The automobiles arrive one after another as the camera tracks left, the sound of car engines and brakes accompanied by the sound of twigs and branches snapping.
The close up of the exhaust rattling and sputtering out fumes followed by the loud splashing of the men as the stride through the mud punctuates the comparisons with the aliens.
We hear the loud jangle of keys and suspect they’ll be used to lock things up. Alien things. But the music plays a motif similar (if deeper) to ET’s.
We get legs, silhouettes, but no faces. These are inhuman humans. The payoff will come later.
The cuts are no longer smooth, the feeling of connectedness has gone. Now we get sharper cuts. When Spielberg uses long shots here they are abrupt and often used to reveal ET, a revelation of contrasts not of association.
Inevitably it is his glowing red heart that gives him away (hide and seek must have never taken off on their planet full of naked, glowing, beings).
ET runs through the high grasses, part of nature, just like velociraptors will do later in Spielberg’s career. But here nature is good, it is benevolent, only later will the dinosaurs reveal nature’s malevolence.
ET’s high-pitched squeal a sound full of fear. The music intensifies, gets louder, repeats its themes.
At first, we see the tops of plants move to indicate ET’s escape but later we see the run from his POV, a red glow on the green of the ferns.
A wide shot reveals the contrast. ET’s red a straight arrow, one with nature. The humans torch lights, miniature search lights, crossing each other, bouncing, tumbling, chaotic.
The sounds are in competition as much as the lights: ET’s panicked grunting, the chase’s keys and heavy breathing.
The cuts are faster now as the gangplank is raised. POV, tracking, wide, profile. Shot after shot after shot as the parallel editing of three locations adds to the tension.
The music reaches a crescendo as the humans, and then ET, watch the spaceship take off. Like ET the craft leaves a momentary red glow on the ferns. ET’s connection with his people fades with the light in his chest.
The humans, torches in hand, dominate the frame in a way the aliens from earlier did not. The aliens were part of the foliage, the humans impose themselves on the foliage, framed not with a tree but a broken fence.
The final image is of suburbia at night time. ET had noticed, was taken aback by its lights, like stars from the opening shots, but the humans didn’t even glance in its direction.
We cut to Elliott’s home, drive way like a gangplank leading up to the front door.
CinÉireann / February 2018 21
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