The Cinema Behind Star Wars: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — starwars.com

The influence of Star Wars and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is much more circular than many other movies we’ve tackled in this column, but is no less important. Before we talk about the film itself, it’s important to understand the context of the time of its release. E.T. came out in 1982, during the dark times of cinema between the releases of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Han was still frozen in carbonite, Darth Vader may or may not have been lying about his paternity, and Boba Fett was Public Enemy Number One for leading Vader right to our heroes.

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