Like Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail, Steven Spielberg has finally seen the light.
This week, the filmmaker said onstage at the Time100 Summit that he regrets editing the guns out of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and digitally swapping them with walkie-talkies for the 20th anniversary re-release in 2002.
“That was a mistake,” a repentant Spielberg said of his misguided attempt to reduce the ending’s peril.
“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.”
Mea culpa, mea culpa!
Sorry Steve may have arrived at this obvious conclusion 21 years too late, but he’s absolutely right.
It’s ludicrous, not to mention historically destructive, to endlessly rework old art because of society’s ever-changing mores.
How refreshing it is to hear a director of his stature and popularity publicly acknowledge this self-righteous censorship trend for what it really is: completely cuckoo.
Back when Spielberg first wielded his egomaniacal eraser, overarching directorial revisions were deservedly mocked and ridiculed by comedians and satirists.
George Lucas had recently shoved a pointless singing alien into a re-release of “Return of the Jedi” and changed the actor playing the ghost of Anakin Skywalker to the “Star Wars” prequels’ Hayden Christiansen, among other insane redos.
Delectably going after both Lucas and Spielberg’s foolishness, a 2002 episode of “South Park” saw the boys fight to prevent the filmmakers from mangling “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
But the obsession with reshaping works of art has turned from silly to serious.
Now, more and more movies, books and other entertainments have, by both sides of the aisle, been lumped into the rancor of politics with endless calls for puritanical bannings, woke edits, trigger warnings and a slew of social-media-mob-appeasing concessions.
Some of the lunacy:
Recently, a trigger warning was put before Margaret Mitchell’s 87-year-old book “Gone With the Wind” that has already been adapted into one of the most popular movies of all time.
Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels — chock-a-block with death and sex — have had now-racist words changed to show more sensitivity.
The word “fat” was removed from Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
What exactly does this holier-than-thou rigmarole achieve during a time when social media is more vulgar, offensive and foul-language-filled than any novel or film or live stage show could ever hope to be?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Isn’t it better and simpler to choose to not read, watch or attend something instead of hacking away at it like a self-appointed minister of propaganda?
In any case, it’s a relief that the influential director of “Jurassic Park” has emerged as a rare voice of sanity.
Spielberg also said, “For me, it is sacrosanct. It’s our history, it’s our cultural heritage. I do not believe in censorship in that way.”
From your “Jaws” to God’s ears.
