you probably like this movie more than me

Rating: 6/10 (7 June 2008)

Some of the movies I've written about I've never seen before (like a lot of the Hitchcocks); others I've watched so many times I almost have them committed to memory. Then there are those I have recently revisited, sometimes for the first time since their initial release. Into this category falls 'E.T.'- The Extra-Terrestrial.' People might remember that 'E.T.' and 'Poltergeist' were released almost simultaneously back in '82. 'Poltergeist' I've watched probably twenty times since. 'E.T' I had seen... once. That probably tells you something. I was definitely not as enamored with the film as it seemed the rest of the earth's population was. I thought it was a cute flick, nothing more or less. So when I sat down to watch it again after twenty-six years, I wondered if my feelings would have changed. The first thing that struck me was how little I remembered about the film, the details anyway. But when it was all said and done, I would say my appraisal now is about what it was then... maybe a little higher. I think Spielberg's approach to films like this is one that you either embrace and enjoy almost giddily, or it kind of gets on your nerves. I must be in the latter group. I can certainly understand its appeal, particularly to kids, but not limited to them. Spielberg has a concept of the modern suburban family that he has explored many times, and speaking of 'Poltergeist', it shares many of those ideas and feelings with 'E.T.', right down to similar dialogue, humor, even the family dog. The kids can be naughty, but not juvenile delinquent naughty; they're just off in their own little worlds, they don't listen and the parents don't seem to mind much. Kids break a lamp? Parents just stand there smiling and shaking their heads- those darn kids, what WILL they do next? The families tend to be dysfunctional, but in such a happy, loving, caring kind of way, what kind of ogre would criticize them? There is a moment in the climax of 'Poltergeist' that is very telling; the parents are asked who punishes the kids, and neither one knows the answer. Obviously because they never do. Anyway, 'E.T.' presents the prototypical such family (no Dad present, but hey, no biggie) and you wonder how the Mom (Dee Wallace) not only keeps her cheery disposition but her sanity with this group of kids. When E.T. himself waddles onto the scene, Mom is so oblivious to her surroundings that she doesn't know he's there, even when he walks past her three or four times. Henry Thomas was a great choice to play the boy, Elliott, who finds and befriends E.T. The movie is really seen through his eyes as much as E.T.'s, and the idea of a symbiotic relationship developing between them is the great central idea of the film, just as the one great scene is the one where E.T.'s feelings, including getting tipsy, are transmitted to Elliott while he's in school. There are other good parts scattered here and there throughout the movie, notably the bits featuring a very young Drew Barrymore, who is the very epitome of 'cute.' (Interesting too, that she was the only one to have a successful film career afterward.) But then that's 'E.T.'s problem, or its salvation, depending on your point of view- it's just too damn cute.