E.T.

If Teague doesn't like ET, he's dead to me.

I just watched it about a month ago for about the 20th time. It was on cable in HD. I refuse to buy the DVD because of Spielberg's meddling. (giving the federal agents flashlights instead of guns, etc) Oddly enough, when they play it on cable, they play the original version, which is fine by me. I think I saw it at least 5 times in the theater when I was a kid...but that was also back when movies stayed in theaters for like a year.

A great movie and I personally think it still holds up.

I didn't like ET when I saw it in the theater at about 14. And I didn't like it when I rewatched it last year after having revisited Close Encounters. Close Encounters is mature, speculative, and optimistic (toward humans as well as aliens). ET is pure schmaltz.

However, the scene with ET getting drunk in a bathrobe was funny, but only because it reminded me of The Big Lebowski.

I don't think I've ever actually sat down and watched all of ET. And, after doing a full watch-through with DIF, I don't think I need to.

Perhaps it's just because the Spielberg aesthetic has become engrained in the rest of the culture that I just don't *need* to watch it. Similar to Blade Runner in that respect.

E.T. 2: Nocturnal Fears (direct link)

Last edited by Matt Vayda (2011-06-28 04:28:38)

I'm interested that none of you made the obvious Jesus connection in the story. Spielberg, being Jewish, toned it down a bit but in the novel which I had it was more pronounced. I mean, ET shows up, gathers some followers, heals the sick, dies, and comes back from the dead before going off into the heavens.

So I watched E.T. today in the theatre for the first time and they showed the original 1982 version, so it was interesting to see how it compared. One of the more glaring changes was that the crazy Halloween sequence wasn't in the original cut, which I did not expect at all. And when they're getting ready for Halloween, what the older kid was going to be was a terrorist, not a hippie and I don't think it's as funny that way. Although the special edition was released in early 2002, so that's a more understandable (and better) change. Otherwise, the original is better.

But why would a Jew write a story about Space Jesus at all? ET doesn't espouse a philosophy or get killed for making claims of divinity. He just gets drunk and builds a space phone, dies of Reese's Pieces poisoning, and comes back to life for no reason.

I'm more inclined to believe that Spielberg followed the Campbell model, and the gentile who wrote the novelization emphasized the Jesus parallels.

Having said that, I've also pointed out before that Spielberg doesn't really differentiate between aliens, ghosts, super-advanced robots, and angels. They all tend to be spindly, inscrutable, ethereal, glowing wizards. Even Audrey Hepburn in Always.

Last edited by Zarban (2012-08-05 15:04:14)

Apart from the obvious that Spielberg didn't write the thing (he had the general concept, while Harrison Ford's future wife did the script)