Hi all,

My all time favorite film is "Gods and Monsters." Great cast, amazing story, I thought (and still think after, oh, probably 8-9 viewings). To me, the main themes are friendship, love, and dealing with growing old.

Highly recommended drama, if you're into dramas.


>This is the first of what I hope will be a continuing series of movie posts from interested movie lovers here. You don’t have to be a movie scholar who can connect the dots from Griffith to Bunuel to Almodovar. (I sure can’t, even if there are any). You don’t have to offer a definitive judgment, thumbs up or down style. Just say what you think of the movie and why it engaged you or didn’t. It’s not intended as a debate or a contest, just a discussion among fans.
>
>I will get it started with “E.T.” If you had asked me 24 hours ago what I thought of it I might have yawned. Huge box office, obviously. Spielberg in his prime. (A Hollywood anecdote: Spielberg on the lot discussing a new idea of his, the rare case of the pitcher being the one who was being pitched. It got to be mid afternoon and they went over to the studio commissary to get something to eat. A worker there was closing up and said, “The cafeteria is closed.” Then he saw Spielberg and said, “The cafeteria is open.”)
>
>After so many relatively Spielberg free years “E.T.” was a fresh revelation for me. It works on so many fundamental levels. The opening is a bravura demonstration of why understatement can be your friend. For minutes, which are ages on film, there is scarcely a word of dialogue. Attention to detail. Perfect lighting and atmosphere. A mysterious visitor, some menacing force, unknowing innocence.
>
>I will not give away any more plot points or details other than to describe the family. The main character is Elliott, the younger brother who is the one who finds E.T. and befriends him. (His younger sister is played fetchingly by Drew Barrymore at about age 6). The mom is a character you are meant to like, and I surely did, keeping her family minus one together with a sense of humor and forbearance. One of my favorite scenes is when they are around the table and she suggests to Elliott that he call his dad and ask what he thinks about the “coyote.” “I can’t,” Elliott says, “he’s in Mexico with Sally.” Her face falls apart a little and a beat or two later so does a plate in the kitchen, not histrionically but in private hurt. It is not shot as high drama, nor are her words shouted from the mountaintop. “He doesn’t even like Mexico,” she says to herself, just short of crying. In a later scene she is backing out of the driveway, in response to another E.T. related plot event, and mutters under her breath, “Mexico.”
>
>Back to the point of this thread, which I hope will be ongoing, what is a movie you like, and why? Again, not expecting a scholarly discourse if you are not in the mood for that. Just when you saw it, what scene(s) or actors grabbed you by the shirt, and why it resonated with you.