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Love and Aliens: The Influence of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial on Americans in the Eighties

  • Writer: Janelle Sinclair
    Janelle Sinclair
  • Nov 9, 2022
  • 8 min read

Perhaps one would recognize the iconic film from the infamous image of a certain bicycle flying in the sky with a full moon in the background. Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is about a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas) who discovers an extra-terrestrial that had been left behind by his fellow aliens hiding out near his house. After bringing him home, Elliott discovers that the gentle foreign creature he calls E.T. can't exist in Earth's atmosphere and must return to his home planet. While harboring E.T., Elliott forms a deep bond with him and they become connected. E.T. sends a rescue message to his planet with the help of Elliott, his siblings, and their friends, but Elliott is suddenly confronted by government scientists who want to capture and study E.T. instead of allowing him to return home. The film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial relayed a message of hope, love, and family values to Americans during a time of uncertainty, by allowing children to identify with the characters, representing a single parent family, and seeking to alleviate people's fears of “otherness”.


E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in a time of concern and anxieties for America. Still recovering from the Vietnam War and other historical events that shook the country, Americans were yearning for peace and an emergence of family values as the 1980s began. Many Hollywood films would represent the prevalent message of hope, love, and longing for a simpler time. This message had a lot to do with family values, as the divorce amendment was coming into play across the country, divorce rates were at a whopping fifty percent. Over the years, reviewers, pundits, and journalists have examined, discussed, and second-guessed the reasons behind E.T.'s continued popularity. Many argue that the film went beyond conventional entertainment and depicted a restless alienation that plagued millions of people in Ronald Reagan's America. The most common theory was that by the early 1980s, the country's divorce rate had reached 50%, and E.T.'s underlying or B-story was one of divorce (Gomery).


One of the more important aspects of the film and its moviegoers at the time, was that as bizarre of a concept E.T.  is, children could truly identify with the story and its characters. The general aesthetic of the film is one of fantasy set in a realistic setting. As Steven Spielberg put it, "It's very important with E.T. that everybody who saw the movie believe that E.T. could come into their backyards and walk into their homes to visit their children. You really can't do that if you set the stage for storybook unreal." He and his team worked hard, he said, "to juxtapose a kind of contemporary suburban or urban truth on fantasy images." (Turner). The film is primarily set in the point of view of a child, never showing the faces of adults, besides the mom, until the final act of the film. The subplot deals with how Elliot and his family cope with their parents divorce, living as a single parent family. E.T. and Elliott are at least two heroes with whom children can affiliate. They have both been stranded. Elliott is lonely as a result of his parents' divorce, but he meets a magical companion who can protect him and provide friendship (Nelson). Richard Sloves, a clinical instructor in psychiatry at the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center, first became aware of the film's power when he discovered that some children had become ill during the film's last minutes, when Elliott and E.T. must part ways. He learned that all of these children were between the ages of 9 and 11, and that their fathers had recently left due to divorce (Nelson). Dr. Sloves' research was influenced in part by Bruno Bettelheim's work and discoveries in his book "The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales." Dr. Bettelheim believes that the children of the time the film was released, who often grew up in socially isolated homes, required fairy tales even more than children did in the past. E.T. like other fairy tales, appealed on a lot of levels, according to Dr. Sloves and the other psychologists interviewed in Nelson’s article. The film depicts virtuous children outwitting callous adults, the main character's abandonment in the early stages of the story, and the successful resolution by benign powers rescuing the abandoned, assisted by a child who boldly dares to do what is right (Nelson). 


E.T. defied traditional barriers in media at the time. Film and television had only just begun to stray away from the typical nuclear families depicted on screen. However, many of the TV shows and films that did display “broken families” would include the father as the single parent who takes care of the kids after a separation. Or, more commonly the father was seen as the breadwinner and head of the household. This theme began to decline in the eighties, seeing women starting to make it to the forefront. According to David Blakenhorn's book Fatherless America, the percentage of children who do not live with their biological dads climbed from 17.5 percent to 36.3 percent between 1960 and 1990. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, this rate has climbed to 39.2 percent, and when this statistic is adjusted for families with solely married biological dads, the figure rises to 41.7 percent. These numbers show that the country is full of individuals who were raised in very different ways than generations born before 1970, when over 80% of children were raised by their biological dads. Interestingly, there was a comparable shift in the role of dads on television during this time period (McGee and Hantla). In E.T., Elliot’s mother can be seen as the primary caregiver for her kids, as their father is off in Mexico. Though she can be seen as negligent and careless throughout the film, she eventually comes to realize how hard her children are taking the divorce as well. Family life is shown as oppressive in the first portion of E.T., with fighting, bickering, and exchanges of harsh comments. The careless father has fled to Mexico with another lady, leaving his wife to raise two children on her own; yet, the mother is also portrayed as ineffectual. The biological father is substituted with a surrogate, the benevolent government scientist, based on the notion that every child requires a sociological parent. Additionally, E.T., the extra-terrestrial being, serves as a father figure. Indeed, it takes the intervention of a supernatural power, a literal outsider, to resolve the family's issues and bring the family back together (Levy). Though it may seem like an odd portrayal of a family, E.T. did conclude as a heartwarming tale of a broken family coming together through the power of love (and aliens).


