Sportskeeda
Steven Spielberg's filmography includes classics such as Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and Jaws, but his magnum opus is 1982's E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. It is time to look back at the director's crowning achievement.
Far Out Magazine
The story centers around a misunderstood young boy named Elliot who befriends a kind-hearted alien life-form from a distant planet who is left behind by his alien race and alone in San Fernando Valley.
TMZ
That all changes when the U.S. government becomes involved and hunts down the alien for further study.
IMDb
E.T. is eventually caught and experimented on, seemingly dying on the operating table.
American Cinematographers
The story is a heart-warming assessment of friends and understanding people even when they look différent.
American Cinematographers
It opened the doors to science-fiction and fantasy that encapsulated movie magic for generations to come, and in 1994, it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
American Cinematographers
Understanding that this simple synopsis measures up to be most of the film, it saddens audiences when seeing Elliot's alien friend leave for his home planet as he finally got to "phone home".
MUBI
It's so powerful when looking at these two characters as Elliot asks E.T. to stay and E.T. asks his human friend to come.
One thing that truly makes this film stand out among the crowd is the fact that the aliens in the film are friendly and they never once tried to take over the world or enslave all of humanity.
American Cinematographers
This is what also makes the character E.T. stand out to audiences.
American Cinematographers
He is a cute, lovable, innocent creature that is just as scared of humans as they are of him.
MUBI
Given the fact that the film was released in 1982 and CGI was in the infant stages of development, practical effects were mainstay in the film.
American Cinematographers
However, the film has a sense of timelessness to it as E.T. himself was basically a puppet created practically and is real in both the eyes of the audience and on set.
American Cinematographers
CGI is a great tool for filmmaking.
The film, nevertheless, remains a timeless classic that has broken ground in cinema and became yet another juggernaut in Steven Spielberg's filmography.