The 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a huge hit and had passed star was for the highest grossing movie of the time and held that title for about 11 years (in the U.S. and Canada). The title was beat by Jurassic park, which was also a Steven Spielberg film. This came to prove that Spielberg, an American film maker, that he was one of the founding pioneers for the New Hollywood era. Critics from THR staff claim that the movie has a very sappy script but when Spielberg’s put his magical touch on things it came out to have a perfect balance of emotion, humor, and adventure. Other Critics/reviews stated that it does an amazing job supplying mythical adventure but also grounds it in the modern world of suburbia and person issues of the youth. This film was known mostly for its amazing story line that is filled with emotions of a young boy his is having a tough time in life. When the character E.T. arrives, they find each other and E.T. and Elliot soon create a friendship. E.T. soon becomes sick and must return home, however, the police and basically the whole town want to capture E.T. and stop the young kids. E.T. shares his magic to Elliot and they take flight to escape the angry mob. This film, unlike most films, was shot with a rough chronological order that helped facilitate a convincing emotional performance from the young cast.
When Spielberg was creating this movie his original concept was a story of a family that was terrorized by aliens in their homes. He soon realized he could put out a better, more family friendly film and that’s what he decided. His original concept was developed into the Poltergeist. Spielberg had made critical decision to make sure that the movie was the most successful it could by, such as, changing E.T.’s bait from M&M’s to Reese pieces (created a 65% increase in sales of the candy), he decided not to make E.T. male or female, and he figure he could make E.T.’s face look not just like an alien but a pug’s face mixed with Albert Einstein and Carl Sandburg. He knew every detail needed to be precise, he even used two different actresses’ voices for the voice of E.T. The character E.T. itself was performed robotically for a lot of scenes but they also used a midget that was 2’10’’ and a young boy who did not have any legs but was said that he did an amazing job walking on his hands witch was perfect. It was said That even the doctors in the scene were real doctors and not actors, their orders were to make do the exact same thing on E.T. if he was a human. This was not the end of E.T., Spielberg had come up with concepts for a sequel called E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears. The story was that Elliott and his friends found themselves captured by other aliens and E.T. would come to rescue them. This would also disclose E.T.’s real name, Zrek.
Hello Dallas,
I had never known that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was so popular that it surpassed Star Wars for the highest grossing movie for about eleven years. This is simply just surprising because of how much more well known I feel that Star Wars is. I also found it very interesting Spielberg himself surpassed his own blockbuster film with yet another blockbuster, Jurassic Park. This is not as surprising to me because of the increasing popularity that the Jurassic Park series still has today. This more than proves that Spielberg is a founding pioneer for the new Hollywood Era of filmmaking. I found your response to be similar in the relation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The main issue of the film was brought to Earth so that people could connect with it on a personal level. I feel that with the mystery of human contact with the extra terrestrial is what gave this movie such great attention.
Hi Dallas, it was interesting to learn that E.T. actually beat out Star Wars for the highest grossing movie of the time. I enjoyed how you wrote about the history of the movie at the time, like how it beat out star wars, then was beat out by Jurassic Park, and then went into the storyline of the film. I will make sure to do that on my next post because I think it brings together everything nicely. I also liked how you spoke of reviews given but also gave the links to the reviews on the film, so we could check it out ourselves. I learned a lot about how they came up with E.T.’s features and demeanor. Using multiple voices for E.T. and a small person to get the job done was fascinating as well as factual. Next time, as a piece of advice, I would add the links to the articles that talked about how Spielberg came up with E.T., so your audience has the option to check it out. The film you chose for this week is completely different from mine, so I don’t see any real connections with mine.
Hey Dallas,
It was interesting to read what you wrote in your post about how they filmed and created the character E.T. All of the behind the scene information on E.T. such as them using children, midgets and robots. It is interesting to think about the kid who did not have any legs, but Steven Spielberg thought he could play E.T. perfectly, and he did. Its also crazy to think they made up E.T’s face up out by blending a pug, Albert Einstein, and Carl Sandburg. I never knew that the creating of the character would have such an interesting story .
Hi Dallas,
Nice post, full of info! I had no idea that ET passed Star Wars but I can see why. I saw this as a child and loved it. This movie was very family friendly that even very small children could see. I love all of the facts you put in here especially the one about ET’s face looking like a alien pug mix that totally makes sense now. I am so glad there were never any sequels I don’t think they would have done as good. I like that you added so many fun facts little things about the why this movie was successful I will do this in the future.