One of Matthew Wilder's better reviews:
http://citypages.com/databank/23/1112/article10264.asp
― Eric H., Saturday, 26 January 2008 20:13 (sixteen years ago) link
E.T. is good, but Pauline Kael was un-OTM about thinking it was so clearly superior to Poltergeist. -- Eric H., Monday, June 11, 2007 11:33 PM (7 months ago)
(Oh, and the last time I watched Poltergeist was kind of a disappointment.)
― Eric H., Saturday, 26 January 2008 20:15 (sixteen years ago) link
we WILL turn you...
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 26 January 2008 20:31 (sixteen years ago) link
this is the one film i still can't watch without crying my eyes out.
― or something, Saturday, 26 January 2008 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Turn me into a Poltergeist dissenter? Heavy nostalgia and the performance of JoBeth Williams will prevent that from ever happening.
― Eric H., Saturday, 26 January 2008 20:42 (sixteen years ago) link
I rescreened it last year
Just rescreened E.T. a couple of hours ago
I re-screened it last year!
― gershy, Saturday, 26 January 2008 21:18 (sixteen years ago) link
i love this movie
― chakles, Saturday, 26 January 2008 21:20 (sixteen years ago) link
fuck "special Oscars" -- Henry Thomas deserved the real thing; he's certainly more impressive than the other nominated performances.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 26 January 2008 21:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Eliott over Gandhi any day.
― Eric H., Saturday, 26 January 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
never mind -- I forgot that this was The Year of the Tootsie.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 26 January 2008 23:13 (sixteen years ago) link
this movie is hella crepey
― a mountain climber who plays an electric guitar (gabbneb), Monday, 22 December 2008 19:11 (fifteen years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jWNhyMUpjSE/SZSmXf3z6dI/AAAAAAAACtM/x3NMpxhrzTg/s1600-h/et.jpg
― James Mitchell, Saturday, 14 February 2009 21:17 (fifteen years ago) link
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8146/45577901tk4.jpg
i stll fancy the mum, even more now she's (film age) younger than me.
― not_goodwin, Saturday, 14 February 2009 21:19 (fifteen years ago) link
xp, i'll be right up here etc...
― not_goodwin, Saturday, 14 February 2009 21:20 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― piscesx, Sunday, 15 February 2009 07:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Referring to people as "black" in the USA
― contenderizer, Sunday, 15 February 2009 07:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I think the "dude" part of that is more questionable.
― O Bama, Up Yours! (The Yellow Kid), Sunday, 15 February 2009 08:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Can't believe they left the 2002 edition's chucking-loo-roll-about Halloween scene out of the original.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― surm, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:23 (twelve years ago) link
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).
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― dor Dumbeddownball (Eric H.), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
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
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:43 (twelve years ago) link
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."
― despite all my rage I am still just a Latter Day Saint (Abbbottt), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:53 (twelve years ago) link
Both I've even seen as an adult a couple times and it just falls out of my head right after.
― despite all my rage I am still just a Latter Day Saint (Abbbottt), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:54 (twelve years ago) link
i still remember Elliott calling his old brother "penis breath"
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:54 (twelve years ago) link
I remember Elliot holding the thermometer up to a desk lamp.
― dor Dumbeddownball (Eric H.), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
Which should've made his temperature, what, 185 degrees?
― dor Dumbeddownball (Eric H.), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
hahahahahaha yea i forgot about that part
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
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
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:09 (twelve years ago) link
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
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:11 (twelve years ago) link
RIPhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial
― Number None, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:12 (twelve years ago) link
KEEP THEM AWAY FROM WALTER WHITE
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:13 (twelve years ago) link
It's in Alamogordo, NM, but they're covered in concrete iirc
― despite all my rage I am still just a Latter Day Saint (Abbbottt), Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:13 (twelve years ago) link
i didn't get why E.T. stretching his neck allowed him to float out of wells.
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
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
― Number None, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:23 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I would've definitely given the Oscar to Goldsmith that year.
― dor Dumbeddownball (Eric H.), Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:25 (twelve years ago) link
"Can't he just b-beam up?""This is reality, Greg!"
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
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
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:56 (twelve years ago) link
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."
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 6 November 2011 21:51 (twelve years ago) link
but it has a happy ending!
― Number None, Sunday, 6 November 2011 21:52 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 6 November 2011 21:59 (twelve years ago) link
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
― i couldn't adjust the food knobs (Phil D.), Sunday, 6 November 2011 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― mark s, Sunday, 6 November 2011 22:11 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― circa1916, Sunday, 6 November 2011 23:21 (twelve years ago) link
Arrg, that fucking game. Played that thing 50 fucking times. I want that part of my life back.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Sunday, 6 November 2011 23:41 (twelve years ago) link
i suppose I woulda hated it more if i ever played on the intermediate or hard levels.
― Neanderthal, Monday, 7 November 2011 00:23 (twelve years ago) link