Released in 1981, Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial touched the emotions and the collective imagination of moviegoers of all ages, breaking all previous box-office records to become the most profitable film of its time until it was ousted by Spielberg's own Jurassic Park 12 years later. Exciting, moving, thought-provoking and funny, as well as inventive and skillful, the film's importance, however, transcends that of box-office success or entertainment value.

Made and released early in the Reagan years, E.T. exemplified a shift in America's cultural values after the 1960s and 1970s, during which the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandals, and the Iran hostage crisis had convulsed the nation. The emergence, too, of the new youth culture that had accompanied these turbulent decades, had manifested itself in a new cinema that began with Easy Rider in 1969. With the onset of the 1980s, Americans were...