E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Rating: 10/10 (10 December 2006)

If it is possible for a single shot to sum up an entire film, the shot of the bicycle racing across the moon does that for "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." For those who were introduced to "E.T." during their childhood, the film will always offer an unparalleled nostalgia. Spielberg wisely sets the film in American suburbia, a place where many of us feel instantly at home. It is here we are introduced to the family E.T. will soon call his, loving headed by single mother Dee Wallace. Of course, besides E.T. himself, the true stars here are the children (Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton, and Henry Thomas). Precocious Barrymore offers innocence and humor to every scene she's in and Thomas, as our hero Elliott, brings maturity far beyond his years to the screen. Who would have imagined that one of the most affecting relationships ever captured on film would be that between a little boy and a visitor from outer space?
Special effects are certainly essential to this movie, and Spielberg is unquestionably a master of them, but for the movie to work, we can't simply look at E.T. and ask, "How'd they do that?" We have to feel the same connection with him Elliot feels. And we do. We sense the homesickness in E.T.'s over-sized eyes. We marvel as he gives life to a flower and puts on a magic show with a model of the solar system. We delight in his fondness for Reese's Pieces. We instinctually know that his glowing red heart is so very good. And when he asks to phone home, we are touched more than seems natural for three little words. I don't cry easily at films. Very few, including those about the most disheartening tragedies, actually bring me to tears. I'm not at all ashamed to admit that "E.T." is one which did.
While displaying more profundity in numerous ways, "E.T." never forgets its roots as a science-fiction film. Though sci-fi doesn't necessarily require this, many films in the genre deal with the sky and what exists beyond it. Back at the turn of the century when film was still in its infancy, one of the first sci-fi features, Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon," featured space exploration as its theme. "The Thing from Another World," cult classic of the 1950s, offered its classic warning "Watch the skies!" However, "E.T." is different from these and other like films. As opposed to driving the plot with conflict between creatures from different worlds, "E.T." allows them to exist as friends. Science-fiction films are successful when they capture an audience's imagine. "E.T." certainly does. But in many scenes it goes beyond that, such as when that bike soars across the moon. It makes our hearts soar too.