E.T.: The Allegoric-Terrestrial

Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial is a film that everyone has heard of, if not seen. It is not the film that first put Spielberg on the map,  but it is one that recognized his mastery as it set the threshold for all family-oriented adventure movies afterwards. It is also a film with consensually acknowledged themes of Christianity, and E.T. has often had these themes dissected and subsequently appropriated for political agendas.

The critic Frank P. Tomasulo details one such appropriation in his essay “The Gospel according to Spielberg in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.” In this essay, he asserts that “ostensibly apolitical movies” like E.T. “simultaneously interacted and collaborated with their immediate sociopolitical circumstances, while also drawing on the timeless… images… characters,  and themes in an effort to efface all contemporary ramifications to the New Right and the Moral Majority.”

It’s difficult to deny the argument that E.T. has Christian themes because the movie is quite blatantly allegorical, though it never lets its biblical DNA hinder its valued entertainment. In fact, it’s even difficult to counter Tomasulo’s observations because they are seemingly obvious and his explanations are quite compelling, such as his analysis of E.T.’s plot arc in line with Joseph Campbell’s delineation of Christ’s plot arc (“Separation,” “Victories of Initiation,” “Trials of Initiation,” and “Return”). Though I begin to disagree with Tomasulo when he gets to his application of these observations. As I mentioned before, Tomasulo is pointing out that E.T. is supporting the current political regime during the film’s release (The rise of the Religious Right in 1982). He draws this conclusion through a resemblance of children before a capitalist nation like children before God. More specifically, he notes that movies like E.T. strive for “the infantilization of the audience, making us all children of multinational corporate capitalism.”

While I don’t necessarily agree with Tomasulo’s main assertion, I’m not here to disagree. I’m here to point out that I am exhausted by the extraction of allegory and the appropriation of certain images for political agendas, like the Christian themes of E.T.. Too often are allegories forced from stories that are something greater, and too often are there stories praised for their literary complexity when they are merely simple allegories. I understand the need for historicism, that this was a time ripe for allegory because the political landscape was shifting and people didn’t know how to feel about the change, and that the first thing a culture does when it’s confused is explore its mediums of entertainment for secret meanings and hidden answers. I understand that allegory is a necessary tool that functions to wake up an ignorant audience in times of crisis, but E.T. is so much more because it is lasting.

Allegory is a transient item. Sure, certain motifs of Christianity will persist for a very long time, but the use of these motifs are trivial for two reasons. One, with enough effort, nearly anything can be used to extract a biblical reference of some sort. Two, these extractions can be easily moulded and rebranded to suit the rhetoric of an era’s political regime or cultural phenomenon. For these reasons, it is more important to look at E.T. for its other attributes, its more enduring characteristics: most notably, its mythology. When looking at the adventure-filled movies for families, filmmakers and movie-goers alike have, are, and will reference E.T.  as an exemplary template of that genre. Will they remember the movie because of its Christian-fueled ties to a certain political era? No, people will remember E.T. for its universally understood coming-of-age story.

I’m not denying the allegorical ties that people like Tomasulo have discerned from E.T.. I’m saying that they’re not as important in the long run. Yes, it’s important when looking at a film over three decades old to keep in mind the political landscape and general mentality at the time. But as a 21st century viewer, I can say that the Christian themes in E.T. are not its most valuable assets.

Who knows? Maybe Spielberg had a very distinct intention when he incorporated so many obvious Christian themes. I like to think that they are so obvious because he is making fun of our tendency to elongate allegory. How else do you explain an alien ship exhaling rainbow exhaust? Maybe I just want my movie-aliens to be chance-visitors, not some messiah or harbinger of judgment day, descended from the “heavens.”
(Picture courtesy of http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/)