Another way in which the film relayed a message of hope and love was through seeking to alleviate people’s fears of otherness. Up until E.T., most Hollywood science fiction films would depict aliens as evil and threatening creatures. That cannot be said for E.T. He is just an innocent being simply trying to get back home to his family; he means no harm. Elliot forms an empathy bond with the little alien, being able to feel what E.T. feels; for example when E.T. drinks the beer in the fridge, Elliot feels the effects of it at school. And ultimately when E.T. becomes sick from being on Earth too long, Elliot starts dying with him, until the link is broken. This can be potentially seen as a message that despite people’s differences, we all are capable of feeling the same emotions and hurt as each other; nobody’s that different from each other after all, no matter what you look like or where you come from. This can be applied to Spielberg’s upbringing and inspiration behind the film. He has said that the film is quite personal to him, as he grew up often being the only Jewish family in his neighborhood, feeling like he stood out from everyone else. The film deals with the alienation of its two protagonists, Elliot and E.T. They’re both lost and trying to find a way back home- Elliot’s ‘home’ being his family, wanting to feel whole again. Elizabeth Thorne, a New York psychologist says that the film ''awakens all your desire to believe that you can trust - that you can reach out to a strange person in a strange land,'' (Nelson). One of the most iconic scenes from the movie is when Drew Barrymore’s character Gertie meets E.T. for the first time, and she screams, causing a domino effect of panic in the room. However, Gertie then forms a friendship with the creature, even dressing him up like a doll, and crying when she had to say goodbye to him. It shows that even though she was scared of him at first, she grew to love him. The same message can be applied to real life, through humans and people who come from different backgrounds than them. E.T. is a symbol of hope and love himself. He teaches older and younger audiences that despite his other-worldly, unseemly appearance, he just wants to connect with Elliot and find his way back to his family. 


Moreover, the setting of a lonely kid and a harmless alien bonding is nearly irresistible in the science fiction genre. After all, children are more open-minded and less judgmental than the adults in their surroundings. They have a stronger connection to their imaginations and see more possibilities as a result. Adults are sometimes occasionally preoccupied with their own work and social lives, and are oblivious of what their children are going through (Zingher). For example, following his parents' divorce, the lonely Elliott in E.T. feels secluded. He is in pain and requires either a mentor or, at the very least, someone to nurture and care for him. When E.T. enters his life, he regains his sense of purpose and looks forward to each day with excitement. He may now serve as both a teacher and a protector. Elliott introduces E.T. to his older brother and younger sister as their bond grows, and the three conspire to keep E.T. a secret. Every day brings fresh surprises and amusing incidents, such as E.T. trying on girls' outfits, raiding the refrigerator, learning new phrases, and trick-or-treating on Halloween. The three children gradually discover more about E.T.'s world, how he came to be here, and why he misses his home as time passes. There is a journey of feelings from fear to trust, and this film implies that when old suspicions are dispelled, characters are given the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas, and that all of this learning and teaching can lead to tolerance and healing (Zingher).    


Overall, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a film that touched the hearts of children and adults alike back in the eighties, and the same can still be said for today’s audiences. It provided a new outlook on alien life, and kindness towards others. As well, it dealt with the topic of divorce, or a split family, in a time where separation was becoming very common in America. Through this, it displays the struggle of a single parent, but comes together in the end as a family that is whole even without their father. Love and hope is a theme that Americans needed during the eighties, and E.T. delivers with those feelings. In a newspaper article written in 1982, during the release of the film at Cannes Film Festival, author Jay Scott says, “the critter doesn't suspend your disbelief for you - it levitates it. E.T. is the first of the summer's monster hits, and it's heartening that there's not a single monster in it.” A wonderful film filled with many possibilities, centered around a boy and his alien counterpart, establishing a true bond and telling a wholesome story.



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References:


Gomery, Douglas. “THE NEW HOLLYWOOD, 1981–1999.” Producing, edited by Jon Lewis,        Rutgers University Press, 2016, pp. 111–30, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt194xgx5.9.        Accessed 7 Apr. 2022.


Levy, Emanuel. “The American Dream of Family in Film: From Decline to a Comeback.”        Journal of Comparative Family Studies, vol. 22, no. 2, 1991, pp. 187–204,                http://www.jstor.org/stable/41602145. Accessed 4 Apr. 2022.


Nelson, Bryce. "The Alien Already here: Insights into E.T.'s Power: Insights into E.T.'s Power." 


Scott, Jay. "E.T. a Cheery Children's Crusade." The Globe and Mail (1936-), May 27, 1982.     


Turner, George E. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” American Cinematographer, Apr. 1983, pp.        67–68. FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database; Research Library,   


Zingher, Gary. "Gentle Beings from Other Worlds." School Library Media Activities Monthly 22,        no. 9 (05, 2006): 47-48. http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=https://www-proquest


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