In praise of "E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial," released 25 years ago on June 11, 1982

Eliott over Gandhi any day.

never mind -- I forgot that this was The Year of the Tootsie.

this movie is hella crepey

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jWNhyMUpjSE/SZSmXf3z6dI/AAAAAAAACtM/x3NMpxhrzTg/s1600-h/et.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8146/45577901tk4.jpg

i stll fancy the mum, even more now she's (film age) younger than me.

xp, i'll be right up here etc...

Towards the end of ET, barely able to support my own grief and bewdilderment, i turned and looked down the aisle at my fellow sufferers: executive, black dude, Japanese businessman, punk, hippie, mother, teenager, child. Each face was a mask of tears. Staggering out, through a tundra of sodden hankies, i felt drained, pooped, squeezed dry; i felt as though i had lived out a year-long love affair - complete with desire and despair, passion and prostration - in the space of 120 minutes.
_
Martin Amis, The Observer, November 21st 1982.

Referring to people as "black" in the USA

I think the "dude" part of that is more questionable.

Can't believe they left the 2002 edition's chucking-loo-roll-about Halloween scene out of the original.

Rewatching it now on TV: haven't seen it for maybe 20 years? I remember seeing it Brighton with a friend -- who went on to be a minor Hollywood director swank swank (lass swank if i told you what his movies were, but I shall not betray him here) -- in a theatre full of kids. British kids, so noisily cheerful, not weeping or anything. Don't remember my own response in depth -- didn't hate it; thought it was fun; didn't have any "cineaste" type responses in any direction. I was in my mid-20s, and it must have been out for some years -- so maybe I'd already seen it? (If so I totally don't recall.)

The family stuff is of course terrific, kids and mom; E.T. himself is maybe a teeny bit under-imagined in terms of being an actual alien (as opposed to a human-directed/human-compatible being). I'd forgotten what a racket he makes.

interesting reading morbs' opening post on this thread; the movie had always carried a lot of meaning for me in terms of family and this sense of warmth, but i wasn't sure if it was viewed that way at large.

I definitely remember that being discussed at the time, as something really unusual -- just the fact that this was a one-parent family, and the weave of warmth and hurt, and the well-observed details, like the nature of the swearing (when the mom can't help laughing when Elliot says "penis-breath!" even though she's trying to tell him off); also Elliot's knowledgeable investment in Star Wars figurines -- this was actually an element my later-to-be-Hollywood ex-friend was totally knocked out by; he seemed to think it was completely groundbreaking. (Which it may be: it's become a bit of a nuisance, since -- hommage and knowing pop-culture references and etc -- and my ex-friend's one of the people who made it a nuisance, possibly, but at the time it provided a new layer of realism which was really interesting; ordinary people in films as cultural beings, or something).

when the mom can't help laughing when Elliot says "penis-breath!" even though she's trying to tell him off

Such a great moment.

wow, i'd totally forgotten that mind-meld moment where elliot acts out the scene that ET is watching on TV at that very moment

E.T. is one of those movies that was ubiquitous when I was a kid and I've seen at least half a dozen times and can't remember a single goddamn thing about it. Another movie that shares this same trait for me is "Goonies."

Both I've even seen as an adult a couple times and it just falls out of my head right after.

i still remember Elliott calling his old brother "penis breath"

I remember Elliot holding the thermometer up to a desk lamp.

Which should've made his temperature, what, 185 degrees?

hahahahahaha yea i forgot about that part

I had the videogame. Actually a friend had it and brought it over to show me, and ended up leaving it and not really wanting it back. I don't think i played it more than once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmrQkQsM9FU

The Raiders game was pretty much the same thing. SUCK SUCK SUCK

I had it too. Beat it a few times, but only on the easy level. the FBI/CIA agents used to scare me.

if you want a copy there's a landfill with a million copies somewhere

RIP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial

KEEP THEM AWAY FROM WALTER WHITE

It's in Alamogordo, NM, but they're covered in concrete iirc

i didn't get why E.T. stretching his neck allowed him to float out of wells.

like it wasn't something that the movie exactly...ehm...focused on

Also I'd misremembered it as much more brightly lit and primary colours than it actually is -- more like Star Wars in tone and hue (most be the John Williams effect) (and the trick-or-treat scene). The lighting's actually really sparse a lot of the time, and the colour's all muted browns and greys. Williams is the weak link for me, I know too much of the sources he constantly raids (Janacek!) not to get irritable when he amps it up.

If you don't feel a bit emotional when the music kicks in during the bike flying scene i dunno what's wrong with you

Yeah, I would've definitely given the Oscar to Goldsmith that year.

"Can't he just b-beam up?"
"This is reality, Greg!"

one neat little dramatic reversal from earlier -- when the house is suddenly menaced from outside, a house that has comfily housed an actual-real alien for days, the intruding "monster" is... a human in a moon-landing-style spacesuit

Suggested E.T. to a friend for their Friday family film night, but it go nixed because it makes his wife cry. So instead I sneakily recommend The Iron Giant, which is not only also great but which is also basically E.T. Family loved it, wife left halfway because "she knew where this was heading."

but it has a happy ending!

There's a look on Elliot's mom face when she watches the spaceship take E.T. home that is one of the best depictions of ecstasy in a film.

And a great contrast to the shock and horror when she first sees Elliot and ET in the bathroom. That plus the sadness and disappointment on the siblings' faces -- like, how did you EXPECT your mom to react -- followed by ET'S despairing cry when she takes Elliot away and wont help him makes me tear up just thinking about it

haha when ET says "I'll always be here" I was totally expecting him to say "I'll be back" -- he even sounds a tiny bit like Arnie for a second.

so Spielberg recently announced the fact that he regretted Lucas-ing up ET. hoping we can get a blu-ray of the original film. i love it unreservedly.

I had the videogame. Actually a friend had it and brought it over to show me, and ended up leaving it and not really wanting it back. I don't think i played it more than once.

Arrg, that fucking game. Played that thing 50 fucking times. I want that part of my life back.

i suppose I woulda hated it more if i ever played on the intermediate or hard levels.

Oh God this movie. Just switched it on and of course it's when they find sick ET and now I'm all in tears and WHY IS IT SO TOUCHING?!

That scene where Michael is riding around looking for E.T. has one of my all-time favorite John Williams cues behind it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGB3XSa5JtE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGB3XSa5JtE

a while back a fb friend of mine went on a diatribe about how homophobic this movie was. his only evidence was 'penis breath.'

Tell him to watch the silly new cut where they change that and the terrorist joke, and replace all the guns with walkie talkies, That'll make him feel better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0TfR9mgOiU

ThoughtTraveler 11 hours ago
I wonder why this was not included in the film. I would have been a touching addition to the movie.
Reply ·

Richard Attenborough was a classy guy, by all evidence

“I went to see E.T. in Los Angeles shortly before all the awards and we used language, when we came out, to the extent of saying ‘we have no chance – E.T. should and will walk away with it’,” Attenborough said in a 2008 interview with the BBC. He called Spielberg’s movie “an infinitely more creative and fundamental piece of cinema.”

Of Gandhi, he said: “It’s a piece of narration rather than a piece of cinema, as such. E.T. depended absolutely on the concept of cinema and I think that Steven Spielberg, who I’m very fond of, is a genius. I think E.T. is a quite extraordinary piece of cinema.”

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/08/24/steven-spielberg-richard-attenborough/