Steven Spielberg recently opened up about making changes to his 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In the 2002 version, the guns were edited out and replaced with walkie-talkies. The director now reveals he thinks that was a mistake he should never have made.
The film was first released in 1982. It was a huge success at the box office, bringing in a whopping $435 million.
In 2002, a 20th-anniversary edition was released, but it wasn't quite like the original.
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In a move that surprised many viewers, the special edition was released without guns. Instead, the firearms that appeared in the original film were replaced with walkie-talkies.
The original scene showed police with guns chasing young kids as the officers tried to apprehend E.T. and those helping him escape. Apparently, replacing the guns with walkie-talkies was a way of being more sensitive to viewers.
But years later, Steven admits that the revision was a mistake. And many agree with him.
"I should have never messed with the archives of my own work, and I don’t recommend anyone do that," he shared. "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.”
Fans of the original movie didn't hesitate to share their responses to the remake.
"In the 1982 version of ET, cops with pistols and shotguns try to stop the boys and E.T. from escaping; in the 2002 version the guns have been digitally replaced with walkie-talkies," one person tweeted. "So stupid."
This goes down as a lesson learned for Steven, and by admitting to his mistake, he hopes to encourage others not to change their original work. "No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through."
