"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" by Steven Spielberg: a review

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was a Steven Spielberg film which captured our hearts and souls in 1982. The film won 4 Oscars for Best Effects: Sound Effects, Best Effects, Visual Effects, Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound. It was nominated but did not win for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture. For me personally this film contains a special significance as the first film I saw in a movie theater.

This movie plays upon the fascination of there being sentient compassionate life on other planets. ET arrives on a peaceful botanical expedition with his fellow members on his spaceship, but ends up finding himself accidentally left behind when they blast back into space. As he goes in search of a way to “phone home” and tell them to come pick him up he comes across a young boy by the name of Elliot who ends up forming an inexplicable bond with the alien, that goes beyond emotional and into a physical state.

As Elliot tries his best to raise his new pet he learns that ET can form rudimentary words and has a penchant for peanut butter M&M’s. As the authorities continue to close in on the illegal alien, Elliot tries to assist ET with finding a way to contact his home space ship and have them come pick him up. After making an attempt at contact, ET falls ill and inexplicably Elliot appears to be suffering from the same illness. After pulling on the heartstrings of the audience, right at the point when the authorities have placed them both in a sterile white lab environment like insurance for driving, and it looks like they are both going to pass from this world, ET’s home planet returns to pick him up and he finds that his life has returned as he runs to go home.

This movie is an amazing emotional rollercoaster as Spielberg casts ET in an innocent childlike role with what seems to be a bunch of angry birds plush items, where he connects with the children he comes across, but the adults are portrayed as evil and unbelieving who only wish to quarantine ET and do scientific tests and experiments on him. It shows a real corruption of innocence that ends up in the destruction of all that is good. Luckily for the audience, he allows for a rebirth of goodness as they return to life and rise up to triumph.