People of Earth! We come in peace!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we listen to scores from films about benevolent extra-terrestrials. Friendly E.T.’s have been out of fashion now for quite some time. We seem to be mired in some neo-‘50s zeitgeist, as far as paranoia and invaders are concerned. But that certainly wasn’t the case back in 1982, when Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” almost singlehandedly turned everything on its head.

No more invaders from Mars. Spielberg would get to that a couple of decades later, when he remade H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.” No, during the Reagan Era, with the Cold War winding down and terrorism not yet so much in the news, cinematic E.T.’s were benevolent at best, or at worst, just trying to do their thing. They were there to be misunderstood and even imperiled by man until the warm, fuzzy, often poignant finale.

Spielberg had already explored the concept of the benevolent visitor from space, of course, with 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” But there was an ambiguity for much of the film as to what exactly the aliens’ intentions were. In fact, there is at least one sequence that would give a child nightmares (at least by 1977 standards). Whatever tension is generated dissolves in a euphoric finale, centered around the communicative power of music. Like so many films back then and so few now, “Close Encounters” doesn’t so much exhaust the viewer as leave him or her with a feeling of hope.

John Williams wrote the music for both “Close Encounters” and “E.T.” (winning his fourth Academy Award for the latter), and the two scores couldn’t be more different. In particular, he absorbs the avant garde syntax of composers like Gyorgy Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki for the eerier sequences of “CE3K” before reverting to unabashed lyricism for the transcendent finale. For “E.T.,” he takes a much more intimate approach for a moving story of friendship between a boy and a stranded space botanist. I admit to feeling mild dread when first seeing the trailer for “E.T.,” already thinking Spielberg had traveled this route before. Little did I realize that within a few weeks I would assess it as his masterpiece (John Williams’, too), as I still do today.

The “friendly” alien of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” Klaatu, may come in peace, but it is a message delivered with tough love. If mankind refuses to abide, his robot Gort will destroy the planet. At a time when Martians invariably meant trouble (1951), this was actually progressive. Bernard Herrmann’s score is one of his best, and certainly one of his most interesting. Always an eccentric orchestrator, Herrmann’s concept of extra-terrestrial music incorporates violin, cello, electric bass, two theremins, two Hammond organs, a large studio electric organ, three vibraphones, two glockenspiels, two pianos, two harps, three trumpets, three trombones and four tubas. Overdubbing and tape-reversal techniques were also employed. Now this guy was a composer!

Finally, Ron Howard’s “Cocoon” is one of the more worthwhile of the seemingly endless procession of extra-terrestrial films to be released in the wake of “E.T.” At least this one took a different approach by bringing alien forces into contact with a Florida retirement community with the unexpected result of rejuvenating its inhabitants. A modern take on the fabled Fountain of Youth, the film is a showcase for veteran actors Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Jack Gilford and Don Ameche (who won an Academy Award). James Horner’s score is much sought after by collectors.

People of Earth! Be there for the touchdown of friendly alien films, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6 ET. Or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

Klaatu barada nikto!