Mars Inc were approached for permission to use M&M's as the temptation but they refused so the producers turned to Hershey Foods and Reese's pieces instead. They were all for it and agreed a joint marketing deal. It transformed their sales seeing an 85% increase in sales after the films release and Mars Inc decision is regarded as one of the biggest business mistakes ever made.
The novelization retains M&Ms instead of Reese's Pieces. Probably written before the script and props were finalized. The novelization of this movie is one of the few novelizations of a movie that's actually worth reading - it doesn't just relate the events that happen on screen.
I was 16 when this hit the theaters. My parents had divorced four years earlier. This film was the first time I had seen a family dynamic like mine on screen, with three kids including the eldest being the brother trying to be the new man of the house, protecting his mom from everything he can. My heart breaks for Michael when he lays into Elliot for talking about Mexico-he reminds me so much of my big brother.
I think the whole point of E.T design is to teach something to the kids, to teach how you have to go further than just the looks, to teach it's ok to be scared at the unknown but you have to stay open minded and kind. It would ruin the whole message to just make a cute pretty alien. Same thing for its death, these are things important to show to kids, i don't know if it's too harsh or still ok tho.
"I think the whole point of E.T design is to teach [...] to stay open minded and kind" ..That's exactly how I always saw it and I actually was about to write almost the same comment. If someone or something is lost and needs help it doesn't matter how he/she/it looks or talks. And that's the main message of the movie and that's exactly why E.T. doesn't look all cute. Well, some might find it cute but I certainly find it a bit creepy too. And that's how it should be to carry the message.
I think E.T.'s character design was beautiful. His eyes are so endearing and he made me love frogs and turtles as a kid. Easily one of my favorite all time movies!
Spielberg filmed the movie in sequence order, which is not common. He wanted the kids to get used to the ET puppet as their characters would. And during the "death" scene all the actors' tears were 100% genuine, including the mom's.
Didn't he also reveal E.T. during that scream scene for the first time to get Drew's genuine reaction? So, that was her really screaming in reaction to the puppet. Or is that just one of those "Facebook Facts"?
Not only was Gertie's scream Drew's genuine reaction to seeing E.T. for the first time, but Michael's jumping back into the wall and making the shelves behind him collapse was Robert MacNaughton's genuine reaction to unexpectedly seeing him for the first time. IIRC, Spielberg deliberately planned for Drew to react that way, but Robert's reaction was much more dramatic and amusing than Spielberg had expected it to be, so he found a way to edit the scene to include it in the film.
I skimmed the comments but didn't see this mentioned: originally Spielberg envisioned this as a horror movie where ET was the leader of a small group of evil aliens. His design didn't change from that version of the film.
I was a child when this came out and ET never looked ugly or weird, and the sounds made him sound cute to me. I don't know why you both find him so disgusting looking. Interesting. Maybe the idea behind it was not to judge a book by its cover. Can you imagine what humans looked like to them? I love watching you guys react, even if I don't understand how you can think ET wasn't adorable. LOL.
Yeah this is a first- I’ve never seen people be grossed out by him before. I mean he’s an alien so he’s supposed to look like one I guess but he’s really a charming version of one.
Another fun easter egg about ET and Yoda being in the same universe: in The Phantom Menace, there's a shot in the Senate where you can briefly see a few members of ET's species on one of the senate disks.
And his ability to float the objects to show the solar system in Elliot's bedroom has always had people saying that he's possibly using the Force and a possible Jedi out on an exploration mission. Thus also making the bike flying possible. Lucas using them as a senate race (although admited as a nod to Steven) ties the two universes together.
Also, I love that Peter Coyote's character remained unseen for so much of the movie, making him menacing - then we finally see him when his character gets more humanized.
On her talk show, Drew Barrymore had Steven Spielberg as a guest, and they discussed how Drew thought E.T. was real, and if I remember correctly, Spielberg fed the illusion by making sure that there was somebody to puppet ET whenever Drew was on set. One obvious major Spielberg that you guys didn't do was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That was the one that really established him as the next big thing after he broke out with Jaws. One huge success makes you the talk of the town, the second proves youre the real deal and that it wasnt a fluke. There are three versions of the film, and the only one you want to avoid is the middle version, called the "Special Edition," which has a significant addition to ending he later regretted. His preferred version is the last one, the Director's Cut. A later one that many reaction channels do is Catch Me If You Can, one of the two films that marked Leonardo DiCaprio's advancement from Titanic heartthrob to the respected actor he is today -- it and Martin Scorsese's first movie with Leo, Gangs of New York, both opened on Christmas 2002.
@@shercahn Let's face it, how could you not, she was toooooooo adorable and liked to pal around wiht him and asked him if he was okay when he wasn't moving :) You know what though, probably the most fulfilling job those puppeteers ever had.
Close Encounters would be a great one for them to react to. ET was in movie theaters last year for it’s anniversary. Close Encounters was in theaters a few years ago too.
What strikes me most about E.T. all these years later is how ridiculous it all could have been in less competent hands. If you actually describe the movie to someone it seems like a bad B movie however it is a classic because Spielberg made it.
Yes, E.T.s species is canonically in the Star Wars Universe. George made sure to add them as a member of the Republic Senate in the Prequel Trilogy. The Book that accompanied the movie went more in depth about many things left unsaid in the film. E.T.'s species are intergalactic Botanists, traveling the Universe collecting plants for study. They are also a Collective species able to speak to each other telepathically, use the force, and are dependent on the collective for their very life force. When E.T. was left behind, it cut him off from the collective. He sought out Elliot and used as a temporary way to stay alive and call his people. When he felt that he was about to die he separated himself from Elliot so he wouldn't take him with him. Luckily, the message got through to his people and they arrived within moments of his death reconnecting him to the collective and restoring his life.
@@jp3813 doesnt every star wars movie start with: a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away? so theoretically, if you imagine the gap filled on how lucas got to know about the star wars universe which was in the past and far away, it is possible.
@@broncobalboa so George Lucas is a character in the Star Wars universe? Maybe he was a Jedi who witnessed everything that happened first hand, lived for hundreds or thousands of years or whatever, then traveled how ever many light years it is to our universe and made movies and toys with the exact likenesses of characters he knew , good job his ancient memory of how they looked didn’t falter, and then ET could recognise Yoda on Earth all that time later. Ok yeah
@@jp3813 No, it doesn't make sense. But that was the catalyst for E.T.'s species ("Children of the Green Planet") appearing in the Star Wars universe. They promised that they would make a reference to each other's movies in their films. For Spielburg, it was that scene where Elliot is showing him the Star Wars toys. George Lucas just decided to one up him, and add E.T.'s entire species to the Star Wars cannon.
The puppeteers noticed that Drew Barrymore used to talk to ET even when they were on breaks so they took it upon themselves to animate him in order to maintain her connection. Spielberg credits those acts of kindness for her tearful final goodbye as by that stage she considered him her friend.
A sort-of-similar thing happened recently with Katee Sackhoff and Grogu on the Mandalorian set...the puppeteers for Grogu have earpieces connected to mics on the set, so they know when to animate Grogu's face...apparently one of the puppeteers heard Katee talking to the Grogu puppet during a break and decided to make him react by scrunching his face up to look angry while Katee was talking...apparently it scared the shit out of Katee, who didn't know anybody was still listening.
Wonderful for you guys to react to one of the best films of the 80s. :) But I can’t believe that ET grossed you out, have to say I’m a bit disappointed how juvenile your reaction to his looks seemed to be. We loved him back in the day, everybody used to have ET dolls and they were considered to be cute! And the one of the points of this movie was to how someone that looks outwardly so alien can be so loving and and healing being. U know beauty is insinde CineBinge!😊
This movie is peak 80's. Mom leaving the kids alone all day, Drew Barrymore at like 6 years old riding in the front seat of the car, riding bikes with your friends, playing D&D. It's funny to re-watch it now.
It still amazes me how this film perfectly captured being a kid in 1980's Southern California. We certainly rode bikes through tract home construction sites. Halloween really did have that many kids going around without parents. We dissected frogs too.
A 'Nice Alien" movie from the 80's was "Starman " with Jeff Bridges. Definitely worth a watch. I think Bridges was nominated for an Oscar for the role.
As a teen in the 90s vacationing with the family in Arizona, I insisted we had to visit that meteor crater, entirely because of that movie. Another 80s nice alien movie - though NOT one I would recommend - is Howard the Duck. Also would not recommend Enemy Mine as a friendly alien movie as it’s too boring. Cocoon isn’t bad though. Not an aliens movie, but in some ways similar to the friendly alien concept in feel would be Short Circuit.
Spielberg once said that he wanted E.T. to have a face that only his mother would love. He obscured him, gradually revealing him in more and more light as we get to know him and realise that he is not something to be afraid of, before we get a clear view. It was so artfully done, truly masterful in its execution. This was the second Spielberg movie I ever saw, and I was six years-old. The one before scared the life out of me (Jaws), this one just enthralled me, quickly becoming my favourite film for all time, to this very day. Every layer of learning about film that would follow for me in years beyond revealed another layer of brilliance embedded in the construction of this film. Did you notice that no adult face was visible (except the mother) throughout the first two acts? Adults are treated as a threatening force, getting closer and closer to invading, and by implication (the keys) violating, the secret world of E.T. and the children. Did you notice that the story Mary was reading to Gertie was Peter Pan? Specifically the portion where Tinkerbell is poisoned and brought back to life by people believing in fairies, while E.T. was healing Elliott's finger? That Elliott says, 'I'll believe in you all my life,' shortly before E.T. himself is resurrected? The writing, the editing, the cinematography, the music, the acting, the animatronic effects, the sound, all meld perfectly to create this artistic masterpiece that should have won Best Picture that year (even Richard Attenborough admitted that - the director of the winner: Ghandi). I think it's often overlooked, because of how much fun this film is, that it is a true work of art.
I grew up with E.T., so as a kid, I didn’t really question his look. Your experiences are much more limited as a child, so it was just, “That’s E.T.” You don’t have anything to compare him to, so he’s not creepy or scary. Also, as a kid the concept of death doesn’t hit the same as when you’re an adult. You realize what’s happening and that it’s sad, but you’re not torn up about it. I had no problem with Bambi or The Land Before Time as a kid, but as a grown up, I can’t watch those without bawling.
good point, but my experience is abit different it comes and goes as an adult, but i didnt think ET was creepy at all when i was 4 in 1982, but i did get upset when he got sick, the other films effect hasnt changed that much since i was adult or a kid but i really liked your comment and the way you said it.
@@artsaganza8742 thank you! Yeah, I got sad when he got sick and white. I think it also helped that I knew he was going to be okay and I was so young when I saw it for the first time, that I don’t even remember actually seeing it for the first time, lol. I’m a 1985 baby.
I disagree about death not tearing you up as a child. Children are deeper than you give them credit for. Death hits children just as deeply as adults. Adults just like to pretend children don’t get it.
