ET: the Extra Terrestrial

 
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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 realised 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 fulfilment 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.)
 

• Read our review of E.T. - the Extra Terrestrial on VCD. 
• Download the trailer.

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