A Heart Warming Classic for All Ages!

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2011)

The 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a science fiction film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. Kathleen Kennedy serves as the other co-producer and written by Melissa Mathison. Starring in the film is Henry Thomas as Elliott, Robert MacNaughton as Michael the oldest brother, Drew Barrymore as Gertie the little sister, Dee Wallace as Mary the mother of the children, and Peter Coyote as Keys, a government agent.
The film begins with a shot of an alien spacecraft in a wooded area in Northern California. You see alien beings collecting plant samples and one of the beings wanders away from the group. At this time a group of government agents pull and the beings flee the area, leaving one of them behind. Elliott is a young boy living in Northern California with his newly divorced mother Mary, his older brother Michael, and younger sister Gertie. Elliott goes outside to get a delivered pizza; he then hears noises coming from outside the family's house. After finding E.T. and luring him to his bedroom with the use of Reese's Pieces he befriends the alien and begins to interact with him. He introduces E.T. to Gertie and Michael and the trio of siblings decides they will keep E.T. and hide him from their mother Mary. As the film continues, you see E.T. build a relationship with the children particularly with Elliott the middle child. E.T. learns to speak with help from Gertie and Sesame Street. The children learn of E.T.'s powers such as reviving a dead plants and levitating objects. Elliott develops a physical, mental, and emotional connection with E.T. and starts acting out the things E.T. is seeing and feeling. All the while, their home is under surveillance from the government agency that is aware of the spaceship landing. Michael notices that E.T.'s health is declining and he mentions this to Elliott who insists "we will be okay". With help from Michael, Elliott manages to get E.T. to the forest where he phones home from a contraption he made out Speak and Spell, fork, and other random household objects. The next day Michael finds E.T. dying and takes him back to the house and shows him to Mary where Elliott has also fallen ill due to their physical connection. The government then comes to the house and quarantines Elliott and E.T. where the alien appears to die. In a predictable fashion of true love never dying, E.T. comes back to life and a chase ensues when Michael and his friends try to get E.T. to the forest where the spaceship comes to get him and E.T. goes home.
The theme of this film is acceptance. Elliott simply took to E.T. and naturally just bonded with him. You get the feeling that Elliott may have felt different amongst his siblings and could understand a different being. The acceptance of E.T. may have been a way for Elliott to accept the fact his father was no longer living with the family. Elliott also had to accept the fact that E.T. could not live on Earth. Once again Elliott is faced with having to accept losing someone he cares about but is left with the knowledge that E.T. is always in his heart. The film is shot at a low level and every time an adult is present the camera has to move up, like how a child looks at an adult. This makes you view the film from the point of view of a child. E.T. is a classic that warms the heart of the young and the old.