E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (6+)

“E.T. phone home” is one of those sentences in cinema that has been engraved in the collective memory. For many among us it was the first encounter with Steven Spielberg’s filmic patrimony, for others among us it was an incentive to phone home ourselves.

For an entire generation, E.T. is a magical creature that embodied the feeling of homesickness, the importance of friendship and the hope to find our way back home. With their – in Spielberg’s own words “E.T. is a plant-like creature, neither male nor female” – bony fingers, glowing heart and big eyes, E.T. was based on an imaginary friend the director had created after the divorce of his parents.

Just like for his creator, E.T. is a comfort to Elliott, Michael and Gertie Taylor after their father leaves the family. The three children live in a newly developed suburb in California with their mother. One evening, a spaceship with wrinkly little aliens lands in a forest to gather plant specimen. When government agents arrive, one of them is separated from the rest. Elliott finds the sweet alien after it is stranded on Earth. He dubs the strange creature E.T. and brings it home with him, where he introduces his new friend to his brother and sister. E.T. fills the hole left in the children’s lives after their parents’ divorce, but it quickly turns out that E.T. isn’t built for life on earth. Elliott rounds up a team of helpers and does everything he can to get his dear friend home before it is too late.

After hits such as JAWS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Spielberg completely committed to making a child-sized movie. Literally even, because the director decided to shoot a large part of E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL on a child’s eye-level to reflect the connection to Elliott and E.T. in the cinematography as well. The result became a masterpiece in the genre of family film. The endearing alien and his brave friend do not only sneak into the hearts of the children in the audience, but pull at the heartstrings of their grown-ups as well. Every parent has once felt the desire to be a fly on the wall when their children go on their adventures and in E.T. Spielberg fulfils this desire. But the most impressive thing about the family classic is probably E.T. itself. In a time before CGI became commonplace, the alien was a highlight of non-digital special effects. Animatronics, stuntpeople and puppetry, silhouettes and well-placed close-ups, E.T. fééls real. And all of that adoration for the little alien comes to a beautiful conclusion in one of the most memorable shots in film history, where Elliott on his bike with E.T. in his basket are framed by the glowing full moon.

Not at all unexpected that E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL became a classic of the sci fi genre and one of the highest-grossing movies of the 70s and 80s. You wouldn’t want to miss sharing this childhood nostalgia with next generations, right?