"I'll...be...right...here."

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2019)

This was the first movie I ever saw at the movie theatre and also one of my first memories in my life. I remember going to the Aztec Theatre to see E.T. with my mom, dad and sister. I was in my dad's arms as we joined the long line who had come that night to see the newest Steven Spielberg film. I suppose I have Speilberg to thank first for my undying love of films.
What Spielberg created from a script by Melissa Mathison was to me pure movie magic and a film with one of the biggest hearts in film history. A young boy named Elliot (Henry Thomas) has found an alien and almost right from the start they have an especially deep connection. Elliot finds that he must assist his new friend and try to send him back to his own planet.
Amazing direction and storytelling mixed with great visuals and interesting sounds. John Williams also has a fabulous score that really belongs among the conversation about the best movie scores of all time. ET won four Oscars including Sound, Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Music. Carlo Rambaldi as well gets a big thumbs up from me as he grabbed an Oscar for his work on ET. He had previously a few years earlier had worked on Ridley Scott's ALIEN and did work on the head of that alien. Two very different aliens though. The effects of the alien in this film are great and kids should love it.
This film also was not just a little influential for the TV show STRANGER THINGS. ET was a monster of a flowing river of inspiration to that show. When it came out it was the highest-grossing film of all time until Spielberg outdid himself in 1993 with JURASSIC PARK.
The acting in this film is great as well especially from the kids. Elliot has two siblings in Michael (Robert McNaughton) and Gertie (Drew Barrymore). It is to me through these three kids that the film must be carried when ET is off screen. They do a great job and bring quite believable performances. Also starring Dee Wallace as their mom, Peter Coyote and C. Thomas Howell in his film debut.
On a final note I also owned the Atari game ET when I was a kid. Sorry, but awesome film, terrible game. It was one of the most frustratingly bad games I had ever played. Whenever I played the game it was out of the console within five minutes so that I could play a much better game like SPACE INVADERS.