transcends most other things that can be measured against to it.

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Regarding scores, CE3K is probably JWs magnum opus.

 

Regarding movies, Jaws is more immediate, precise, and has aged a whole lot better.

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Jaws, Jaws and Jaws.

My favorite Spielberg movie, perfect pacing, perfect structure with suspense and tension rising until the fantastic ending (something Spielberg failed to repeat on Jurassic Park, which stalls after the Rex attack and only picks up again at the ending) great acting and one of the most brilliant scores ever composed. 
CEOTTK great movie and fantastic score but not as iconic as Jaws.

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I went for Jaws as a movie but probably because I'm more familiar with it. I've seen it 10 times (inclueded four in theaters) while only 3 times for CE3K

For the score in film I've choose Jaws probably because it's more present.

Now for the OST, I've always find the OST program of Jaws superior to the one of CE3K but the LLL edition is superior to the Intrada one, so that's CE3K for me here

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Yes, both are brillant scores. Even though Jaws has this great shark theme the rest of the score is pretty much like golden age sea adventure pirate movie music. Anyway. Great combination, wonderful themes etc.

Still CEOT3K is all in all more original to me.

Probably, Jerry Goldsmith would laugh at the degree of innovation that JW brought to the genre with his score.

But apart from the service to the movies as usual the brillance lies - besides iconic themes and the pacing and drive the scores give to their movies - in the pure musical quality, that still makes me enjoy these score as a symphonic work of art.

 

By the way, I neither own the OSTs as CD (I only had the records) nor the LLL expansions.

Usually I just listen to the 20-track DECCA release of Jaws and the 26 track ARISTA release of Close Encounters.

For Jaws I am missing only the extended Shar Cage Fugue, but that one I have on the JW/Spielberg Boston Pops collection.

 

 

By the way. I was recently watching Close Encounters with my kids. And for them it was really a weird movie. They were definitely not used to so little spectacular action in such a movie. But they watched it until the end. But they were not very enthusiastic about it.

For Jaws they are too young. So, I cannot compare their reactions.

 

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12 hours ago, Datameister said:

The kids' haircuts are more dated than the adults'. Both films still feel very, very 70s to me, but in a way I like.

Both feel 70s, that is unavoidable, but CE3K is more grounded in the 70s.

While Jaws feels is rooted in dramatic and literary themes that give it a timeless foundation that is enhanced by the best of 70s era Hollywood techniques.  

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What's wrong with being dated anyway?  Why is that usually considered a bad thing?  A lot of older art that I love, one reason I love it is because it makes me feel transported back to that time and place.

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Film - Jaws.  This movie has aged so well and still holds up to repeat viewing.

 

Score In Film - Jaws.  This was the toughest choice as both movies rely on their score in different ways.  Ultimately, Jaws gets the edge just because the film relies a little more on the music than CE3K does, in my opinion.  The music stands in for the shark through most of the runtime, it's truly a lesser movie without that score.

 

Score on Album - Close Encounters.  I don't listen to this score too often and I only listen to it in its entirety when I do.  This music is an experience unto itself.  I don't listen to CE3K casually, I will set aside some time out of my day to savor all of it.

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Somehow for me, a film deliberately set in the past almost always has that effect, but sometimes a contemporary film can feel very dated if it features a lot of aspects there were only a brief fad, I guess.  Not sure if I can really define it, it's more of a feeling

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The great achievement of the CEOT3K is to be such a great and rich musical experience based on such an in its own synthetic and unadorned motif like these five notes. It is surely functional, like a ring tone. And Williams build such a score from it.

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6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

The great achievement of the CEOT3K is to be such a great and rich musical experience based on such an in its own synthetic and unadorned motif like these five notes. It is surely functional, like a ring tone. And Williams build such a score from it.

He did that too with Jaws but only with two notes... ;)

So now the question is: what's more impressive writing an incredible masterpiece based on a two notes theme or on five tones? You have two hours... :P

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Just now, May the Force be with You said:

He did that too with Jaws but only with two notes... ;)

So now the question is: what's more impressive writing an incredible masterpiece based on a two notes theme or on five tones? You have two hours... :P

Easy choice. The two notes from Jaws are cool on their own. That's easy. But these five notes are just... totally uncool. 

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Cool to see the results. The overall consensus seems to be Jaws for the film and Close Encounters generally for the score. 
 

I had no expectations one way or another on the score side of things. I miiight have given the edge to Jaws. But now I need to go back and dig into CE3K again. 

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