Sightlines · reception
How E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was received
1982 · Steven Spielberg · E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial on Sightlines
The arc
No reappraisal needed — it was a phenomenon on arrival in 1982, dethroning Star Wars as the highest-grossing film ever and holding the crown until Jurassic Park. If anything the arc runs the other way: dismissed by some as peak Spielberg schmaltz during the ironic decades, it's since been re-embraced as sincerity done right.
What’s debated
The forever fight is the 2002 20th-anniversary edition, where federal agents' guns were digitally swapped for walkie-talkies — a change fans hated so much that Spielberg publicly recanted and vowed never to retouch his films again.
Its footprint
"E.T. phone home" is one of the most quoted lines in movie history, Reese's Pieces became the textbook product-placement case study, and the silhouette of the bike crossing the moon literally became the Amblin Entertainment logo — Spielberg's own signature, stamped on decades of movies.
Where it stands
Firmly in the 'you must have seen this' childhood canon — the consensus Spielberg heart-movie that cinephiles rediscover as adults and admit hits even harder from the parents' side of the story.
Did you know? Richard Attenborough, whose Gandhi beat E.T. for the 1983 Best Picture Oscar, said he was certain E.T. not only would win but should have — calling the film that lost to him 'inventive, powerful, wonderful.'
Named by the director
- François Truffaut — Spielberg has often said Truffaut, while acting in Close Encounters, urged him to make a movie about kids — encouragement he credits in the genesis of E.T.