@@barrymoreblue thanks for the reply. interesting, its all different experiences i suppose depending how old someone is when they see that. i also think i was about to be taken out of the theater if my dad had not told me ET was gonna recover, that helped me calm down.
Oh man, I was absolutely _devastated_ as a kid in the cinema both at Bambi's mother _and_ the "death" of ET so nope, your perspective doesn't ring true for me there. But I do agree that ET (the character) wasn't scary, creepy or even particularly ugly though (then or now) and i'm actually kind of surprised by just how much George and Simone went on about its appearance, especially given how often we're told the younger generation is meant to be (and in my experience often is) more "evolved" in so many ways.
Showing aliens not as monsters or dangerous was definitely a motivation for Spielberg to make this movie. This was a more intimate story but he was already on that path with his previous sci-fi movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That is a great movie too (well, it's also by Spielberg) and I hope you guys will react to that one too.
I was about 7 years old when this came out. It was the first movie I can remember crying at, specifically at the end. I loved it so much. And E.T. never looked gross or anything to me.
I admit it is a little weird to me that you seem fixated on ET's appearance. I don't think other reactions I've watched have had that sort of fixation. I saw it in theaters as a teen, and I thought ET was supposed to be alien but adorable, with those big eyes and cute expressions. I thought his skin was shiny, not slimy. All that said, this movie almost never fails to bring tears to my eyes, even though I've rewatched it a lot.
I find it interesting what a person experiences with a movie can change depending on their point of view, age and experience. For me, all the things that you think are creepy because I grew up with this movie are adorable and charming. This is not a criticism of you, I'm just saying that I find it amusing how something like ET's looks and demeanor can go from being fantastic and captivating to me and alot of other people, to something disturbing and terrifying for others.
Guys, none of us back in the day thought ET was gross. We all thought he was adorable and loved him -- once you saw his eyes and expressive face. (You guys do have a great channel; you generally make interesting observations and often make dead-on calls. Your reaction to ET's appearance, however, will strike all GenXers as kind of strange...)
This movie either really scares you as a kid, or moves you to tears by the end. There is no in between. For me, this might have the best ending of all time in movies. John Williams’ score is just perfection.
As someone always interested in science tbh even as a child I was cheering on the Government . If they'd caught E.T they would have learnt a LOT from his Anatomy!
Gen X ers grew up real fast. Realistic portrayals of adult themes was not uncommon. Loved this movie when I saw it as an 8 year old when it was in my home town for three nights only before moving on to other nearby towns. Many forget that this movie was the highest grossing movie for a great many years, playing in some theatre the world over for years after its initial release until it was eventually released on VHS.
"I'll be right here." Even in the throes of adulthood, that ending never fails to make me bawl like a baby. Also, I strongly feel that "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" is one of John Williams' best scores. The bicycle chase is particularly spectacular and the final moments with Eliot before E.T. departs for home is incredibly moving and always brings tears to my eyes.
If I recall correctly, Spielberg had Williams compose the end bicycle sequence music first and then cut the shots to the music (traditionally, the composer adds the score after the edit).
Those last nine words: "Come". "Stay". "Ouch". "Ouch". "I'll be right here". "Bye". The entire grieving/mourning process in nine words. Best last dialogue ever.
@@MLJ7956 A couple of years ago, I saw the film with a live orchestra. I don't know how, as they were halfway through a world tour, but, at the end, they were just a little bit off timewise, and it ruined the whole effect. Which, as if anyone needed it pointed out, just shows how essential that wonderful score is.
The fact that George identifies tonal shifts in the film and doesn't get it, makes me realise that films these days have become so simplified and one dimensional. Action/comedy/drama used to be more common.
i'm always surprised by how much younger people (meaning younger than my middle-aged self who was a kid when this came out) find the design of e.t. creepy, because they sure as hell sold a boatload of plush e.t. toys to little kids back in the day. though i guess the default for the past 30 years has been to make anything "for kids" as cute as possible. also e.t. and john carpenter's the thing opened roughly around the same time, and carpenter has always said (half-jokingly) that e.t. was part of the reason the thing bombed in theaters, because audiences decided they wanted the cute alien that year rather than the horrifying one.
Haha yeah, I mean I am in my 30s and for me E.T. was always fascinating as a child. Never creepy. Which is the reason that by the end of the movie I always was/am a sobbing mess
@@anarchobaby I an glad, that they didn't make him some kind of funny furry looking cartoon character as they probably would do it today. This movie really challenged you as a child to look behind the facade of things. Couple that with the brilliant score of John Williams that brought so much emotion to it all
My favourite film of all time. Was a child and that’s never changed. My favourite moment that a lot of people miss is when they are saying goodbye, and the brief scene with E.T and the older brother Michael. During the film, Micheal and E.T do not directly interact much, but Micheal does a lot to help. He helps keep him a secret, he goes to the forest to find him, he drives the van and helps them escape. E.T acknowledges this. When they say goodbye, you can tell that Michael doesn’t know what to say, so E.T says simply “Thank you” , to which Michael replies “you’re welcome”…..and nothing more needed saying
I still feel like this film defines the 'magic' of Spielberg. Such fond memories of it as a child, and the John Williams score is right up there with his best work.
Fun Fact: George Lucas included ET's race in the background during the senate scene of The Phantom Menace (Episode 1). They are seen in one of the floating pods as a species represented in the senate. Apparently it was suggested by Spielberg.
This film really did set an unrealistic expectation for house sizes. Elliot grew up to renovate a massive house, with spooky results, in Haunting of Hill House (one of Netflix's best-made tv shows)
Elliot (Henry Thomas) also played a ghostly Jack Torrance in 2019's Stephen King's: Doctor Sleep (sequel to The Shining - both the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film & the SK book). With the make-up effects, it looked almost like a young Jack Nicholson was in the film (I didn't even know it was Henry until I saw his name in the end credits)...Also Stephen King's: Doctor Sleep was directed by Mike Flanagan (who also was the director of The Haunting of Hill House)...
In terms of movies with nice aliens, there's also "Flight of the Navigator" from 1986. Didn't watch it for like 30 years, but I remember that I liked it as a kid.
I was about to look it up, because I didn't remember the correct title (We have another title for it in Germany, thank god it is nearly the same). Cocoon is also awesome.
Making a antenna out of an umbrella is actually a real thing. Usually you are going to want some kind of coating on the inside to reflect the RF. Different coatings reflect different frequency ranges. Not only do people build their own but there are professionally made portable dishes you can buy and if you didn't know what it was before it was set up you might assume it was a weird patio umbrella.
No matter how old I get, this movie still hits hard, the "death scene" and the final goodbye. There's just something so genuine and heartfelt that Spielberg taps into with this classic. The only movie I can recall that had my entire family in tears at the end, even my dad, and he was, or seemed to be to me, a very ice cold guy. The power of imagery and that John William's score, it's truly a masterpiece. I remember flipping channels one afternoon and the final scene was playing and those few minutes alone made me well up in tears. Damn you Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Williams, or rather, thank you Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Williams.
It’s so funny because I never thought of ET being scary as a kid and neither did any kids at the time, but then I thought my daughter would love it too but she was terrified of him and so many reactors say the same thing. Maybe it’s the puppet thing or lack of graphics but I always thought he was adorable 😂
Simone and George, it's really great that you loved the part with the mom laughing when Elliot calls his brother "Penis Breath". That was one of the moments in the movie that helped create the family binder that made the audience empathize with the family. And that empathy for the family was a big component of later scenes, like when the big brother sees ET for the first time and that moment when Gertie points out to her barely-containing-the-chaos mom what Michael's been doing with the car on the driveway, and finally when they all are acting as a unit as ET is taken from them and he seemingly dies. That's finally when the audience is pulling for the entire family together. I haven't seen any other reaction videos where they highlighted this moment in their edit. The arc of the family's relationship with each other is really important to the tone of this movie. And the other family dynamic is that all of these moments highlight how the kids are becoming more independent from their mother. They have their own values and their own intelligence and their own jokes and they keep secrets.
I don't know if it's true, but I read that it was not scripted to be a laugh, and that was Dee Wallace's natural reaction to the way Henry Thomas delivered the line. Spielberg realized that it worked better that way, and so he used that take.
Literally never thought I'd see 2 grown adults just laugh through this movie that made me so emotional as a 5 year old. Not a single word about the soundtrack. Just how "weird" ET looks. YOU MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT OF HIS APPEARANCE. That's not what's supposed to matter, it's the kindness inside.
Thats pretty much everybody who reacts to this movie. I think you have to watch it as a kid, otherwise it never works. Which is a huge shame. But oh well.
Henry Thomas (Elliott's) audition tape was so good that Steven Spielberg hired him right after his audition was done. You can find it on here if you search for it, it's impressive.
I'm confident you two aren't as shallow as this movie's reactions (falsely?) reveal. It is an alien, after all, and clearly meant to teach us to look past physical appearances. From a script-writing perspective, this is a film about divorce and the longing for a friend during such a turbulent experience. Anyway, at the time of its release, the world fell in love with both the character and this very personal story.
The look of ET was inspired by the alien from War of the Worlds (1953) and I believe it was intentional to make ET look creepy and then show him to be good. It being a message about xenophobia and not judging people or aliens by the way they look. If you look at the movie poster for War of the Worlds (1953) and ET, they both feature similar looking alien hand and the shape of the alien body is also similar. War of the Worlds (1953) is worth watching.
@@jonathanwyman9402 You mean the Spielberg remake? Say what you want, but that movie WORKED in the theaters. Total rollercoaster ride and the sound was just incredible!
Love you guys. Barrels of fun. But recently your reactions have been a bit frustrating because you've stopped *watching* the movie and seem more intent on getting ahead of it. You're not experiencing the movies, you're standing above them, which is no fun at all. How can a good movie sweep you away if you're too busy deconstructing it as you go? Not so much fun.
One of the best assessments and constructive critiques I've seen! Not only of this particular reaction, but of most reactors "experiencing the movies" in general.
Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture but won for Best Visual Effects Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing Best Original Score. It was one of the highest grossing movies of 1982, $790 million dollars against a $10 million dollar budget.
It wasn’t just one of the highest grossing movies of 1982; it was *the* highest grossing movie of 1982, and not only that, but it was actually the highest grossing movie *in history* at the time, beating previous record-holder Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope), though Star Wars eventually reclaimed the title for a while through additional grosses from re-release. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was a *massive* hit at the box-office. To those of us who remember 1982, it’s actually kind of odd that the movie’s cultural footprint these days isn’t larger, but it almost certainly has to do with the fact that it was a single movie and not the launch of an ongoing screen franchise. There actually was a followup in the form of a novel, E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, by William Kotzwinkle (who had previously written the movie’s novelization), but not a sequel movie or TV series, and I think that’s kept it from occupying the same sort of space in the cultural consciousness as a number of other things from around that time, though it’s also not exactly unknown, either. But it was *HUGE* when it came out.
