Views and reviews E.T.: don't be put off

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DON'T let the fact that Nancy Reagan cried and Ronald Reagan praised its opumısm pur you on, пог n.. aff the fact that the centre of ET - the Extra-Terrestrial — is Hollywood escapism - but escapism which for once shows us an 'alien' as a friend who is not out to destroy the world as we know it.

The FT hefriends the small children of a "broken" family, whose father has gone off to Mexico with another woman, leaving the mother in charge.

This is why the children can relate so readily to his homes separated from who is senarated from "Home" is the first word he learns, and continuously repeats during 1L - 41- Mh- Lanner andina ine nim. ine nappy enuing comes when ET heads homewards - and one of the men pursuing him begins to relate to the mother (Dee Wallace).

This particular family home is obviously very prosperous. Many of their neighbours have swimming pools,. and they all have large houses.

Environment

-TENTIATIO ITO TIANO ITT STIA ment can director Steven Spielberg and his fellow director George .. Lucas ('Star Wars') create their "children's" films. They base themselves on the idea that children are 'innocent" and 'uncorrupted" by the harsh realities of life - in other Lovable space creatures, lovable children...

words, middle class. Such children - unlike the adults - can accept the ET without much problem.

The story would be inconceivable anywhere in the poverty and misery of the "'Third World' , where reality forces itself upon children in the form of hunger and disease. It could not even happen in the harsh surroundings of the black ghettoes of the big American cities.

But having made these criticisms, the film is a work of genius. Spielberg knows exactly how to hold our interest, at what moment to reveal the

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the film is a comfortable, 'middle American' family.

Tony Richardson reviews 'E.T. - the Extra-T