PC Spielberg digitally removes guns from "ET" DVD

Aint It Cool News ^ | 10/23/01 | Moriarty

[Behind Liberal Lines]

To make a long story short, it appears that Spielberg has gone in and digitally removed the guns from the federal agents' hands in the DVD version of "E.T.-the extra terrestrial."

The story can be read by clicking on the Source link above.

Spielberg supposedly did this because he thought the sight of federal agents bursting into a child's home with guns was too unsettling.

For some reason, however, the sight of it happening in real life at Waco and Elian's home in Miami wasn't so unsettling that Stevie-boy stopped supporting Slick Willie Clinton.

[11th Earl of Mar]

It would really be scary if those federal agents looked like Janet Reno.

[lowbridge]

bump

[Carlucci]

Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book called "The Ghost from the Grand Banks", that was set in the not-too-distant future.

The book was largely forgettable, but one thing that stuck with me was that, in the future, Clarke predicted a whole industry wherein movies will be digitally altered to remove any and all references to smoking. In the future, you see, we will have become so disgusted by the concept of smoking, that no one will want to watch an historic movie, unless the cigarettes were removed.

Funny how life imitates art!

[Sara Dorian]

He should not have stopped with the guns, but gone further and digitally removed everything from every scene.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

LOL

[tophat9000]

From http://www.dvdsewer.com/news/reports/et_edit.htm

Original: Law enforcement agents wield guns

Now: Guns erased digitally and replaced with walkie-talkies

[Behind Liberal Lines]

obviously it is his right. However, it says something about his mindset, including, but not limited to, his willingness to sanitize his own work and his hypocrisy (see earlier comments re: his support for Clinton).

Further, as a principal in Dreamworks, one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates in Hollywood, Spielberg potentially has the right to alter the works of other artists who work for Dreamworks.

In fact, some have said this has already happened. Gary Oldman, one of the stars of the Dreamworks film "the Contender" has charged that Spielberg used his clout to have the film's essentially nonpartisan script reworked to make the democrats saints the republicans evil hypocrites.

So, yeah, it's his right, but that doesn't mean we can't comment on it and what it says about the liberal Hollywood mindset.

[RetiredArmy]

I guess he saw the video of the ATF agents blasting their way into that little house in Miami?

[FreedomFarmer]

INGSOC Ministry of Truth bump.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

"Stop, or we'll call somebody on you!"

[Secret Agent Man]

The "original" picture never existed. It never did. I never saw it - we must fix you because of your lack of control over your own mind. (I LOVE BIG BROTHER)

[Liberal Classic]

Spielbergspeak. Guns doubleplusungood.

[Petronski]

...it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building...

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-four

[Atticus]

Re: Schindler's List (great film). Too bad someone can't re-do history and put guns in the hands of the millions of Jews who were herded like cattle to their slaughter.

[The Toad]

First they remove the single swear word in the video and now they violate the DVD. And to think I was considering buying it. I guess we have to stay politically corrrect.

And this from "Mr. Shindler's List" who totally ommited a critical part of the Shindler story--the fact that the Jews were stockpiling weapons for their fight against the Nazi's.

[Havisham]

If the only memorable line is "ET phone home" how significant or even watchable could this movie be? I thought it was ridiculous.

[jude24]

Can he do a better job editing this out than I did?? (I tried to edit out the gun, but that's really more than my meager Photoshop skills can do.)