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Iconic movie scenes that nearly didn’t happen

<p>There are a multitude of significant changes that get made throughout the creation of a feature film.</p> <p>These iconic movie scenes nearly didn’t happen but thankfully, a spark of genius made these beloved movie moments make it on our screens.</p> <p><strong>1.<em> E.T. the Extra Terrestrial</em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gTVoFCP1BLg?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Originally, Spielberg went for a bleak ending where E.T. dies in government captivity, but people thought this ending was much too miserable. Instead, the ending was famously reworked to see E.T fly across the moon into freedom. Spielberg also ended up making that shot the logo of his production company Amblin Entertainment.</p> <p><strong>2. <em>Lady and the Tramp</em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9gwZC5s2IU0?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>The spaghetti date between Lady and the Tramp is the most iconic moment in the 1955 animation. Walt Disney thought the idea was a bit far-fetched to begin with and so he cut the scene from the first storyboards. “Walt wasn't convinced that that would be a very clean-cut scene," former Disney archivist Steven Vagnini told <em>Yahoo Movies</em>. "As you can imagine, if you have two pets and they eat a plate of spaghetti, it's hard to envision that being too graceful." Thankfully, the adorable scene was included.</p> <p><strong>3. <em>Rocky</em></strong></p> <p>The original ending of Rocky was going to feature Sylvester Stallone crowd surfing towards Adrian after his victory. However, there were not enough extras to carry Stallone so instead, a more intimate scene was created where he yells his girlfriend’s name.</p> <p><strong>4. <em>Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan</em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LXVqSa2l6mg?feature=oembed" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Wrath of Khan’s ending was altered after a test audience said Spock’s death was too bleak. A last-minute scene was shot showing his coffin landing on the Genesis Planet, giving a glimmer of hope of his return. Leonard Nimoy only learned of the change when he watched the completed film. </p> <p><em>Images: Universal Pictures</em></p>

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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at 40 – a deep meditation on loneliness, and Spielberg’s most exhilarating film

<p>40 years ago this month saw the release of Steven Spielberg’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083866/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial</a> – a film about a stranded alien, the boy called Elliott who discovers it and a bond of friendship that remains as magical and heartbreaking as it did back in 1982.</p> <p>We think of Spielberg movies today as thrilling roller-coaster rides, full of sharks, dinosaurs and swashbuckling archaeologists. Yet for me, E.T. remains Spielberg’s most exhilarating work: a deep meditation on loneliness, friendship and growing up in small-town America.</p> <p>Aided by John Williams’s Oscar-winning score and Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore’s touching performances, E.T. feels both of its time and for all time. As Spielberg <a href="https://www.contactmusic.com/pages/et2x21x03x02" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once said</a>:</p> <p>I think that E.T. is for the people we are, the people we have been and the people we want to be again.</p> <h2>A child in need of a friend</h2> <p>After the breathless trio of Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Spielberg wanted to make a more intimate film about his isolated childhood in suburban Arizona <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/steven-spielberg-et-divorce-parents-anniversary-b2063879.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as he came to terms</a> with the divorce of his parents.</p> <p>At the same time, he had commissioned a script about a suburban family terrorised by a group of aliens with one befriending the family’s son. The DNA of both stories would make their way into this film.</p> <p>Like Spielberg, Elliott is a loner. He’s not playing sport, or going out with girls or getting into trouble. He is introverted and thoughtful. And in need of company.</p> <p>One of Spielberg’s great underrated talents is his direction of children. Many of his films feature young children at their centre – think The BFG (2016), A.I. (2001) and War Horse (2011).</p> <p>In E.T., Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore as brother and sister Elliott and Gertie bring credibility and pathos to their roles, fitting seamlessly into the southern Californian ‘burb culture recreated so fondly by the director.</p> <p>Spielberg’s grasp of childlike wonder is everywhere: notice how he shoots from the children’s eye level and shows adults only from the waist down.</p> <p>For the first time in his career, Spielberg rejected storyboards and <a href="https://ascmag.com/articles/spielberg-et-the-extraterrestrial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot scenes chronologically</a>, allowing Thomas and Barrymore time and space to improvise. The domestic and school scenes (hiding E.T. from the mother, tempting it into the house with Reese’s Pieces, freeing frogs destined for dissection) all feel more real because of this.</p> <h2>And what of our alien?</h2> <p>Before E.T., Hollywood saw aliens as hostile critters intent on planetary carnage. The recent extra-terrestrials in Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982) had caused havoc and trauma.</p> <p>E.T. is different: partly modelled on the facial features of Albert Einstein, it is inquisitive, thoughtful, funny. In the delightful Halloween scene, Elliott throws a white sheet over it as a disguise, and E.T. suddenly spots a child dressed up as Yoda, excitedly repeating “Home! Home!”.</p> <p>From this moment, Hollywood realised the marketing potential of “cute aliens”; whether Ewoks, Grogu or Toy Story’s “Little Green Men”. It is small wonder that Variety <a href="https://variety.com/1982/film/reviews/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial-1200425287/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> E.T. as the “best Disney film Disney never made”.</p> <p>The alien plays another role too: it fills the void of the absent father.</p> <p>Paternal lack and the strains it places on families is a familiar trope in Spielberg’s films, from Jurassic Park (1993) to Catch Me If You Can (2002) to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).</p> <p>All we know is that Elliott’s father is “in Mexico, with Sally”: left behind is a stressed mother and bickering siblings.</p> <p>Some contend that E.T. is a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4239568?seq=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">modern-day fairy tale</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/15/movies/l-film-mailbag-is-et-a-religious-parable-073792.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a Christian parable</a>. For others, it is an illustration of “<a href="https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/23096/9783631837801%20%E2%80%93%20Echoes%20of%20Reaganism%20in%20Hollywood%20Blockbuster%20Movies%20from%20the%201980s%20to%20the%202010s.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reaganite entertainment</a>”, upholding the sanctity of the nuclear family but distrustful of bureaucratic interference and governmental surveillance.</p> <h2>Spielberg at his best</h2> <p>E.T. earned US$800 million at the box office. Adjusted for inflation, four decades on, that is still the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_the_United_States_and_Canada#Adjusted_for_ticket-price_inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fourth highest grossing</a> movie ever.</p> <p>For some naysayers, its success was further evidence of the special effects-laden, high-concept spectacle film that was beginning to reign in mainstream film culture. But I think E.T. is much more than that: it is a movie with a heart. The special effects are minimal. What counts is the story, and the boy and his friend.</p> <p>Spielberg’s films are to this day <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2011/12/critics-notebook-putting-steven-spielberg-on-trial-50244/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticised</a> as mawkish and overly sentimental, deliberately engineered to cynically manipulate our emotions. Not so in E.T.: the pleasure is genuine and the tears are earned.</p> <p>E.T. became a pop culture phenomenon. The shot of Elliott and E.T. on a bike, flying across the moon, remains an iconic image. “Phone home” has become part of our lexicon. Its message of peaceful coexistence between creatures from different worlds today seems more appropriate than ever.</p> <p>Aliens stranded on earth are a staple of contemporary cinema, from Under the Skin (2013) to The Iron Giant (1999). And Netflix’s current global hit Stranger Things contains a treasure trove of E.T.’s visual references.</p> <p>Spielberg may have made bigger, louder films, and more historically profound ones, but E.T. endures as his best.</p> <p><em><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial-at-40-a-deep-meditation-on-loneliness-and-spielbergs-most-exhilarating-film-183985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></em></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

