23/06/2022
ET at 40: Why the Spielberg classic feels so unusual today
The 1982 film about a boy and his alien friend has been a huge influence on modern, youth-oriented blockbusters – yet it has an everyday humanity they often lack, writes Caspar Salmon.
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Much of Steven Spielberg's filmography is associated with youth. Early on in his career, his own youth was a talking point: his debut feature film Duel (1971), originally shown on US TV when he was just 24, saw him hailed as a new wunderkind. Since then, much of his work has been aimed at youth culture, from the Boys' Own adventure heroics of the Indiana Jones franchise to Hook (1991), his revisionist take on Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. The adventure-land screams of the Jurassic Park films also belong in this vein of work in his cinema – as do later works like The BFG (2016) and Tintin (2011). Even Empire of the Sun (1987), a more plainly dramatic film, views the horrors of World War Two through the eyes of a child. But before all these came ET the Extra-Terrestrial, which was released in US cinemas 40 years ago this week. It was his first film to examine childhood directly, and its influence is still felt today in a film culture that tilts evermore towards youth in its focus.
