Film Review: E.T.

                                                               (Fig 1: E.T. Movie Poster)
Steven Spielberg's 'E.T. the Extra Terrestrial'  is one of the most heartwarming and engaging of the Spielberg film series. Spielberg takes the unknown and turns it into something lovable and that an audience can rally behind. The story follows a 10 year old boy who encounters an abandoned Extra Terrestrial.

                                                      (Fig 2: Movie Still)

Spielberg reuses sections of children's works, such as; 'Peter Pan', 'The Wizard of Oz'. the Wizard of Oz elements are seen throughout the plot. This is also pointed out by Canby, "Mr. Spielberg and Miss Mathison have taken the tale of Dorothy and her frantic search for the unreliable Wizard of Oz and turned it around" (Canby, 1982) This helps provides the adventure element of the film and it works very well. In this case the weird world of Oz (this being E.T.) comes to Kansas. Also another well done element in this film are the visuals. The scene where E.T. is communicating that he wants to go home, is easy to understand through the ways that Spielberg uses the camera. Focusing in on key objects to suggest this message. 

                                                     (Fig 3: Movie Still)

Spielberg is known for having family elements in his films such as; Jaws, Jurassic Park and Hook. In this film the family are dealing with the father recently leaving to be with his mistress. As pointed in the Empire review,  " how modern it was. The divorce subtext reflected Hollywood's acknowledgement that marital   breakdown was starting to define US society" (Harris, 2000) This film works well in having a recently broken family pulling together and the ways that the siblings interact genuinely shows the on screen connection between them. 

                                                         (Fig 4: Movie Still)

This film does something interesting which is quite subtle but definitely noticeable. The whole time we are looking in from the kids perspective. Spielberg uses the camera well to emphasis this. "until the final 20 minutes all the adults except for the mother are seen either from behind or cut off above the waist" (French, 1982) This is also supported by another point about the scene where Elliot is in school. "the film is shot from a child's perspective — the teacher, for example, is allowed no more exposure than the maid in Tom & Jerry" (Harris, 2000)

Bibliography:

Canby, V. (1982). Movie Review - - 'E.T.,' FANTASY FROM SPIELBERG - NYTimes.com. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0DEFDB143BF932A25755C0A964948260 [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018].

French, P. (1982). ET – The Extra Terrestrial - review. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/1982/dec/12/features.philipfrench [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018].

Harris, J. (2000). EMPIRE ESSAY: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. [online] Empire. Available at: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/empire-essay-et-extra-terrestrial-2/review/ [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018].


Illustrations:

Fig 1 - http://www.metacritic.com/movie/et-the-extra-terrestrial

Fig 2 - http://invisibleinkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/what-i-learned-from-reading-et.html

Fig 3 - https://drafthouse.com/show/aspen-grove-family-film-night-e.t.-the-extra-terrestrial

Fig 4 - http://www.thebrvtalist.com/zeitgeistandpoltergeist/2016/8/13/zeitgeist-and-poltergeist-trainspotters-in-the-uncanny-valley-of-stranger-things