katic@sri-unix (10/25/82)
This was a letter to the editor in the Nov 82 issue of "Fantastic Films." (Get it if you want a good overview of Dark Crystal, among other things.) It is an interesting study in parallelism. I can't say that I agree with the writer (I don't), but I'll let you see for yourself. Katic (....!nsc!katic) ================================================================================ SEEING E.T. IS BELIEVING I think that one of the most important keys to E.T.'s popularity is the story base used for much of the movie. The story base is one of the most universally known stories in the world yet it is so buried in symbolism that it escapes conscious recognition. Through the last half of the movie I was impressed with a sense of familiarity for what was happening. The kids loved the movie. Even my 3 year old stayed awake. E.T.'s last line caught my attention in particular because it was so similiar to something I had read in the New Testament. That night I found in the last verse of the book of Matthew almost the same words as given by E.T. As my wife and I discussed this coincidence we discovered other simularities. The obvious ones were: 1. A night long vigil in "prayer" while the disciple slept. 2. A death scene in which the victim is voluntarily giving up his life, yet, you given the impression that those around him are killing him. 3. Entombment of body following death. 4. Resurrection. 5. Final ascension with similiar quotes. 6. The power to heal. Encouraged by these discoveries, we tried to work backwards chronologically to see what else might fit. This is how we found: 7. The last supper. 8. The sacrament. There were several things in the movie that seemed out of place or disjointed, such as the incident with the shirt. Just following the rather obscure last supper, Elliot and Mike were searching the garage for parts to make a transmitter. Elliot was acting for and speaking for E.T. If sacrament can be defined as an emblem that is partaken of to remember or honor another, then the shirt incident was an attempt at recreating that same type of emotion. "What about the frogs?", my wife kept asking. "How do thay fit in?" I dismissed it as not fitting the story base, but I was wrong. 9. "They represent the release of the sacrificial animals in the temple," she finally concluded. This was also an incident in which Elliot was acting and thinking as E.T. Four items out of sequence, out of context and rather obscurly related to the story base were: 10. Betrayal kiss. 11. Attempted healing of a sword cut ear. 12. Procession through the streets. 13. Elliot's mother's name was Mary. The next day, I was anxious to find anyone I could talk to who had seen E.T. to see if they were also enlightened on the true nature of the whole thing. Everyone I talked to could remember at least the general idea of what E.T.'s last line was, but no one had associated it with the story base. When I explained my theory to them, some became true believers and tried to find additional clues. Others were skeptical and expressed disbelief at what they perceived as an attempt to ruin a good movie. Checking in a dictionary I came up with the interesting fact that: 14. The name Elliot is from Elijah or Elias. Elias has several uses including that of messenger as in the case of John the Baptist. I did not catch the name of the quy with the keys, but if it wasn't a first name of Pete or a last name of Simons, they sure missed a bet. A friend of mine, by now a convert, pointed out that: 15. E.T. was first found in a brightly illuminated small building out behind the house. Some of the other clues that have filtered through are: 16. To the casual observer, E.T. could be described as a gluttonous man and a winebibber or at least a beerbibber. Elliot, on the other hand, if I remember correctly, refused the drink offered him. 17. The "fading into the crowd" trick when the mother looked into the closet. 18. Marching Roman soldier impression given by the men rolling the tube up the hill. 19. The sword in the side, represented by the electric shock stimulation. 20. The "centurion type" being first to officially acknowlegde death of the victim. 21. The "rending of the veil" upon death as the oxygen tent was opened. 22. The shrouding of the body. 23. Isiah refers to the Savior to come as one who "hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." Now this could all be just a series of coincidences, but knowing that it is the nature and disposition of the all movie producers to want to turn a profit, I feel that the story base would hardly be left to chance. If in fact E.T. was based symbollically on events in the Savior's life, then what will the sequel be based on? There aren't many people around who profess to have knowledge of Christ's activities following the final ascension. After all of this, I still think that it was a great movie. It helped us see past the veil of familiarity to realize anew that joy and fulfillment come through loving service to others. Pity the guy who got all emotional about the movie but when he went home that night he kicked the dog out of the way, grumbled at the wife for not having supper ready and yelled at the kids for being to noisy. He was not converted. Joe Thompson Mesa, Arizona ================================================================================ Did that guy see the same movie I did? What's next: The Church of the Holy ET?? katic (....!nsc!katic)
bmcjmp (11/01/82)
The guy with the keys was named in the credits as "KEYS". As in Mt. 16:18-19 "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;..." I found the article a fascinating study in parallelism, even though some of the points seemed rather forced. Many of them I missed entirely, although I managed to sense some of them the second time I saw it. I don't feel that the story was beholden to the parallelism; it did quite well on its own. The added interpre- tations provide an interesting sideline of speculation without the story being dependant upon them for it to work.
tas (11/03/82)
ET's glowing chest is reminiscent of pictures of Christ with his "Sacred Heart". Tom Skrobala
dave (11/03/82)
There was an interesting letter to the editor in the New York Times Arts and Entertainment section sometime last summer describing quite a few parallels between ET and the story of Christ. Some very striking connections.
kos (11/04/82)
#R:nsc:-23500:uiucdcs:10700020:000:106 uiucdcs!kos Nov 3 16:27:00 1982 Perhaps the sequel to E.T. will be based on "letters from Elliot" (whose name will be changed to Paul)...
mj (11/22/82)
#R:nsc:-23500:pur-ee:7000024:000:1968 pur-ee!mj Nov 7 00:36:00 1982 These parallels between the movie E.T. and the life of Christ are certainly interesting, and they may have been intentional. If they weren't intentional, I think you would have the basis for a very interesting discussion on the strange property of works of art that say more than they were meant to say. For example, a couple of years ago, I saw SUPERMAN II. Not a fabulous movie, by any means, nor a particularly important artistic accomplishment. But as my friends and I left the theater, we began to discuss some of the **ideas** that made the movie appealing. SUPERMAN II dealt not just with Superman and Lois Lane finally discovering each other, but with people's feelings about love, power, and the meaning of courage. The 'traditional' macho image of masculinity sees love for a woman as a weakness, but this DUMB movie shows us that the greatest strength of all is gained by avoiding the urge to destroy the forces that we fear most, and and to see love not as a weakness but as a great strength. Pretty heady stuff for a comic strip. I think that E.T. may have a lot in common with many other movies in this respect. The elation we experience because of a movie like this is not so much that E.T. is terribly appealing, or that it is full of 'deep' and 'important' symbolism, but that it is a human story that speaks to the basic philosophies that are the infrastructure of our lives. This serendipitous 'accidental' symbolism is the earmark of true creativity. Whether an artist makes a song, poem, painting, or movie, if the artist is using the intuition with the mind to create symbolism, some of the artist's personality and view of the world is bound to leak out unintentionally. On the other hand, a lot of this can be attributed to the observer who projects his own thoughts and emotions onto the subject, extracting meanings from it that were never intended. I'm getting a headache.... Mark Johnson decvax!pur-ee!mj