Warning: Spoilers (this movie is 34-years-old, just FYI).
I recently re-watched one of Steven Spielberg’s classic films, "E.T.: Extra-Terrestrial" and it brought back swells of nostalgia and feelings that I first experienced watching it as a young boy in 1999. Important to note, as a child I was absolutely terrified of this movie. I’m not sure how much of that could be attributed to the content of the film itself, and how much to my older cousin jumping up behind me at every loud part, but I digress. Looking at this film now, 17 years after the first time I watched it and 34 years since it was released, I am still confused as to how this classified as, and was made to be, a children’s movie.
First and foremost, I want to emphasize that I’m comparing this film to more contemporary “children’s movies” such as the works of Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar. Cinematically, this film was visually stunning and musically iconic. Not to say that "Finding Nemo" or "Frozen" are not, but instead that the style of these components is so much more “adult” in "E.T." We have this intricate orchestra and score, conducted by the legendary John Williams, which went on to win an Oscar at the 55th Academy Awards. This was in addition to eight other Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Picture; a fraction of all films can boast these accomplishments, but an even slimmer percentage are classified as children’s movies.
Moving on to the themes of this movie, there are some notably “adult” moments that, as a young child, I did not understand. When I watch it now, I wonder if this was the case among most '90s babies watching it as children or if I was just that dense of a child. The concept that E.T. and Elliot were psycho-physically linked was on some level understood, but on a deeper level I really didn’t get it. When E.T. is downstairs draining the fridge of beer, Elliot becomes drunk while sitting in class; slouching over in his chair, making silly faces at his classmates. But as a child, I never connected the beer to Elliot’s behavior. At other points in the film, characters exchange some…adult language, including when Elliot calls his older brother “penis breath.” I understand MPAA rating guidelines have changed since the early '80s, but having a 10-year-old saying the word “penis” in a movie is still somewhat out-of-the-ordinary.
Perhaps the most jarring moment that comes in conflict with “children movie” expectations is when E.T. dies. I mean…Spielberg holds nothing back here; we see E.T. and Elliot on side-by-side hospital beds, with doctors rushing around shouting orders. And then, with suspense sufficiently built, E.T.’s heartbeat monitor goes flat. He comes back to life minutes later, but to have the focus of a children’s movie die seems to me a fine line to walk. But at the same time, maybe this is what makes "E.T." such an iconic film. It introduces adult themes to children in such a way that I think children grow and mature mentally as a result. I still think some scenes (looking at you, cornfield flashlight scene) are too scary for a five-year-old to be watching at night with his teenage cousin, but it’s too late for that now.
