I have chosen to write this paper on one of the most influential movies of all times. This film was originally characterized as a children's film, and surprised everyone, including the writers and directors, by appealing not only to children but to people in every generation from every country around the world. Of course I am talking about the world-renowned E.T. E.T. has stood the test of time and has gone one step further. It makes us believe that if a child and an extra-terrestrial can bridge the gap between them and forge a friendship that deep, a love that pure, that anything is possible.
Steven Spielberg had dreamed of making this movie his entire life. To him, it was to be symbolic of his life as a child and how he, as a young boy, dealt with the uncertainties of his parents getting a divorce. It was originally titled "A Boys life". "I always wanted to tell the story of a child's reaction to his parents splitting up when he's still only about 10 years old," noted Spielberg, "and how it impacts the rest of his life. Perhaps E.T. was a subconscious fantasy of mine since childhood, to make myself feel less lonely in my life. It was a childhood dream of a special friend who rescues a boy from the sadness of divorce" (Spielberg and Mathison, pg14). When I read this, it totally changed the movie for me. I could see it from his angle and how it could have happened that way. It does not diminish the idea of E.T. in any way, just gives us another take on it. I have decided that there is no one scene that can describe this movie to the extent that I wish to, so I am going to use many scenes from the movie to interpret the different categories needed to understand this all aspects of this movie.
Photography.
I think that the biggest photographical genius of this movie was that it was shot, for the most part, in continuity. The beginning was shot in the first few days of filming the movie and the ending was shot in the last days of filming.
