Today is the anniversary of “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial”, which premiered on this date way back in 1982. (Don’t believe it was that long ago? Check out the movie and watch a five year old Drew Barrymore!)
This film was on HBO in the last week or two and it terrified my six year old! As I recall back in the day, this movie scared a lot of little kids including one of my nephews. What’s funny is that Amelia is not scared by “The Spiderwick Chronicles”, “Monster House”, or that scary scene in “Water Horse”, and a few months ago she walked in on a clip from “The Exorcist” and said “bless you” when Linda Blair threw up on the priest.
As you can see, she’s generally pretty fearless about movies. I don’t know what it is about that creepy alien that bothers kids! Maybe he conceals himself too well among stuffed toys or maybe it’s because he’s always in shadow. It could be that really eerie voice of his. I was older when I saw “E.T.” (none of your business how old!) and had seen it right around the same time I saw “Poltergeist”, both in the theater, so comparatively it wasn’t scary at all!
It was a block buster hit. At the time, though, “E.T.” grossed so much money that people thought it would surpass “Star Wars”. Not so, but it did rank very high in all times movie sales, and it was the highest grossing movie of 1982. It may have to do with the popularity of aliens at the time; I remember a lot of books and conspiracy theory shows about aliens invasions in the early 80’s.
As long as we’re talking about movies in 1982, that was not a bad year for the few SciFi films released. We had “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, noted to be the best of the Trek movie by many. As a Trekker, I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never seen the whole of it in one sitting. It’s the only Trek flick I can say that about.
There was also “The Thing”, qualifying as SciFi, but really, it’s horror to me. A good one, in my opinion, and “Tron”, for early computer science smarties. My favorite of that year, and one of my all time favorites, is “Blade Runner”. The ultimate classic flick, starring Harrison Ford, fresh from the first two “Star Wars” films and a terrifying Rutger Hauer, breaking fingers with more gusto than Jack Bauer ever did.
On the horror side, not much else came out that year, except sequels for the serial flicks “Amityville Horror”, “Friday the 13th”, and “Halloween”. “Cat People” and “Creepshow’ are more lame entries for that year as well. The rest aren’t even worth cataloguing!
If you find yourself bored this evening or during this long, economically tight summer, get out there and rent or download “E.T.” for a good laugh and some good memories. (Old phones! Ancient toys! 1980s clothes on small children!) Or, rent any of the other great, old movies from a time when movies ran all summer long and people actually went to the theater. If you’re interested in more “E.T.” trivia, here’s a cool site with pop culture from the 1980s.
So share with us: where were you when you first saw “E.T.”? (And no, you don’t have to mention what year it was!)
Picture from freeclassicimages.com
