E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Revisiting Steven Spielberg's venerated masterpiece once more, I hearkened back to the days when the networks actually showed movies during primetime on Thanksgiving (this year the lineup consists of a football game, a Charlie Brown special, and an episode of Glee). As a youngster, I was mesmerized by the spectacular special effects and was drawn into an intelligent story that didn't condescend to my age group. Watching E.T. again, it is remarkable how much empathy is still generated by the Henry Thomas performance and that of an automated puppet, and how much of that same sense of wonder and even some of the more painful, fearful feelings (when E.T. is sick) are retained.