The one and only Steven Spielberg participated in a masterclass at the Time 100 Summit recently, with the video going online this morning.
As part of the event, he revealed he regrets editing guns out of his 1982 theatrical cut of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”.
The original film includes a scene of officers chasing young kids with firearms, but Spielberg edited the guns out for the 20th-anniversary release – replacing the firearms with walkie-talkies.
Now he says it’s a change he should never have made:
“That was a mistake. I never should have done that. ‘E.T.’ is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily or being forced to peer through.
‘E.T.’ was a film in which I was sensitive to the fact that the federal agents were approaching kids with firearms exposed, and I thought I would change the guns into walkie-talkies… Years went by, and I changed my own views.
I should have never messed with the archives of my own work, and I don’t recommend anyone do that. All our movies are a kind of a signpost of where we were when we made them, what the world was like, and what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there. So I really regret having that out there.”
Spielberg most recently directed “The Fabelmans” which was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture and best director. He’s next doing a remake of Steve McQueen’s 1968 action-thriller “Bullitt”.
Source: Time 100
