People were in the mood for ET in 1980 but didn't quite know it yet. Cimino wasn't the only victim of the carefree 80s happy happy idiocy that had yet to be fully unleashed. Ask John Carpenter. What really bugs me is that we were likely deprived of some great movies by directors in their prime, all because of a shift in the mood of the masses.
shareAre you talking about this in the context of 1980 being the beginning of the Hollywood Happy Era?
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"ARRÊT! C'est l'empire de la mort!"
Yes, basically the same mood that a bit earlier - thanks to Star Wars - contributed to Friedkin's "Sorcerer" film being an abysmal flop.
shareI've always thought that Sorcerer had some exciting moments but it's not really very well done in terms of storytelling & direction.
However, I do see your point.
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"ARRÊT! C'est l'empire de la mort!"
Some of those 'happy' 1980s movies were fairly well made, but I agree entirely that it really hampered a lot of interesting filmmakers' work. Yesterday, I rewatched Tobe Hooper's TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE 2 for the first time in 15 years or so, and I was thinking how interesting it was as a film and as a dark, carnivalesque/grotesque satire of the Reagan era - but how much it was damaged by Cannon's insistence on eliminating much of the subtext (the familial relationship between Stretch and Lefty) in order to focus on the saleable horror elements. Like you say, Carpenter was a victim of this era too, although he also made some of his best pictures during the 1980s (THE THING, which is kind of the 'anti-ET', THEY LIVE).
'What does it matter what you say about people?'
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958).
You have no idea what you're talking about. E.T. is a masterpiece in its own right.
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