I think some movies have to be seen at a certain point in your life to really take hold. I was 11 when E.T. came out and it's the first movie that really had me tearing up, so it holds a special nostalgic place for me and, I think, for a lot of my generation. Enjoyed the reaction, thank you.
As I recall, when the move came out, no one thought ET was ugly or that his voice was creepy. I think that the pop culture landscape has changed, and that's why young people react so differently than people did when the film came out. When I was a kid, for example, almost no one found clowns creepy, while today it seems universal that they are inherently creepy.
Marketers in charge of studios realized that kids movie aliens should be cuter, action movie aliens should be hotter and sexier, and serious movie aliens should be more alien. So no more E.T. style aliens. Pick your lane.
I remember my ex gf telling me how when she saw this in the cinema at about age 5 she was so terrified of ET she had to leave about 20 mins in. So he definitely freaked some kids out. This was a few years after the initial release though I guess (maybe 89) so the ET merch everywhere thing had died down I suppose.
An odd reaction by you guys on this occasion, you seem to be strangely focused on his appearance and little else. I saw ET when I was a kid and just saw how kind & gentle he was. The message being appearance doesn't matter, it's what's inside that's important. It's kind of the whole point that he looks different & unusual. Also you didn't seem to be picking up on any of the themes or messages the film is trying to convey.
yeah i actually bailed before the end. i generally/genuinely enjoy their videos (usually), but even accounting for changes in taste generationally, their reaction to this one was kinda baffling.
Yeah, felt a bit more like a "riff trax" kind of thing this time unfortunately (more about "funny" comments than watching the movie) but everyone has an off day. (if it keeps going that way I probably won't keep watching though - more power to them if that works for them as a channel but it's not really the kind of reaction i'm interested in)
In the beginning of the movie they showed the plants inside of the ship, and if you payed attention there was a lot of fog and plants that would be found in swamps and by ponds, lakes, and rivers - so it makes sense that ET would look like a combination of frogs, turtles, fish like mudskippers that can also breathe oxygen, and tadpoles. I get that a lot of people think those kind of creatures are "icky", but I believe that Steven Speilberg and his design crew helped a lot of 80s kids see the beauty in amphibians and reptiles. Sooooo many people I know just lost when we thought ET was dead, and we cried again at the end when he was saying goodbye to everyone, especially Elliot... we all felt that ouch. In the end, ET reassured Elliot that he would always be there in his memories, and some of us hoped that if ET ever came back to Earth, Elliot would somehow know. I think your ewws and icks probably came from the later (and one earlier) Alien movies that played up slimy, gross aliens as something to fear. Back when this movie came out, none of us had seen the original Alien because it was R rated, so we were a little scared at the beginning, but as ET was shown to be friendly and especially funny during the drunk scene, we just accepted him as a weird looking friend who could do cool things.
A group of astronauts leaves a strange planet in a hurry, leaving behind one of his own. The rest of the movie it's him trying to go home until the same group goes back and rescues him. This is "The Martian" for me
FUN FACT: Yes.. E.T. was in fact animatronic... and the fun fact is.. While filming... ANY TIME Drew Barrymore was there on set... Stephen Spielberg made sure to have puppeteers for the entire time... when not filming... These guys would control E.T. And voice him JUST FOR DREW!! When ever she was around him.. he was alive to her!! So sweet of him!!
Also a very good way to make direction of such a young child possible. They don't take direction well. Her believing e t was real made it a lot easier to make her react to things. Like also believing he was really dying. Which is not quite as sweet
I've never clicked on anything faster once I saw the Patreon announcement... only to find you're not quite as on board as I thought you might! To be fair, you are not the only ones. But I'm way, WAY too close to this amazing movie and therefore very biased. It's sort of interesting that you, as adults, automatically dislike that design of E.T himself, yet those of us that were kids at the time, didn't even think about that. He's meant to be a bit WTF initially, but very, very quickly he's just a benign presence, that Elliot befriended. I guess you had to be there :D - Never judge a book by its cover. This is an enormously special movie to me, I'm sort of sad that you weren't quite able to engage with it as was intended - but I also have a healthy sense of humour, so that, plus knowing you two, I was laughing a lot at some of your commentary on this. Beware though, you're about to get a LOT of salty comments!
I haven’t watched the full reaction on Patreon, but this “highlights” version on RUclips actually feels like they’re pretty on board with the movie, even if they’re coming at it from the perspective of people who weren’t around at the time. Maybe I’m misreading their reactions, but it feels to me like they connected with it emotionally the way one might hope.
@@blondiewan3331 Thanks, but not to worry, I'm just a bit sensitive where this movie is concerned. Simone and George are lovely people. I'm just being a bit dorky. 45 year old dork at that!
@@philrob1978, hey, 54-year-old dork, here (55 next month). I get attachments to movies, and all; I’m just surprised because in the video here on RUclips, they mostly seem - at least to me - like they get pretty on board with the movie, even if they do fixate on E.T.’s appearance to a degree that seems a little weird to me. Their sympathies still lie with him and Elliott, they laugh at the funny stuff and are moved at the sad stuff, etc., and it feels like despite their generational remove, they’re basically getting the intended emotional experience from it. But from a lot of the comments here, it sounds like they’re just being snarky and totally unmoved by it. The disconnect between what I see in the video and what I’m reading in the comments is significant enough that I’m kind of wondering whether the full-length reaction is radically different in tone - that maybe the portions of it used here are from that longer, full-length react, but not really tonally representative of it.
@@blondiewan3331 My friend, I'm sure you're right. I've not done the whole Patreon length reaction yet, that would be a luxurious use of my time that I can't afford at the moment! My original comment was rather reactionary - but anyway, it's all good.
ETs grotesque appearance was intentional for the simple reason of not judging a book by its cover. The kids retained no bigotry for him after the first meeting. I still have a ceramic ET statue.
My uncle (now 39 years old) loved this film as a kid, but he used to make my grandfather fast forward through the parts when ET was sick because it scared him so much. Also, another 80s movies with nice aliens it one of my favorites, 'Explorers', with very young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.
When this came out, it was unusual to have an alien that was friendly. I don't ever remember thinking E.T. was ugly. Odd, yes, but his mannerisms were so innocent that what he looked like didn't matter. I never got to see it in the theater, but did see it shortly after it came out on VHS, and I remember just really enjoying the story. And maybe it's because I grew up in the 80's that the death scene didn't scar me? I don't know, but if you really look at kid's movies from the 80's, they are so much more hardcore than kid's movies now. I'm always reminded of Don Bluth's comment about how kids can handle just about anything in a movie as long as there's a happy ending.
This movie was one of my favourites as a kid, my grandfathers also. When I was around 4 or 5, he got us a copy on VHS before he passed, and my biggest memory was bawling my eyes out when E.T. was saying his goodbyes. This movie will always have a special place in my heart.
There’s definitely a generation gap with this film. The kids and the adults in the 80s just loved ET. I myself had a little ET stuffed doll that I just loved to death. In fact, I hugged him so much that his plastic skin peeled off. ET never scared me or grossed me out. The government agents and scientists in the movie, however, they were scary. It didn’t help that at the time there was a lot of government mistrust, and it wasn’t party-based. It was just government in general. The memories of Vietnam and Watergate are still very fresh in everyone’s minds. The Cold War was still in force. It was a different mindset.
I found this to be one of the most painful, condescending reactions on their channel. Every shitty joke and criticism is essentially complaining that Spielberg sucks at his job and you would have done it better. I was 11 when ET came out and at that age I didn’t spend half the movie questioning if that was government or not. Maybe we were just smarter then, but then again, our strength was in not having to overanalyze every detail so that it made sense. We could just ‘do the math’ with what was there. George… you were right though. People are going to be mad at this video. I found this brutal to get through.
I was born the year the movie was released, but I didn't see it until I got a copy of it on video cassette as a present when I was 6 years old. Before I saw the movie, I occasionally encountered other E.T. merchandise like posters on kids' bedroom walls and a set of flash cards with still photos from the movie on them. I thought E.T. was some kind of strange skeleton, but I didn't think he was scary, and neither did any other kid I knew at the time. I loved the movie when I saw it and watched it whenever I could until I wore that poor video tape out!
@@MrOffthecliffdamn what a snowflake, I don't know what they said could make you have the reaction of this film being hard to get through. Fanboy mentality I guess.
Yeah I don't think that's what anyone thought when watching this movie government mistrust has always been a thing since the days of Mr Smith goes to Washington. Having the cold war or water gate scandal ( which happened years earlier so I wouldn't call that fresh in people's mind ) probably didn't have any influence in how people viewed this trope in the movie or have influence on this trope being in the movie. People really sentionlize the past through nice simplistic broad narratives, most people that were alive during the cold War didn't live their day to day lives worrying about what the government is up to or nuclear annihilation, most of live the same day to day lives and struggles that we do.
I'm glad that you chose to watch the original version of this classic movie. In the anniversary re-release of it, they did what George Lucas did to the original Star Wars trilogy movies. They placed in a lot of CGI. For example, E.T. is totally computer generated. And they changed somethings to make it more compliant to social sensibilities of the time. An example is that during the bike and car chase near the end, when the kids get to the road block, they replaced the guns the agents are holding with walkie-talkies. I remembered reading the Steven Spielberg later regretted the changes that he made to the movie and recommends everybody to just watch the original version. I personally agree and do prefer the original.
Saw it when I was a kid and it was amazing, seeing people react to it and pick apart logical irregularities is kind of infuriating.I never once thought ET was scary.
The "I'll be right here." Line from ET always makes me emotional. ET also makes me think of a humanoid penguin. Specifically with his feet, long arms, and neck.
This is, in my opinion, John Williams finest creation and that's some body of work to pick from ! The whole 'Adventures on Earth' suite from the beginning of the final escape and chase leading to that final rainbow stanza is PERFECT. It never, ever fails to reduce this 50+ year old guy to tears. Wonderful work from the Maestro of Maestros and he knew it because it was one of the rare occasions where Williams actually asked Spielberg to hear what he had composed without the footage. Why ? Because he couldn't match the visuals with the score as per usual but he knew he had something special. Spielberg agreed and once he'd heard it he took the movie back and re-edited the final scene to match the score. Henry Thomas nailed his performance. Do you know the story about his audition ? He wasn't the first choice, another kid was chosen but whilst he could act, after losing a game of Dungeons & Dragons being played on set during further casting he showed his real colours when he lost. He kicked off and became a real asshole of a kid and the casting director realised the real person behind the act wasn't the sweet innocent 9 year old they wanted and nobody liked him so they axed him. Word reached them about a young boy from Texas called Henry who seemed to be the real deal, a great kid who could also act. Due to time restraints after the first error of judgement with their initial choice for Eliot, Spielberg had him flown out to audition in front of him in person along with the Producers. He was given a general premise and asked to improvise - and it was filmed. You can view it on RUclips. Famously, at the end, with hardened Hollywood producers in tears, you can hear Spielberg tell him: "Ok Kid, you got the job..."
