A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.
I remember seeing “E.T.” as a ten-year-old child in the summer of 1982 in Dublin, Ireland, when E.T.-mania took over the world. It was a great time to be a kid and a great year for movies, including “The Dark Crystal,” “Tron,” “The Last Unicorn,” “The Secret of NIMH,” and “Annie.” But “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” made the most significant and longest-lasting impression.
The story of a young boy who befriends a gentle alien after becoming stranded on Earth touched millions worldwide and still holds up perfectly today. Spielberg was in his prime and had directed three big hits before making “E.T.”; “Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The less we say about “1941,” the better.
The concept for “E.T.” was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce in 1966. When he met writer Melissa Mathison in 1980, they collaborated on a story that Spielberg had been working on called “Night Skies,” a science fiction horror film conceived after he made “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” which was based on the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, but after several rewrites, the horror elements weres discarded in favor of a more family-friendly narrative. And thank God for that because John Carpenter released “The Thing” the same summer as “E.T.,” and it was evident that people didn’t want scary creatures; they wanted friendly aliens they could fall in love with.
Spielberg shot the movie chronologically so that the child actors could give believable performances and not be put off by shooting everything out of order, which is how all films are made. Henry Thomas, who played Elliott Taylor, auditioned for the role and blew Spielberg and the producers away with his tearful performance, which resulted in Spielberg stating, “Ok kid, you got the job.” Drew Barrymore was cast as Elliott’s younger sister Gertie and Robert MacNaughton as their older brother, Michael. Dee Wallace rounded out the Taylor family as the children’s mother, Mary.
Spielberg’s most considerable talent is his ability to elicit authentic performances from his actors, and “E.T.” is brimming with them, especially its younger cast. Henry Thomas steals every scene he is in, and it never once feels like he is acting; it’s almost as if we are really watching a young boy befriend a lost, scared alien and eventuate a friendship that will last a lifetime. Watching Elliott say goodbye to E.T. in the film’s finale has got to be one of cinema’s saddest farewells, and I always cry watching that scene, no matter how old I am.
Spielberg’s regular collaborator, John Williams, scored the film and won Best Original Score at the 55th Academy Awards the following year. Spielberg loved every musical cue of Williams’ score and specifically enjoyed the final chase so much that he completely re-edited that sequence in order to suit the musical arrangement.
In the end, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” proved unstoppable at the box office and has even been re-released over the years, becoming one of the top 25 biggest movies in cinematic history. Adjusted for inflation, the movie has earned $1,236,447,202 to date, not bad for a film whose budget was only $10.5 million.
Steven Spielberg is the reason I wanted to become a filmmaker at age 10. Even at that young age, I felt if he could put moving images on a projector screen and make people believe they were real, I could do the same. “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” is more than just a beautifully-shot science fiction movie; it’s Spielberg’s ode to the night sky and innocence lost, a testament to his ability to overcome anything and everything to become the most influential filmmaker in history.
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