Even legendary directors make mistakes, and Steven Spielberg is no exception. In an upcoming Blu-ray release of "E.T.," it appears the DreamWorks maestro has made good on a promise to undo one of his more regrettable decisions.
Spielberg digitally edited rifles out of the hands of policemen chasing down Elliot and E.T. and replaced them with walkie talkies. Fans revolted, and Spielberg himself eventually admitted he regretted the decision.
"I was disappointed in myself," Spielberg said in September 2011. "I was overly sensitive to some of the criticism E.T. got from parent groups when it was first released in '82 having to do with Eliott saying 'penis breath' or the guns, and I thought [if I change some things] ... it was OK for a while, but I realized what I had done was I had robbed people who loved 'E.T.' of their memories of 'E.T.'" (The previous quote, from a discussion after a 2011 screening of "Raiders of the Last Ark," was pieced together from coverage on the event from AV Club and Slashfilm.)
At the time, Spielberg asked the crowd if they would mind if he released the original 1982 film in its entirety on Blu-ray. The crowd said it would not mind, and it appears as though Spielberg has done just that.
The Blu-ray will be released in October for the film's 30th anniversary. The guns are visible in the trailer below, at the 25-second mark.
[via Vulture]