E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at 40 – Spielberg’s most exhilarating film

Hollywood once saw aliens as hostile critters intent on planetary carnage – Steven Spielberg's 1982 smash changed everything.

Ben McCann, University of Adelaide

Aided by John Williams’s Oscar-winning score and Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore’s touching performances, E.T. feels both of its time and for all time. As Spielberg once said:

I think that E.T. is for the people we are, the people we have been and the people we want to be again.

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