In the early 80s, there was a child who saw the answer to the question “do aliens really exist?” with his eyes as a bloody creature. His name was Elliot.
Elliot was a lonely boy. His parents were divorced. Although he lived with his siblings and mother, he was introverted, emotional, and perhaps even dreamy. On the other hand, since he was still a small child, he was ostracized by his brother and friends, and he could not find a place for himself among the adults.
But the sense of loneliness that this brought about was about to deteriorate.
Why is E.T So Good?
A glitch as curious extraterrestrials visit our planet causes one of them to stay here. While these creatures, who come from millions of light years away, hurriedly return to their homes, their friends who remain on Earth have to take care of themselves. As an unusual circumstance, the secret units of the government seize the case and send their teams to investigate the area. The mysterious creature, who sees the solution in escaping into the depths of the forest, will lay the foundation of his friendship with Elliot in this way.
When you look at it, both sides are all alone.
While one is a stranger to a place he has never known, millions of light years away from his home, the other is a stranger to the place where he lives in the house he trusts but does not believe in him, the emptiness left by the lack of a father figure and so on. As a result, Elliot and his mysterious friend are all solitary beings with a common sadness.
The 1982 film E.T., by master director Steven Spielberg, brought a new perspective to the world of science fiction. It allows us to see the bond between an alien and an earthly child with a different eye than the way we are used to. E.T. is both science fiction, adventure and mystery, but most of all romance. Unlike clichéd science fiction movies, Elliot does not attempt to kill E.T., nor does E.T. attempt to eat Elliot.
The best message to take at this point is that being a child is unlike anything else in this life.
The story of the film is to hide from government agents after these events and to send E.T. home as soon as possible. When you look at the script, you can easily realize that it is not my master. It has even become boring from time to time, but the most basic discipline that makes E.T an E.T is that it takes people who have grown up and become big men to their childhood in a period of about 2 hours.
Henry Thomas Performance and the Character of Elliott
In fact, this is a technique that Spielberg usually uses. You see that the film is as if it was taken from the eyes of a child. Scenes directed at adults are quite few. Children make up a large part of the film. That led to the emergence of people who called Spielberg “making children’s movies,” which in my opinion is absolutely wrong. Because each of these allows us to enter that enormous world with ease.
Although the E.T film is a production bearing the traces of Spielberg, the performance of Elliot, Henry Thomas, in the lead role of the film, is too good to be ignored. It is said that Spielberg had a hard time in casting. Later, his close friend recommends Henry Thomas to him, but Spielberg does something he hasn’t done before. Instead of asking Henry Thomas to animate a scene or read a line from the script, he talks about a scene. In this scene, it is said that E.T. will be taken by state agents, and Elliot will oppose these agents at all costs.
Henry Thomas will improvise this scene.
As a matter of fact, Spielberg, who faced a great performance in this random attempt, takes our little friend to the cast without thinking.
People in E.T.
The cinema sector in the 80s certainly did not have the opportunities it has today. Now, thanks to visual effects, almost everything can be projected on screens. However, it can be said that it was quite difficult to do such work in those years.
Yes. I’m talking about E.T. More precisely, from his puppet.
It’s hard to say if this is a puppet, though.
The team in this photo you see is the people who gave life to E.T. throughout the film, dear friends. This team, consisting of 3 people in total, includes two dwarf players Tamara de Treaux and Pat Bilon, and Matthew DeMeritt, a 12-year-old born without legs.
After the E.T puppet was made, Spielberg, who especially cared about E.T.’s hands, is told that he focused on this work with a different team. In order not to see the people who will enter it, the seams are kept quite hidden, the camera angles during the film also proceed in this direction and finally the realistic appearance we see in the film (according to the period) is provided. In addition, while the scenes in which E.T. is drunk are shot in the film, Matthew DeMeritt is included in E.T.
E.T. in the Star Wars Movie
Undoubtedly, when you are a world-famous director and almost all of the works you do are works that leave a mark on the world, I think it would not be a wrong determination to say that they will be shaped accordingly around you.
Because the master director George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, whom we know from the famous Star Wars films, are among the rare directors who transfer their friendship to the big screen.
