#3 E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

The great film, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, was directed by Steven Spielberg. I personally think that any of Steven Spielberg's and Mel Gibson's movies are amazing. The actor's characters were well developed. The following actors and their characters were Dee Wallace as Mary(Elliot's mom). Henry Thomas as Elliot(10 yr. old boy who discovers E.T.); Robert MacNaughton as Michael(Elliot's 16 yr. old brother). Last but not least is Drew Barrymore as Gertie(Elliot's 5 yr. old sister). Elliot's character is the young kid who is curious about things; even though he got scared, he is willing to put that aside to really get to know E.T. and his surprising abilities. Mary is your average mom who cares about your health, like when Elliot had a "fever." Elliot had made the fever up so he can miss school and stay with E.T. Also she worried when Elliot kept telling them that he heard something from outside their house but no one would believe him. At the beginning of the movie she does not have the slightest idea that an alien is in their house, which makes the scene comical. Michael is that popular football player that everyone talks to but his friends start to act differently when they keep bugging Elliot about "a goblin"which turned out to be E.T. Michael's friends humiliate Elliot about the whole situation, but then they learn the truth about E.T. and become a little more understanding. Gertie, Elliot's little sister, completely freaks out about E.T. but she ends up liking E.T. and becomes his friend. She is the one that first teaches E.T. how to talk by using the show called Sesame Street. At the beginning of the movie, Gertie was not liked much, didn't have much attention by her brothers but after going on adventures with E.T. they are more connected. The whole E.T. coming to Earth and then leaving experience makes them more united, because they helped each other keep E.T. a secret from their mom and all were in the mission to take E.T. back home. The characters were casted well because the order/flow of the movie and the character's personalities made the movie an excellent film to watch. The actor who played Elliot made it clear that at the beginning of the movie he was shy and quiet. But after E.T. went home to his planet, Elliot seemed a little more talkative and sad because his best friend had left him.
What I liked about the characters, were that they were an average/normal family, up until E.T. came to Earth then all of them went a little crazy. The mom character was played well because she was strict but she was strict in a certain level where all she wants is the best and the safest things for her children. When she found out about E.T. of course she went crazy but she felt the way her children felt about E.T. And that feeling was love and compassion for a best friend who is an alien. She had that motherly feeling of how her son Elliot felt when he was sad about E.T. leaving. I liked all of the characters; I just didn't like the fact that Michael was being a jerk to his little brother about E.T. Like how he was questioning and telling Elliot before he saw E.T; Michael said, "Oh, that 'monster' is going to come and get me," or "Ok, like you really have an alien hidden." The plot is that an alien-type-of-creature has been left by himself in the planet Earth after a UFO with many other aliens stepped in a cornfield to gather dirt samples. Elliot made a trail of Reeses Pieces candies so whatever he heard when he was in the field, would come to his home. E.T., the extra-terrestrial, ends up at Elliot's backyard and Elliot gets a big scare when he hears and sees him. At that point is where the adventures begin and Gertie teaches E.T. how to talk and she dresses him up as a girl. Elliot and E.T. have a stronger friendship bond and E.T. for Elliot is like the best friend he could ever have. Their adventures are over when government agents and Elliot's mom find out about E.T. At this time Elliot has a bad illness and E.T. is also dying, so to make sure E.T. is alright they try to take him back home where he will be safe. In the movie the agents and medical personel have Elliot and E.T surrounded like if they were a rare disease. It turns out that E.T. dies but later he reincarnates and is a live again. Michael and Elliot felt that it was the perfect time to rescue ET and so Elliot rides ET in his bicycle basket like the famous scene of them flying past the moon. ET has left and the three brothers: Gertie, Michael, and especially Elliot are sad that ET has left and are more united as brothers. The major conflict was people discovering about ET and not getting ET back home. If people found out about ET then the gov. agents will take him away. Also if they don't get back home many complications could go wrong.
The characters do interact well with each other. At the end of the movie the brothers have a greater bond after everything that has happened. They understand each other and respect how each one of them is different. In this movie there is chemistry among Gertie, Michael, and Elliot. They seemed all different in the beginning because of how they didn't act like they were really good brothers. But then aftere they all met ET they had something in common and everything about understanding each other fell into place. A piece of dialogue in the work is when Elliot tells Michael that ET is alive after having seen ET be alive again. Michael is so excited and happy for ET getting better and he jumps high and hits his head in the ceiling which is hilarious. Also the most sad scene is where ET is leaving and everyone is saying their goodbyes. ET tells Elliot that he will always be with him, and so ET points his finger to Elliot's head-telling him that he will always remember him in his memories and heart. I chose these scenes because Michael shows how much they care about ET as if and is their friend. And the goodbye scene shows how a boy and an alien could have such a nice friendship even though they are different.
The setting is a small town in California. Some of the different stages are their house, the forest, and their school. Their house is a traditional looking house. From the outside all the houses are sort of the same in style, and looks like its a good friendly neighborhood. The school is also not as modern, it has that oldish look with pale walls and old looking desks. The forest has a lot of trees as well as a little sort of fields in them. In the forest the trees are green, but since it is California a lot of spaces are brown because the grass/area is dry. Some of the props the actors used was their hoodies at the end of the movie. They used their hoodies and accessories so they are not recognized by the police, so ET is not taken away from them. Also it is not really a prop, but on ET his heart is transparent through his chest showing that he feels loved by Elliot, Gertie, and Michael. He conveys the message that he loves them a lot and it hurts him to leave them when ET finally gets to go home. And another prop is the flower pot because when ET is feeling good and healthy the flowers are nice and fresh like; but when ET is almost dying, the flowers are dying and turning black. The flower pot is a symbol and represents ET's life.
Throughout the movie a lot of the music choices had a sci-fi feeling to them. Like the famous instrumental song kind of sounds like the music from Star Wars. When Elliot, Michael and his friends are trying to get away from the police, music that is fast-pace is playing and one can quickly know that time is running out and they need to get ET back home. When Elliot was outside his house to go look for whatever noise he heard and there was no lights on- it added suspense because he was scared of what might just pop up. When he gets his flashlight he sees ET and obvioulsy gets scared to death and runs back inside the house. The costuming was effective in showing the author's intentions of looking at the family and knowing they are your typical average family. That the family is not very rich nor very poor, they are in the middle.For me, this was a very good movie and I enjoyed watching this. This movie is a good movie about an everlasting friendship between a boy and his alien friend. Make sure this movie is in your "have to see" list of movies or you will regret it!