Ahead of the 20th anniversary re-release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 2002, director Steven Spielberg made a major edit to his iconic family adventure. In one scene in the film, there are police officers chasing children with their firearms in their hands. In order to remove any implied gun violence, in a time where it was much more prevalent than in the 1980s, Spielberg edited the guns out of the officers’ hands and replaced them with walkie-talkies. The award-winning filmmaker has since regretted the decision.
Videos by ComicBook.com
During a recent masterclass at the Time 100 Summit, Spielberg talked about the changes made to E.T. back in 2002. The director said that his views on the edit changed over time, and that he believes past film shouldn’t be changed, preserving the time of when it was initially released.
“That was a mistake,” Spielberg explained when asked about the edit. “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 to the face that the federal agents were approaching kids with firearms exposed and I thought I would change the guns to walkie-talkies. Years went by and I changed my own views,” he continued. “I never 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.”
This isn’t the first time Spielberg has shared this sentiment about his E.T. edits. The filmmaker said something similar back in 2011, assuring that future Blu-ray releases of the movie would be reverted to the original 1982 version, replacing the guns and removing the walkie-talkies.
Last year, E.T. was re-released into theaters for its 40th anniversary and given a full IMAX rollout.
