E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Steven Spielberg’s most personal film went against the trend of other alien invasion movies by other filmmakers; unlike other popular movies of the genre like War of the Worlds or Alien, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial featured aliens who, similar to Spielberg’s other movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, don’t want to hurt humans. To create this non-threatening lovable alien adopted by a lonely boy, the designer for E.T. took inspiration from wise old people like Albert Einstein, with the alien voice provided by an elderly woman whose voice afterward was electronically modified and mixed with animal sounds. On set, many techniques were utilized to bring him to life, such as hiring a mime to control his hands, yet at other times, the E.T. puppet had to be controlled entirely by wires and computers.
​
It may have been a kids’ movie, but Steven Spielberg understood what kind of film he was working on and spoke to the kid actors at their level. He did this by keeping the order of scenes filmed throughout production chronological to the story’s timeline so the kid actors wouldn’t be confused—the kids weren’t even told what would happen next in the story until the day of shooting each scene. And it all worked out: this nostalgic portrait of the 1980s suburb is one of the most influential movies of the decade and made possible many of the sci-fi movies of today.

PG (DL)
Sci-fi
1 hr. 55 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD and AFRAID.