Michael pulls Eliot. “Why don’t you grow up? “Think of other people for a change.” Thinking about others is what ET does. And that is why he has been shedding tears from the public so effectively for 40 years. A child of divorce himself, Spielberg is uniquely perceptive about how children are sensitive, vulnerable, innocent creatures who feel the world intensely, but are also naturally sadistic. They understand how events affect them, but empathy is a learned trait, part of the same slow developmental process that teaches them to walk, read and take care of themselves. (Many adults fail to learn this.) Spielberg captured a science fiction fantasy where a boy literally feels what another being feels and the bond between them is overwhelmingly strong. Eliot grows up at a rapid pace that is breathtaking. The simplicity of the film’s fairy tale is the key. For this, Spielberg commissioned Melissa Mathison, who had previously written The Black Stallion, another backup children’s drama about connecting a little boy and an orphan creature. Mathison’s screenplay is a model of economy and clarity, designed to serve a story that does not really have major upheavals: Elliott meets ET, an alien lost in the woods after his spaceship leaves without him. Eliot and his brothers then offer shelter to the alien and help him return home. Apart from the scary, faceless adults who eventually intervene, this is all there is to it. Even dialogue, though capricious at times, prioritizes immediacy. Some of the most remarkable lines: “Beeeeeee well.” “ET phone at home.” “Ouch.” “Accommodation.” Spielberg had already defied the expectation of an enemy alien invasion earlier with the Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which expressed the hope that such contacts between species could bring out the best in humanity. The squatting, deer-eyed squat in the ET is much more of a device, it serves to illuminate the loneliness and anxiety of a child with a lock that has not been installed in its new state. Although the film never says how long Elliot’s dad is out of the house, it seems recent enough for everyone to feel upset about it. The alien brings Eliot closer to his brothers as they work together to protect him and figure out what he needs, but they both try to get back to their families. As Eliot helps ET. Working at the height of his forces, Spielberg gives the ET. an emotional attraction that would feel more manipulative if it did not hold so strategically. John Williams’s score is one of the most famous and soaring, but Spielberg treats it like a Shark in the Jaws, breaking it into pieces before allowing the audience to experience the whole thing. Only when ET lifts Elliott’s bike into the sky does the orchestration strike completely and the result is like a barrier bursting, this transcendental moment when a supernatural event is associated with a huge emotional crescendo. It’s like a children’s movie, which is like an evening at the opera. Spielberg and Matheson also return to the synchronized emotions between a boy and an alien, approaching the former as a comedy before attacking the tear ducts. In one of the film’s fairest sequences, Spielberg harmonizes the mornings of Eliot and ET, as the boy is asked to dissect a frog in science class and his new friend invades the fridge, skipping the potato salad for a drink. a six pack. . Elliott, who frees the frogs, foretells his efforts to free ET from scientists later – again, because he learns to care about things other than himself – but the image of this strange, weird little creature drunk knocking on cupboards and surfing channels is a comedic pleasure in itself, as if making a cramped course to become an American. Spielberg behind the scenes of ET. Photo: Universal / Rex / Shutterstock Ο Ε.Τ. is the cornerstone of Spielberg’s famous reputation for collaborating with child actors, who under his watch are neither too premature adults nor too obnoxious. Barrymore laughs more as Gertie, but her reaction to a near-deadly moment when the alien is defibrillated may be the most penetrating reality in the film. At the same time, adults play an important role in ET, and not all men are in suits and scouts. Wallace takes some time to establish herself as a working mother who cares so much about her children, but can often do the best she can to keep the chaos away. And Peter Coyote has a critically retarded appearance as a scientist who validates the boy’s feeling when he needs it most. There is no irony about ET and it does not make sense that it tries to reproduce the magic of a predecessor in a way that future films would work to imitate. Spielberg approaches the material with the sincerity and transparency that his characters bring to their alien kinship, and he still feels timeless and pure like few films. ET is a call for emotional development, for people to call themselves the best when it really matters. Children can do it and adults can learn again if needed.
