ET: American Resurrection

E.T.: American Resurrection

            E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is a touching story not only of friendship and cultural understanding, but also of socio/political importance.  Spielberg’s box office hit quite blatantly parallels biblical allegories, the main allegory suggesting that the alien ET as being depicted as Jesus Christ.  Although there are various homages to other classic films such as The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars as well as biblical references they all relate to 1980’s political culture with relations to Russia.

            Various biblical allusions are made throughout the movie, specifically through the character of ET, who shares the same ark as the religious figure Jesus Christ.  Critic Frank Tomasulo similarly illustrated and made the connection between the two.  I’ll draw on the similarities that are much more obvious. To start with both come to earth through either supernatural or extraterrestrial means.  One from an impregnated virgin and one from a space ship, I’ll let you decide which one is more probable.  As the ark continues, ET slowly builds followers, or disciples.  Jesus gained twelve disciples represented in the form of men, and ET who gained six followers (a multiple of twelve) who were represented by the six children within the film (the followers are represented as kids in the movie for socio-political reasons that I’ll talk about later on).  Similarly to Jesus, ET sacrificed himself for another and was rebirthed again to live with his family.  ET was also pictorally depicted to Jesus (as shown in image one) to share a similar popular depiction Christ.  As Spielberg uses religion to connect with his audience, he also uses some of his own films to resonate with the audience.

 

Image One (Spielberg)

            To effectively not pigeon-hole himself in to a single religious demographic, Steven Spielberg chose to ground his film by including other cinematic masterpieces to keep the attention of film lovers everywhere.  Spielberg includes various references of his own films to give the audience the ability to reminisce about past Spielberg films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws.  Personally, as soon as I saw ET’s space ship I immediately jumped to a Close Encounters reference to the alien’s space ship.  As I saw the ship a floodgate of memories jumped to mind.  Spielberg also subtly drops a Jaws reference as Elliot terrorizes his fish with a shark toy that was a reference to Spielberg’s 1975 classic.  While twenty-six years later at the end of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Spielberg has ET make an alien cameo as homage to his classic children’s movie.  Surprisingly, Spielberg also references a few other classic films such as The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars and Breathless.  

            Contrary to most box office directors, Spielberg not only paid homage to just piece of classic cinema but multiple pieces as part of the rising post-modernist movement, specifically Victor Flemming’s The Wizard of Oz, George Lucas’  Star Wars and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless.  Spielberg references the fantasy classic The Wizard of Oz not only once but at least twice fairly blatantly.  The first time being Elliot and ET as they ride the bike in the sky similarly to Elmira Gulch (or the Wicked Witch of the West) in the tornado.  The second obvious reference came at the very end of the film as ET’s ship flew away over the rainbow, to a fantasy dimension, similar to Oz.  Another cinematic classic often referenced was Star Wars.  It was referenced multiple times as Elliot was introducing ET to his Greedo, Bobba Fett, and even a musician in the Cantina bar action figures.  ET was also drawn to Yoda during the Halloween scene.  The most foreign reference however came from the jump cut used most popularly by Jean Luc-Godard’s game changing French new wave classic Breathless.  The jump cut was used as an effective tool to not only convey Elliot’s surprised reaction to first seeing ET but also to take the viewer out of the moment and to fracture their own worldly understanding.  As Spielberg uses religion and film history to ground his movie, he still makes a socio-political statement within the film.

            As ET is a children’s movie typically you don’t expect to see political motivations but ET is also a story detailing U.S. and Soviet relations and how if they worked together they could accomplish a symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship.  I mentioned earlier that ET’s disciples were children, and this is because that socially, it is the children that can observe and rebel against adult or governmental ideals such as the loathing of Soviet culture.  This is depicted in the government agencies interest to hunt down ET and use them to their own benefit.  Also in an earlier scene, ET is walking around the kitchen with Gertie and mother Mary, while Gertie keeps insisting the mother meet ET, but instead she continually ignores ET and simply goes about her business and effectively ignores the alien in the room.  Another scene shows the synchronization of Elliot and ET’s brain waves, which was a political reference between similar characteristics of U.S.S.R. and U.S. political policies as both countries had shown similar actions such as an arms and space race of the cold war.   This was remnant of 1980’s culture just prior to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and to me a message Spielberg wished to share was that if both countries were able to find a way to act peacefully both countries would then be able to prosper peacefully in their own separate worlds.    

            At the end of the day, ET is not just a kid’s movie but a film which contains great political and cinematic weight.  Ironically although it’s thought of as a kid’s movie many adults could profit from its various themes.