‘E.T.’ was a film that I was sensitive to the fact that the federal agents were approaching kids with firearms exposed and I thought I would change the guns into walkie talkies… Years went by and I changed my own views,’ Spielberg added.

Spielberg previously admitted he regretted the choice in 2011 but now doubled down and said that other forms of art shouldn’t do what he did back then.

‘I 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.’

[At least he regrets it now. But Spielberg should have recognized the issue in 2002 when he edited out the firearms, which weren’t even pointed at anyone in the film anyway. Even at that time, Spielberg was an immensely influential figure in the arts, and his example did damage to the integrity of art as published. Has his pal George Lucas ever regretted changing Star Wars and the Han Solo/Greedo shootout, or even inserting more CGI? — Ed]