There is one important opinion which says that Steven Spielberg's (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - 1982) defined the 1980s' cinema. I totally agree. Here, at the end of the era, you'd find some distinct popular icons of these innocent days: the believing in the dream and the clinging to it, there is a kind UFO after all, the greatness of the friendship especially between different races, the childhood is valuable thing in the human, and how the sense of miracle exists in our daily life.
Lovely days.. huh? Because for instance, after 2001, Spielberg himself would make (The War of The Worlds) where E.T. returns as the evil guy this time !
The thing about this kind of movies is that it shows the fairytale's sense of prodigy, however in the usual contemporary American suburb, where the middle-class characters live reality without much to imagine.
The best of (Guess Who's Coming for Christmas) or (UFO Café) was its dealing with the resistant neighbors, who consider dreaming an equivalent to madness. Let alone representing the lead, the middle-aged super cute (Richard Mulligan), as a friendly man who still has a childish spirit, still wonders, questions, and dresses like (Abraham Lincoln) in occasions. "At least, he knows who that was!" which's the most memorable line in the movie. It's so similar to another debate in another 80's dreamy dream (Field of Dreams - 1989). I loved too the scene in which (Mulligan) finds no solution better than (Ethel Merman) to escape from the police interrogation. There are no chases, hot thrill, or even big special effects. This one has a tender personality of its own. You'd love the ending too, it's so symbolic when it comes to the movie's core and its real message.
Else (E.T. - 1982), you have to recall the second segment of (Twilight Zone: The Movie - 1983), or movies like (Cocoon - 1985), (Batteries not included - 1987). Actually, they represent the era's lovely manifesto. As life can literally end if one stops dreaming, or how you become old already if you let your habitual reality beat you, and cancel your own incredible individualism. It assures that the dream is something out of this world (aka metaphorically: aliens). And if you give your dream much faith and fight for it, it may come true, and equal your love at the end, miraculously.
It's a delightful movie. One plain TV production that's perfect as my afternoon one. And I think it's kind of rare to find anything like it among the American movies or TV shows of today.
