- [Male] "Sneak Previews" number 432,
recorded June 3rd, 1982.
(upbeat music)
- [Gene Siskel] Our next film is one of the year's
most eagerly awaited pictures.
It's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial",
and good news, this one is worth the wait.
If you love the ending
of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind,"
with that touching scene of Richard Dreyfuss
and the friendly but sort of wistful outer space creature,
then you should enjoy "E.T",
which expands the essence of that wonderful scene
into the full story now of a little boy
in a suburban town
who befriends an ugly little outer space creature,
who was left behind when his spaceship took off.
The little boy first spots the creature
in the tool shed in his backyard.
But when he tells his mother and brother and sister
and their friends about what he's seen,
they don't believe him.
One tip, if you look very carefully
at the end of this scene,
you'll just be able to make out a couple of long fingers,
belonging to the creature.
- [Boy] All right, where's the pizza?
- [Elliott] Mom, mom, there's something out there!
- Guys... - It's in the tool shed!
- Calm down, calm down. - He threw a ball at me!
- Who did? - A ball?
Quiet!
(whispering) Nobody go out there.
(laughing)
- [Mom] Stop now, you guys stay right here!
- [Boy] You stay here, mom. We'll check it out.
- [Mom] And put those knives back!
(laughing)
- [Mom] Okay, Elliot.
I'll get the flashlight.
- [Boy] Hold it, what a minute.
- [Boy] Come on!
- Ooh, creeps.
Creepy.
- [Mom] What exactly did you see? - It's dark out here.
- (hums "The Twilight Zone" theme)
(laughing)
(dog barking)
- [Boy] It's scary.
(fake zapping noise)
- [Mom] There's nothing in here.
- [Noy] The gate's open.
What are these?
(dog barking)
- Coyotes come back again, mom?
- [Mom] Okay, party's over. Everybody back inside.
Tyler, give me that knife.
- Oh, great.
Nice one, Elliot.
- It was an accident.
- A pizza.
- An "accident".
You said you guys could order a pizza, huh?
- Him. - I-I, but...
- In the house.
- You geeky man.
- But, mom! He was real, I swear!
- You douche bag--
- Don't "douche bag"-talk in my house...
- [Gene Siskel] Well, that's the only scene with the creature
that we could get from the film's distributor.
I really don't like how they play hide and seek with these
special effects and creatures.
But pictures of this creature have been published in both
"Time" and "Newsweek" magazines.
And here is the "Newsweek" photo.
The film's director, Steven Spielberg
has said that he made the eyes of this creature
as sort of a cross between Carl Sandburg
and Ernest Hemingway. I hope he didn't pick one eye of each,
but back to the movie.
Once the little boy hides the creature in his bedroom and
shares his secret with his brother and sister
in a wonderful scene,
the word begins to leak out that the kids
may have the creature,
which was spotted at the very beginning of the film
by some local townspeople.
So now the government begins spying on the kid's house.
While the kids themselves are more concerned about the
health of the little space creature,
that very much wants to go home.
[cinematic music]
- [Michael] You know, Elliott,
he doesn't look too good anymore.
- [Elliott] Don't say that! We're fine.
- [Michael] What's all this "we" stuff?
You say "we" all the time now.
Really Elliott, I think he might be getting kinda sick.
- [Elliott] Look, he's fine Michael!
- [Michael] Okay, okay!
- [Gene Siskel] Good kids, bad government.
In a word, "E.T." is charming,
certain to delight young people.
I think the secret of this film's success is that
it supplies a quality that has been missing
from most American movies of late:
the emotion of love.
A little boy's love for a creature is certainly
not an original idea.
It's not that much different from a boy and his dog,
a long time movie staple.
But this movie revives that idea,
which has been trashed or ignored by
most recent American movies.
And so as we cheer "E.T." and get caught up in this
wondrous relationship between the boy and the creature,
what we're really cheering for is a return of love
to the movies.
- [Ebert] Aww.
- Yeah, I believe that.
- (chuckles)
- "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" is very sweet
and a timeless movie.
- [Roger Ebert] This is the kind of movie that makes
movie critics talk the way you were just talking.
I talk the same way.
It makes your heart beat a little faster.
It brings a tear to your eye.
When I saw this movie,
I felt the way that I'm sure people felt when they saw
"Wizard of Oz" for the first time.
I felt as if I had been introduced to a magical movie,
a movie that's going to last for years and years and years,
and be treasured by one generation after the next,
it's a great film.
- [Gene] Well, I, I just was in tranced by it.
I'm also sitting there as a critic and thinking,
"isn't it amazing that such a simple idea can work so well."
And that's where I did my little analysis with
what made this simple. I mean, you have to admit
this is not a complicated story.
- [Ebert] Not exactly.
- You have the bad government agents,
and I thought sort of ham-handedly...
- [Ebert] Yeah, yeah.
- They shoot them with, you know, how they have keys
on their belt and all this stuff.
And even that scene there,
it's not a very complicated thing, but boy,
the power of that emotion carries the whole movie.
- [Ebert] And I'll tell you,
one of the reasons this movie works is
because of special effects.
Now you accuse me of being intimidated by special effects,
which I think is totally unfair because in this film,
what you have is a relationship between a person and
special effects, it's magical.
And you know, in the last three or four years,
one thing that's been missing in movies is
love relationships.
And here we have this creature that comes right out of
a special effects workshop. It's human in a sense,
it's certainly sentient. We like it.
We love it. The kid likes it.
There's a relationship. It's very moving.
- [Siskel] The relationship...
- [Ebert] So if I'm intimidated by these special effects,
I plead guilty.
- [Siskel] No, no. You were entranced with
as the same thing I am,
which is love and these special effects,
so what? It's love there.
- [Ebert] Okay, I'll say it. You're right. It's love.
Finally two big 'yes' votes for
"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial",
Steven Spielberg's enchanting fantasy about a friendship
between a little boy and a creature from outer space.
This is one of the best films of recent years,
a wonderful entertainment for all ages.
We recommend it with a lot of enthusiasm.
(jaunty music)
- Funding for "Sneak Previews" was provided by this station
and by other public television stations.