In the Halloween scene of the movie E.T., there is a scene where someone dressed in a Yoda costume is set. In this scene, E.T. will have likened Yoda to his own race when he starts running after him, “Home, home, home.” Because, as I said at the beginning of the article, E.T.’s main goal is to return home as soon as possible. For this reason, seeing a familiar face in this land, where he is completely unfamiliar compared to where he comes from, gives him hope for a moment. This scene, which was quite sweet and made the audience smile, made George Lucas laugh as well. which also shows that he has not forgotten this joke in his 1999 film Star Wars The Phantom Menace. During the Queen’s speech in the Senate, we can see E.T. in the lower left corner.
More precisely, the E.T.s…
Domestic E.T. Movie Badi
Yeşilçam also benefits from this success achieved by E.T. worldwide. I know it sounds a little strange, but there really is a Turkish version of E.T.
His name is Badi!
The film Badi, directed by Zafer Par and produced by Şerif Gören, is basically exactly the same as E.T.
Of course, costume designs, acting, scenes, etc. cannot be compared to the original E.T film, but first of all, we are talking about the 80s. While the film E.T took its place in cinemas in 1982, our Badi met with cinema lovers just 1 year later, in 1983.
And E.T.’s estimated budget is $10 million. This budget is a huge figure even now for an ordinary Turkish film. On the other hand, while there were films of master names such as Cüneyt Arkın, Kemal Sunal, Şener Şen and the like in those years, it is really a great courage to attempt such a work called Badi. After all, there is a mob that criticizes even the original E.T film as a children’s film, mocks and makes fun of its visual designs. What they say to our Badi, now you think about the rest.
Speilberg;s Communication with the Team
If you’ve seen the documentary Spielberg or read a few articles about it, you’ve probably noticed his attitude towards children. In all the films he shoots, he pays special attention to child actors.
According to memories of E.T.’s shooting, Spielberg shot the film’s Halloween scene all day long while in an old woman’s costume. The goal is to build a bond with the team and, of course, to ensure that the children capture that atmosphere.
Melissa Mathison, who later wrote the screenplay of the film, almost never interfered with the story, which made it the best director and screenwriter collaboration in the history of cinema. Because most scripts written under normal conditions are revised many times and reach their final form with the interventions made by the director. However, after reading the first draft of this script, Spielberg admitted that it was the best script he had read in his life and that the first draft was adhered to without any changes, and let’s end our article by briefly talking about the huge wound that the E.T film opened to the game industry.
The Game That Crashed the Gaming Industry E.T
Ranked 25th in the 100 best American films of all time produced by the American Film Institute, selected among the culturally, historically and aesthetically important films in 1994 and preserved in the United States National Film Archive, E.T. unfortunately has a very embarrassing structure in the game industry.
Atari, one of the most well-known companies in the game industry, buys all the gaming rights of E.T. However, there is a point where the company in question is mistaken, and that is that it will be sold in any case thanks to the name of the game. The film is very popular, and the game is thought to be equally popular. For this reason, he is entrusted to Howard Scott Warshaw to raise him until Christmas. But Howard is only 5 weeks away from finishing this game.
Developed with a thousand difficulties and pressures, the game is finally released. In total, 5 million cartridges are produced, advertisements are made, because it is thought that everyone will play this game. The game is an adaptation of a film that grossed nearly $800 million. How can it be a bad game?
But of the 5 million cartridges produced, only 1.5 million are sold, and most of those sold are returned. There is a great deal of disappointment.
The game is buried in an empty field by Atari as it encounters an unexpected reaction and returns are also in question. This incident is seen as one of the main causes of the 1983 gaming crisis, while Atari denies the burial. But years later, all the truth is revealed by a journalist and the burial is found.
As much as E.T is one of the unforgettable names of the cinema world, it is a black mark in the game world because of this incident.
Finale
In short, E.T., in which Spielberg made a breakthrough in the world of science fiction by reflecting the child in him to the cinema, is undoubtedly a production that makes us smile even years later. There are no more films that can touch people like this, or who knows, maybe we have grown up a little too much, let’s finish our article here.
You can also watch this article as a video right below.
Take care of yourself, stay healthy.
References;
filmloverss.com/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial-hakkinda-mutlaka-bilinmesi-gereken-15-detay/
tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badi_(film)
tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T.
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