E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Director Steven Speilberg

Spielberg's "instant classic" was the hit, and provided the catchphrase ("ET. 'phone home") of 1982. In Spielberg's previous film, Raiders of the Lost Ark he attempted to return to a child-like joy in film-making. In E.T. children provide the film's focus. Eliot, the film's (human) hero has an absentee father and a mother who works, leaving an empty house in which large parts of the film are set. Adults do not really feature in the action until near the end, and even then, through the police and government workers out to capture E.T., they represent some sort of malign force, corrupting the innocence of E.T. and the children.