Steven Spielberg regrets replacing guns with walkie-talkies in E.T.: 'I never should have done that'
Steven Spielberg still can’t get over the fact that he digitally tweaked a chase sequence involving firearms in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
E.T.’s original 1982 theatrical cut includes a scene of young kids on their BMXes being chased by firearms-packed federal agents. For the film’s 20th anniversary re-release, Spielberg digitally switched the weapons with walkie-talkies.
Not sure which scene we’re referring to? Maybe this will jog your memory:
Looking back, the Schindler’s List helmer wishes he’d left the movie alone.
“That was a mistake. I never should have done that,” said the three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker at Time’s 100 Summit on Tuesday (Apr 25).
“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.”
He continued, “E.T. was a film that 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,” Spielberg added. “So I really regret having that out there.”
Spielberg restored the guns in 2012 for E.T.’s 30th anniversary release on Blu-ray.
This isn’t the first time Spielberg has publicly criticised his own wokeness.
In 2011, Spielberg brought up the issue of recutting E.T. during a special screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark: “For myself, I tried [changing a film] once and I lived to regret it. Not because of fan outrage, but because I was disappointed in myself. I got overly sensitive to [some of the reaction to] to E.T., and I thought if technology evolved, [I might go in and change some things]… it was okay for a while, but I realised what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories.”
Spielberg’s most recent film, the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, was up for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It’s out now on iTunes.
At the Berlin International Film Festival in February, Spielberg said he had until the end of the year to figure out his next project, which could be the remake of Steve McQueen’s 1968 action-thriller Bullitt with Bradley Cooper.
Watch Spielberg’s Time’s 100 Summit interview below:
