E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial [DVD]

There are films you admire, films you enjoy, and then there are films that seem to reach out of the screen and rearrange something inside you—softly, persuasively, without asking permission. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of those rare miracles. If I could rate it any higher, I would—but numbers feel vulgar in the presence of something this disarmingly pure. Profoundly beautiful is a term. Uncommonly decent is another. A wonderful allegory for anyone who has ever found and fought for a stray pet. This hits dead center in the feels and earns every tear and lump in the throat. Released in that improbable, almost storybook year of 1982, it arrived not with a bang but with a hush—a whisper of mystery. You didn’t quite know what you were walking into, only that something unusual was waiting. And then it unfolds, and you realize you’re watching a director—Steven Spielberg—working at a level where instinct and craft fuse into something like grace. This is not just filmmaking; it’s a kind of emotional engineering, calibrated with uncanny precision and yet never feeling calculated. The creature itself—conceived by Carlo Rambaldi and voiced, unexpectedly and beautifully, by Debra Winger—is a triumph not because of its mechanics (though those are astonishing), but because of how completely we accept it. Spielberg, wisely, keeps it hidden at first, letting our imaginations do the work. By the time E.T. reveals himself, we’re already halfway in love. And then there’s the child at the center of it all. Henry Thomas, barely ten, gives a performance so nakedly sincere it almost feels indecent to watch. He doesn’t “act” loneliness—he simply is lonely, and the camera catches it the way a window catches rain. There’s a moment where he introduces E.T. to the geography of his bedroom, and it becomes a kind of sacred ritual: the mapping of a private universe, the laws of childhood articulated in whispers and gestures. It’s the gold standard of what we mean when we talk about imagination on film. You believe him so completely that Rambaldi’s creation becomes flesh by association. Thomas isn’t just the emotional anchor—he’s the film’s beating heart. The supporting cast—Dee Wallace, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton—orbit him with warmth and credibility, never overplaying, never condescending. And Melissa Mathison’s script has that rare quality of seeming to discover itself as it goes, like a child telling a story that becomes truer the longer it’s told. What some will lazily dismiss as “schmaltz” is, in fact, emotional clarity. There’s nothing manipulative about feeling something honestly. The film doesn’t force you to cry—it simply creates a world where crying feels like the most natural response in the world. And then the music—John Williams—which doesn’t accompany the film so much as lift it into the air. His score, perhaps his finest of the 1980s, doesn’t underline emotion; it releases it. By the time those final notes surge and swell, you don’t just watch the film—you ascend with it. For years, it stood as the highest-grossing film ever made, a testament not just to its popularity but to its universality. It wasn’t simply a hit; it was a shared experience, a cultural heartbeat. When it was eventually overtaken by Titanic, one couldn’t help but feel that something quieter, more intimate, had been edged aside by spectacle. But E.T. doesn’t need records to validate it—it lives in memory, which is the only place that matters. And thank heaven Spielberg resisted the temptation to revisit it. The proposed sequel—darker, crueler, populated by carnivorous alien nightmares—sounds like a betrayal of everything that made the original so luminous. Some stories are complete because they know when to stop. This one ends exactly where it should: with a goodbye that feels both devastating and, somehow, complete. What remains, decades later, is something almost impossibly delicate: a perfectly constructed fairy tale, the best Walt Disney film Walt never made. A fusion of commerce and art so seamless you forget those categories ever existed. It’s easy, now, to take its greatness for granted—but when it first appeared, it felt like a visitation. And in a way, it still does. And the 4K is just as wonderful. The colors pop, the soundtrack blasts John Williams iconic score. A no brainer purchase.

Excellent -- so great to watch again and again. So love the extra about how the movie was made.

I love this movie!!!

Excellent movie my family really liked it.

Great movie, love it

A wonderful science fiction kids film!

Classic Movie! HIGHLY Recommended for everyone, of every generation!

Really enjoyed the movie and it looks great in 4K

Bom, o produto chegou inteiro, chegou direitinho e chegou rápido. Só que, assim, são duas situações distintas. O produto veio em bom estado, mas a embalagem é daquelas típicas de encomenda de revista — ou seja, sem nenhuma proteção. Ainda assim, esse nem foi o maior problema, já que o produto chegou em perfeito estado. O que me incomodou foi que, em diversos comentários e posts de pessoas que receberam o mesmo filme, ele vinha com uma capa em lente 3D. No meu caso, essa lente não veio — e eu comprei justamente por causa dela. Ela realmente não aparece nas fotos do anúncio, mas como muita gente mostrou que recebeu com a lente, acabei entendendo que o produto viria assim também. Então, eu acho que houve uma falha de comunicação. Ou foi mal explicado, ou pode ter sido uma promoção temporária em que só alguns exemplares vinham com a capa em lente 3D. De qualquer forma, acho que esse tipo de informação precisa estar mais clara em todos os anúncios de Blu-rays. Por exemplo, se o produto não tem a capa especial, o anúncio não deveria mostrar comentários ou imagens de pessoas que receberam a versão com ela.

The blu ray disc that is included plays perfectly on my Region B disc player. The 4K UHD disc is of course region free.

llego en tiempo y en excelente estado se ve muy bien, cumplio mis expectativas

This is the 40th Anniversary Edition and I chose to get just the film and not the boxed set with the lunchbox. I have owned this movie in every iteration since it was first released, from VHS to DVD to Laser to Blu-ray and now 4K UHD and I can honestly say that I don’t think it’s looked this good since it hit theaters in 1982. This is an off-the-charts beautiful transfer and I’m so glad I chose to make it my first step into the 4K universe. Additionally, most of the features are from the previous release, but the 40th Anniversary featurette is great.

classic movie and great extras