I love you people. I got such shit on my blog for hating on E.T. (though I liked it more on rewatch than I did originally). But it bugs the shit out of me that it is the one Spielberg on the Sight & Sound 250.
Willow ,'Showtime'
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I haven't seen a ton of Speilberg, I guess- Never saw Jaws or Saving Private Ryan. I think Jaws would be to scary for me, because I found ET terrifying. I mostly remember all the white tents and people in hazmat suits.
I think Jaws would probably be too scary, but I'm a bad judge since I saw it by sneaking into a campus showing (I was 9 or so) and was pretty much terrified ever after when swimming in the summer. In a lake.
Saving Private Ryan would probably be much higher on my list if it didn't have those god-awful sentimental bookends. It's nearly perfect otherwise. Great ensemble. The D-Day beach sequence is incredible but hard to watch for many I'm sure.
Saw Jaws release day in the theater, with another couple. Becky and I sat there frozen in horror while the guys were at the concession stand "before much happened" at the first of the movie. They walked back down the aisle loaded with popcorn, drinks, and candy and eased into their seats, and couldn't help picking up on the utter silence and raw edge of disbelief in air.
"What happened?" they wanted to know. Like, in twenty words or less? Nah. Your loss. Catch up. And don't let go my hand.
MY PEOPLE! MY ET-HATING PEOPLE!
I walked out, I was so pissed off. At seven or eight. (Depending on when I got dragged to see it. And dragged back in to finish seeing it. Apparently, one's sister and grandmother don't take kindly to their single-digit charge walking out of the film.)
I feel so vindicated. I thought I was the only one who hated that movie.
I'm another one who didn't like ET. I think it was partially due to the blatant emotional manipulation and partially due to the fact that I went in with my expectations jacked sky-high for 'the best movie EVAR!!!1!'
Don Hertzfeldt has written a sequel to World of Tomorrow (!) and apparently it's just as amazing: [link]
If you haven't seen World of Tomorrow, do yourself a favour and check it out. It's only 15 min long and is streaming on Netflix. It is marvellous in a way that's difficult to describe and will give you ALL the feelings.
Out of nowhere, CJ just said he never liked ET. We weren't talking movies or anything. It cracked me up based on the conversation here. We agreed that the target audience were people like me who saw it when we were young when it first came out. The few times I've seen it since I haven't had that same Ohhhhh feeling - more I watch it out of nostalgia while thinking, this movie is a mess.
I haven't seen ET since it came out. Liked it then, though it's possible I liked the novelization better.
ETA: is CJ hooked into Facwbook's algorith, tracking you Suzi!?!?
No clue, -t. I laughed when he mentioned it, which was not the reaction he was expecting. Once I explained that my invisible internet friends started the discussion, he just rolled his eyes and went back to discussing why he doesn't like ET.