The Influence of Revolutionary American on Steven Spielberg’s Films

The 1960s and the 1970s was an innovative time in America, as our country witnessed extreme cultural, social, political, and economic changes. Americans no longer expressed themselves conservatively, and sex, drugs, and rock and roll became the mainstream in our culture. Further, Civil Rights movements ended segregation in our country, protesters fought to end the wars overseas, and America’s space program became more sophisticated than Russia’s. As a result, many writers and filmmakers, such as Steven Spielberg, embraced these changes, and the influences of Revolutionary America were reflected in their work. Scientific, technological, and lifestyle changes during Revolutionary America not only advanced the American culture, but these changes were also the basis for Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Batteries Not Included, and Innerspace.

In the 1960s, America was fascinated with advancements in science and the exploration of space. Russia, formerly known as the USSR, was ahead in the space race, and they already had orbited the moon. However, no country had yet to land on the moon and to explore its surface. Drew Casper explained that on “July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their first moon landing” (20). This historic act pushed America into the forefront of the space race and had NASA working diligently on their technology transfers to stay ahead. During this time, this push also led many Americans to question if life existed on other planets in our solar system.

As a major filmmaker of our time, Steven Spielberg had always wondered if extraterrestrial life existed outside of Earth. Born on December 18, 1946, Spielberg grew up in a middle-class Jewish-American household. Since childhood, Spielberg had a strong interest in science and science fiction, and ironically, Joseph McBride found that Spielberg even resembled something otherworldly, such as E.T. During Spielberg’s school days, he would direct production of school plays, and Joseph McBride determined that by the age of 16, Spielberg began creating and screening movies at an amateur theater in his home. As Spielberg entered adulthood, he began to embrace the scientific changes occurring within America and applied these changes to his work at Universal Studios.

By the 1980s, NASA had tremendous success researching and exploring our solar system, and science fiction movies were extremely popular in America’s culture. Spielberg took note of the culture's interest in science, and he worked on three science fiction movies between 1982-1987. First, in 1982, Spielberg utilized America’s interest in science and the unknown and applied it when producing and directing the film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. The plot of the movie centers around the relationship between an alien and a 10-year-old boy named Elliot. E.T. is left behind in California when his fellow aliens are forced to leave in their spaceship. Elliot finds E.T. in his shed, and he then is able to lure the alien into his house by feeding him Reese’s Pieces candies. Throughout the movie, Elliot and E.T. form a bond so strong that E.T. appears to have taken over Elliot’s body. For example, when E.T. drinks beer, Elliot appears to be drunk. Further, when E.T. is sick at the end of the movie, viewers posited that Elliot may die. Nonetheless, E.T. finds the strength to recover from his illness, and at the end of the movie, the spaceship returns for E.T. and it takes off into the sky.

Additionally, Spielberg also embraced the culture of Reactionary America and applied it in 1987 when working as an executive producer on the film entitled Batteries Not Included. The plot of this scientific movie centers around an elderly couple who own a café in a New York City apartment building. A builder wants to tear down the apartment building, and he hires a man named Carlos to force the tenants out of the building by harassing them and vandalizing the café. However, to their surprise, extraterrestrial machines descend on the building and begin to fix all of the broken items. Quickly, the tenants bond with the little circular machines and they help the tenants to fight Carlos and to save the apartment after it is destroyed by a fire.

The plots of the films, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Batteries Not Included, are a reflection of Revolutionary Americans in several ways. First, the historical NASA event in 1969 stimulated American’s interest in space and science. Therefore, Spielberg worked on these two scientific films to allow viewers to determine whether spaceships could exist in parts of our unexplored solar system. Also, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Batteries Not Included reflected the culture of Reactionary America as many people began to report extraterrestrial activities across the country. Since Americans at that time began to take an interest in aliens and extraterrestrial forms of life, Spielberg’s work helped viewers to see the different forms of aliens and extraterrestrial that could be encountered both on earth and in space.

While the plots of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Batteries Not Included embraced America’s views toward science and aliens during the 1960s and 1970s, the film, Innerspace, reflected the technological advancements during the time period. Kevin Willoughby found that the “technological social movement rose to prominence in the 1970s” (11). Before the 1960s and 1970s, technology was still not that advanced, and many Americans relied on simple forms of technology, such as televisions and radios. However, Drew Casper found that by the late 1960s, computers were much smaller and faster, satellites were being launched into space, and the medical field revealed the creation of the magnetic resonance imaging machine. These advancements in technology would inspire Spielberg to executive produce the movie, Innerspace.

The technological advancements during Revolutionary America were displayed in Spielberg’s 1987 film entitled Innerspace. This science-fiction movie centers around a man named Jack who was injected with a pod that contains a shrunken man named Tuck. Tuck was supposed to be injected into a rabbit, but the experiment was thwarted by scientists trying to steal the technology. Nevertheless, Tuck and Jack begin to communicate, and Tuck is then transferred into the body of his ex-girlfriend named Lydia. Tuck is able to see that Lydia is pregnant, and after Tuck is transferred back to Jack, he is able to finally escape his body and return to his original size.

The technological advancements of Revolutionary America helped to innovate technological equipment in both laboratories and in workplaces. The film, Innerspace, reflected these technological advancements by hypothesizing what it would be like for a human to be injected into another human through an experimental device. Further, technological advancements were also displayed in the film, Batteries Not Included, as little robot was shown flying through the air as they fixed broken items. However, in Batteries Not Included, the extraterrestrial robots reflected a time when Americans thought that robots would eventually take over and control the everyday activities of their lives.

Reactionary America not only changed science and technology in America’s culture, but lifestyle changes were also impacting the country’s culture. In the 1940s and the 1950s, the typical household contained one male father figure, one female mother figure, and several children. The father and mother were married, and they waited until marriage to have sexual relations and children. However, during the 1960s and the 1970s, Americans were embracing the feminist movement, and many women now decided to become single mothers or to cohabitate with their significant others. According to Drew Casper, “some people did not get married but cohabitated under one roof, some unmarrieds even had kids, and others kept marriage at bay, embracing the single life” (24). These changes in the lifestyle of Americans not only changed the makeup of households across the country, but it also influenced the way that Spielberg portrayed the lifestyles of his characters in his films.

The changes in lifestyles and in households in Revolutionary America were apparent in the film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. In the film, Elliot lived in a house with his mother, older brother, and his sister. Throughout the movie, there is no mention of Elliot’s father, and a father figure does not appear in any of the scenes in the movie. Therefore, it can be posited that Spielberg applied the radical lifestyle changes of the 1960s and 1970s when working on this film, as many households were now being run by a single mother.

Additionally, radical lifestyle changes were evident in the film Batteries Not Included. In this movie, Spielberg had a culturally diverse cast living in separate apartments under one roof. Each tenant has a different lifestyle; however, by the end of the movie, the tenants respected and embraced each other’s lifestyle. For example, while the Riley’s are a traditional elderly married couple, they become friends with Elizabeth, who is a pregnant woman that lives alone. Interestingly, the lifestyles of the characters in Batteries Not Included differed from those in the film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial since the characters in this film had more diverse ethnicities, jobs, and living arrangements. In contrast, the characters in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial portrayed a typical single parent Caucasian household in the suburbs. In all, the diversity of characters and their lifestyles in Batteries Not Included can be traced back to cultural and societal changes that embraced America during the 1960s and 1970s, as the traditional family from the past was not presented in this film.

Finally, cultural changes in America were also reflected in Spielberg’s movie titled Innerspace. In this film, Tuck is a single male that has been injected into Jack’s body in an experiment that has gone wrong. Jack enlists the help of Tuck’s ex-girlfriend named Lydia to help him rid his body of the pod that contains Tuck. Ironically, Jack and Lydia kiss and this sends Tuck into Lydia’s body. The film then shows Tuck encountering his unborn child, who he must have conceived with Lydia before they ended their relationship.

The impact of Reactionary America definitely influenced the plot of this film, as movies in the 1940s and 1950s did not portray estranged and unmarried couples having children. However, the radical lifestyle and household changes of the 1960s and 1970s made Spielberg’s characters acceptable and relatable. Although Tuck and Lydia get married at the end of Innerspace, single mother, Elizabeth, does not marry her boyfriend at the end of Batteries Not Included. Instead, Elizabeth realizes that the father of the baby does not care about her, and she forms a relationship with another single male in her apartment building.

To conclude, scientific, technological, and lifestyle changes during Reactionary/Revolutionary America not only advanced the American culture, but these changes were also the basis for the plot and characters in Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Batteries Not Included, and Innerspace. All three films were science fiction, and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Batteries Not Included questioned the existence of extraterrestrials in our solar system, while Innerspace reflected the technological advancements of the time period. Although each film represented different lifestyle changes and households, the characters are relatable, and the living arrangements in the films are widely practiced today.

Works Cited

Casper, Drew. Hollywood Film 1963-1976. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.

McBride, Joseph. Steven Spielberg: A Biography. London: Faber & Faber, 2012. Print.

Willoughby, Kelvin. “Technological Semantics and Technological Practice: Lessons from an Enigmatic Episode in Twentieth-Century Technological Studies.” Knowledge, Technology & Policy 17.3 (2005): 11-43. Web.