E.T, Elliot and America.

There are numerous famous and emblematic films from the 80’s which convey various societal themes through their narratives. If you were to name a top five from the decade I think you might struggle to leave out E.T The Extra Terrestrial, not only for its classic Spielbergian tropes, but for its rich and heart-warming story.

In an interview captured by the American Film Institute, Spielberg himself says that Elliot is a ‘disenfranchised, lonely boy’ and that the film is ‘really a story about my mum and dad when they got divorced, and how I felt as a kid.’ Amid the likes of Terminator, The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and Aliens - which all present far more dramatic, edgy and fantastical themes - E.T relies on this simplistic narrative and its place in 80’s American society to make it the landmark film it has become.

Elliot is situated in an average family with his siblings and single mother and is somewhat drifting, ‘disenfranchised’ as Spielberg puts it. Outside the Yuppies and Reagan’s wealth creation, middle America was somewhat less opulent than the shallow façade of fashion and consumerism suggested. No wonder the pre-credit sequence of La Law requires the secretary's depressing rebuttal of Arnie Becker’s idealistic life of materialism; American’s in the majority did not have such a lifestyle and E.T brilliantly evokes reality in the face of this Yuppie utopia.

E.T tackles notions of middle and lower-middle class America via sub-urban realism, rather than the opulence of the city. ‘Mr. Spielberg and Miss Mathison have taken the tale of Dorothy and her frantic search for the unreliable Wizard of Oz and turned it around,’ writes Canby in 1982, ‘to tell it from the point of view of the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodman. Dorothy has become E.T., Kansas is outer space, and Oz is a modern, middle-class real-estate development in California.’ This assertion also evokes the idea of confusion surrounding Americans and their place in society post-modernity. In a country that now exists as a fully modernised entity that is not necessarily inclusive of everyone.

Finally, via Elliot's mother and non-existent father I think E.T somewhat charts the coming of age of the young adults that populated the 60’s and struggled through Carter’s 70’s. Canby again says that E.T presents ‘a world where adults have grown up and away from innocence.’ Although the 80’s - and the sentiment of Reagan in particular - repaired the American optimism that Carter tried his best to degrade, it is clear that the ‘Good Morning America’ commercial was idealistic and not realistic. E.T goes a long way to successfully representing just that.

‘I always thought E.T was a movie about a double rescue. E.T saves Elliot, Elliot saves E.T.’ Spielberg

Spielberg interview: Spielberg on E.T

Vincent Canby, NYT, 1982: E.T Fantasy from Spielberg