Daily Dialogue — September 15, 2015

“E.T phone home.”

— E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), written by Melissa Mathison

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Minimum words, Maximum impact.

Trivia: John Sayles wrote a semi-sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) called ‘Night Skies’, about a group of hostile aliens that come to Earth and lay siege to an isolated farmhouse where a terrified family has barricaded itself inside. Spielberg decided not to go ahead with the rather dark project, but a subplot about the relationship between the lone good alien and an autistic boy inspired him to redevelop the concept as ‘E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial”. Interestingly, the idea of a family barricading itself in a farmhouse against hostile aliens bears a striking resemblance to Signs (2002), whose producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are frequent Spielberg collaborators (Kennedy also co-produced E.T.).

Dialogue On Dialogue: Subject. Verb. Object. The simplest form of a sentence. That’s what we have here:

Subject: E.T.
Verb: Phone
Object: Home

Three words, but a universe of meaning. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, the Protagonist wants to go home. Each of us has a powerful association with the very idea of ‘home’. We can relate to the little alien’s deep desire to be reunited with his family. Hence the power behind E.T.’s simple statement. A classic example of Minimum Words, Maximum Impact.

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