E. T. phone home

Tonight's movie, E. T., was originally going to be outside--sort of a Halloween treat--but it was too cold and rainy. So, we gathered in the "living room" of The Estates (aka The Forum) with popcorn. I was apparently the only person in the world who'd never seen it when it came out 43 years ago, because only two of us showed up! I won't go through it since you've all seen it, but as I was watching it, I wondered what the writer's real motive was. I rarely watch or read science fiction--I tend to live in reality. Immediately I noticed the family divorce was essential to the story. Even before the fantastical extraterrestrial part starts the atmosphere of the film is eerie and morose. As the little boy Elliott (played by Michael Taylor) develops a relationship he was going to lose I kept wondering if this story was about him and his "lost" father. There's a very moving scene where he and his brother reminisce about playing ball with their dad, but knowing he isn't coming back. When I returned to my apartment, I looked it up and sure enough it was inspired in part by Steven Spielberg's parents' divorce. He wasn't the writer but was working on something and turned his ideas and emotions over to the writer, Melissa Mathison. She developed it into a wonderful science fiction tale. Much later Spielberg did a movie about his parents called the Fabelmans (2022).