The historic film “ET the Extraterrestrial” was released on this day, June 11, 1982.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film starred Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert McNaughton and Dee Wallace.
“In Spielberg's enduring masterpiece, one of the most wonderful and deeply moving science fiction films, young Elliott, a lonely child of divorce, befriends a creature from outer space who has been abandoned by his fellow aliens. and longs to return home to his distant home planet,” states the Museum of the Moving Image.
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“A symphony of feeling, with a bold, overwhelming score by John Williams and cinematography by Allen Daviau that makes the California suburbs seem like a nighttime dream world, ET is a rare blockbuster that's also a work of art” .
When the film was released, Spielberg was 34 years old and reportedly drew on his own experiences as an unusually imaginative and often lonely divorced son for his film, History.com says.
Steven Spielberg photographed recently at the Golden Globes. For his 1982 film “ET,” Spielberg collaborated with screenwriter Melissa Mathison to capture the story of a wise and kind alien botanist who is stranded on Earth and changes lives of three children in California. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
“For Spielberg, ET marked a return to territory he had first visited with the classic 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (1977), in which Richard Dreyfuss plays a man who comes face to face with a fearsome alien force. which finally proves to be friendly to human beings,” states the same source.
Spielberg collaborated with the film's screenwriter, Melissa Mathison (who would marry and eventually divorce Harrison Ford, the star of Spielberg's “Indiana Jones” films) to capture the story of the wise, gentle and kind alien botanist. who is stranded on Earth.
“Before long, a special bond develops between ET and Elliott, who will eventually risk his own safety to return ET to his planet.”
He needs the help of a sensitive boy, Elliott (Henry Thomas), to get home, says History.com.
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Elliott and his brothers, played by seven-year-old Robert MacNaughton (as Michael) and Drew Barrymore (as Gertie), hide ET (as the alien is called) in a closet to keep the creature out of the sight of adults like his mother, says the same source.
ET looks out the window with actor Henry Thomas by his side in a scene from the movie “ET The Extra-Terrestrial,” released in 1982. (Universal/Getty Images)
“Before long, a special bond develops between ET and Elliott, who will eventually risk his own safety to return ET to his planet,” History.com relates.
At the time, Richard Corliss praised the film in Time magazine.
“[E.T.] “It's a perfectly balanced mix of sweet comedy and ten-speed melodrama, of death and resurrection, of a friendship so pure and powerful that it seems like idealized love,” he wrote.
The film won four Oscars: Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, and Best Sound.
The same magazine also included the soulful “ET” in its list of candidates for Man of the Year, the first film character to receive that honor, says History.com.
The film received Oscar nominations in nine categories at the 1983 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
ET touching Henry Thomas' finger in a scene from the movie “ET The Extra-Terrestrial”, 1982. (Universal/Getty Images)
The film won four Oscars, for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Sound, according to multiple sources.
The film enjoyed astonishing success at the box office, grossing an estimated $435 million.
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In 1985, the film was re-released and a special 20th anniversary edition was published in 2002, says History.com.
In 2022, the film celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Actor Henry Thomas as Elliott on the set of Steven Spielberg's “ET” (Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
The film's timeless messages remain identifiable even four decades later.
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Filmed from a child's perspective, “the film delicately addresses complex themes such as divorce, loneliness, and sibling dynamics,” noted Smithsonian Magazine.
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As film critic Sean Burns wrote for WBUR, “ET” remains “one of the purest and most emotionally direct American films, without a hint of adult condescension.”
Spielberg himself said in an interview about the Universal-produced film, “ET was about the empowerment of those children in that family.”
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“I saw this as a story about a family… [that had] suffer[ed] the tragedy of the divorce and how ET was able to restore so much esteem to Elliott, Gertie and Michael and, in a sense, bring that family together. [And] When ET sadly flew away at the end, that family would never be the same again, in a good way. ET was an ambassador of peace.”
