E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial

Elliott: You could be happy here, I could take care of you. I wouldn't let anybody hurt you. We could grow up together, E.T.

Steven Spielberg's first movie was E.T, a heart-melting sci-fi story about the friendship of a young kid named Elliot and a sweet alien with the desire of going back home.Elliott and his siblings help E.T. return to his home planet, while attempting to keep him hidden from the government. It’s a movie that innately understands childhood dreams and fears, and makes adults the untrustworthy outsiders who can’t quite recognize the beauty and majesty of a being like E.T, who can't understand the beautifulness of being different. This movie is a genuinely love story, discussing love in its more purely version. Not as a couple love, or familiar/friend kind of love, but instead, love just as love, in its biggest version. At the film's heart is the theme of growing up.

It was the first Spielberg´s big impact as a director, which broke multiple records and was applauded by its public and critics around the world. The director actually confirmed that the beginning of this iconic film was due to his previous movie Encounters of the Third Kind, a highly successful film about benign visitors from outer space. E.T was created after he imagined what would happen if one of those aliens got lost in earth. Little did he know that little alien would made such an impact in history.

E.T is a magical tale for children that also worked out for adults, it was a triumph of special effects and the most personal film Spielberg has ever made. Nowadays it is known how Spielberg used this story as a image of his own experience throughout his parents divorce. It is also said that ET appeared from a imaginary friend Spielberg developed in his youth, this is why the feelings are so well- developed in this story. E.T is the director's own kind of healing, in its purest version. References to his childhood occur throughout: Elliott fakes illness by holding a thermometer to the bulb in his lamp was a trick frequently employed by the young Spielberg or Michael's evolution from tormentor to protector reflects how Spielberg had to take care of his sisters as the director said in several interviews.

The magical scene of E.T and Elliot´s fly in front of the moon is still, an iconic image of a film that change an era. A story that still gets to the heart of the different generations, making E.T a everlasting story.