CONTENT WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

It’s been 35 years since the original 1982 release of Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.  That would have made me 14 years old when I originally saw the movie (which I saw eight times in theaters because … of course I did, just like I did with the original Star Wars).

Watching it again on Netflix has made me aware of certain things.

I.  Male Protagonists, Even In Fantasy Action Pictures, Don’t Have To Drive All The Action or Forward a Toxic Ideal of Masculinity

It’s almost downright revolutionary that Elliott doesn’t seek to to be a swaggering stereotype of a man.  He operates from a place of pure love for his friend.  When he gains him, loses him, gains him again, and loses him again, he exhibits an emotional range that puts most men and boys in adventure pictures like his to shame.

II.  You Don’t Have To Fill The Screen With Violence or Destruction to Make a Compelling Film

Seriously, watch the film again—if you haven’t already.  (The original, please, not the altered CGI version.  Stop it already, Lucas and Spielberg.)  The pace is downright leisurely but never less than engaging and thrilling.

III.  How Funny Is Drew Barrymore?

She was such a “kid” kid.  No trace of cynicism or world weariness.  Knowing what we do about her upbringing, it’s an amazingly unconceited performance.  Every time she came on screen, I couldn’t help but smile.  (“Alligators in the sewers.”  “Mommy, he can talk!”  “Give me a break.”  “I don’t like his feet.”  “What’s happening?”)

VI.  Single Parenthood: No Big Deal & Yet A Very Big Deal

Again, another amazing performance, this time by Dee Wallace.  Mary Taylor: exasperated, hopeful, funny, irascible … like many of the single parents you knew and know.

IV.  A Pre-Internet World That Doesn’t Feel Dated

I thought about how much quicker the secret would have got out with cell phones, hand held cameras, YouTube, etc.  Yet the world depicted is still very much our own: less connected and yet more connected, if that makes any sense.

V.  Yes, It’s Not A Very Diverse World

Obviously there weren’t that many people of color (women, men, or otherwise) or a diverse range of experiences that populated the white suburban early 1980s world of Elliott Taylor.  But residential segregation is still a thing in 2016, so … there.  : – (

Spielberg, however, did direct The Color Purple three years later when many white directors wouldn’t have touched that material with a 100-foot pole.  Obviously many directors of color weren’t even getting considered for directing major motion pictures back then … and now.

VI.  E.T.’s “Gender”?

The “cross-dressing” scene is … what, exactly?  Innocent?  Subtly insulting?  Elliott says E.T. is a “boy.”  But would an alien species really have a human understanding of gender regardless of their “sex”?  Ultimately, E.T. could have been a “girl” or some other configuration of gender and that still wouldn’t have made the film any less or any more heartwrenching and uplifting.

I may have more to say on this subject, but that’s it for now.

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Edit:

VII.  The Story You Love Is Largely Due To An Unsung Woman

Because … isn’t that often the way it is … in nearly every industry and endeavor known to humankind?  Melissa Mathison for the win, y’all.