1. One of the themes that runs through the film ET is alienation.
This is evident in the film’s opening scene where we see a
slow pan-and-tilt of a star-laden black sky which gradually
evolves into an ghostly glow of subdued colour at its horizon
thus allowing the trees of a Californian forest to be seen in
silhouette. John Williams’ score is also significant here, as it is
throughout the film, building from a sombre outline of the
film’s fantasy theme played as a flute solo evoking a sense of
incredibleisolation before the sound of a harp invites the
other sections of the orchestra to subtly enter the soundtrack
just as the orb-like alien spaceship is shown on the forest
ground. The impact of this opening isthe successful
drawingout of an emotional response from the audience
through the way Spielberg sets up the atmosphere of the
film.

2. In ET we have already been shown a range of curious
contrasts which serve to enhance the apparent juxtaposition
of a ‘fantasy-realist’ atmosphere that saturates the entire
film. We have been shown a familiar sight – a forest – but in
such a way to make it seem almost unreal both in the eerie
sounds that preceded its appearance during the opening
credits and the otherworldly spaceship that we have now
seen to reside within it. This is further developed as we are
taken into the forest at ground level, the soundtrack again
opening up a strange difference from peaceful flute to
mildly-menacing organ. This could be read partly that the
world of ET is make believe and that as an audience the
other part of us really wants to believe in the magic that
Spielberg is laying out for us.
It is suggested in the film that the two main characters have
a telepathic link. When ET learns to speak thereis the
symbolic use of a ‘Speak & Spell’ as an interstellar messenger
and his long healing finger, the touch of God as its similarity
to Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam implies, which
persistently acts as a telling reminder of E.T.’s underlying
friendliness. It is its themes of communication that ring
strongest all the way through the film.
There is a lot of symbolism in the film. Here are many cleverly
disguised images: the ET spaceship is, at one point, a
Halloween pumpkin and, at the end, a Christmas tree
ornament.There is also lots of interesting Biblical symbolism,
including the use of the rainbow at the end to indicate the
peace between God and human. This could suggest that
the alien creature has been the catalyst to add the very
ingredient missing in the family's household: a strong center
capable of holding everyone together.

3. When Elliott and E.T. see each other for the first time, they
both jump back in fright and surprise, and let out yelps. We
see each of them from the other's point of view. When the
camera stands back to show a whole scene, it avoids
showing it through adult eyes. There's a moment, for
example, when Elliott's mom (is moving around doing some
housework, and never realizes that E.T. is scurrying around
the room just out of her line of sight. The camera stays back
away from her. We don't see her looking this way and that,
because it's not about which way she's looking.
The film more clearly identifies with many childhood
experiences: a troubled, broken family with a single parent
and no positive role-models, a lonely, disenfranchised boy
lacking emotional fulfillment, a boy's fierce caring for an
equally-lost, stray creature or pet (also 'broken away' from his
family), the need for friendship, the malevolent world of
grown-ups and the perils of childhood, miraculous healing,
wish-fulfillment, courage, transcendence, and homesickness.
This instantly establishes ET as a sympathetic creature.