the film were representatives of the bureaucratic fed-
eral government, which represented a danger to the
alien and the boy who protected him. Other movies
with friendly aliens, such asStarman(1984) andCo-
coon(1985), quickly followed, showing that human-
kind could indeed get along with visitors from other
worlds. (Director John Carpenter’sStarmaneven pays
tribute toIt Came from Outer Spaceby reproducing its
opening sequence.) These films all featured people
coming to understand the unknown and to discover
that it was not frightening after all. They seemed to
resonate with audiences in the 1980’s that were tired
of the fear and xenophobia of the Cold War.
Further Reading
Bouzereau, Laurent, and Linda Sunshine, eds.“E.T.:
The Extra-Terrestrial”—From Concept to Classic. New
York: Newmarket Press, 2002. Collection of essays
exploring the making of the film and its impact
on American culture.
Freer, Ian.The Complete Spielberg. London: Virgin
Books, 2001. Exploration of the filmmaker’s life
and career.
Friedman, Lester D., and Brent Notbohm, eds.Ste-
ven Spielberg: Interviews. Mississippi: University
Press of Mississippi, 2000. Compilation of major
interviews given by Spielberg that gives a coher-
ent picture of his approach to filmmaking.
Powers, Tom, and Martha Cosgrove (contributor).
Steven Spielberg. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2005. Useful
biography of the director. Part of the Just the
Facts biographical series.
Paul Dellinger
See also Blade Runner;Empire Strikes Back, The; Film
in the United States; Science-fiction films; Special ef-
fects; Spielberg, Steven.
Europe and North America
Definition Diplomatic and economic relations
between European states and the United States
and Canada
Relations between North America and Europe in the 1980’s
were dominated by Cold War politics and by the agenda of
the American president, Ronald Reagan, who sought sup-
port from Western Europe in his aggressive resistance to
communism.
As the 1980’s opened, the hope that détente could
be achieved between Eastern Europe and the West
was all but dead. Ronald Reagan, the conservative
Republican president elected in 1980, appeared to
put the final nails in the coffin of diplomatic under-
standing when he took office: He denounced the So-
viet Union, calling it the “Evil Empire,” and he deter-
mined that the proper strategy for dealing with the
Soviets was not to forge arms control agreements but
rather to expand the U.S. military budget, hoping to
bring Moscow to its knees by outspending it. As the
decade progressed, however, the situation changed
dramatically. Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
instituted a program of liberalization and reform
that—together with Soviet worries over the Cher-
nobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 and the nation’s do-
mestic economic problems—eventually led to a new
era of U.S.-Soviet cooperation and, indeed, to the
collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the de-
cade.Reagan and Europe The attitudes toward Reagan’s
policies in the other countries of Europe were
mixed, although Washington’s leadership remained
firm. In the United Kingdom, Conservative Party
leader Margaret Thatcher had become prime minis-
ter in 1979 and stood firmly with Reagan in his anti-
Soviet attitude, as well as his conservative economic
policies. French President François Mitterrand had
less respect for Reagan. He once asked Canadian
prime minister Pierre Trudeau, “What planet is he
living on?” Even Margaret Thatcher once remarked
of Reagan, “Poor dear, he has nothing between his
ears.” Despite her condescension, Thatcher backed
Reagan’s foreign policy initiatives, especially in East-
ern Europe.
One of the major Eastern European concerns
among Western leaders was Poland, whose commu-
nist government was encountering organized do-
mestic resistance from the members of the Solidarity
trade union. Most North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion (NATO) members aggressively supported Soli-
darity against the communists. When Polish prime
minister Wojciech Jaruzelski sought to retain con-
trol of his country by imposing martial law in 1981,
NATO protested vigorously. Meanwhile, North
American and Western European bankers grappled
with the question of how to treat outstanding West-
ern loans to the Polish government, as Warsaw con-
sidered declaring bankruptcy over the crisis.344 Europe and North America The Eighties in America