ET is good.

The Paramount downtown (8th and Congress) does the Summer Classic Film Series every summer and it's probably my favorite thing about summer in this town. Saturday afternoon I saw ET. I'd forgotten how much I love that movie. It makes me cry about halfway in and I don't stop until the credits start rolling. It's the first movie I ever cried during while I was a kid.

One thing I noticed about the movie is how perspectives change. When I was a kid I was completely convinced the doctors and scientists were the bad guys who were killing ET. I guess as a kid I trusted the kid in the movie (Elliott) and totally believed him to be the source of TRUTH. As an adult, I see the movie and think the doctors and scientists were just trying to help ET, not kill him, and they didn't make him "die," it was just what was happening to him after he'd been exposed to our germs, been away from home too long, or whatever.

I loved the scenes at the beginning where the older brother and his friends were playing a game (although I didn't figure out which one) at the kitchen table in what looked like a smoke-filled room (really the kitchen with weird lighting). It reminded me of the 80s when I was little and used to beg my older brother to let me play with him and his friends. He never let me either.

One more noticeable fact: the mom left the little daughter (Gerty? Drew Barrymore's character - so freakin' cute!) at home by herself while she went to go pick up Elliott at school. Parents would never do such a thing today, right? But I distinctly remember my mom leaving me at home alone on Saturday mornings when she went to the grocery store. I couldn't have been much older than 4 or 5, so what gives? I guess kids now are more likely to set fire to their houses than we were. Or maybe they're smarter and know how to unlock doors and run out in the middle of the street. Beats me. Good thing I don't have kids.