E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Duncan Gray

Of the films that have ever been the all-time box office champ, ET is my favorite because it's the most lyrical. As much as Spielberg's sentimentality was criticized, think of how pleased we'd be today to see a smash that had an intimate scale, no stars, a judicious use of FX, and no pre-existing media franchise. Spielberg can be problematic, but his domain is children vs. disenchantment, and this is its masterpiece.

dionysus67

Spielberg's subsumption of cinema to the child's gaze lacks children's innocence (unlike Truffaut) because images here flow from a Hollywood canon that renders chilldren's dreams a big bucks industry. It has pompous cinematic form, which beyond good lighting, fails to construct images of aesthetic and semantic depth. Rather, E.T. is a vehicle for a covert and conniving version of Messianism with bad taste blasphemy.

Filipe F. Coutinho

3.5* I appreciate the focus on empathy and its importance at large, but overall I had trouble connecting with the story, perhaps because I never saw Spielberg's film as a kid and I've since watched countless rip-offs. Allen Deviau’s photography, though, is extraordinary. I was often mesmerized by the colors and the light and shadows game.

Wee Hunk

I saw it before it exploded at the box office, so I had no expectations, and I would have rated it 4 stars at the time. But tastes change and my subsequent viewings detected a very manipulative saccharine plot. And then I found out that Spielberg whored himself out for Reeses pieces and I really started to hate it.

HKFanatic

It nearly defies belief that the highest grossing film of the 1980's could feel this intimate, this personal. While it's now a cliche to compare a movie to a roller coaster ride, the screenplay oscillates between a sense of hope and sadness in a way that mirrors the journey of our own lives. Clearly an autobiographical endeavor for Spielberg, at its core "E.T." is one of the greatest films ever made about loneliness.

Matthew Martens

"Back to the river! Back to the forest!" Sublime hokum from the golden age of science fiction, otherwise known as my own childhood (maybe yours, too), E.T. overwhelms the wonder receptors in the brain, turning susceptible viewers into weeping, grinning, dopey miracles of the human spirit. Want a Coke? Don't ruin it.

Lights in the Dusk

The usual themes, childhood isolation and the collapse of the nuclear family, explored through the relationship between human and extraterrestrial. Spielberg uses this idea to craft a moving, intimate, often claustrophobic film (about the clash between 'belief' and cynicism) that is also genuinely surreal; the apocalyptic imagery contrasting against the suburban American setting to create a sense of real danger.

Shelley

saw this in theatres a few days ago so I can finally relate to the magic of this movie for kids and adults. no one can deny the chills they had while watching this film. some similarities I found (oddly enough) in this and "Jaws" is the scene where Elliott and ET are mirroring each other, like Chief Brody and his son mirroring each other. it was a hilarious movie but also sad, about a family whose father just left.