E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1982 Directed by Steven Spielberg
Synopsis
He is afraid. He is alone. He is three million light years from home.
A science fiction fairytale about an extra-terrestrial who is left behind on Earth and is found by a young boy who befriends him. This heart-warming fantasy from Director Steven Spielberg became one of the most commercially successful films of all time.
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It is only very recently that I discovered that some people don’t like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Sure, it is unapologetically sentimental, and the title character resembles a talking turd, but you’ve got to be a heartless bastard not to be swept away by this heartbreaking story about a lost little alien and a young boy in desperate need of a friend.
Spielberg has been criticised for being too sentimental throughout his career but I think sentimentality can work well when handled correctly. In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial the story wouldn’t work if it wasn’t sentimental, it is a platonic love story after all, and if a love story can’t be emotionally heightened I don’t know what can. Spielberg is careful to…
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84/100
Shameless, but I'm not too proud to succumb. There are moments of aggro manipulation that bother me—worst is probably the NASA dudes entering the house with their arms outstretched like zombies, though I also always wonder why exactly E.T. would have wandered off far from the communicator during the night so as to be lost (he's getting sick anyway, seems like overkill)—but they become largely academic in the face of such sincerely childlike empathy. It's no small thing, just for example, that Gertie's questions upon first seeing E.T. are legitimately the questions that a 4-year-old would ask: Is it a boy or a girl? Was he wearing any clothes? Spielberg dials into pre-adolescence so effortlessly here that it's easy…
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That piece of rubber that sounds like a 2 packet a day granny still makes me cry.
Magic. Plain and simple.
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Of course E.T would be featuring in my December Project, it's not a good month if I haven't watched E.T at least partially the way through.
What do I love so much? I don't think I'd ever be able to explain the excitement but also weirdly a wave on melancholy that this film leaves me with EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is such a multi-layered story, I find Mary's struggle as a recently divorced single mother just as engaging as a little kid finding a friend in a man from outer space. There is so much sadness in this film it feels kind of like being a peeping tom inside Speilberg's deepest feelings, but at the same time it is such…
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Added as my 400th film - it deserves a little place then.
E.T. , you are extra terrific.
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"I don't like his legs."
"They're just legs, ya twerp!""Maybe he's a worker bee who pushes buttons."
It's been a long time since I had a visit from E.T., and luckily it was never in his CGI form. 30 years on, the Blu-ray is here and there's not a walkie talkie in sight.
While this movie is still well crafted and has a great cast (Dee Wallace, mother of a generation, Drew Barrymore, you so silly), it doesn't quite have that same gutwrenching emotional impact as when you were a kid. In fact, I don't tear up at it anymore. But that's why it's important to carry it with us, should we ever have children of our own one…
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While watching this I realized I'd never actually seen the whole film, I just thought I had. It's so ingrained in modern culture, I think we all know the story , especially those of us who were around 31 (!) years ago. Well, now I can check off another from the "Why haven't you seen this?" list.
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As far as family movies go, this is one of the best ever made. However, the family movie genre is not a good one and its biggest flaws are evident here as well.
Overly sentimental, the worlds of kids and grown-ups are completely separate and the plot is utterly predictable. Yes, it's manipulative with its over-the-top score underlining every slightly emotional moment, but I didn't feel my body try to resist it, unlike Spielberg's masterpiece of shit - War Horse.
It is a heartfelt, well-made, badly written, silly, uplifting, cute finger-glowing poop-man movie, which shows us the world through the eyes of a little boy in need of a friend who isn't in Mexico."Okay, I just hope we don't wake up on Mars or something surrounded by millions of little squashy guys."
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"E.T." is often noted as being Spielberg's most personal film, and many argue it is autobiographical to an extent. It is a rare landmark in film, and especially in the films of Steven Spielberg, in which the fare is equally suitable for children and adults alike. A simple storyline, a cast of young, extremely talented children, and E.T. himself, provide children with a genuinely entertaining and captivating experience, while adults are treated to an exploration of themes including alienation, childhood angst, and even Biblical allusion.
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It's really interesting to be able to compare my reactions to E.T. as an adult versus when I was still a kid. One of the cool things about E.T. is how it presents itself from the perspective of children and tries to stay inside their view of the world. So when I watch the movie now and question some of the reactions of the kids I look back and realize that I didn't understand a lot of this stuff either. I have a completely different view of the doctors towards the end of the movie than I did back then, for example.
The movie certainly has its share of flaws. I greatly prefer the first part when it's primarily the…
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I was going to review this film, which I enjoyed considerably more than I had expected to (I suspect my last viewing was during a horribly angry and narcissistic period of my early 20's, where I took it against everything that's good about it). Unfortunately for me my wife (@Jensome on here, do follow her!) posted this perfectly worded synopsis, which I can hope to equal "Penis beast risks peril on a foreign planet to steal a dead pot plant."
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Penis beast risks peril on a foreign planet to steal a dead pot plant.
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I'm just not realizing that Spielberg has done like a million movies.
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A sensitive and equistely mounted family flick, which details the revival of a troubled family unit thanks to the arrival of a stranded alien. Spielberg often name-checks "E.T" as his most personal film, and it shows, the exploration of a family abandoned by an an absent father figure and children forced to embrace imagination and wonder for solace feels pure. The alien creation remains a cute feat of practical FX wizardry, the picture delivering laughs, gasps and sighs from beginning to end. It's interesting to note how adults are portrayed in the feature, largely as imbalanced and darkly invasive presences (with the exception of Peter Coyote's compassionate CIA spook), looking to upset the equilibrium and majesty of childhood at every turn. Filled with iconic imagery, a superb score, inspired individual shots and an ending that legitimately melts hearts, "E.T" is an outstanding movie.