Word: elliott
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...theme-that adults, for all their wisdom and experience, fail to appreciate what is truly important character finds himself stranded on this planet, in suburban California, no less. Scientists-adults-have scared off the rest of his intergalactic expedition. After days of successfully avoiding these intellectual predators, E.T. discovers Elliott-probably about 10 years old-who takes him home and takes care...
...learns about Earth through a child's eyes, a perspective director Steven Spielberg emphasizes by filming parts of the movie at Elliot's height. The waddling little fellow lives among the stuffed animals, puppets and toys in Elliott's vast collection. He first learns to speak from Big Bird on Sesame Street. And his initial introduction to human society is Elliott's monologue about the artifacts on his desk. These are little men...This is Screedo, and Hammerhead, and Walrusman, and Snaggletooth...They can even have wars. (Holding up a ceramic peanut bank) This is a peanut...
...With Elliott and his little friend E.T., though, all was smooth sailing-a dream of a set for a dream movie. The mechanical creature performed beautifully as a machine and as an actor. And Spielberg found the children easy to work with, explaining the story in terms of fairy tales and board games. For the main roles he had interviewed more than 300 children. "Many of them were remarkable," he says, "but they weren't real. They thought before they felt. Then, just a few weeks before we were to start shooting, Henry Thomas walked in. He gave...
Spielberg predicts could some day be on a par with Jill Clayburgh, creates a surprisingly rounded character. She gives the movie audience an electrifying shiver the moment her character feels Carol Anne's spirit moving through her body. In E.T., Dee Wallace has some quietly affecting scenes as Elliott's mother, who cannot quite hide from her children the ache of loneliness at her husband's desertion. In Spielberg's previous features, only one actor (Melinda Dillon, in Close Encounters) was nominated for an Academy Award. That figure should change next year, and Spielberg should emerge...
...fact is that E.T. gazes benignly at his young friend Elliott with eyes constructed in Hollywood by a craftsman who makes glass eyes for the blind. Innocence was the quality that Spielberg had in mind, but it is hard to blame Little Sister Gertie when she takes her first look at E.T. and squawks in revulsion. "I wanted a creature that only a mother could love," says Spielberg. "I didn't want him to be sublime or beatific, or there would be no place to go in the relationship...