My goddaughter Tanya was about 3 or 4 | was simply an outline of E.T. on a rail with | |
when she and her sister were taken to see | his heartlight moving through the weeds.” | |
E.T. She was thrilled to bits with it, and | In the restored version, using digital | |
entertained me on a car journey from south | technology, Spielberg’s technical team | |
to north London with the complete story. | have found a way of showing the puppet | |
Tanya is now 22, and although she doesn’t | E.T. actually running. The restoration also | |
have children yet, many of the other young | gave him an opportunity to put back a few | |
adults who saw the film when they were | scenes that [id:27587]. One is a bathtub | |
kids do. It was this which prompted Steven | sequence between E.T. and Elliott, the little | |
Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy | boy. Another is part of the Halloween | |
to reissue a restored version of the original | sequence, which Spielberg claims | |
to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. | “includes one of Drew Barrymore’s best | |
“There’s [id:27585] that’s never | moments.” He was also able to do | |
experienced this movie on the theatre | something he’d wanted to do for ages, | |
screen,” says Kennedy. “I now have a 5- | which is remove the guns from the hands | |
year-old and a 3-year-old, and Steven has | of the agents in the exciting chase | |
six kids. We all looked at the movie | sequence towards the end. | |
together in a small theatre, and it was | “It bothered me more after my son Max | |
incredible to watch their reactions. It played | was born in 1985, when I began to take the | |
to them with the same enthusiasm as it did | world more seriously,” he says, “I began to | |
to kids of that age 20 years ago.” | feel that guns were inappropriate to have in | |
“I never wanted to make a follow up to | the movie, and this was [id:27588].” | |
E.T.,” adds Spielberg. “But I thought it | Although the movie’s been on | |
would be [id:27586] to present a restored | television many times, when I saw the | |
version of the film on the 20th anniversary, | enhanced version the other day it was the | |
to please the perfectionist inside myself. | first time I’d seen it since it first came out, | |
For example, I always wanted to fix E.T.’s | and I was struck by how magical, funny | |
run at the beginning of the film, because he | and touching [id:27589]. It gave us | |
unforgettable images, like Elliott and E.T.’s | ||
bicycle flight as they cross the face of the | ||
moon, and a catchphrase I still hear people | ||
using: ‘E.T. phone home.’ It also created a | ||
remarkably expressive and endearing hero | ||
in E.T. himself. The first time I saw the film, | ||
in the scene where E.T. appears to be | ||
dying, tears were streaming down my face. | ||
‘This is ridiculous’, I thought. ‘I’m crying | ||
[id:27590] ‘. But I was still crying. | ||