STARRING: Dee
Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, K C Martel
1982, 115 Minutes, Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Description:Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit
about a stranded alien and his loving relationship with a fatherless boy
(Henry Thomas) which struck a chord with audiences everywhere. —
Amazon.com
The best Disney movie that Disney never made, one critic remarked
after seeing ET. This sums it up quite well, except that on second viewing of this
movie I realized that Disney could never have made ET - it is simply too personal
an affair and could only have been made by Spielberg himself.
It is the pure wish
fulfillment of a lonely kid living in the suburbs (i.e., Spielberg). Sure, it is the old Boy
and His Dog plot re-done for modern audiences (A Boy and His Alien?), but
Spielberg's craft is so assured that one can only stand in amazement that he never won his
Oscar for this one (the Academy having chosen instead the very tailor-made-for-An-Oscar
and pretentious Schindler's List.)
All the right strings are
pulled: one cries, laughs and cheers at all the right places - just like Spielberg intends
us to do. If you haven't seen this film yet you must be the only person on the planet not
to have.
(The Oscar winner of best pic for
that year was the agitprop Gandhi epic.)
Description: Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit
about a stranded alien and his loving relationship with a fatherless boy
(Henry Thomas) which struck a chord with audiences everywhere. —