I was 4 years old when my grandfather took me into this movie in the cinema. I was so scared of it, I was not looking at the screen most of the time, and had a hard time going into our cellar of our (back then newly built) house for years. Years later when I was much older and had the chance to watch it again (cant remember if it was already on TV or VHS, maybe already DVD) i overcame my fears - just to cry my heart out. And there are not many movies that make me cry. This movie had such a big influence on who I am today, its... wonderful.
According to IMDB this WAS rated PG. I don't know what nonsense rating "U" is in Canada, but perhaps something got lost in translation. Definitely intended that parents of very young kids think twice about it since it has some creepy factor and serious themes.
There is a theory that E.T.'s species are force-sensitive. E.T.'s species are actually in the Star Wars universe. They appear very briefly in the Senate Chamber in Episode I. In the movie we can see that E.T. can levitate objects, heal using touch and influence other people's actions through some type of mind control. Similar to the abilities of a Jedi. E.T. also 'recognised' somebody dressed up as Yoda when the kids were out on Halloween.
Scientist taking pictures wasn’t getting blurry photographs as he was using 105 mm macro lens. Just so you know. Not every long lens is a zoomer or telephoto lens. You can also take a long lens and put extension tubes which will turn it into a macro lens to which also has a decent length.
Are you guys just dead inside? I mean, when it came out, we watched in awe and wonder. We fell in love with E.T. and with Drew Barrymore. The movie touched us deeply and we sobbed. It changed us. And today, the nostalgia is through the roof. Gosh…so many superficial comments too.
Robert Zemeckis who directed and helped write the screenplay for Back To The Future was a camera man on this film and it was his idea to make ET hide as a toy in a closet.
I watched E.T. often as a kid in the80's. We were surrounded by weird puppets in kids entertainment: muppets, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, etc. E.T. wasn't so jarring. Compared to much of the less well produced stuff like HR Pufnstuff, Bodger & Badger (lol), the E.T. effects actually looked convincing. Looking at the effects now, they haven't aged particularly well. For the time the animatronics were fairly advanced. He has an expressive face that is more than a rubber mask, along with little things like his throat expanding when he chugs the beer. It stands out when everything else was a puppet with a flapping mouth. I agree the visual and sound design could have been made more appealing. It would be interesting to learn why they landed on that as a final design.
I agree, we were just used to puppetry/animatronics back then, which is why it didn't bother us as much/we were quicker to warm to ET after the initial reveal to Elliott. We also had Sesame Street, and other assorted shows like Captain Kangaroo and Shari and Lambchop.
In the book Elliot used M&M's to lure the alien into the house, but Mars refused to allow this. However, Recces, was coming out with a new candy that was vey much like M&M's but were filled with peanut butter instead of chocolate. They jumped at the chance for a bit of product placement, and as a result Recess Pieces exploded in popularity.
Peter Coyote’s character - the government scientist with the keys - is literally credited as “Keys”. Such a great movie, and for a long time holder of the box office record.
My brother and I used to wake up super early on Christmas to watch this movie when we were kids. Our grandmother had a porcelain ET piggy bank that she used to dress up in Santa pajamas and put out with the Christmas tree, which is probably why we did it even though this movie takes place over Halloween. I haven't seen this movie in years, but it holds a special place in my heart.
E.T. is able to levitate things and recognized Yoda. So George Lucas decided to give his species a cameo in Star Wars Episode 1. A bunch of E.Ts is seen in a loge of the galactic senate. It's a blink and you'll miss it scene but still a nice nod.
E.T. and Star Wars are absolutely the same universe. In response to the Star Wars references in this film, Lucas put a scene in the Star Wars prequel trilogy where in the galactic senate there is a pod of E.T.s. It's only up for a few seconds so you have to look carefully but they are undeniably there.
Wasn't Close Encounters of the Third Kind also a nice (i.e not evil) alien movie? Although I suppose that was technically in the late 70s as opposed to the early 80s. That's really the only other movie that immediately comes to mind.
"Heartlight" often called "Turn on your Heartlight" is a top 10 hit song written & sung by Neil Diamond 'just because he liked this movie'. A very talented singer songwriter w/a large catalog of great music that spent a decade on the top of the charts. Recommend investigating his work.
They're critical little bitches. They enjoy the fruits of the past while laughing at the past itself. It's disprespectful. I could watch King Kong and still be appreciative of the choppy animatronics, etc. They are an ungrateful generation.
This is A MOVIE. Not A KID'S MOVIE. Eleven-year old me had to fight the tears that were coming full steam ahead in this one. Then I glanced at my parents and other adults in the theater and saw wet eyes and heard crying everywhere and just went with it. John Williams score is what sets me off now, I think. Watching you guys reacts and the musical cues start cranking up the tear ducts again! E.T. sticks with you. That's what "I'll be right here" means. Great reaction!
I am glad you guys had fun with this one, it's one of my all time favorite movies. I was born in '86, but this movie, Ghostbusters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Predator, and Star Wars were pretty much always on the TV from the moment I learned to work a VCR. Creepy, grotesque, and even zany characters became somewhat endearing and intriguing to me. It truly was a different time, the TV was my babysitter some days. I also had to dissect animals in school (an earthworm, a frog, and a fetal pig), and that was as recent as 2000. Dissection may still be going on in biology classroms today, but not until much later in education.
I don't know about many other friendly alien movies from the 80's but "Harry and the Hendersons" is a friendly Bigfoot movie that's worth checking out 😁
I went to see this movie at a weekend sneak preview. I was in my 20's and the crowd I was in line with were almost entirely 13 years old or younger.. They were very loud and rowdy, and I was starting to reget my decision. We got into the theater and the kids were still very noisy, and the few parents weren't doing anything to quiet them. The theater darkened and the kids were still crazy loud. As soon as the film actually started the kids immediately quieted down and became the best audience I could have hoped to see this wonderful film with.
Sometime in the 90's or early 2000's there was a backlash on guns being in a kids movie, so they digitally changed the TV version of the movie to replace all of the guns the feds were holding with walkie-talkies. Also, you probably already know that the kid is Henry Thomas, who is the dad and uncle of the 2 Michael Flanagan "Haunting of" series.
Also, this movie single-handedly reduce the price of VHS tapes by about 70%. At the time, almost all tapes sold in the $80-$90 range. Spielberg insisted it be priced at $24.95 and so they sold zillions of them. Prices of everything else came down shortly after.
A really cool SF (1986) was "flight of the navigator". As I kid, I absolutely loved it - And the music, As an adult... Yep still love it! I suspect both of you would enjoy it, if you haven't already seen it.
I love that the dog's name is "E. Buzz". E. Buzz Miller was a really creepy Dan Aykroyd character from Saturday Night Live in the '70s. He was basically a porn movie producer in maybe one or two interview sketches. The name for the dog suggests that someone in the family was kind of socially aware (maybe the departed dad) or maybe that the kids were staying up late to watch Saturday Night Live without the parents knowing.
I think they originally wanted to do M&Ms, but Mars Inc marketing didn't want the tie-in, I guess they thought the connection was negative because the movie was too scary for kids, and Reese's Pieces was a last minute substitute.
Mars Inc were approached for permission to use M&M's as the temptation but they refused so the producers turned to Hershey Foods and Reese's pieces instead. They were all for it and agreed a joint marketing deal. It transformed their sales seeing an 85% increase in sales after the films release and Mars Inc decision is regarded as one of the biggest business mistakes ever made.
And Reese's lovers are still laughing about that.
The novelization retains M&Ms instead of Reese's Pieces. Probably written before the script and props were finalized. The novelization of this movie is one of the few novelizations of a movie that's actually worth reading - it doesn't just relate the events that happen on screen.
Your right as usual George, I hate you. You're an a$$! 😊
I kinda prefer Reese's Pieces because M&M's would have been too obvious and cliche.
I thought they were actually introduced with the movie. I don’t remember ever seeing them before the movie.
I was 16 when this hit the theaters. My parents had divorced four years earlier. This film was the first time I had seen a family dynamic like mine on screen, with three kids including the eldest being the brother trying to be the new man of the house, protecting his mom from everything he can. My heart breaks for Michael when he lays into Elliot for talking about Mexico-he reminds me so much of my big brother.
What’s funny is the movie Tron came out the same year, talk about a movie that was ahead of it’s time lol
I think the whole point of E.T design is to teach something to the kids, to teach how you have to go further than just the looks, to teach it's ok to be scared at the unknown but you have to stay open minded and kind. It would ruin the whole message to just make a cute pretty alien. Same thing for its death, these are things important to show to kids, i don't know if it's too harsh or still ok tho.
So true!
@@TheRetroManRandySavage I always thought E.T. was cute.
I think E.T. was supposed to be some sort of amphibian, hence certain parts of his anatomy.
"I think the whole point of E.T design is to teach [...] to stay open minded and kind" ..That's exactly how I always saw it and I actually was about to write almost the same comment. If someone or something is lost and needs help it doesn't matter how he/she/it looks or talks. And that's the main message of the movie and that's exactly why E.T. doesn't look all cute.
Well, some might find it cute but I certainly find it a bit creepy too. And that's how it should be to carry the message.
@@TheRetroManRandySavage The bit with him in the corn field definitely scared many of us. But by the end we accepted him as a friend. lol
I think E.T.'s character design was beautiful. His eyes are so endearing and he made me love frogs and turtles as a kid. Easily one of my favorite all time movies!
Spielberg filmed the movie in sequence order, which is not common. He wanted the kids to get used to the ET puppet as their characters would. And during the "death" scene all the actors' tears were 100% genuine, including the mom's.
Truly a genius tactic for this movie
Didn't he also reveal E.T. during that scream scene for the first time to get Drew's genuine reaction? So, that was her really screaming in reaction to the puppet. Or is that just one of those "Facebook Facts"?
Drew utterly believed that ET was real.
Not only was Gertie's scream Drew's genuine reaction to seeing E.T. for the first time, but Michael's jumping back into the wall and making the shelves behind him collapse was Robert MacNaughton's genuine reaction to unexpectedly seeing him for the first time. IIRC, Spielberg deliberately planned for Drew to react that way, but Robert's reaction was much more dramatic and amusing than Spielberg had expected it to be, so he found a way to edit the scene to include it in the film.
I skimmed the comments but didn't see this mentioned: originally Spielberg envisioned this as a horror movie where ET was the leader of a small group of evil aliens. His design didn't change from that version of the film.
I was a child when this came out and ET never looked ugly or weird, and the sounds made him sound cute to me. I don't know why you both find him so disgusting looking. Interesting. Maybe the idea behind it was not to judge a book by its cover. Can you imagine what humans looked like to them? I love watching you guys react, even if I don't understand how you can think ET wasn't adorable. LOL.
EXACTLY!!!! I was about 10 when it came out. ET was adorable!
Yeah this is a first- I’ve never seen people be grossed out by him before. I mean he’s an alien so he’s supposed to look like one I guess but he’s really a charming version of one.
