Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 14 | E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

At one time the record-holder as most popular movie ever made, can Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial still win over a modern 11-year-old kid watching it for the first time today? That’s the big question we address in the latest episode of the Film at 11 podcast.

This week’s movie choice comes by viewer request, and quite frankly, I was pretty ambivalent about it. I’ve had mixed-to-negative feelings about E.T. since the last time I watched it some twenty or more years ago. If anything, I’ve softened up a bit since then and found the movie more enjoyable on this rewatch. My son Joseph, on the other hand, is a tough critic and wasn’t won over by it. He had some sound reasoning and we had a very insightful conversation about it afterward. I’m proud of this boy!

In this viewing, it struck me that E.T. is actually a surprisingly timely movie right now. It’s inherently the story of a (literally) illegal alien who’s hunted down, captured, and tortured by a heartless American institutional government that has no concern for why he’s here or what’s best for him. However, I decided not to drag the podcast episode off on a political tangent that would go above the head of an 11-year-old, so we didn’t broach that aspect in the discussion. Just know that it was on my mind anyway.

E.T. (1982) - Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, & Robert MacNaughton
Title:E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Year of Release: 1982
Directors: Steven Spielberg
Watched On: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Also Available On: Blu-ray
Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Part of me feels that E.T. is still best watched on VHS. Even though I saw the movie in the theater in 1982, I was too young at that time to remember much about the experience. I’ve long thought of it as being a very soft, dim, and grainy-looking movie, but much of that idea probably came from later viewings on videocassette.

The film took a surprisingly long time to come to high-definition media. Universal released it on Blu-ray in 2012 for the 30th anniversary, then on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2017 for the 35th. The copy I picked up appears to be a 2022 reissue with just about the worst available cover art. (In good news, the disc played all the way through for me without freezing or glitching, which is more than I can say for Jurassic Park.) The 4K edition also comes with a regular Blu-ray that I assume was remastered, given that it includes DTS:X audio, which the first Blu-ray did not. Both discs include only the 1982 theatrical cut of the film, not the notorious digitally-censored DVD version that replaced guns with walkie-talkies. Steven Spielberg has stated that he regretted approving that version and has since disowned it.

The 4K transfer looks a lot better than I expected. At least, the 1.85:1 image is a lot sharper, more vivid, and less heavily grainy than I expected. How much of that is actually faithful to the original 1982 photography and how much is after-the-fact digital manipulation, I can’t say with certainty. These days, with the tools available to filmmakers who like to tinker with and adjust their old work, you never can tell.

Although Allen Daviau’s cinematography is still quite dark and shadowy, the HDR grade has rich contrast and striking highlights. It doesn’t feel overly dim, as frustratingly happens too often with HDR. The picture has strong colors and a light grain texture that looks natural enough, whether it really is or not. I suspect that the transfer probably had some processing to reduce or replace the original grain, but it doesn’t suffer the usual telltale signs of DNR. The picture is well-detailed and not smeary at all. Honestly, it looks pleasing enough in projection that I probably shouldn’t question it. Nevertheless, part of me still thinks that this disc looks a little too good for a movie from 1982.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Unquestionably revisionist is the new DTS:X soundtrack, upgraded from the original Dolby Stereo, which has also been provided in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Because I was watching with my son, I picked DTS:X and left it there, and have not had much opportunity to compare the two.

The immersive mix is fairly restrained and still feels largely front-focused. Discrete directional effects call attention to themselves every now and again, but not enough to be distracting. If anything, I think some opportunities were missed to do more with this. I also found the track to be disappointingly light on bass, either in the John Williams score or especially in certain sound effects such as the alien spaceship landing and taking-off.

Both the 4K and Blu-ray discs duplicate all the bonus features. These include a 40th anniversary retrospective featurette, a half-hour TCM festival Q&A with Steven Spielberg, an hour-long documentary comprised of behind-the-scenes footage from 1981, some deleted scenes, a bunch more featurettes that look to date back to DVD or older, a trailer, and a TV spot. What I don’t see anywhere in here (unless I’ve missed them) are the deleted scene with Harrison Ford as Elliott’s school principal nor the alternate ending with Elliott saying a prayer for E.T., which were both included on the 1996 Signature Collection Laserdisc release.

Related

Note: Screenshots on this page were taken from the Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.

12 thoughts on “Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 14 | E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)”

  1. I’ve never cared much for ET either, but like you I also haven’t seen it in a really long time. Should probably give it another chance one of these days, might hit different.

    Speaking of viewer requests, if possible I’d like to add Last Action Hero to the list! I watched it for the first time ever (I chose to see Jurassic Park that weekend in the summer of 1993), and thought it was super fun. Might be cool to do on your podcast since your sons are right around the same age as the kid in the movie.

    Like

    1. The thing about Last Action Hero is that I feel the kids would need the context of knowing who Arnold Schwarzenegger is and having seen some of his famous movies, most of which are rated R (at least the good ones).

      Like

      2. Only as an old dude with a funny accent who used to be famous once. Last Action Hero in particular plays off Schwarzenegger’s career and iconography. They lack most of that context.

        Like

      3. True. I saw Last Action Hero as a 9-year old without any Arnie knowledge, and loved it. It works as a basic funny action movie (and I wanted to be Austin O’Brien, a great audience surrogate) but indeed, once you get the meta jokes, the movie becomes twice as good.

        Like

      4. I agree with you when it comes to some of the jokes but I feel like the concept of a kid getting sucked into a big action movie is strong enough to make up for it.

        Plus, since you guys recently watched Jurassic Park you could explain to them how the movies went toe-to-toe for the summer blockbuster season and see which movie they prefer.

        If they hate it feel free to blame me and Julian.😂

        Like

  2. I’m surprised you didn’t get the silver 4K SteelBook with the iconic shot of Elliott on the bike with E.T. in the basket with the blanket covering him.

    It’s pretty sharp in a minimalistic way.

    Like

    1. You give me too much credit. I picked this up at Barnes & Noble the day before we recorded! If I hadn’t stumbled across it there, I would’ve chosen something else to watch.

      Like

  4. 2007? Spider-Man 3 or Transformers, just cause they were two of ‘07’s biggest. Neither one is that great but there is some entertainment value there. I like E.T. a good bit but I don’t revisit it that often. I think I last saw it with my daughter when she was about 12. I googled biggest flops of 2007 ( if you want to go against the grain) and Golden Compass was among them. I’ve never seen the whole thing myself but it looks kid friendly.

    Like

    1. If this were Thomas who chose 2007, he might be into Spider-Man (he’s already seen all the Transformers). I couldn’t get Joseph to sit though either one, though. And I’ve already seen Golden Compass myself and thought it sucked.

      I have some ideas but haven’t settled on a title yet.

      Like

Leave a reply to Josh Zyber Cancel reply