Last night, because it is sort of Halloweeny, and because Shelly claimed to be unsure whether she's actually seen it all the way through, we watched E.T. It's been many, many years since I've seen it, but I was amazed at how it took me back to when I saw it in the theaters when I was little.


There were certain parts of the movie that I thought I had forgotten, but that totally came back to me when I saw it again. The best example: when Elliott and E.T. are saying goodbye, I suddenly remembered the dialogue they were about to exchange, which actually tugged at the tears of my 31-year-old self: "Come." "Stay."


I think the character Elliott, more than possibly any other character in fiction, is someone I have felt a very close bond with. Although I'm actually about a year and a half younger than Drew Barrymore (and thus five years younger than Henry Thomas, who played Elliott), I felt like I was just like Elliott.* It's not that I have difficulties with a father who's run off to Mexico with a girlfriend, or had a history of faking illness or releasing dissection frogs into the wild. I think I was just enamored with the idea of a boy like me having an alien friend and riding a bicycle through the sky. Nothing deep. Just something every boy loves.


Of course, watching the movie again, now, I noticed new things. For one, I noticed that although Drew Barrymore is taller nowadays than she was in 1982, she still has the same mannerisms in her acting. Speaking of mannerisms, many of E.T.'s mannerisms reminded me of my sweet Ellie -- specifically the way he repeats certain words over and over, walks, and gets excited. And why shouldn't they -- he was just a child in that world, trying to learn and understand what was going on.


Up until the hospital scenes, the only adult whose face was on screen was the mother's. I think that really brought us into the children's world -- a world that was hostilely invaded when the hospital scenes start. As an adult, my first thought when the government workers started coming into the house was "Hey, what about the Fourth Amendment? And a moon suit? Seriously?" As a child, my thought was, "AUUGGHH!" I was absolutely terrified of the government agents. The clear plastic they spread everywhere made my skin crawl. The most amazing revelation upon re-watching E.T. was the realization that "Keys" (the main government guy who spends the whole movie tracking down E.T.) is not a bad guy. He sincerely tells Elliott that he doesn't want to hurt E.T., he lovingly allows Elliott alone time with his friend, and he's there when E.T. gets on his ship, watching with as much wonder and amazement as Elliott's friends and mother. I guess I just blocked those things out when I was little because I was convinced the man was evil.


I also realized how E.T.-crazy I was back then. I (OK, my brothers and I) had an E.T. stuffed animal, the E.T. novel, the E.T. glowing prosthetic finger, I sang the song "Turn on Your Heart Light," and I believe I even upped my Reese's Pieces consumption. These days, I cringe at the thought of Ellie getting that wrapped up in a movie (she's already getting close with Thomas the Tank Engine, who will be the featured guest at her second birthday party this week). But I'm glad to have experienced the movie at such a deep level as a child. It resonated with me more 20 years ago than it does now, although I can still see the film's greatness. I suppose we'll rent it again in a few years so my kids can experience it the way I did.



* I'm not sure if I first saw the movie in its initial 1982 release, when I was 6, or in its 1985 re-release, when I was 9 and thus closer to Elliott in age.