I know it’s a little odd to call one of the highest-grossing films of all time a Forgotten Film Gem, but I have to ask you when was the last time you actually sat down and watched E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial? For many of us, this film was a key part of our childhoods, along with Star Wars, Back to the Future, and dozens of Disney animated features. But somehow E.T. lost its magic over the years. The 2002 re-release failed to generate much interest from filmgoers, but it did raise some resentment when Steven Spielberg pulled a George Lucas trick and used CGI to add and remove a few minor details.
Speaking of Lucas, his original Star Wars trilogy also fell into relative obscurity for a few years in the late-1980s until a slew of novels came out and renewed interest in the classic story of Luke Skywalker. In 1997, Star Wars got a re-release that managed to gross more than $130 million, finally propelling it above E.T.’s total gross from 1982. It’s too bad that modern audiences haven’t been able to connect with E.T. the way they still do with Star Wars or even Indiana Jones. Of course, it didn’t help that E.T.’s re-release was so soon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, so I might be comparing apples to oranges with their 20th anniversaries.
I recently watched E.T. for the first time in my adult life, and I’d like to share my thoughts about it and hopefully home in on what it is about this movie that touched the world 30 years ago, but hasn’t managed to have a lasting effect. Continue reading
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