This film - in particular the scary hazmat scene with the scientist's arm coming through ... the window? Some blinds? Plastic? looking for E.T. ... scared the *shit* out of me when I was 5.
Anyway, I'm here for Explicit Vaughn (hope you feel better, soon).
I think you hit upon a number of the aspects that’ve always rubbed me the wrong way in E.T. It’s well made but absolutely conscious of what it’s doing. A good number of people have pointed to it in particular as the start of “Spielbergian” and I think they’re right. To me the film has always felt a bit hollow-even when I was a kid-and in ways plays like a watered down Close Encounters of the Third Kind (that’s my usual joke, though Spielberg has continually watered down that film in the recuts)
I’ll admit I prefer and admire the risk taking and adventurous Spielberg. Here in E.T. there’s certainly personal aspects that reflect his childhood but it’s just so darn saccharine throughout that I have never been able to identify with much at all. Contrast that with the bold and alive feeling of Duel, Sugarland Express, Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, Temple, even 1941-and ET always comes up short.
The craft is phenomenal and to be admired especially for maintaining the child’s perspective. But this hollowness does indicate where things would go eventually with later films such as Jurassic Park. I completely understand why E.T. caught on with mass audiences immediately but in 1982 I would’ve been one of the few people in empty theaters watching Blade Runner on a loop. (ET’s success buried a good number of films that year but none more so than BR.)
This film - in particular the scary hazmat scene with the scientist's arm coming through ... the window? Some blinds? Plastic? looking for E.T. ... scared the *shit* out of me when I was 5.
Anyway, I'm here for Explicit Vaughn (hope you feel better, soon).
Thank you! Low-key I might stay casual and explicit
I think you hit upon a number of the aspects that’ve always rubbed me the wrong way in E.T. It’s well made but absolutely conscious of what it’s doing. A good number of people have pointed to it in particular as the start of “Spielbergian” and I think they’re right. To me the film has always felt a bit hollow-even when I was a kid-and in ways plays like a watered down Close Encounters of the Third Kind (that’s my usual joke, though Spielberg has continually watered down that film in the recuts)
I’ll admit I prefer and admire the risk taking and adventurous Spielberg. Here in E.T. there’s certainly personal aspects that reflect his childhood but it’s just so darn saccharine throughout that I have never been able to identify with much at all. Contrast that with the bold and alive feeling of Duel, Sugarland Express, Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, Temple, even 1941-and ET always comes up short.
The craft is phenomenal and to be admired especially for maintaining the child’s perspective. But this hollowness does indicate where things would go eventually with later films such as Jurassic Park. I completely understand why E.T. caught on with mass audiences immediately but in 1982 I would’ve been one of the few people in empty theaters watching Blade Runner on a loop. (ET’s success buried a good number of films that year but none more so than BR.)