E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982)

From the first moment anyone saw this film, there was never a doubt that it would be a hit, but no one could guess it would become an all-time blockbuster. Some have described it as the best picture Walt Disney never made, and if Walt were alive, he would have been delighted to have been associated with it. The story is a combination of Peter Pan and The Bible in that it uses the best of those two literary masterpieces as the core. It's almost, but not quite, a classic. Elliott (Henry Thomas) finds E.T., a visitor from another planet left stranded on Earth, hiding in his backyard and, like any kid who finds a stray, decides to keep him. Hiding the alien from his mother (Dee Wallace), Elliott and the neighborhood kids befriend the creature. Though he becomes attached to Elliott and his friends, E.T. wants to get back to his own planet, and the children must save him from the government types who have been trying to capture and study him, not knowing that prolonged exposure to our air will kill him (as it will most people in Southern California's foul atmosphere). E.T. is captured by the authorities and is on his way to death when he is saved by a bunch of the kids. Next, a hair-raising bike chase takes them out to where the creature has planned to meet his compatriots for the trip back; E.T. leaves, and the picture ends.

A major hit at the box office, E.T. was embraced by audiences worldwide and instantly became absorbed into popular culture. Though the story is little more than a standard boy-and-his-dog tale, the fun comes with the rich detail that director Steven Spielberg and associate producer-writer Melissa Mathison have devised. The odd little beast gets into all sorts of modern-day skirmishes. He puts a toy car into his mouth in much the same that any infant might when trying out a new plaything. He gets drunk on beer, crushes the can, and throws it at the television set while Tom and Jerry are up to their cartoon shenanigans. He learns some basic English and, in general, behaves like a youngster. Hence, he is totally understood by the kids in the picture as well as the kids in the audience. E.T. is like a little lost child whose parents can't find him at Disneyland. From E.T.'s amusing encounters with suburban living to the exhilaration felt when Elliott's bicycle magically soars into the air, viewers are under the spell of one of modern cinema's most skillful craftsmen. The conclusion—annunciation, redemption, and resurrection—is right out of the New Testament; E.T.'s glowing finger most resembles God touching Man on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Whether or not Spielberg intended all of this symbolism doesn't actually matter. It is what the audiences read into the picture that counts. Our main criticism was the feeling of constantly being manipulated by Spielberg, as if to say "let's have a laugh here, a thrill here, and a heart-tug there." There was something very studied about the whole experience, right down to the overblown John Williams's score. It was sort of a young person's version of Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); Dreyfuss could have been the thirty-five-year-old version of Thomas. Awards The film won Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects.

Performer/Character

Dee Wallace, Mary

Henry Thomas, Elliott

Peter Coyote, Keys

Robert MacNaughton, Michael

Drew Barrymore, Gertie

K.C. Martel, Greg

Sean Frye, Steve

Tom Howell,Tyler

Erika Eleniak, Pretty Girl

David O'Dell, Schoolboy

Richard Swingler, Science Teacher

Production Credits

Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writer: Melissa Mathison

Editor: Carol Littleton

Musical Compose,r John Williams

Production Designer, James D. Bissell

Special Effects: Industrial Light & Magic (Dennis Murren Carlo Rambaldi Kenneth F. Smith)

Cinematographer, Allen Daviau (Technicolor)