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Seven fun facts about ET

<p dir="ltr">What’s ET short for? Because he’s got little legs.</p> <p dir="ltr">Okay, now that classic dad joke from my boss is out of the way because tragically it made me laugh, let's get down to business.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>ET</em> has long been a family favourite since its release in 1982 from genius director Steven Spielberg.</p> <p dir="ltr">The much-loved cinematic creation tells the story of a young boy Elliott, who becomes friends with an alien, also known as ET.</p> <p dir="ltr">Almost 40 years since it hit our screens, there are some exciting fun facts you didn't know about the movie. </p> <p dir="ltr">Below are seven of the most surprising facts from <em>ET</em>.</p> <ol> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>The woman behind ET's voice was discovered in a camera store</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">The film’s sound designer was at a camera store when he heard the woman speak. Her name was Pat Walsh, and she reportedly smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, which gave ET the raspy voice.</p> <ol start="2"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>The doctors you see in the movie are all real</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Steven Spielberg wanted to make the movie as real as possible and hired real doctors and nurses to feature in the film. </p> <p dir="ltr">He asked them to treat ET as if it were a human patient.</p> <ol start="3"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>The movie was shot in chronological order</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Spielberg wanted Henry Thomas, the actor who played Elliot, and Drew Barrymore, who played Gertie, to have authentic reactions when they saw ET.</p> <p dir="ltr">He knew that filming the movie in chronological order was the only way to achieve this.</p> <ol start="4"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong><em>ET</em> broke a record by staying in theatres for so long</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">The movie was released on June 11, 1982 and remained in theatres for over a year.</p> <p dir="ltr">It also comes as Spielberg did not want the movie released on home video to avoid it being pirated.</p> <p dir="ltr">Then five years later, the studio released <em>ET</em> on video tape and it sold a massive 15 million copies in its first year.</p> <ol start="5"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>Drew Barrymore ad libbed one of her most memorable lines</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">The first time Gertie saw ET, she said “I don’t like his feet”. The line was not scripted but Spielberg loved it so much that he decided to keep it in the film.</p> <ol start="6"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>Henry Thomas didn’t like being famous</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">The actor that played Elliot did not like being famous and felt like he was a circus freak. He did however go on to star in <em>Gangs of New York</em> and <em>The Haunting of Hill House</em>.</p> <ol start="7"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>ET’s name was due to be revealed in the second movie</strong></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Steven Spielberg and writer Melissa Mathison wrote a nine-page sequel titled <em>ET 2: Nocturnal Fears. </em></p> <p dir="ltr">The sequel would tell the story of Elliot and his friends being abducted by aliens. ET’s real name would also be revealed… which is Zrek! </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

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