Haha same. We 80s kids have another idea of cute😂
@@di3486 nah i was born in '96 and have always found him adorable lmao
I suppose there has been a bit of a tectonic shift around the uncanny valley since the 80s.
Another fun easter egg about ET and Yoda being in the same universe: in The Phantom Menace, there's a shot in the Senate where you can briefly see a few members of ET's species on one of the senate disks.
And his ability to float the objects to show the solar system in Elliot's bedroom has always had people saying that he's possibly using the Force and a possible Jedi out on an exploration mission. Thus also making the bike flying possible. Lucas using them as a senate race (although admited as a nod to Steven) ties the two universes together.
The species is called Asogians in Star Wars canon, and their senator was named Grebleips (Spielberg backwards) in Legends.
But Star Wars in in a different galaxy
*ET’S SPE CIES*
@@vincegamer They may have technology that allows them to fly between galaxies. :p
Also, I love that Peter Coyote's character remained unseen for so much of the movie, making him menacing - then we finally see him when his character gets more humanized.
On her talk show, Drew Barrymore had Steven Spielberg as a guest, and they discussed how Drew thought E.T. was real, and if I remember correctly, Spielberg fed the illusion by making sure that there was somebody to puppet ET whenever Drew was on set.
One obvious major Spielberg that you guys didn't do was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That was the one that really established him as the next big thing after he broke out with Jaws. One huge success makes you the talk of the town, the second proves youre the real deal and that it wasnt a fluke. There are three versions of the film, and the only one you want to avoid is the middle version, called the "Special Edition," which has a significant addition to ending he later regretted. His preferred version is the last one, the Director's Cut. A later one that many reaction channels do is Catch Me If You Can, one of the two films that marked Leonardo DiCaprio's advancement from Titanic heartthrob to the respected actor he is today -- it and Martin Scorsese's first movie with Leo, Gangs of New York, both opened on Christmas 2002.
you're correct Tyler that Spielberg always had someone puppeteering ET when Drew was there.
@@shercahn Let's face it, how could you not, she was toooooooo adorable and liked to pal around wiht him and asked him if he was okay when he wasn't moving :) You know what though, probably the most fulfilling job those puppeteers ever had.
Close Encounters would be a great one for them to react to. ET was in movie theaters last year for it’s anniversary. Close Encounters was in theaters a few years ago too.
Close Encounter is the spiritual prequel to E.T.
What strikes me most about E.T. all these years later is how ridiculous it all could have been in less competent hands. If you actually describe the movie to someone it seems like a bad B movie however it is a classic because Spielberg made it.
Yes, E.T.s species is canonically in the Star Wars Universe. George made sure to add them as a member of the Republic Senate in the Prequel Trilogy. The Book that accompanied the movie went more in depth about many things left unsaid in the film. E.T.'s species are intergalactic Botanists, traveling the Universe collecting plants for study. They are also a Collective species able to speak to each other telepathically, use the force, and are dependent on the collective for their very life force. When E.T. was left behind, it cut him off from the collective. He sought out Elliot and used as a temporary way to stay alive and call his people. When he felt that he was about to die he separated himself from Elliot so he wouldn't take him with him. Luckily, the message got through to his people and they arrived within moments of his death reconnecting him to the collective and restoring his life.
Which doesn't make sense b/c there are Star Wars toys & costumes in this movie.
@@jp3813 doesnt every star wars movie start with: a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away? so theoretically, if you imagine the gap filled on how lucas got to know about the star wars universe which was in the past and far away, it is possible.
@@broncobalboa Sounds more like a Spaceballs scenario.
@@broncobalboa so George Lucas is a character in the Star Wars universe? Maybe he was a Jedi who witnessed everything that happened first hand, lived for hundreds or thousands of years or whatever, then traveled how ever many light years it is to our universe and made movies and toys with the exact likenesses of characters he knew , good job his ancient memory of how they looked didn’t falter, and then ET could recognise Yoda on Earth all that time later. Ok yeah
@@jp3813 No, it doesn't make sense. But that was the catalyst for E.T.'s species ("Children of the Green Planet") appearing in the Star Wars universe. They promised that they would make a reference to each other's movies in their films. For Spielburg, it was that scene where Elliot is showing him the Star Wars toys. George Lucas just decided to one up him, and add E.T.'s entire species to the Star Wars cannon.
The puppeteers noticed that Drew Barrymore used to talk to ET even when they were on breaks so they took it upon themselves to animate him in order to maintain her connection. Spielberg credits those acts of kindness for her tearful final goodbye as by that stage she considered him her friend.
A sort-of-similar thing happened recently with Katee Sackhoff and Grogu on the Mandalorian set...the puppeteers for Grogu have earpieces connected to mics on the set, so they know when to animate Grogu's face...apparently one of the puppeteers heard Katee talking to the Grogu puppet during a break and decided to make him react by scrunching his face up to look angry while Katee was talking...apparently it scared the shit out of Katee, who didn't know anybody was still listening.
Wonderful for you guys to react to one of the best films of the 80s. :) But I can’t believe that ET grossed you out, have to say I’m a bit disappointed how juvenile your reaction to his looks seemed to be. We loved him back in the day, everybody used to have ET dolls and they were considered to be cute! And the one of the points of this movie was to how someone that looks outwardly so alien can be so loving and and healing being. U know beauty is insinde CineBinge!😊
I agree. I was so disappointed
This movie is peak 80's. Mom leaving the kids alone all day, Drew Barrymore at like 6 years old riding in the front seat of the car, riding bikes with your friends, playing D&D. It's funny to re-watch it now.
... Riding your flying bike without a helmet ...
Most cars in the 80s didn’t have airbags. I don’t think it was until the late 90s that they started advising that children not sit in the front seat.
@@MP197742 I remember ads [paraphrased]: "Don't ride in the front with your child on your lap."
Yeah key take away from the 80’s is unsupervised children everywhere
It still amazes me how this film perfectly captured being a kid in 1980's Southern California. We certainly rode bikes through tract home construction sites. Halloween really did have that many kids going around without parents. We dissected frogs too.
Sounds like you had a great childhood .lucky
northern cali too.
Elliot's house was shot in the valley side of L.A.
Redwood National Park for the woods, that'd be a LOOOOOOOOONG bike ride.
@Marcos rua the world was very different then. A lot more freedom.
I love that you still left this comment, even after they made fun of people like you in this very video.
A 'Nice Alien" movie from the 80's was "Starman " with Jeff Bridges. Definitely worth a watch. I think Bridges was nominated for an Oscar for the role.
As a teen in the 90s vacationing with the family in Arizona, I insisted we had to visit that meteor crater, entirely because of that movie. Another 80s nice alien movie - though NOT one I would recommend - is Howard the Duck. Also would not recommend Enemy Mine as a friendly alien movie as it’s too boring. Cocoon isn’t bad though. Not an aliens movie, but in some ways similar to the friendly alien concept in feel would be Short Circuit.
Yes, Starman is a very good "nice alien" movie.
+1 on Starman. Really underrated John Carpenter film.
Also "Flight of the Navigator", adding time travel paradoxes
Dan you! I was just to comment about that movie. Lol
Spielberg once said that he wanted E.T. to have a face that only his mother would love. He obscured him, gradually revealing him in more and more light as we get to know him and realise that he is not something to be afraid of, before we get a clear view. It was so artfully done, truly masterful in its execution.
This was the second Spielberg movie I ever saw, and I was six years-old. The one before scared the life out of me (Jaws), this one just enthralled me, quickly becoming my favourite film for all time, to this very day. Every layer of learning about film that would follow for me in years beyond revealed another layer of brilliance embedded in the construction of this film.
Did you notice that no adult face was visible (except the mother) throughout the first two acts? Adults are treated as a threatening force, getting closer and closer to invading, and by implication (the keys) violating, the secret world of E.T. and the children.
Did you notice that the story Mary was reading to Gertie was Peter Pan? Specifically the portion where Tinkerbell is poisoned and brought back to life by people believing in fairies, while E.T. was healing Elliott's finger? That Elliott says, 'I'll believe in you all my life,' shortly before E.T. himself is resurrected?
The writing, the editing, the cinematography, the music, the acting, the animatronic effects, the sound, all meld perfectly to create this artistic masterpiece that should have won Best Picture that year (even Richard Attenborough admitted that - the director of the winner: Ghandi). I think it's often overlooked, because of how much fun this film is, that it is a true work of art.
I grew up with E.T., so as a kid, I didn’t really question his look. Your experiences are much more limited as a child, so it was just, “That’s E.T.” You don’t have anything to compare him to, so he’s not creepy or scary. Also, as a kid the concept of death doesn’t hit the same as when you’re an adult. You realize what’s happening and that it’s sad, but you’re not torn up about it. I had no problem with Bambi or The Land Before Time as a kid, but as a grown up, I can’t watch those without bawling.
good point, but my experience is abit different it comes and goes as an adult, but i didnt think ET was creepy at all when i was 4 in 1982, but i did get upset when he got sick, the other films effect hasnt changed that much since i was adult or a kid but i really liked your comment and the way you said it.
@@artsaganza8742 thank you! Yeah, I got sad when he got sick and white. I think it also helped that I knew he was going to be okay and I was so young when I saw it for the first time, that I don’t even remember actually seeing it for the first time, lol. I’m a 1985 baby.
I disagree about death not tearing you up as a child. Children are deeper than you give them credit for. Death hits children just as deeply as adults. Adults just like to pretend children don’t get it.
@@barrymoreblue thanks for the reply. interesting, its all different experiences i suppose depending how old someone is when they see that. i also think i was about to be taken out of the theater if my dad had not told me ET was gonna recover, that helped me calm down.
Oh man, I was absolutely _devastated_ as a kid in the cinema both at Bambi's mother _and_ the "death" of ET so nope, your perspective doesn't ring true for me there.
But I do agree that ET (the character) wasn't scary, creepy or even particularly ugly though (then or now) and i'm actually kind of surprised by just how much George and Simone went on about its appearance, especially given how often we're told the younger generation is meant to be (and in my experience often is) more "evolved" in so many ways.
Showing aliens not as monsters or dangerous was definitely a motivation for Spielberg to make this movie. This was a more intimate story but he was already on that path with his previous sci-fi movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That is a great movie too (well, it's also by Spielberg) and I hope you guys will react to that one too.
I was about 7 years old when this came out. It was the first movie I can remember crying at, specifically at the end. I loved it so much. And E.T. never looked gross or anything to me.
same okeefe
Sameeee
I was 12 and remember being crushed when i saw E.T. lying in the stream!
I was 5, same reaction.
I was 10, same
I admit it is a little weird to me that you seem fixated on ET's appearance. I don't think other reactions I've watched have had that sort of fixation. I saw it in theaters as a teen, and I thought ET was supposed to be alien but adorable, with those big eyes and cute expressions. I thought his skin was shiny, not slimy. All that said, this movie almost never fails to bring tears to my eyes, even though I've rewatched it a lot.
