Today I watched "E.T." again for what could've been the twentieth time of my life. It was the first film I remember getting on video, my Uncle Clark bought it for me one Christmas when I was very young. As a child, the film didn't have that much of an impression on me, I suppose I was too much of a boy, I was into action adventure movies like "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones", "E.T." might've been too tame by comparison.
"E.T." was the kinda movie that grew on me, sort of as I grew up, I found it less to be a kids movie, but more of a movie about kids. I find it has more in common with Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" or Ozu's "I Was Born But..." rather than "The Wizard of Oz". Although "E.T." certainly is magical, it's a full film experience, it lifts you up the way Hollywood movies should do, it was directed by Steven Spielberg, a man who has been in tune with what audiences wanted to see since "Jaws", but "E.T." is his masterpiece.
The story is simple and straightforward; a homesick alien is left behind accidentally on planet Earth, and befriends a young boy named Eliot (Henry Thomas). Eliot is a lonely boy, he looks to have no friends, and is going through the recent divorce of his parents.
When Eliot and E.T. first see eachother, they are both frightened by the other, yet their curiosity wins out. Eliot takes E.T. into his home, he teaches his world as he sees it. The first thing Eliot shows him is his room which is filled with various toys. The two become friends, and soon we discover that E.T. and Eliot begin to feel a psychic connection with one another, Eliot begins to feel what E.T. feels. It becomes evident with Eliot, that the only way to save E.T. is to send him home.
When it was first released, "E.T." became a phenomenon, it was an extremely popular movie with audiences and became the biggest box office hit of all time. It's rather remarkable when you think of how small the movie really is. Steven Spielberg always thought of "E.T." as a personal film, it was a low demanding film with much of the action taking place inside one house, with only a few other exterior shots. There were even very few special effect shots in the film as well, unless you count E.T. as a special effect.
I often wonder if E.T. could get made today, even if it was by Spielberg and if it did, would people still flock to see it. Call it my cynical view of movie theatres today, part of which "E.T." could be blamed for. However "E.T" is not a cynical movie, it was a film that just happened to touch the mass audience, it was well made by a man who was a born filmmaker.
"E.T." is quite an emotional film, it's not mechanical, Spielberg makes you believe in everything happening. Much of the film is told visually, there is no exposition I could think of; we are never told who E.T. is, why he landed on Earth, and why there is a connection to Eliot. We are shown these things, and we accept it, Spielberg trusted his audience to make up their minds about the story, he just directed it to where it should be.
"E.T." is a also a film about a child's viewpoint, we see the film through their eyes, most of the adults, other than Eliot's mother (Dee Wallace) are not seen until the third act, it reminds me of a Charlie Brown cartoon, where the adults are only given horn noises for voices. Spielberg is one of the great director's of children, he treats them with respect and understands their mentality perhaps better than any other director around them. Eliot is a sad lonely boy struggling to get past his parent's divorce, a theme that Spielberg has wrestled with in many of his films. E.T. comes as a friend at a time when Eliot needs one the most, suddenly he feels a connection to something, or someone where he doesn't feel alone anymore.
"E.T." is often criticized for being overly sentimental, which is a criticism I find to be unfounded when it comes to this film. "E.T." is very much a visual movie, Spielberg shows us through images the emotion we need to know. Sentimentality is used to lift us up, it makes us feel good, perhaps we are manipulated in a way, but it's no different than what Chaplin or Capra did in their films.
"E.T." is a full movie experience for me, in the end I am elated, few films made today make me feel the way this one does. I'd like to think audiences would still flock to "E.T." if it were made today, it's high time Hollywood started making these kinds of movies again. "E.T." is full of wonder, of youth, innocence, and love, it's the kind of film that will forever be beloved to whomever turns it on.
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