The camera pans across a starry sky so clear that it has the power to put you in the regions of the galaxies. When you are lying on the grass and looking up at the night sky, you feel as if you were dropping upward through space. The camera slowly drops to Earth to come to lie on a spaceship, its lights in flames, comfortably settled in a clearing in a California forest. Small, Munchkin-sized creatures, whose stomachs light on and off exactly like fireflies, attend to their duties of gathering samples of Earth rocks and plant life.
Suddenly the aliens sense that they are about to be noticed. The alarm goes off. Vincent Canby says, “It's everyone back on board for an emergency takeoff that, unfortunately, leaves one crew member behind, marooned on a strange planet, without a friend to his generic name.”
This is the supernatural opening to Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” an enchanted fantasy about the relationship of E.T. and the realistic, halt 10-year-old boy, Elliot, played by Henry Thomas, who discovers the scared alien in the tool shed, becomes friends with him and hides him in his bedroom.
With the best of intentions and the teamwork of his older brother, Michael (Robert Macnaughton), and his younger sister, Gertie (Drew Barrymore), Elliott tries to help and to control E.T., who, despite he’s only a little taller than a coffee table, is both civilized and learned. More than anything else, the patient, gentle-natured E.T. wants to go home.
“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” which was released in 1982, has become a children’s classic of the space era. The film, directed by Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison from an idea of Spielberg, freely reuses elements from all sorts of earlier children’s films, including “Peter Pan” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Canby said, “''E.T.'' is as contemporary as laser-beam technology, but it's full of the timeless longings expressed in children's literature of all eras.”
Spielberg and Mathison have taken the story of Dorothy and her anxious search for the unreliable Wizard of Oz and turned it around, to tell it from the point of view of the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodman. Dorothy has become E.T., Kansas is outer space, and Oz is a modern, middle-class real-estate development in California.
Canby noted, “''E.T.'' is not to be compared with Mr. Spielberg's ''Poltergeist,'' which is a child's ferocious nightmare recreated as a film. ''E.T.'' is a slick, spirited comedy about children's coping in a world where adults have grown up and away from innocence.” Elliott, Michael, Gertie and their friends must protect E.T. from their police, who are trying to catch E.T. to study him, to give him to all sorts of unspeakable tests and, possibly, to dissect him like a frog.
It’s not difficult to trick Elliott’s mother, Mary, played by Dee Wallace. She is a loving parent but so busy by her recent separation from her children’s father that when E.T. shakes across the kitchen, she doesn’t see him. It’s more difficult outsmarting the Government security people, who have somehow gotten wind of E.T.’s presence. Canby is right when he says, “Then, too, there's E.T.'s terrible homesickness, which has all of the symptoms of a terminal disease.”
Spielberg may not have photographed “E.T.” entirely at a child’s eye-level, but the film gives that impression. It’s a smart film without being too smart, even if the children, when alone, talk a lot more obscenely than many parents would be happy to hear.
The problems faced by Elliott, E.T. and the others are mostly funny ones. How to get E.T. out of the house, unseen, so that he can build a radar which is how he can communicate with his fellow aliens? The children wait until Halloween, throw a sheet over his head and lead him bravely through the front door. Once outside, E.T. finds the neighborhood alive with other creatures, some more familiar – children in costumes inspired by characters from “The Empire Strikes Back” – than others, children disguised as terrorists.
Canby said, “The most difficult problem is saving E.T.'s life, once the earth's polluted atmosphere has caught up with him, and just how this is accomplished, I'm not completely certain. There are some subtleties in the narrative toward the end that, I suspect, only a child will fully grasp.”
The special effects, including flights through the air on everyday bicycles, are beautifully realized. Canby said, “The best one of all is the E.T. itself, created by Carlo Rambaldi. E.T., who looks a lot like the creatures seen at the end of Mr. Spielberg's ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind,'' walks, talks, plays jokes, does tricks, gets tipsy and, at a crucial moment, even seems on the point of weeping a large, probably salt-free, tear.”
Canby had noted, “Mr. Thomas, Mr. Macnaughton and Miss Barrymore give most appealing, modest performances of the sort we now associate with children in Spielberg films, especially with Cary Guffey in ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind.''”
A couple of minor conditions: John William’s soundtrack music is beginning to sound just a little familiar, not all that different from the music he has done for “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” among others. Also, at the end of the film, there is an all-out attack on the emotions that depends, it seems, more on the rising volume of this music than on the events shown. “E.T.” is good enough not to have to alternate to such tricks.
In the end, if you haven’t seen this movie, you have been missing out. This is one of the most beloved movies ever made, and you have to see it. If you have kids, you can watch it with them and you will love it along with the kids. Especially with the most memorable line, “E.T. phone home.” Watch out though, because the scene where E.T. almost dies is probably the most emotional scene for any kid to watch. I admit I felt like I was getting teary-eyed and chocked up when I saw that part. Don't feel bad if you felt like you were going to get emotional at that part, because that's exactly how I felt.
Now I would stop right here, but I saw, quite possibly, the best TV special ever yesterday. That is the 1966 classic, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
As we all know, Easter has a bunny, Christmas has Santa, and Valentine has Cupid, so it would only make sense that Halloween would have its own mythical character to bring great joy, wouldn’t it? According to Linus, voiced by Christopher Shea: yes. “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!” may not be one of the better Charlie Brown specials but it sure is a great celebration of not just the autumn season, but of Halloween and what a little belief in the tradition can do to a little child. It’s also one of the better animation jobs from the late Bill Melendez. Linus believes in the Great Pumpkin, a mysterious Halloween figure that brings presents on Halloween Night at the local pumpkin patch.
He makes a great argument for the creature likening him to Santa, and saying that he’s the lesser known of the holiday characters, which makes for a funny argument between him and Charlie Brown, voiced by Peter Robbins. He has so much faith, he’s willing to sacrifice Trick-or-Treat to wait for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin. Meanwhile, we learn the pros and cons of the kids Halloween celebration, including their Trick-or-Treating habits and what luck Charlie Brown has when it comes to candy. His recurring line, “I got a rock” makes for some very laugh tempting material when you consider how many rocks come his way in his life.
Linus’s story is probably the most forceful because his faith in the Great Pumpkin is similar to Schulz’s faith in his God. Felix Vasquez concluded his review by saying, “It doesn’t matter if he exists or not, he just believes in him and his essence, and that’s enough to make some sacrifices. I’m surprised to say that the one caveat is Snoopy’s (Melendez) sub-plot that just feels like padding because it has almost nothing to do with the central plot, but Linus’s general disappointment in the lack of the Great Pumpkin speaks waves about religion and Schulz’s potential doubt in the belief.”
In the end, if you haven’t seen “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” then make sure to record it on your TV if it ever airs again. If not, find it and watch it because this is the best Halloween TV special ever to air and one of the best Peanuts movies ever. I would say this is one of my favorite Halloween specials. You will love it, I promise you.
Stay tuned tomorrow when I look at another creepy movie for “Halloween Month.”
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