I remember another gentle visitor from the heavens, he came in peace and then died, only to come back to life, and his name was E.T., the extra terrestrial. I loved that little guy.
Posted on 11/04/2015 5:53:19 PM PST by Borges
Melissa Mathison, who was Oscar-nominated for original screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial†and also wrote “The Black Stallion,†died Wednesday in Los Angeles after an illness, her brother Dirk Mathison confirmed. She was 65.
She recently reunited with Spielberg to write the screenplay for Roald Dahl adaptation “The BFG,†which is in post-production. Mathison, who was married to Harrison Ford from 1983 to 2004, had two children with the actor, Malcolm and Georgia.
Mathison also served as associate producer on “E.T.,†which was produced by Kathleen Kennedy.
Spielberg, who worked closely with Mathison on the concept for the film partially inspired by his parents’ divorce, said in a statement Wednesday, “Melissa had a heart that shined with generosity and love and burned as bright as the heart she gave E.T.â€
On a DVD special edition of the 1982 classic, Spielberg described her contribution: “Melissa delivered this 107-page first draft to me and I read it in about an hour. I was just knocked out. It was a script I was willing to shoot the next day. It was so honest, and Melissa’s voice made a direct connection with my heart.â€
Mathison explained on the DVD: “I would write for four or five days in my little office in Hollywood, and then drive out to Marina Del Rey where Steven Spielberg was editing in a little apartment on the beach. I’d bring him my pages and we’d sit and go through them…It took about eight weeks for us to get the first draft, which was quite fast, I think.â€
She also wrote screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s 1997 “Kundun,†during which she started a friendship with the film’s subject, the Dalai Lama.
She had a particular feeling for children’s literature, adapting classic novel “The Indian in the Cupboard†for Kennedy-Marshall Productions. She also wrote screenplays for “The Escape Artist,†a segment in the “Twilight Zone†movie as well as the TV movie “Son of the Morning Star.â€
Mathison was born in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.
Is Free Republic working on the quotes problem?
After the movie I had to teach my children that the way that boy treated his mother was not going to be allowed in my house.
I’ll one-up you. I may be the only person in the world who never saw it.
I was in high school when it came out. My mom was bugging me to go see it and I refused.
“The beauty of E.T. is how it captured the idyllic essence of childhood. It was a snapshot of what America was, and should be still, until the Left completely ruined it.”
Actually, ET was among the things that the left used to ruin our country.
ET was like an empty suit of a movie.
It was about nothing and had no real meaning.
Beyond being an empty suit, it also was one of many Trojan horses foisted upon us over the last 50 years.
The only things it did was contribute to the normalization of children being exposed to and using vile foul imagery in language and insults. It also put out some false pseudo mystical nonsense having to do with belief in flying saucers and little green men, as with Close Encounters.
It was definitely part and parcel of our degeneration. Empty yet falsely “deep” with coarseness and vulgarity introduced to a captive audience and cast as the new normal.
No redeeming social value at all. Pretty typical of all Speilberg’s oeuvre. completely void of any reason to be or meaning. His best movies are the works for hire, TV stuff like Columbo or Duel and Raiders. He is technically a great filmmaker, he knows how to make movies. But, any movie he has a creative hand in shaping, where he is the auteur, is empty as a network news anchor’s head.
I saw the Black Stallion as a kid when we always on Saturdays went to the new, usually Disney, movie that was at the mall cinema.
The Black Stallion was one of them. I don’t remember that much if it, but I do remember it being one of those movies that made me uncomfortable. There was something about it that was unpleasant and caused unease.
I think it was both due to the story and the directing.
No, you are not
ET was empty garbage.
All sizzle no steak and what little substance it had was yucky.
I always saw a lot of Poltergeist in ET and vice versa.
CE3, ET and Poltergeist (which wasn’t formally a Spielberg film) I see as a trilogy if sorts.
What would have been kitschy smaltzy b movies all gussied up to be the main attraction, made out as something of substance.
The only substance was introducing, to many, and mainstreaming, kooky folk and spiritual beliefs.
That was quite a rant. E.T. was about the emotional experience of childhood. It documented that as artfully as any popular art has...at least since the great Disney features like Pinocchio and Bambi to which it had been compared. It’s also a Christian metaphor.
“Nope just another case of a wife getting older and her husband found he just couldn’t live with anyone “that old” so went for someone his mental age rather than his actual age”
You’d be wrong about that assessment. Calista is a very mature woman, and if you ever saw them together you’d know she is not some young, childish bimbo, but a very mature and responsible adult that compliments his lifestyle.
You have no idea why he and his first wife split.
She turns 51 next week.
So? 51 isn’t a child.
I was stating that in support of your point.
I remember another gentle visitor from the heavens, he came in peace and then died, only to come back to life, and his name was E.T., the extra terrestrial. I loved that little guy.
I disagree.
Analysis is better term than rant.
ET is not even close to being the worst Disney movie, much less Bambi or Pinocchio.
It was empty. It in no way captured the emotional experience of child hood, but it did seek to simulate it. There is a big difference between capturing and simulating.
Using Christ metaphors is an easy way to subliminally engage American audiences.
And he was found in a toolshed (manger) and had the power to heal...
Obviously, it deeply moved millions in a way that no film had for a long time before that. So the distinction between simulate and capture (whatever that may be) is irrelevant. Films about children hadn’t been popular for about 20 years before E.T. C.E. and E.T. have the mopst in common with the fiction of Ray Bradbury - who regarded both as among the greatest films ever made.
Ray Bradbury was always a great enthusiast and could find something good about just about anything.
Ray Bradbury wasn’t all that, he was great in his own way, yet nothing Spielberg has ever done holds a candle to Bradbury’s weakest.
Different medium, I know.
I don’t think your assertion that films about children were not popular holds true.
I also don’t see the relevance of that claim to whether or not ET is a good movie.
The more I think about ET, the more I remember it’s ludicrousness.
On another note, did she also not write the screenplay for Seven Years in Tibet? I give her credit for that and it’s ambition and relevance. But, it unfortunately did turn out to be a failed movie ultimately. It was not compelling. An A for effort.
Correction.
She wrote Kundun, which I have the exact same observation of as Seven Years.
Definite A for effort on Scorcese’s part. But I think he failed even more than did Seven Years.
I wish both those movies had been good and big hits.
Sadly, their legacy is Kissinger brokering understandings between movie companies and the Communists about how to self censor movies if they want to be in the China market.
“The only movie I am more mystified about people liking is Dirty Dancing.”
Yes.
Teen aged girls liked it and they can drive a movie’s success.
She died in Los Angeles according to the reports.
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