Steven Spielberg Regrets Editing Guns
Out of ‘E.T.,’ Says ‘No Film Should
Be Revised’ for Today’s Standards:
‘That Was a Mistake’
Variety,
by
Zack Sharf
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
4/26/2023 8:49:26 PM
Steven Spielberg participated in a master class at the Time 100 Summit and announced he regrets editing guns out of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” The film’s 1982 theatrical cut includes a scene of officers chasing young kids with firearms. Spielberg edited the guns out for the 20th anniversary release of the film and replaced the firearms with walkie talkies.
“That was a mistake,” Spielberg said. “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 that I was sensitive
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Californian 4/26/2023 9:31:25 PM (No. 1457184)
If only the rest of Hollywood, our politicians, corporate leaders, school boards and everyone else could figure out woke=stupid.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 4/26/2023 10:05:24 PM (No. 1457197)
Then undo it, knucklehead.
21 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
formerNYer 4/26/2023 10:30:16 PM (No. 1457210)
woke = broke - see BB&B, Budweiser, et al.
3 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Namma 4/26/2023 10:44:31 PM (No. 1457217)
Awe. That’s a shame Stevie. A missed opportunity to show nasty ruthless uncaring police with guns chasing little innocent kids.
Dang. You’ll have to remake the movie!
4 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Heraclitus 4/26/2023 10:58:16 PM (No. 1457223)
Nor should books (including children's books) or plays, poetry, anything else which is artistic product of someone's mind (soul, too, i think), and including fine art, etc etc etc.
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
caljeepgirl 4/26/2023 11:31:13 PM (No. 1457231)
Thanks for posting this, OP! I'm absolutely delighted that Spielberg now feels this way. Better late than never! To my mind, Mr. Spielberg has given us many wonderful, wonderful gifts with his amazing repertoire!!
And as far as E.T. is concerned, IMO best children's movie since the Wizard of Oz!!!
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Newtsche 4/26/2023 11:47:02 PM (No. 1457234)
Never wanted to see "ET" so I haven't.
The title character was remarkably unappealing.
It's easy for Spielberg to question his re-edit, knowing the original is easily available.
Double pandering, don't throw your shoulder out patting yourself on the back, Steve.
9 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
snakeoil 4/27/2023 12:16:01 AM (No. 1457238)
Not to go off topic but many movies have two sound tracks. One if for DVDs, cable and theatres and has the dirty language. The other has clean language and is used for broadcast tv. The FCC regulates broadcast but not the other stuff.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
carpathia 4/27/2023 3:01:54 AM (No. 1457283)
How heroic! First you do it. Then you publicly regret it as if your true intention isn’t to not lose an audience. Pathetic.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/27/2023 3:12:06 AM (No. 1457288)
Spielberg is one of the smarter dummies in hollywood. At least he was big enough to admit a mistake, unlike Alec Baldwin.
5 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Highlander 4/27/2023 3:29:42 AM (No. 1457291)
Since I don’t, and never did, believe this alien nonsense, I sat through this silly movie because my kids wanted to see it. Of course, I remember almost nothing of it. The cops might as well be carrying bouquets of daisies for all I cared.
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
5 handicap 4/27/2023 6:01:32 AM (No. 1457343)
Spielberg is now sucking up to the real people who despise his overwhelming "Wokeness". Effem and all he values!
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
pixelero 4/27/2023 7:32:48 AM (No. 1457394)
For years, I thought that Spielberg got the shaft. He should’ve gotten an Academy Award long before he did.
Having said that, he kind of lost me editing the guns out of, “E.T.” That, and, unfortunately, raising a daughter who determined she would be a porn star, sort of led me to write him off; one feels sorry for the guy, but obviously his values were inverted, exchanging boring but serviceable American bourgeois for Hollywood gross.
Yet better late than never.
To see that historicism is a bad policy, for art, politics, and culture in general is an unqualified good.
When Spielberg starts advocating the restoration of Confederate heroes to the public square not because they’re racist but because they are an indelible component of American history, and a symbol of our exceptionalism rather than of our national sin, he will wholly rehabilitate himself.
…Although “Lincoln,” (2012) was a pretty good movie, ostensibly about the Civil War, making almost $300MM on a $65MM production budget.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
zoidberg 4/27/2023 11:00:17 AM (No. 1457594)
I had heard years ago that it was Drew Barrymore who begged Spielberg to take the guns out of E.T.
1 person likes this.
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