The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

86 Brian Herzlinger
that world brought to life in a way that I didn’t have access to, in a way that
was tangible, something I could literally touch—it blew me away.
Tell me about your favorite scene.
Herzlinger: God, there’s so many of them. I’d say there are two moments
for me in E.T. where it all came together. The first one is not necessarily the
one that most people will talk about, but it’s the one that I really got a kick
out of as a six-year-old and as a thirty-six-year-old. When Elliott has his first
kiss with the young Erika Eleniak in the scene in the school when he’s letting
all the frogs go free because E.T.’s connected to them through his brain while
watching The Quiet Man.
Elliott frees the frogs and lets them go, and then you see the kiss on the
screen that E.T. is watching—and Elliott does the exact same thing. And
it’s basically match for match, move for move, to what E.T. is seeing. Two
moments within that scene that get me are, Elliott’s too short to kiss her.
And you have a kid who is crawling on the floor because he’s afraid of all
the frogs, and Elliott steps on the kid’s back to reach up to her to kiss her.
At that moment, which I think is crucial in any movie that’s gonna affect
anybody, John Williams’s music just blossoms in. He takes the score from
the quiet and blossoms it into that moment, and it’s a moment where everything
comes together. Elliott in essence becomes a man; he has his first kiss.
Right? This whole journey, I mean we’re talking about a kid who’s alone and
doesn’t have a father figure in his life. E.T. has given him this moment, and
they are more connected than they ever are.
Tell me about the second moment.
Herzlinger: The second moment is when E.T. leaves. It’s all setup and payoff—he
recalls the “ouch” moment, from when Elliott cut his finger on the
little saw. He associates the hurt that Elliott felt and the pain that he’s feeling
in his heart for having to say good-bye. And just when he says “Ouch” and
Elliott repeats it, they’ve grown enough together to know that when E.T.
says, “I’ll be right here.”
“I’ll be right here” is what Elliott says to E.T. to make him feel comfortable
in the house. This is the second setup and payoff within a minute; you
can’t get away with that in another movie, but you get away with that here