# E.T. isn’t a great film but the soundtrack is still amazing (open spoilers)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies, music
**Created:** [May 17, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528 "2022-05-17T02:24:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/1 "2022-05-17T02:24:22Z")
Just watched E.T. again and I forgot how much the film drags, especially in the space suits operating room scenes. The scenes where Elliot starts teaching E.T. hold up well along with E.T. home alone and Halloween, but the rest of the film is a slog.
But that music (full disclosure, I played a suite from the music with my high school orchestra so it sticks with me) is still amazing. Just love that soundtrack.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/2 "2022-05-17T03:44:08Z")
Lousy movie. Barely makes the top 25 in AFI’s top American movies of all time. What a loser.
[https://www.filmsite.org/afi100filmsA.html](https://www.filmsite.org/afi100filmsA.html)
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/3 "2022-05-17T03:47:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Lousy movie. Barely makes the top 25 in AFI’s top American movies of all time. What a loser.
I didn’t say it was lousy, I said it wasn’t great. I know of the film’s historical importance and how big it was.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/4 "2022-05-17T16:06:16Z")
_The Rewatchables_ podcast just released their ET pod last night, and now this thread.
Will say, for children the film [holds up remarkably well](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-all-time-movie-moments/490783/81).
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/5 "2022-05-17T16:09:13Z")
Krush Groove was a better film.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/6 "2022-05-17T16:22:36Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Lousy movie. Barely makes the top 25 in AFI’s top American movies of all time. What a loser.
It is the classic ‘kids on bikes’ movie, but if you start thinking about it very deeply it’s actually pretty creepy; closer to _Poltergeist_ by way of the Farrelly Brothers than _Starman_ or _Cocoon_. The extraterrestrials themselves seem totally inept; barely mobile but incapable of concealing themselves, and despite the fact that the titular alien can propel children through the air with just a flick of his Rudolph-nose-tipped finger somehow couldn’t make it back to his ship before it summarily abandoned him to his fate to eat Reese’s Pieces, build an interstellar communication rig out of a Speak’n’Spell and some aluminum foil, and drunkenly mind-fuck a young child into molesting his classmate.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/7 "2022-05-17T23:29:03Z")
> [@dalej42](#):
>
> I didn’t say it was lousy, I said it wasn’t great.
But I _do_ think that is both a great movie and a Great movie. Especially compared to the brain-dead ADHD-paced CGI _crap_ that passes for SF blockbusters in the 21st century.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/8 "2022-05-18T03:30:27Z")
It is a good film. However, it was a terrible video game.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/9 "2022-05-18T04:43:08Z")
You got something against collecting geraniums from holes?
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/10 "2022-05-18T04:55:28Z")
Is that what that was? Although I loved my Atari, that game made _very_ little sense. More Dada than Digdug. More Picasso than Pac-Man…
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/11 "2022-05-18T06:25:34Z")
The game was a little more complex than I remembered…
> **[AtariAge - Atari 2600 Manuals (HTML) - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Atari)](https://atariage.com/manual_html_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=157)**
>
> AtariAge - News, message boards, rarity guides, game database, manuals, pictures, articles, links, and much more
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-t-isn-t-a-great-film-but-the-soundtrack-is-still-amazing-open-spoilers/964528/12 "2022-05-18T08:39:58Z")
Love this post.