E.T. Phone Home

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  It is one of my all-time favorite movies (along with the Superman series).  The first time I saw this was way back 1983.  I remember that it was shown on January 4.  And I remember watching it on the first day along with my brother and my father.  I was really wowed by the movie!  To the point of buying an E.T. rubber toy.  There were two variants, one with the glowing finger and the other was just plain old E.T. pointing to nowhere. 

I remember seeing an E.T. drawing in one of the comicstrips in Bulletin Today (now, it’s called Manila Bulletin).  I can’t recall if it was done by Roxlee or Monlee, but it inspired me to draw E.T.   

I also remember reading an article or a review… or maybe, someone mentioned it, that E.T. is just like Christ.  Although E.T. was not sent to save mankind (he was accidentally left on Earth by his flying saucer), he died, came back to life and "ascended to heaven" (in this case, his flying saucer got him back and left earth).  E.T. also healed the sick.  I guess, that’s where the comparison ends. 

Of course, we all know that Elliot can never keep an alien as company (at first, he thought he was keeping him like a pet), and that before the movie ends, E.T. has to go home (for me, it was one of the best goodbye scenes I’ve seen onscreen). 


But before he can do that, E.T. has to make a way to contact his kind.  And improvise he did.  Inspired by a Flash Gordon comicstrip, he put together a transmission device with an umbrella, a digital toy of some sort and voila! He has set up a way to phone home.


There were talks of a movie sequel.  But when I learned that the story was set on E.T.’s home planet, I gave up the hope for a movie sequel.  Who would watch a 2-hour movie that featured E.T. lookalikes?  And worse, we’d all be reading subtitles since E.T.’s English language is limited to E.T. PHONE HOME. ELLIOT. COME. I WILL BE HERE.


By the way, did you know that Michael Jackson has a song featuring E.T.’s voice on the background? The song is Someone In The Dark. I guess it’s his tribute to E.T.  Or has he been relating himself to the alien life form as early as 1982?

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Blogged on May 22nd, 2007 from my soon-to-be defunct friendster account.