Charming fantasy with great John Williams score...

Rating: Null/10 (11 May 2001)

When a little lost alien meets a 10-year-old boy (Henry Thomas), the plot of E.T. takes off and soars to a rollicking conclusion with a tearful farewell scene that is given an almost operatic quality by John Williams' emotional music. Williams wrings every drop of emotion out of his skillful score--one of his very best.
Along the way we're treated to a series of misadventures involving the alien--one of the funniest is the Halloween sequence--another memorable one is the chase when the bicycles lift off the ground and soar into the sky against a full moon. Henry Thomas, as the little boy who feels a close kinship with the ugly alien, gives what is undoubtedly one of the finest performances ever by a child star.
Not long after the release of the film, I recall seeing him perform in front of a group of celebrities at some shindig where the spotlight was on him as he went through the paces of a dramatic scene. The cameras caught the people watching--one of them was actress Olivia de Havilland who was watching with rapt admiration, clearly seeing that his was a major talent.
There is manipulation, to be sure. The emotional ending is guaranteed to leave you wiping your eyes as Elliot (Henry Thomas) learns that friendship knows no earthly bounds.
Only drawback is the film's length--but nevertheless, a fine family film for the young, marred only by the use of some vulgar language.