Part of Weekend Classics: Spielberg
After a friendly alien becomes stranded on Earth, the being is discovered and befriended by a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Bringing the extra-terrestrial into his suburban California house, Elliott introduces “E.T.” to his brother and his little sister, Gertie (Drew Barrymore), and the children decide to keep its existence a secret. When E.T. falls ill, young Elliot must help him get back home and avoid abduction by the authorities. Both a classic movie for kids and a remarkable portrait of childhood, E.T. is a sci-fi adventure that captures that strange moment in youth when the world is a place of mysterious possibilities (some wonderful, some awful), and the universe seems somehow separate from the one inhabited by grown-ups.
“Spielberg's direction and Melissa Mathison's script never lose sight of the realistic, low center of gravity world of childhood, in which such marvelous adventures happen every day that an alien knocking around the garage is not really such an unusual occurrence.” —Jami Bernard, New York Daily News
“E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL is a movie like THE WIZARD OF OZ, that you can grow up with and grow old with, and it won't let you down… A reminder of what movies are for.” —Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
