In Which Having a New Lease on Life Justin Watches E.T.

After nearly being killed, I watched Spielberg's E.T. As I put it in the DVD player I thought how interesting it was that on Federico Fellini's Death Bed, the last letter he read was from Steven Spielberg. And how strange it is that shortly after getting a letter from Spielberg, Fellini died and then I borrow Spielberg's movie and I almost died. Still, a mere death curse wasn't going to stop me from watching E.T.

I'm sure I saw it as a kid (there is no other explanation as to how I could become addicted to Reese's Pieces.) But it was as if for all practical purposes I had never seen it.

I really picked up on a lot of things that I didn't see when I was a kid. For example, the parallels between E.T. who is left behind by his space ship and Elliot who is excluded by his family and friends are both extremely short.

My critical insight that this was a movie which tried hard to set up these parallels of what it is like to be short as an alien and short as a human would have given me enough intellectual fodor any other day. But right after almost being killed I was interested in gaining some deeper insight into life.

And I finally found it: A chase scene.

You have to admire a movie which posits that there is intelligent life in the universe and still manges to ask the central question: if kids were chased by police cars would they be able to outbike them maybe by using the new found intelligent being's powers to levitate over the cars?

That such depth could be found is not entirely suprising given the philosophical problems, especially moral problems, that are dealt with by Mr. Spielberg, (Cf. Raider’s of the Lost Ark,in which the hero, a Mr. Jones makes the rather bold and unqualified statement: “Nazi’s—I hate those guys.”)

I only hope that I will find a short Extra Terrestial before I have to cross the street again.