12 Things You Probably Never Knew About E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
3. Spielberg Re-Edited The FIlm To Fit The Score
Spielberg
and his long-time musical collaborator John Williams have combined to create
some of the most hair-raising, spine-tingling moments in the history of modern
cinema, though the legendary composer has admitted that creating the music for
E.T. was no easy task. Williams found generating a score that was intended to
create sympathy for such an odd-looking creature a challenge, though Spielberg
loved every piece of music he created and wanted to use it all in the movie.
The trouble was, no matter how many times they tried, they just couldn’t get the music that was intended for the chase scene to fit what was happening on screen. In the end, Spielberg decided that this music was so important to the scene that he would re-edit the entire thing around Williams’ composition.
The score itself was praised in its entirety, with Williams getting around the problem of E.T.’s appearance with a modernist approach that employed polytonality (two different keys being played simultaneously) to great effect. A lot of the score was created with so-called colouristic instruments such as the harp, piano and keyboard, all of which ultimately emphasise E.T.’s childlike nature and reflect the tone of the movie perfectly.