Jeeeeeeeeeez 🤒
I find it interesting what a person experiences with a movie can change depending on their point of view, age and experience. For me, all the things that you think are creepy because I grew up with this movie are adorable and charming. This is not a criticism of you, I'm just saying that I find it amusing how something like ET's looks and demeanor can go from being fantastic and captivating to me and alot of other people, to something disturbing and terrifying for others.
Guys, none of us back in the day thought ET was gross. We all thought he was adorable and loved him -- once you saw his eyes and expressive face.
(You guys do have a great channel; you generally make interesting observations and often make dead-on calls. Your reaction to ET's appearance, however, will strike all GenXers as kind of strange...)
This movie either really scares you as a kid, or moves you to tears by the end. There is no in between. For me, this might have the best ending of all time in movies. John Williams’ score is just perfection.
As someone always interested in science tbh even as a child I was cheering on the Government . If they'd caught E.T they would have learnt a LOT from his Anatomy!
I was 5 and cried in the theater.
In my opinion, John Williams' best
Why not both? And yes, the last 15 minutes of this movie has my favorite John Williams score, there are so many emotions, it’s so beautiful.
Gen X ers grew up real fast. Realistic portrayals of adult themes was not uncommon. Loved this movie when I saw it as an 8 year old when it was in my home town for three nights only before moving on to other nearby towns. Many forget that this movie was the highest grossing movie for a great many years, playing in some theatre the world over for years after its initial release until it was eventually released on VHS.
Exactly and well said
"I'll be right here." Even in the throes of adulthood, that ending never fails to make me bawl like a baby.
Also, I strongly feel that "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" is one of John Williams' best scores. The bicycle chase is particularly spectacular and the final moments with Eliot before E.T. departs for home is incredibly moving and always brings tears to my eyes.
If I recall correctly, Spielberg had Williams compose the end bicycle sequence music first and then cut the shots to the music (traditionally, the composer adds the score after the edit).
Those last nine words: "Come". "Stay". "Ouch". "Ouch". "I'll be right here". "Bye". The entire grieving/mourning process in nine words. Best last dialogue ever.
I cry every time 😭
John Williams won the Oscar for best original score for ET....and rightly so. 🏆😁👍
@@MLJ7956 A couple of years ago, I saw the film with a live orchestra. I don't know how, as they were halfway through a world tour, but, at the end, they were just a little bit off timewise, and it ruined the whole effect. Which, as if anyone needed it pointed out, just shows how essential that wonderful score is.
The fact that George identifies tonal shifts in the film and doesn't get it, makes me realise that films these days have become so simplified and one dimensional. Action/comedy/drama used to be more common.
i'm always surprised by how much younger people (meaning younger than my middle-aged self who was a kid when this came out) find the design of e.t. creepy, because they sure as hell sold a boatload of plush e.t. toys to little kids back in the day. though i guess the default for the past 30 years has been to make anything "for kids" as cute as possible.
also e.t. and john carpenter's the thing opened roughly around the same time, and carpenter has always said (half-jokingly) that e.t. was part of the reason the thing bombed in theaters, because audiences decided they wanted the cute alien that year rather than the horrifying one.
Haha yeah, I mean I am in my 30s and for me E.T. was always fascinating as a child. Never creepy.
Which is the reason that by the end of the movie I always was/am a sobbing mess
i'm 26 & have always thought E.T was adorable 🤷🏻♀️ this has been one of my favourite movies since i was a little kid
@@anarchobaby I an glad, that they didn't make him some kind of funny furry looking cartoon character as they probably would do it today. This movie really challenged you as a child to look behind the facade of things. Couple that with the brilliant score of John Williams that brought so much emotion to it all
My favourite film of all time. Was a child and that’s never changed. My favourite moment that a lot of people miss is when they are saying goodbye, and the brief scene with E.T and the older brother Michael. During the film, Micheal and E.T do not directly interact much, but Micheal does a lot to help. He helps keep him a secret, he goes to the forest to find him, he drives the van and helps them escape. E.T acknowledges this. When they say goodbye, you can tell that Michael doesn’t know what to say, so E.T says simply “Thank you” , to which Michael replies “you’re welcome”…..and nothing more needed saying
I still feel like this film defines the 'magic' of Spielberg. Such fond memories of it as a child, and the John Williams score is right up there with his best work.
Fun Fact: George Lucas included ET's race in the background during the senate scene of The Phantom Menace (Episode 1). They are seen in one of the floating pods as a species represented in the senate. Apparently it was suggested by Spielberg.
This film really did set an unrealistic expectation for house sizes.
Elliot grew up to renovate a massive house, with spooky results, in Haunting of Hill House (one of Netflix's best-made tv shows)
🤣😂🤣😂
Haunting of hill house is one of the best written horror films/shows ever.
😂😂😂 love this
Big houses were affordable in the 80s.
Elliot (Henry Thomas) also played a ghostly Jack Torrance in 2019's Stephen King's: Doctor Sleep (sequel to The Shining - both the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film & the SK book). With the make-up effects, it looked almost like a young Jack Nicholson was in the film (I didn't even know it was Henry until I saw his name in the end credits)...Also Stephen King's: Doctor Sleep was directed by Mike Flanagan (who also was the director of The Haunting of Hill House)...
In terms of movies with nice aliens, there's also "Flight of the Navigator" from 1986. Didn't watch it for like 30 years, but I remember that I liked it as a kid.
I still like it as an adult!!
Starman was another. And, obviously, Mac and Me...
On TV, there was Alf.
I was about to look it up, because I didn't remember the correct title (We have another title for it in Germany, thank god it is nearly the same). Cocoon is also awesome.
I remember John Carpenter saying part of the problem with "The Thing" is that when it came out people wanted nice aliens in movies
Voiced by Peewee Herman.
Making a antenna out of an umbrella is actually a real thing. Usually you are going to want some kind of coating on the inside to reflect the RF. Different coatings reflect different frequency ranges. Not only do people build their own but there are professionally made portable dishes you can buy and if you didn't know what it was before it was set up you might assume it was a weird patio umbrella.
I kind of stopped worrying about what they thought about the science when they questioned how E.T. was "making a satellite".
No matter how old I get, this movie still hits hard, the "death scene" and the final goodbye. There's just something so genuine and heartfelt that Spielberg taps into with this classic. The only movie I can recall that had my entire family in tears at the end, even my dad, and he was, or seemed to be to me, a very ice cold guy. The power of imagery and that John William's score, it's truly a masterpiece. I remember flipping channels one afternoon and the final scene was playing and those few minutes alone made me well up in tears. Damn you Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Williams, or rather, thank you Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Williams.
It’s so funny because I never thought of ET being scary as a kid and neither did any kids at the time, but then I thought my daughter would love it too but she was terrified of him and so many reactors say the same thing. Maybe it’s the puppet thing or lack of graphics but I always thought he was adorable 😂
Simone and George, it's really great that you loved the part with the mom laughing when Elliot calls his brother "Penis Breath". That was one of the moments in the movie that helped create the family binder that made the audience empathize with the family. And that empathy for the family was a big component of later scenes, like when the big brother sees ET for the first time and that moment when Gertie points out to her barely-containing-the-chaos mom what Michael's been doing with the car on the driveway, and finally when they all are acting as a unit as ET is taken from them and he seemingly dies. That's finally when the audience is pulling for the entire family together.
I haven't seen any other reaction videos where they highlighted this moment in their edit.
The arc of the family's relationship with each other is really important to the tone of this movie. And the other family dynamic is that all of these moments highlight how the kids are becoming more independent from their mother. They have their own values and their own intelligence and their own jokes and they keep secrets.
I saw this in the theater as a little kid, barely older than Gertie. That scene taught my siblings and I, the word penis. My parents were horrified.
I don't know if it's true, but I read that it was not scripted to be a laugh, and that was Dee Wallace's natural reaction to the way Henry Thomas delivered the line. Spielberg realized that it worked better that way, and so he used that take.
Literally never thought I'd see 2 grown adults just laugh through this movie that made me so emotional as a 5 year old. Not a single word about the soundtrack. Just how "weird" ET looks. YOU MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT OF HIS APPEARANCE. That's not what's supposed to matter, it's the kindness inside.
Thats pretty much everybody who reacts to this movie. I think you have to watch it as a kid, otherwise it never works. Which is a huge shame. But oh well.
@@Drax514 Nope. I've seen several adult reactors who completely and totally get it. George had too many jokes this time.
You mad, bro?
@@ZachLorton mildly annoyed but not mad
@@bidishah I get the feeling he looks at a lot of old man scrotes to be such an expert.
Henry Thomas (Elliott's) audition tape was so good that Steven Spielberg hired him right after his audition was done. You can find it on here if you search for it, it's impressive.
“How do you get through the day??”
“Not very well, George.”
Holy actual fuck, I’ve never seen an interaction describe me and my therapist so well. lol
How can you watch this and not cry your eyes out ?
I'm confident you two aren't as shallow as this movie's reactions (falsely?) reveal. It is an alien, after all, and clearly meant to teach us to look past physical appearances. From a script-writing perspective, this is a film about divorce and the longing for a friend during such a turbulent experience. Anyway, at the time of its release, the world fell in love with both the character and this very personal story.
Best comment
The look of ET was inspired by the alien from War of the Worlds (1953) and I believe it was intentional to make ET look creepy and then show him to be good. It being a message about xenophobia and not judging people or aliens by the way they look. If you look at the movie poster for War of the Worlds (1953) and ET, they both feature similar looking alien hand and the shape of the alien body is also similar. War of the Worlds (1953) is worth watching.
Not the Tom Cruise remake. That's terrible.
It was also fairly similar to the other "good aliens" movie that slightly preceded it: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
@@jonathanwyman9402 You mean the Spielberg remake? Say what you want, but that movie WORKED in the theaters. Total rollercoaster ride and the sound was just incredible!
Love you guys. Barrels of fun. But recently your reactions have been a bit frustrating because you've stopped *watching* the movie and seem more intent on getting ahead of it. You're not experiencing the movies, you're standing above them, which is no fun at all. How can a good movie sweep you away if you're too busy deconstructing it as you go? Not so much fun.
One of the best assessments and constructive critiques I've seen! Not only of this particular reaction, but of most reactors "experiencing the movies" in general.
...and some of these reactors have tried to become comedians like "Rifftrax". This is not what we watch reaction videos for.
Thank you I just left the same comment essentially.
Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture but won for
Best Visual Effects
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Original Score.
It was one of the highest grossing movies of 1982, $790 million dollars against a $10 million dollar budget.
So in today's money, ET would've made $2.4 billion. Damn
It wasn’t just one of the highest grossing movies of 1982; it was *the* highest grossing movie of 1982, and not only that, but it was actually the highest grossing movie *in history* at the time, beating previous record-holder Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope), though Star Wars eventually reclaimed the title for a while through additional grosses from re-release. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was a *massive* hit at the box-office.
