The opening scene depicts both the mysterious and\u00a0curious nature of an extraterrestrial race visiting our world and ushers in the quiet and thoughtful behavioural impression the director\u00a0has chosen to illustrate them within \u2013 they minimally interact with the environment in the initial Earth exploration scenes to maintain the ‘leave no trace’ peacefulness of their nature while still highlighting their\u00a0intense curiosity about our planet. Our visitors’ appearance is also not fully revealed and we see under the darkness of night glowing hearts\u00a0within their partially translucent bodies \u2013 immediately\u00a0creating a human connection in the viewer through relativity to life and serene behaviour in the calm forest environment they\u2019ve landed\u00a0in.<\/p>\n
The other character type introduction, the invading humans, are depicted as\u00a0destructive unknowns both to the audience and the extraterrestrials. Their introduction to the story is depicted is as loud, destructive and dangerous in contrast to the extraterrestrial life – trucks crashing through the brush, wild flashlight movement and shouting figures hurrying towards their peaceful activities.<\/p>\n
Before reading further \u2013 be advised there are spoilers below.<\/p>\n
Following the intrusively illustrated human introduction, dogs are then dispatched to further create the sense of humans being dangerous through a\u00a0comparison to hunting the new lifeforms – and we still haven\u2019t seen any faces of the humans or\u00a0identifying characteristics to relate to them with. This forces the audience to connect\u00a0more with the humanistic qualities in the anthropomorphic design of the extraterrestrial bodies – especially in how they communicate and maintain visibility to each other through the\u00a0audible and glowing heartthrob of their hearts – than to human characters. That connection to the extraterrestrial within the story of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)<\/em> causes the\u00a0immediate feelings of sympathy for the peril the one particular alien (E.T.) feels when he is separated from the others, having to hide from his human hunters while his companions begin to prepare for takeoff.<\/p>\n What was really interesting about this scene of the film was the use of parallel\u00a0storytelling and editing to illustrate the contrasting character types that would be\u00a0prevalent in the film and how they are brought into conflict \u2013 by reversing the typical narrative of traditional alien movies and having humans be illustrated as invaders and the extraterrestrials are in peril because of us.<\/p>\n The third connection to humanistic behaviour (the prior two being how the\u00a0extraterrestrials are portrayed physically, and how they mimic emotional\u00a0behaviour), and the most relatable to us as human beings, is the one that would\u00a0solidify the humane nature of the extraterrestrials \u2013 through the maternal\u00a0comparative of a parent calling for their child\/children from the door of their spaceship (comically enough, in the door of a\u00a0\u2018mother\u2019 ship \u2013 lol).<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the story of E.T. unfolds with the forced abandonment of a member of their race on Earth and this sets the story in motion.<\/p>\n The prevailing theme within the film’s introduction is hit home in these scenes as well \u2013 the\u00a0introduction of heart and feeling illustrated in the extraterrestrial heart harmonics.\u00a0Communications through the heart is a powerful way to show inner connectivity\u00a0and compassion \u2013 and is believed that even though we know better medically,\u00a0that our hearts are the source of compassion and feelings in humans. This theme\u00a0later continues through the scenes where E.T. \u2018connects\u2019 to the film\u2019s lead\u00a0protagonist, Elliott (portrayed by Henry Thomas) when he lulls him to sleep after\u00a0being led into the family\u2019s home; in the school where Elliott manifests\u00a0symptoms of E.T.\u2019s emphatic nature and curious demeanour (in the refusal of dissecting the frog when you can \u2018..clearly see the frog\u2019s heart still beating..\u2019; where E.T.\u2019s reaction to television\u00a0prompts a romantic reaction between Elliott and his female classmate through\u00a0their new psychic bond; and finally in the discovery of E.T. starting to get sick\u00a0and Elliott follows suit \u2013 clearly linking their health together \u2013 which is later\u00a0rescinded by E.T. in his near death in order to save Elliott \u2013 nearly sacrificing himself to\u00a0death in order to save the life of Elliott who is the sole factor in his still being alive\u00a0\u2013 that theme being depicted is of course, love.<\/p>\n After the discovery of E.T. still being alive and a declaration by the extraterrestrial that he communicated with his spaceship through a ‘..phone home..’ \u00a0and they were returning for E.T., there is a truck, bike, and car chase scene before the children (the prevailing\u00a0characters and focus in the film) lose the adults in the woods and the\u00a0extraterrestrials come back to the forest outside of town to collect their lost \/ forgotten extraterrestrial. At this\u00a0point all of the extraterrestrial hearts are aglow continuously \u2013 likely for the\u00a0purpose to establish proximity, communication, and connectivity \u2013 but E.T.\u2019s is\u00a0clearly brighter because of his beloved connection with Elliott.<\/p>\n With the toned-hearts aglow the message that was forecast through the film in\u00a0the action of the extraterrestrials and the main storyline of trying to, and then\u00a0being able to, return home is that \u2018home is where the heart is..\u2019<\/p>\n At the end of the day, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)<\/em>, is a heart warming film\u00a0exploring 2 different vantage points of telling stories: from the perspective of the children in the film being the main story motivators and characters (on the human side), and from the perspective about aliens or extraterrestrials as other intelligent, curious and compassionate life under duress by humans – which I’m sure raised a lot of questions about human behaviour and views on life outside of Earth in wider audiences. Although the question remains on if humanity will be peaceful ambassadors to extraterrestrial if and when it’s discovered, or will be be invaders of life for our own purposes?<\/p>\n E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)<\/em> is a science-fiction fantasy film directed (and\u00a0co-produced with Kathleen Kennedy) by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay\u00a0written by Melissa Mathison.<\/p>\n \u2605 \u2605 \u2605 \u2605\u00a0\u00bd \u2606<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: The opening scene depicts both the mysterious and\u00a0curious nature of an extraterrestrial race visiting our world and ushers in the quiet and thoughtful behavioural impression the director\u00a0has chosen to illustrate them within \u2013 they minimally interact with the environment in the initial Earth exploration scenes to maintain the ‘leave no trace’ peacefulness of their nature while still highlighting their\u00a0intense curiosity … <\/p>\n
\nThis review was originally written as an academic paper in Q4 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"