US (1982): Family/Sci-Fi/Adventure/Fantasy
Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit about a stranded alien and his loving relationship with a fatherless boy (Henry Thomas) struck a chord with audiences everywhere, and it furthered Spielberg's reputation as a director of equally strong commercial sensibilities and classical leanings. Thomas gives a strong, emotional performance as E.T.'s young friend, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore make a solid impression as his siblings, and Dee Wallace is lively as the kids' mother. The special effects almost look a bit quaint now with all the computer advancements that have occurred since, but they also have more heart behind them than a lot of what we see today. (Tom Keogh, Amazon.com)
This film ranked #25 on the AFI list of "100 Years... 100 Movies", between Raging Bull (1980) and Dr. Strangelove... (1964). It's interesting to note that due to its language and mild thematic elements (especially how adults were portrayed in the film), some European countries rated the original release of E.T. for those over the 11-14 year-old age group; when the film was re-released in 2002, most of those ratings were reduced to "over-7." I guess our kids are growing up a lot faster... (GM)
9 nominations, 4 Awards
· Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1982: John Williams
· Sound 1982: Robert Knudson, Robert J. Glass, Don Digirolamo, Gene S. Cantamessa
· Sound Effects Editing 1982: Charles L. Campbell, Ben Burtt
· Special Visual Effects 1982: Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Muren, Kenneth F. Smith
· Best Picture 1982: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy - Producers (Universal)
· Directing 1982: Steven Spielberg
· Writing (Best Screenplay written directly for the screen) 1982: Melissa Mathison
· Cinematography 1982: Allen Daviau
· Film Editing 1982: Carol Littleton