To those of us who remember 1982, it’s actually kind of odd that the movie’s cultural footprint these days isn’t larger, but it almost certainly has to do with the fact that it was a single movie and not the launch of an ongoing screen franchise. There actually was a followup in the form of a novel, E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, by William Kotzwinkle (who had previously written the movie’s novelization), but not a sequel movie or TV series, and I think that’s kept it from occupying the same sort of space in the cultural consciousness as a number of other things from around that time, though it’s also not exactly unknown, either. But it was *HUGE* when it came out.
The game was the only thing that failed
@@Panurus_biarmicus Only from a certain perspective. Everybody knows about it...a special kind of triumph.
I think some movies have to be seen at a certain point in your life to really take hold. I was 11 when E.T. came out and it's the first movie that really had me tearing up, so it holds a special nostalgic place for me and, I think, for a lot of my generation. Enjoyed the reaction, thank you.
10 miles, uphill both ways, in the snow, no shoes, supporting a family of four, on my way to my second job... I was only 6 years old.
As I recall, when the move came out, no one thought ET was ugly or that his voice was creepy. I think that the pop culture landscape has changed, and that's why young people react so differently than people did when the film came out. When I was a kid, for example, almost no one found clowns creepy, while today it seems universal that they are inherently creepy.
Marketers in charge of studios realized that kids movie aliens should be cuter, action movie aliens should be hotter and sexier, and serious movie aliens should be more alien. So no more E.T. style aliens. Pick your lane.
I remember my ex gf telling me how when she saw this in the cinema at about age 5 she was so terrified of ET she had to leave about 20 mins in. So he definitely freaked some kids out. This was a few years after the initial release though I guess (maybe 89) so the ET merch everywhere thing had died down I suppose.
An odd reaction by you guys on this occasion, you seem to be strangely focused on his appearance and little else. I saw ET when I was a kid and just saw how kind & gentle he was. The message being appearance doesn't matter, it's what's inside that's important. It's kind of the whole point that he looks different & unusual.
Also you didn't seem to be picking up on any of the themes or messages the film is trying to convey.
Totally agree. After the second time it became quite annoying. They didn't seem to care about the story either. Not a great reaction.
I agree. Pretty disappointed 😔
yeah i actually bailed before the end. i generally/genuinely enjoy their videos (usually), but even accounting for changes in taste generationally, their reaction to this one was kinda baffling.
Yeah, felt a bit more like a "riff trax" kind of thing this time unfortunately (more about "funny" comments than watching the movie) but everyone has an off day.
(if it keeps going that way I probably won't keep watching though - more power to them if that works for them as a channel but it's not really the kind of reaction i'm interested in)
In the beginning of the movie they showed the plants inside of the ship, and if you payed attention there was a lot of fog and plants that would be found in swamps and by ponds, lakes, and rivers - so it makes sense that ET would look like a combination of frogs, turtles, fish like mudskippers that can also breathe oxygen, and tadpoles. I get that a lot of people think those kind of creatures are "icky", but I believe that Steven Speilberg and his design crew helped a lot of 80s kids see the beauty in amphibians and reptiles.
Sooooo many people I know just lost when we thought ET was dead, and we cried again at the end when he was saying goodbye to everyone, especially Elliot... we all felt that ouch. In the end, ET reassured Elliot that he would always be there in his memories, and some of us hoped that if ET ever came back to Earth, Elliot would somehow know.
I think your ewws and icks probably came from the later (and one earlier) Alien movies that played up slimy, gross aliens as something to fear. Back when this movie came out, none of us had seen the original Alien because it was R rated, so we were a little scared at the beginning, but as ET was shown to be friendly and especially funny during the drunk scene, we just accepted him as a weird looking friend who could do cool things.
A group of astronauts leaves a strange planet in a hurry, leaving behind one of his own. The rest of the movie it's him trying to go home until the same group goes back and rescues him.
This is "The Martian" for me
FUN FACT: Yes.. E.T. was in fact animatronic... and the fun fact is.. While filming... ANY TIME Drew Barrymore was there on set... Stephen Spielberg made sure to have puppeteers for the entire time... when not filming... These guys would control E.T. And voice him JUST FOR DREW!! When ever she was around him.. he was alive to her!! So sweet of him!!
Also a very good way to make direction of such a young child possible. They don't take direction well. Her believing e t was real made it a lot easier to make her react to things. Like also believing he was really dying. Which is not quite as sweet
I've never clicked on anything faster once I saw the Patreon announcement... only to find you're not quite as on board as I thought you might! To be fair, you are not the only ones. But I'm way, WAY too close to this amazing movie and therefore very biased.
It's sort of interesting that you, as adults, automatically dislike that design of E.T himself, yet those of us that were kids at the time, didn't even think about that. He's meant to be a bit WTF initially, but very, very quickly he's just a benign presence, that Elliot befriended. I guess you had to be there :D - Never judge a book by its cover.
This is an enormously special movie to me, I'm sort of sad that you weren't quite able to engage with it as was intended - but I also have a healthy sense of humour, so that, plus knowing you two, I was laughing a lot at some of your commentary on this. Beware though, you're about to get a LOT of salty comments!
I haven’t watched the full reaction on Patreon, but this “highlights” version on RUclips actually feels like they’re pretty on board with the movie, even if they’re coming at it from the perspective of people who weren’t around at the time. Maybe I’m misreading their reactions, but it feels to me like they connected with it emotionally the way one might hope.
@@blondiewan3331 Thanks, but not to worry, I'm just a bit sensitive where this movie is concerned. Simone and George are lovely people. I'm just being a bit dorky. 45 year old dork at that!
@@philrob1978, hey, 54-year-old dork, here (55 next month). I get attachments to movies, and all; I’m just surprised because in the video here on RUclips, they mostly seem - at least to me - like they get pretty on board with the movie, even if they do fixate on E.T.’s appearance to a degree that seems a little weird to me. Their sympathies still lie with him and Elliott, they laugh at the funny stuff and are moved at the sad stuff, etc., and it feels like despite their generational remove, they’re basically getting the intended emotional experience from it.
But from a lot of the comments here, it sounds like they’re just being snarky and totally unmoved by it. The disconnect between what I see in the video and what I’m reading in the comments is significant enough that I’m kind of wondering whether the full-length reaction is radically different in tone - that maybe the portions of it used here are from that longer, full-length react, but not really tonally representative of it.
@@blondiewan3331 My friend, I'm sure you're right. I've not done the whole Patreon length reaction yet, that would be a luxurious use of my time that I can't afford at the moment! My original comment was rather reactionary - but anyway, it's all good.
ETs grotesque appearance was intentional for the simple reason of not judging a book by its cover. The kids retained no bigotry for him after the first meeting. I still have a ceramic ET statue.
My uncle (now 39 years old) loved this film as a kid, but he used to make my grandfather fast forward through the parts when ET was sick because it scared him so much. Also, another 80s movies with nice aliens it one of my favorites, 'Explorers', with very young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.
When this came out, it was unusual to have an alien that was friendly. I don't ever remember thinking E.T. was ugly. Odd, yes, but his mannerisms were so innocent that what he looked like didn't matter. I never got to see it in the theater, but did see it shortly after it came out on VHS, and I remember just really enjoying the story. And maybe it's because I grew up in the 80's that the death scene didn't scar me? I don't know, but if you really look at kid's movies from the 80's, they are so much more hardcore than kid's movies now. I'm always reminded of Don Bluth's comment about how kids can handle just about anything in a movie as long as there's a happy ending.
You can see this movie's influence all over Stranger Things. Eleven is basically a human E.T.
This movie was one of my favourites as a kid, my grandfathers also. When I was around 4 or 5, he got us a copy on VHS before he passed, and my biggest memory was bawling my eyes out when E.T. was saying his goodbyes. This movie will always have a special place in my heart.
There’s definitely a generation gap with this film. The kids and the adults in the 80s just loved ET. I myself had a little ET stuffed doll that I just loved to death. In fact, I hugged him so much that his plastic skin peeled off. ET never scared me or grossed me out. The government agents and scientists in the movie, however, they were scary. It didn’t help that at the time there was a lot of government mistrust, and it wasn’t party-based. It was just government in general. The memories of Vietnam and Watergate are still very fresh in everyone’s minds. The Cold War was still in force. It was a different mindset.
I found this to be one of the most painful, condescending reactions on their channel. Every shitty joke and criticism is essentially complaining that Spielberg sucks at his job and you would have done it better. I was 11 when ET came out and at that age I didn’t spend half the movie questioning if that was government or not. Maybe we were just smarter then, but then again, our strength was in not having to overanalyze every detail so that it made sense. We could just ‘do the math’ with what was there. George… you were right though. People are going to be mad at this video. I found this brutal to get through.
I was born the year the movie was released, but I didn't see it until I got a copy of it on video cassette as a present when I was 6 years old. Before I saw the movie, I occasionally encountered other E.T. merchandise like posters on kids' bedroom walls and a set of flash cards with still photos from the movie on them. I thought E.T. was some kind of strange skeleton, but I didn't think he was scary, and neither did any other kid I knew at the time. I loved the movie when I saw it and watched it whenever I could until I wore that poor video tape out!
@@MrOffthecliffdamn what a snowflake, I don't know what they said could make you have the reaction of this film being hard to get through. Fanboy mentality I guess.
Yeah I don't think that's what anyone thought when watching this movie government mistrust has always been a thing since the days of Mr Smith goes to Washington. Having the cold war or water gate scandal ( which happened years earlier so I wouldn't call that fresh in people's mind ) probably didn't have any influence in how people viewed this trope in the movie or have influence on this trope being in the movie. People really sentionlize the past through nice simplistic broad narratives, most people that were alive during the cold War didn't live their day to day lives worrying about what the government is up to or nuclear annihilation, most of live the same day to day lives and struggles that we do.
@@MrOffthecliff I never got the impression that they're saying that Spielberg sucks at his job.
I'm glad that you chose to watch the original version of this classic movie. In the anniversary re-release of it, they did what George Lucas did to the original Star Wars trilogy movies. They placed in a lot of CGI. For example, E.T. is totally computer generated. And they changed somethings to make it more compliant to social sensibilities of the time. An example is that during the bike and car chase near the end, when the kids get to the road block, they replaced the guns the agents are holding with walkie-talkies. I remembered reading the Steven Spielberg later regretted the changes that he made to the movie and recommends everybody to just watch the original version. I personally agree and do prefer the original.
One of the greatest cinematic experiences I’ve ever had…pure Spielberg magic at work here✌🏻😀
Saw it when I was a kid and it was amazing, seeing people react to it and pick apart logical irregularities is kind of infuriating.I never once thought ET was scary.
The "I'll be right here." Line from ET always makes me emotional.
ET also makes me think of a humanoid penguin. Specifically with his feet, long arms, and neck.
Yeah! 😂 It kinda walks like a fat penguin.
If you don't cry at the end of e.t. you're a robot and need to be reprogrammed.
