One of the most beloved films of Steven Spielberg is E.T: The Extra Terrestrial. It also, surprisingly, one of his most personal films. With this film, he weaves the heartfelt tale of two lost people, one an alien from another world and one an alienated young boy who forge an unforgettable connection with one another.
While on a exploratory mission on Earth, a small alien creature gets left behind by the others by accident when he wanders off on his own and the others have to leave suddenly when Government agents arrive on the scene to investigate. Stranded on a foreign planet, the alien, referred to as ET finds his way to the home of Elliott (played by Henry Thomas), a young and lonely boy who's life is in upheaval due to his parents getting divorced. He lives with his Mother, Mary (played by Dee Wallace), brother Michael (played by Robert McNaughton) and sister Gertie (played by Drew Barrymore). Elliott is initially frightened by the creature, but when he realizes he's harmless, allows the alien to enter their home and eventually lets his siblings in on the secret, whereas Mary remains comically oblivious. Elliott and ET start to develop a deep bond with one another as it becomes clear that ET cannot remain on Earth as his health starts to fail. The two work together to try and signal his ship to come get him just as the Government agents begin to close in.
Steven Spielberg originally began to conceive the story when he was making Close Encounters of the Third Kind, thinking about what it would be like if one of the aliens stayed behind. This idea continued to percolate along with a desire to tell a more personal story about suburban life and a family going through divorce, as his had growing up. He eventually decided to combine the two ideas together and started discussing it with Melissa Mathison while he was shooting Raiders of the Lost Ark (Mathison was there with her then boyfriend Harrison Ford) and the two began to collaborate on the story and flesh out the ideas that Mathison would then go on to craft into an actual screenplay, lending the story the same sort of heart that was found in her adaptation of The Black Stallion. The resulting film is a film full of wonder and heart, yet also one that is relatable to anyone who grew up in Suburban America. Spielberg really had this knack for bringing the fantastical into everyday life in a way that was grounded and felt real. There is an intimacy to this film too, that focuses on real relationships and the importance of friendship, even if that friendship is between a boy and an alien.
The way they shot the film was an nice touch. The majority of the film is shot at the eye level of the kids in the film, of Elliot, of E.T, and of Gertie allowing the audience to more directly connect with these characters. The movie also keeps the adults out of the majority of the film aside from the mother, Mary, but she's more like one of the kids anyway. It's a unique approach for the film and I think it figures heavily into why the movie works on the emotional level it does. Then add on top of it another iconic John Williams score and it becomes a Spielberg masterpiece (he's had a couple). It also helps that the story at the heart of the film comes from a very personal place for Spielberg with a large part of it being about exploring his parents divorce and the effect that had on him (that would reverberate throughout his films with absent fathers being a reoccurring theme throughout). It really didn't hit me until I saw a documentary on Steven Spielberg that aired last fall (and inevitably was the initial inspiration behind this ongoing project), but it also included an interview with Spielberg's mother and suddenly things started to fall into place for me, especially with this movie as she immediately reminded me of Dee Wallace in this film and what his childhood was like was very similar to this film, although in reality he was the oldest with three younger sisters whereas in the film it's two boys and one girl but the similarities were hard to ignore.
The acting in the film is top notch, with great performances from all three of the main kids. Henry Thomas more or less has to carry the film and does a great job at it, turning in a stellar performance as Elliott. Drew Barrymore is absolutely endearing as Gertie and became an instant star in the process and it's easy to see why as she damn near steals this entire movie on her own. Robert McNaughton does a good turn as older brother Michael as well and does a good job portraying the typical older brother, who starts out mainly tolerating Elliot and is more interested in playing with his friends, but the arrival of ET and the need to keep it a secret as they try to get him home does help bring the two of them closer together in the process. Dee Wallace is great as the Mother, Mary, and does a great job at playing a woman who is trying hard to keep it together and be present for her kids but yet underneath is still reeling from her recent separation from her husband and kids' father. It's a carefully layered performance and Wallace does a great job with it.
E.T: The Extra Terrestrial remains one of the biggest and most iconic films in Spielberg's filmography and with good reason. Yet, it also shows his ability to handle films with deeper emotional themes that he would go on to explore further as his career went on, while at the same time never leaving his love for big, blockbuster adventures behind completely either. Still, this remains one of my absolute favorites of his for me personally.
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