A Few Words About A few words about...™ E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

So, is the moan back or not?

 

[BrettB]

The most gut-wrenching part of that sequence for me is the shot of Drew Barrymore when they use the defibrillator.  It's heartbreaking to see her reaction.
(And there's a full look at the shooting of that exact shot in the Toll footage)

That is an absolute killer. Poor Gert.
Thanks for the review Robert. My No. 1 film gets the RH seal of approval and it sounds like they did right by ET. Can't wait to get this.
One correction just because I've seen this probably over a hundred times... "This is reality, Greg."

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by BrettB /t/323941/a-few-words-about-e-t-the-extra-terrestrial-in-blu-ray#post_3979810
That is an absolute killer. Poor Gert.
Thanks for the review Robert. My No. 1 film gets the RH seal of approval and it sounds like they did right by ET. Can't wait to get this.
One correction just because I've seen this probably over a hundred times... "This is reality, Greg."

Thanks for the correction. I had trouble making out the word. It was fully uncompressed.

RAH

 

[Kevin EK]

I am preparing my full review for this title now, having gone through all the supplements.

The moan is actually more of a groan or a sigh, or even a death rattle. I am referring to the moment where, after the musical interlude where Michael tries to sleep in E.T.'s closet spot and wakens to the sight of the plant dying, we see E.T. let out a final noise and completely relax (his head falls to the side) before the doctors start trying the random medical approaches, including the aforementioned defibrillation. This moment happens in the morning, and not in the night scenes where Elliott talks to Keys and E.T. separates his connection from him.

The supplements are almost entirely from the 2002 DVD edition, with the "A Look Back" featurette actually being a distillation of the laserdisc documentary down to 37 minutes.

The "Evolution" featurette is intended to promote the 2002 DVD cut, including a lengthy section on the changes made for that edition and the new CGI work, as well as the change from the guns to the walkie talkies. This featurette also includes discussion of three deleted scenes from the movie. The first two were re-inserted into the 2002 DVD cut (and are included on the Blu-ray as deleted scenes in their entirety). The third one is the Harrison Ford scene where Elliott is taken to the principal's office and his chair is levitated. All of the scenes have Steven Spielberg talking over them to discuss his feelings about them.

The Blu-ray does not include anything from the other two deleted scenes presented on the laserdisc - the scene where Elliott writes on the wall of the school doctor's office, and the alternate ending that finds Elliott as the dungeon master of the neighborhood, with the E.T. communicator apparently still working on his roof. Those two scenes can only be found on the laserdisc, sorry to say.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Can't see why Steven would nix the full laserdisc documentary again for this. Oh well...

 

Thanks, Kevin! It's back!

 

[Marco Rosato]

One of my favorites... so happy to see it FINALLY come to blu ray... ET, you're coming home!!!

 

[Ransom Stoddard]

RAH,
Happy to see that Universal got this one right.

More like Spielberg and Laser Pacific.

 

[Kevin EK]

Actually it was Universal. With Spielberg's people checking the material and Spielberg approving.

 

[Duke23]

Talk of this reinstated moan got me thinking. I noticed its absence right away in 02. I recall reading about how Empire Strikes Back had different sound mixes back in 1980; ie. 35mm, and 70mm mixes. Could this have been the case for E.T.? It did have a 70mm blow up presentation. Maybe this moan was present in the 35mm mix but not in the 70mm as Empire Strikes Back had similar goofy mix decisions applied to it in 70mm that the 35mm did not have and vice versa.

 

Brad, I thought the same thing back when this happened. In fact, I think I may have asked that same question here in 2002. It's very possible. It's also possible that it was intentionally left out of the Special Edition mix, and mistakenly not used in the original mix.

 

Brad, I thought the same thing back when this happened. In fact, I think I may have asked that same question here in 2002. It's very possible. It's also possible that it was intentionally left out of the Special Edition mix, and mistakenly not used in the original mix.

 

[Duke23]

Yeah, I don't know. It seems a strange decision to be made if it was made intentionally. We'll never truly know unless we speak to the powers that be who created that mix for the 02 DVD. It was missing in the theatrical re-release mix when I saw it on the big screen in March of 02. I certainly recall that. I imagine that they went back into the masters and re-mixed the original elements in whatever form was wanted at that time before they put it back on the big screen and then those elements were ported over to the original feature DVD version. Knowing different mixes were done back in that era, missing the moan doesn't kill it for me really. But for those who are used to hearing it, I can see how that can be jarring. I don't necessarily see its exclusion as a mistake really.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I think I read somewhere around here they took the moan out in the 1985 reissue of the film originally. Never seen it as much of a deal breaker really.

 

[Scott Calvert]

Watched this one last night and fully concur with Mr. Harris. This is the best Universal transfer I've seen. And by best I mean it actually looks like projected film with no video processing artifacts I could discern. Perfect.

 

[Dave H]

I too watched it last night and thought it looked outstanding. I did see just a wee bit amount of edge enhancement or what appeared as such on some scenes, but it was not an issue at all and barely noticeable. I agree this is probably the best I have seen from Universal although I am not sure if they were responsible directly or not.

 

[haineshisway]

It's a perfect transfer. This is exactly what the film looked like, just a bit sharper (not EE) than the release prints were for obvious reasons.

 

[Dave H]

It's a perfect transfer. This is exactly what the film looked like, just a bit sharper (not EE) than the release prints were for obvious reasons.

How would you explain some of the very slight halo'ing in some scenes? Optical aberration? Perhaps. I didn't see this on Raiders, but also saw a trace of it on Jaws. My set is a 65" ISF'd Panasonic plasma and sharpness test patterns are extremely clean. However, I do think this is a very minor thing and the disc looks excellent.

 

The 2.0 track is lossy. Would a lossless track have sounded better or would there be no difference?

 

[haineshisway]

How would you explain some of the very slight halo'ing in some scenes? Optical aberration? Perhaps. I didn't see this on Raiders, but also saw a trace of it on Jaws. My set is a 65" ISF'd Panasonic plasma and sharpness test patterns are extremely clean. However, I do think this is a very minor thing and the disc looks excellent.

Yes, I think anything that is being attributed to the transfer is, in fact, a product of the principal photography or the opticals.