This is, in my opinion, John Williams finest creation and that's some body of work to pick from ! The whole 'Adventures on Earth' suite from the beginning of the final escape and chase leading to that final rainbow stanza is PERFECT. It never, ever fails to reduce this 50+ year old guy to tears. Wonderful work from the Maestro of Maestros and he knew it because it was one of the rare occasions where Williams actually asked Spielberg to hear what he had composed without the footage. Why ? Because he couldn't match the visuals with the score as per usual but he knew he had something special. Spielberg agreed and once he'd heard it he took the movie back and re-edited the final scene to match the score. Henry Thomas nailed his performance. Do you know the story about his audition ? He wasn't the first choice, another kid was chosen but whilst he could act, after losing a game of Dungeons & Dragons being played on set during further casting he showed his real colours when he lost. He kicked off and became a real asshole of a kid and the casting director realised the real person behind the act wasn't the sweet innocent 9 year old they wanted and nobody liked him so they axed him. Word reached them about a young boy from Texas called Henry who seemed to be the real deal, a great kid who could also act. Due to time restraints after the first error of judgement with their initial choice for Eliot, Spielberg had him flown out to audition in front of him in person along with the Producers. He was given a general premise and asked to improvise - and it was filmed. You can view it on RUclips. Famously, at the end, with hardened Hollywood producers in tears, you can hear Spielberg tell him: "Ok Kid, you got the job..."
I understand why the name has never been released, but I wonder who the first kid was.
This is my favorite score that John Williams ever did. The bike chase scene (and the accompanying score) is top tier cinema.
It's peak Williams, without a doubt.
How could neither of you cry at the end?!! 😭
As an Easter egg, there's a pod of ET aliens in the Senate chamber scene in Star Wars: Phantom Menace.
I was 4 years old when my grandfather took me into this movie in the cinema. I was so scared of it, I was not looking at the screen most of the time, and had a hard time going into our cellar of our (back then newly built) house for years. Years later when I was much older and had the chance to watch it again (cant remember if it was already on TV or VHS, maybe already DVD) i overcame my fears - just to cry my heart out. And there are not many movies that make me cry. This movie had such a big influence on who I am today, its... wonderful.
According to IMDB this WAS rated PG. I don't know what nonsense rating "U" is in Canada, but perhaps something got lost in translation. Definitely intended that parents of very young kids think twice about it since it has some creepy factor and serious themes.
"I know there's people who take this movie really seriously, and they're gonna hate me." *Raises hand.*
There is a theory that E.T.'s species are force-sensitive. E.T.'s species are actually in the Star Wars universe. They appear very briefly in the Senate Chamber in Episode I. In the movie we can see that E.T. can levitate objects, heal using touch and influence other people's actions through some type of mind control. Similar to the abilities of a Jedi. E.T. also 'recognised' somebody dressed up as Yoda when the kids were out on Halloween.
The Senate Chamber in Episode I
Scientist taking pictures wasn’t getting blurry photographs as he was using 105 mm macro lens. Just so you know. Not every long lens is a zoomer or telephoto lens. You can also take a long lens and put extension tubes which will turn it into a macro lens to which also has a decent length.
Are you guys just dead inside? I mean, when it came out, we watched in awe and wonder. We fell in love with E.T. and with Drew Barrymore. The movie touched us deeply and we sobbed. It changed us. And today, the nostalgia is through the roof. Gosh…so many superficial comments too.
Also… the “stomach thing” is his heart. Look closer! You can see his little heart. They are connected by their heart
Starman was one of my favorite “friendly alien” movies.
Oh he was friendly, alright
Robert Zemeckis who directed and helped write the screenplay for Back To The Future was a camera man on this film and it was his idea to make ET hide as a toy in a closet.
I watched E.T. often as a kid in the80's. We were surrounded by weird puppets in kids entertainment: muppets, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, etc. E.T. wasn't so jarring. Compared to much of the less well produced stuff like HR Pufnstuff, Bodger & Badger (lol), the E.T. effects actually looked convincing. Looking at the effects now, they haven't aged particularly well. For the time the animatronics were fairly advanced. He has an expressive face that is more than a rubber mask, along with little things like his throat expanding when he chugs the beer. It stands out when everything else was a puppet with a flapping mouth. I agree the visual and sound design could have been made more appealing. It would be interesting to learn why they landed on that as a final design.
I was just about to say something sililar. I never also considered ET Gross, I just thought it made him more alien as such.
My dream as a child was to have my own E.T. or Fraggle 😂
@@andieolson5693 bogglins!! Bogglins were great and affordable lol
Yep Gremlins too lol.
I agree, we were just used to puppetry/animatronics back then, which is why it didn't bother us as much/we were quicker to warm to ET after the initial reveal to Elliott. We also had Sesame Street, and other assorted shows like Captain Kangaroo and Shari and Lambchop.
In the book Elliot used M&M's to lure the alien into the house, but Mars refused to allow this. However, Recces, was coming out with a new candy that was vey much like M&M's but were filled with peanut butter instead of chocolate. They jumped at the chance for a bit of product placement, and as a result Recess Pieces exploded in popularity.
man, the kid actors in this movie were amazing
"Earth girls are easy" is another "positive" alien movie from the 80s
Peter Coyote’s character - the government scientist with the keys - is literally credited as “Keys”.
Such a great movie, and for a long time holder of the box office record.
My brother and I used to wake up super early on Christmas to watch this movie when we were kids. Our grandmother had a porcelain ET piggy bank that she used to dress up in Santa pajamas and put out with the Christmas tree, which is probably why we did it even though this movie takes place over Halloween. I haven't seen this movie in years, but it holds a special place in my heart.
E.T. is able to levitate things and recognized Yoda. So George Lucas decided to give his species a cameo in Star Wars Episode 1. A bunch of E.Ts is seen in a loge of the galactic senate. It's a blink and you'll miss it scene but still a nice nod.
ET is a Jedi
E.T. and Star Wars are absolutely the same universe. In response to the Star Wars references in this film, Lucas put a scene in the Star Wars prequel trilogy where in the galactic senate there is a pod of E.T.s. It's only up for a few seconds so you have to look carefully but they are undeniably there.
Wasn't Close Encounters of the Third Kind also a nice (i.e not evil) alien movie? Although I suppose that was technically in the late 70s as opposed to the early 80s. That's really the only other movie that immediately comes to mind.
"Heartlight" often called "Turn on your Heartlight" is a top 10 hit song written & sung by Neil Diamond 'just because he liked this movie'. A very talented singer songwriter w/a large catalog of great music that spent a decade on the top of the charts. Recommend investigating his work.
I can't understand why you were laughing the whole movie. In my opinion is a masterpiece.
Because even a masterpiece is still a 80s movie and shows it's age
I swear that annoyed me so much 😭
Yeah, I came close to stopping the video. 80's movies have so much more heart than todays movies.
@@5hanesBoard agreed ❤
They're critical little bitches. They enjoy the fruits of the past while laughing at the past itself. It's disprespectful. I could watch King Kong and still be appreciative of the choppy animatronics, etc. They are an ungrateful generation.
This is A MOVIE. Not A KID'S MOVIE. Eleven-year old me had to fight the tears that were coming full steam ahead in this one. Then I glanced at my parents and other adults in the theater and saw wet eyes and heard crying everywhere and just went with it. John Williams score is what sets me off now, I think. Watching you guys reacts and the musical cues start cranking up the tear ducts again! E.T. sticks with you. That's what "I'll be right here" means. Great reaction!
Them shitting on how et looks made the child in me sad lol, when I was a kid I thought he was adorable and still do
I found him creepy back when I was eight (when I first saw E.T.) but it was one of those You Can't Look But You Also Can't Look Away kind of things 😂
I love how they put the ET race in the galactic senate scene
I am glad you guys had fun with this one, it's one of my all time favorite movies. I was born in '86, but this movie, Ghostbusters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Predator, and Star Wars were pretty much always on the TV from the moment I learned to work a VCR. Creepy, grotesque, and even zany characters became somewhat endearing and intriguing to me. It truly was a different time, the TV was my babysitter some days.
I also had to dissect animals in school (an earthworm, a frog, and a fetal pig), and that was as recent as 2000. Dissection may still be going on in biology classroms today, but not until much later in education.
I don't know about many other friendly alien movies from the 80's but "Harry and the Hendersons" is a friendly Bigfoot movie that's worth checking out 😁
Nuhuh. Too sad. Veto!
I went to see this movie at a weekend sneak preview. I was in my 20's and the crowd I was in line with were almost entirely 13 years old or younger.. They were very loud and rowdy, and I was starting to reget my decision. We got into the theater and the kids were still very noisy, and the few parents weren't doing anything to quiet them. The theater darkened and the kids were still crazy loud. As soon as the film actually started the kids immediately quieted down and became the best audience I could have hoped to see this wonderful film with.
Sometime in the 90's or early 2000's there was a backlash on guns being in a kids movie, so they digitally changed the TV version of the movie to replace all of the guns the feds were holding with walkie-talkies. Also, you probably already know that the kid is Henry Thomas, who is the dad and uncle of the 2 Michael Flanagan "Haunting of" series.
Also, this movie single-handedly reduce the price of VHS tapes by about 70%. At the time, almost all tapes sold in the $80-$90 range. Spielberg insisted it be priced at $24.95 and so they sold zillions of them. Prices of everything else came down shortly after.
Fun fact: the lad that played Eliot went on to act as an adult, working often with Mike Flanagan. He played Jack Torrance in Doctor Sleep.
A really cool SF (1986) was "flight of the navigator". As I kid, I absolutely loved it - And the music, As an adult... Yep still love it! I suspect both of you would enjoy it, if you haven't already seen it.
The ET species appears in the Senate Chamber in the prequel trilogy. Just a couple of seconds, but it's clearly them.
I love that the dog's name is "E. Buzz". E. Buzz Miller was a really creepy Dan Aykroyd character from Saturday Night Live in the '70s. He was basically a porn movie producer in maybe one or two interview sketches. The name for the dog suggests that someone in the family was kind of socially aware (maybe the departed dad) or maybe that the kids were staying up late to watch Saturday Night Live without the parents knowing.
@@Purple_Buffalo ohhhhh, you're right!
@@Purple_Buffalo Homage to the imaginary rabbit in Jimmy Stewart’s classic “Harvey”? Or is it just a name that sounds funny for the times?!
Drew Barrymore has to be one of the most adorable kids in movies, ever.
Reese's pieces was actually a new and unknown candy at the time. Hershey worked out a deal with Speilberg for product placement and it took off.
They wanted to use M&Ms but Mars said no. One of the dumbest marketing decisions in history.
They wanted to use M&Ms but Mars said no. Hershey made a very smart deal indeed.
I think they originally wanted to do M&Ms, but Mars Inc marketing didn't want the tie-in, I guess they thought the connection was negative because the movie was too scary for kids, and Reese's Pieces was a last minute substitute.
Makes sense, because I actually thought it was weird that Reese’s was actually in a movie from 82