"E.T. is the classic
tale about a space monkey from Mars."
- W.J. Flywheel, Webporium
Curator
E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial is an Academy Award-winning 1982 science
fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg that tells the story of a
young boy, Elliott, who befriends an alien being called E.T. stranded
on Earth and trying to find his way home. This film was produced by
Amblin Entertainment, distributed by Universal Pictures. It was
originally released to movie theatres in 1982, re-released in 1985,
and then "enhanced" and re-released as a 20th anniversary
edition in 2002. The movie was written by Melissa Mathison. The
design of the E.T. character was created by artists Drew Struzan and
Carlo Rambaldi, a favorite of director Steven Spielberg, while the
advance and release movie posters were created by John Alvin.
An extended version of the
movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary, was released
theatrically by Universal Studios on March 22, 2002 in the United
States and later that year also on DVD (along with the original
version). The new edition adds five minutes to the film's run time,
and includes special effects scenes that were not included in the
original because of technical limitations or budgetary constraints.
Examples of these changes
include a couple of full body shots of E.T.: one in which he is seen
running after his departing spaceship (which is flashier and sparkles
more in the new version) and later taking a bath (this scene was shot
for the original movie, but did not work out because the E.T. puppet
turned out not to be waterproof). In addition, E.T's facial
expressions have been digitally enhanced in almost all his scenes,
making them more fluid. A previously deleted scene is included that
features Gertie unwittingly telling Mary where Elliot was:
"Anyway, why would Elliot go the forest? Why would he do such a thing?"
Other changes had a
different genesis. In the scene near the movie's end where the kids
are fleeing on their bicycles, all the police officers' guns have
been digitally removed and replaced with walkie-talkies, because
Spielberg now finds himself uncomfortable with scenes of policemen
preparing to use guns around children. A second prominent change is
the replacing of the word "terrorist" with the word
"hippie" in one scene where Mary forbids Michael to dress
up as a terrorist for Halloween; the wording change was reported to
have been made to fit with a "post-9/11 environment",
although it had been edited out of earlier television airings as well.
Untitled
The film was nominated for
nine Oscars at the Academy Awards, and won for 4 of them: Best
Original Music Score, Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual
Effects. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, Writing -
Screenplay written directly for the screen, Cinematography and Film
Editing. Composer John Williams received three Grammy Awards for the
soundtrack: Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
Or Television Special; Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording;
and Best Instrumental Composition. In addition, the Quincy Jones
-produced spoken word recording with Michael Jackson also won a
Grammy, for Best Recording for Children.
E.T. was designed by Carlo
Rambaldi, while his voice was performed by several people, including
Debra Winger (for the rough cut), Pat Welsch, a chain-smoking
housewife from Marin County, who was overheard in a bank line by the
film's sound effects editor and got the part for the final version of
the film, and even director Steven Spielberg himself. Though, Debra
Winger's voice was not used for ET in the finished film, she has a
brief walk-on cameo as a trick-or-treater. Harrison Ford had a part
as The Principal of Elliott's school; the scene was later cut from
the film. At the time of the film's release, Ford was married to
screenwriter Melissa Mathison.
Originally the script
called for the use of M&M's (which survived into the
novelization). However, Mars did not agree to the contract (because
they thought E.T. was ugly and would scare children) and instead
Reese's Pieces by Hershey's were used. A week after the movie
premiered, sales of the candy tripled.
When E.T. is covered with a
sheet and goes "trick-or-treating" with the children, he
sees a child in a Star Wars character's mask (Yoda) and begins to
follow that child saying "Home....home....". Also, composer
John Williams includes a snippet of his "Yoda Theme" from
The Empire Strikes Back to accompany this scene. The scene in which
E.T. recognises Star Wars philosopher Yoda at Halloween was a
surprise to George Lucas, who was kept in the dark about the guest
appearance until a special screening of the flick was held at Lucas'
Industrial Light & Magic. "I remember George was sitting
right next to me during the screening, and when Yoda came on, George
gave me a little nudge, which I guess was his way of saying that was
cool," says Spielberg. In turn, E.T can be seen in the crowd
watching the Boonta Eve Podrace scene in Star Wars Episode 1 and can
also be seen in the Galactic Senate scene , which features more from
his kind in one of the multiple platforms in proximity to the Wookiee
delegates representing Kashyyyk .
According to rumour,
following a screening of the movie at the White House, President
Ronald Reagan leaned over, clapped Spielberg on the shoulder, and
quietly commented, "You know, there aren’t six people in
this room who know how true this really is."
