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As a child, I missed out on it. I was born two months before
E.T. was released into theaters, so seeing it on the
big screen was a luxury I never had. And growing up in a small
town, I never had access to the theatrical re-release of it
a few years later. But by then, I had already seen it on video
and fallen in love with every aspect of it. I wanted to be
Elliot, I wanted to have an alien for a best friend, I wanted
to take that magical bike ride in the sky. I grew up watching
the movie over and over, wearing out tape after tape, and
my love of the film exceeded my childhood: The E.T.video
I currently own was bought just three short years ago, junior
year in high school. And guess what? It’s starting to wear.
With this 20th anniversary re-release of E.T., Spielberg
is not only allowing people like me to wallow in shameless
nostalgia, but he’s also initiating a whole new generation
of children into the world this movie creates. Someone involved
in the film’s making once said that E.T.feels timeless
because it was never set in any specific year, and because
the special effects are only secondhand to the emotional drama
played out. Yes, it’s 20 years old, but that doesn’t diminish
its amazing sense of immediacy, the way that it can make you
feel like it was made with you in mind.
Now, much has been said of the changes made by Spielberg
for this re-release. Far from simply tweaking the film for
improved looks, he’s added a couple scenes and altered dialogue,
and it seems that he’s used alternate takes during the second
scene, in which the boys sit around the table playing Dungeons
& Dragons. The scenes that have been added were best left
out—they have no narrative purpose, and they seem strangely
disjointed from the tone of the rest of the film. One of these
has E.T. playing in a bathtub, and while it’s bound to get
a few laughs, it finally results in siphoning E.T. of the
dignity that makes up so much of his character, in effect
turning him into a cartoon. Another added scene involves Michael
(McNaughton) and Gertie (Barrymore) trick-or-treating
in the middle of a strangely apocalyptic Halloween riot until
their mother (Stone), frantically searching for them,
finds them and takes them home. It’s possible that the purpose
of this scene is to illustrate the shameful nature of man
in contrast with the peaceful character of higher intelligence,
but it comes off as a pitiful attempt at staged chaos. It
also makes Gertie look like an idiot when she lets slip about
Elliot’s (Thomas) trip to the forest and grins stupidly
(and yes, adorably) at her mother.
But probably the two most important changes here are also
the two most talked-about: the digital remastering of E.T.,
and the replacement of the federal agents’ guns with walkie-talkies.
Both are no good. By making E.T.’s face more expressive, they’ve
succeeded in making him more cartoonish. His eyes widen, he
hops when he runs instead of the rapid glide that has made
that first scene so indelible. His smile isn’t even the same;
it’s more of a grimace now. Yes, the overall effect is that
E.T. looks a little bit more real; but it detracts from the
character. The simplicity of E.T.’s appearance and movement
in the original made it all the more amazing that he came
across as more than just a puppet. Spielberg didn’t film him
as a special effect, but as a character, and so he became
a character. But by sprucing him up, by making him a more
technically advanced puppet, they’ve made E.T. seem at times
more digital than organic.
And the walkie-talkies… Spielberg says that he always considered
it silly that he had the agents chasing the kids with guns.
And maybe it is silly, but the truth is, those guns make that
scene. When Elliot sees the guns, he understands the need
for drastic measures, and so commences that final flying bike
ride, a scene that demonstrates everything good about movies
and the spells they cast. Without the guns, the motivation
for that captivating moment disappears. It, too, becomes just
a special effect.
But it’s still E.T. It’s a movie that I love absolutely,
and experiencing it on the big screen makes trivial any problems
brought on by the changes. This is still the defining movie
of so many people’s youth. This is a film that puts childhood
and magic in the same category, that allows kids the distinction
of being the center of the universe. It looks at a world that
says to grow up, and it says “Wait.” And that’s what makes
E.T. the classic that it is today. It insists that
no matter what is in front of you, there’s always the possibility,
the probability, of something more.
— Cole Sowell
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