A memory from my childhood

Rating: 5/10 (26 January 2012)

This is a really corny little movie. My friend's comment is that it is early 80's but I still think that it is corny. The date in which is was produced is irrelevant, but I think the whole reason behind the corniness is that it is a kids movie. Elliot, the main character, is a kid and he is designed for kids to relate to him. There is little Drew Barrymore for the little girlies and Elliot's older brother for the young teenagers. In essence though, this movie was aimed at the children and as such it was successful.
There were facets of this movie that I did not like. First was the marketing strategy. It was released in 82 in the cinemas and released about 92 on video. It disappeared in the intervening time so that when it was released everybody would rush out and buy it. Actually, it is a very clever marketing strategy the only reason that I was annoyed with it was that they did it purely for the money and I saw it as a way of suckering me in to purchasing, or hiring, it on video. In reality, it doesn't matter when the movie appears on video, if it is a good movie then I will hire it. The reason behind ET is that they pulled a money making ploy which put me off.
About the movie itself: ET is a fantasy movie. It is not trying to be realistic or conspiratorial: it is a fantasy and as a fantasy it succeeds. The scenes with ET flying through the air on a bicycle trying to escape the evil US government scientists are the most fantastic of this movie. Even so we see elements of social problems within this movie, such as the infringement of the government on human rights. There is a basic hatred of centralised government and this movie brings it up with the scientists studying ET. But moreso this seems to be also outlining the gap between the adults and the children. The children want to play with ET and want to look after him. They see him as a friend, where as the adults see him as a monster and a freak that needs to be studied.
Relationship is the important part of ET. It is the relationship between ET and Elliot. The relationship is a purely symbiotic one, something that simply does not exist in this world. It is not exploring human relationship but a fantasy relationship of symbiosis. What I mean by this relationship is that there is a psychic link between the participants of this relationship. This is natural for ET's race, and we see this with the resurrection scene. This scene is not intentionally mimicing that of Christ's death and resurrection, but rather ET dies because the symbiotic link between him and his fellow aliens has been broken, but when the link is restored, he comes back to life. We do not know if he really did die because ET is not a terrestrial being and thus we cannot say how they operate. In essence, this movie is about the relationship between a boy and an alien, but the relationship is not on a human level but on a fantasy, idealistic level.
I was a little annoyed with this movie because I am simply too old for it. True we all have a child like part of us inside, but I was simply irritated by the cuteness of the movie and the corniness of the child relationships, especially with the one girl who makes a short appearance as Elliot's love interest that doesn't hang around.