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This is not the original motion picture soundtrack

! | yahoo chat: books and literature | 01/29/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I own the original motion picture soundtrack on vinyl. I bought this CD and was so disappointed I'm ready to write a letter to John Williams.



On the original: The Flying Theme; E.T. and Me.; Halloween; Three Million Miles From Home; Over the Moon; and a few others. All are priceless. Why? Because they are complete pieces that capture the mood of the original undoctored E.T. Movie perfectly!



On this new CD, you will find extended pieces that shift from mood to mood with all the wrong timing, just as the re-released movie has. For example, on the opening scene, the composer has added some really cheesy, sickening sliding scale strings that mirror the creepy humid inside of the aliens ship. You might as well skip that track! As for the fantastic Flying Theme, which has its own track on the original LP, you won't find it on the CD! It's sandwiched and edited in between chase scenes. Likewise, "ET and Me", which captures the mood of ET in the closet when he's hearing the Peter Pan story being read to Drew Barrymore, is gone. Instead its relpaced with several tracks that contained watered down and creepized versions of the theme. Finally, Over The Moon, on the original, seems to have survived intact, although it is renamed End Credits.



Seriously, if anyone wants this brand new 25th anniversary CD, don't waste your money. I'll mail you mine."

Can I Phone A Friend?

Tim Leininger | 03/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I first saw E.T. I hid in the crook of my aunt's elbow for the first 15 minutes and John Williams was a large part of it. The terror that was instilled in my little 5 year old heart was beyond my rationale as these faceless men chased E.T. with a cacophonous orchestra cranking up the intensity along with the chase. It wasn't until the much later VHS release that I could recall what happened in that scene visually, because I had my eyes closed. But I couldn't close my ears and the music said everything; "You are supposed to be scared. You should be running." Oh how I wanted to run.



Nowadays, being much older and much braver, E.T. is among my 10 favorite movies of all time and the score is in my top 5. John Williams gives us a score that swells with emotion to the bursting point. The whimsy (particularly with the nod to John's earlier work in Empire Strikes Back), the literally soaring beauty of the Flying Theme, and the 20th Century tension that follows the government as they try to track down our little hero.



The highlight of the score is the 15 minute plus "Escape/Chase/Saying Goodbye". I firmly believe that it's a gutsy move for a composer to introduce a new major theme in the last 15 minutes and expect the listener to respond to it, but it works. The 11 note motif is my favorite theme and it's what drives us from the children's escape with E.T. to the end of the movie. Every time I listen to it, I stop what I'm doing and devote myself fully to the music. If I'm particularly invested, when the goodbyes are all said and done and E.T. stands nobely at the entrance of his spacecraft, the ramp raising up, the iris door closing in on his fully restored beating heartlight, I have been known to get more than just a bit misty eyed.



Everyone should own this soundtrack. Even if you've never seen the movie, or have and didn't like it for some heartless reason, the music is inspirational, exciting, terrifying and downright fun."