Steven Spielberg: I shouldn’t have edited E.T. for modern audiences Hollywood director says classic works of art are ‘sacrosanct’ and he regrets the ‘censorship’ of his 2002 anniversary version Craig Simpson 27 April 2023 • 8:07pm
Steven Spielberg has spoken out against censorship of “our cultural heritage”, as he expressed his regret over editing guns out of the film E.T.
The integrity of works of art is “sacrosanct”, the director said, cautioning against changes being made to classic films.
Such works are part of “our cultural heritage”, he said, and should not be subjected to censorship to fit with modern sensibilities.
The American Oscar-winner’s comments come after the revelations that numerous classic works of literature have been edited to remove offensive terms.
For a 2002 anniversary cut, Spielberg had altered the footage to give federal agents pursuing E.T. walkie talkies instead of firearms, but he has recently admitted during an interview with Time: “I changed my own views.”
He said: “That was a mistake. 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.
“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.”
He added: “For me, it is sacrosanct. It’s our history, it’s our cultural heritage. I do not believe in censorship in that way.”
His comments come after Disney attempted to address contentious themes in its own back catalogue by adding content warnings over racial stereotypes to films such as Dumbo and Peter Pan.
Earlier this month, The Telegraph revealed that Penguin Random House had removed racial terms deemed offensive from PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster novels and added trigger warnings to the front of new editions.
Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Poirot mysteries were similarly purged of racial terms by Harper Collins, with entire passages removed.
New editions of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were also revealed to have been edited to avoid causing offence and the children’s works of Roald Dahl had been rewritten to remove terms such as “fat” and “ugly”.
An Agatha Christie novel/play from 1939. I read the edition with the title 'Ten Little Indians', dodgy enough, but the original was 'Ten Little N*****s', based on a 19thC minstrel song and subsequent children's rhyme. The murder mystery was even set on an island called 'N***** Island'(!) Apparently this was considered fine in the UK until 1985, but immediately altered to 'And Then There Were None' for US publication in 1940:
Was it appropriate to censor Agatha Christie's unthinking racism to avoid causing offence? I don't have a problem with it in this instance, though it would be useful to get the historical context if there was an explanatory note in the book for why the title was changed. Redacting whole sections is probably taking it too far.
If the change is prominently acknowledged for some thing like that OK by me, like the black Labrador in "The Dambusters".The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
An Agatha Christie novel/play from 1939. I read the edition with the title 'Ten Little Indians', dodgy enough, but the original was 'Ten Little N*****s', based on a 19thC minstrel song and subsequent children's rhyme. The murder mystery was even set on an island called 'N***** Island'(!) Apparently this was considered fine in the UK until 1985, but immediately altered to 'And Then There Were None' for US publication in 1940:
Was it appropriate to censor Agatha Christie's unthinking racism to avoid causing offence? I don't have a problem with it in this instance, though it would be useful to get the historical context if there was an explanatory note in the book for why the title was changed. Redacting whole sections is probably taking it too far.
Completely agree with you. The original material should not be censored. It's travesty grrr. I even agree with the previous poster that there should be something in the Preface or somewhere acknowledging the fact that times have changed. It's similar to the case of Russian ballerinas painting titles from 19th cent (I believe) in our galleries changed to Ukrainian ballerinas (eyes roll). Complete nuts. This is clearly taking us to burning of the books scenario .. goddesses forbid. The trajectory of fascism is unmistakable, unless stop is placed on it. Similar to the cases you highlighted recently regarding legal cases against environmentalists (apols I didn't comment, but thought about it).
I seem to remember it being referenced as a kid's rhyme in the book, going for the creepy use of something innocent in a murderous context. Of course you can question how innocent it is in the first place, and the weird infantilisation/othering of black people evident in the rhyme and other aspects of empire culture like golliwogs, black & white minstrel shows etc would have come from the adult world and absorbed by the children. I don't think Christie was consciously trying to target black people with the title. However that unconsciousness is what racism hides behind, revealed by the defensiveness when people are challenged on it.
Most seem to be racist stereotypes and it could be objected that the passages in question were simply descriptive of that particular character. Christie was well-travelled and observant by all accounts, so I don't see a problem with her essentially reporting what she saw. The issue, I suppose, would be what prejudices she brought along with her and how that affected her perceptions and subsequent decisions of what she chose to write about. Also missing from the list is the context of the quote, which could be from a character deliberately set up to be unlikeable. On the other hand, this is pretty cut & dried: 'By the way, when I said fair, I only meant fair for an Iraqi. I expect nurse would call that dark.’
‘Very dark,’ I said obstinately. ‘A dirty dark-yellow colour.’”
Posted by Keith-264 on July 18, 2024, 8:58 pm, in reply to "more examples..."
I read "Heart of Darkness" after watching "Apocalypse Now" and found that far from being a supreme prose stylist, Conrad wrote prose so glutinous that I could barely trudge through it. I read it again after I found out about Chinua Achebe denouncing the book as racist and didn't get the feeling that it was. He portrayed racists but I didn't have the feeling that he was endorsing them. I've never bothered with Christie and never will more from lack of interest than suspicion of racism (shown in your quotes).The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
I thought Heart of Darkness was racist in that it was embedded in the experience of the European traveller. You never really got to see the other side of the story of why the natives/local people might have objected to a steamer running through their territory, and it was presented as unexplainable violence and an oppressive terror from people it was impossible to communicate with- except through violence of your own of course, hence 'exterminate all the brutes'. Been a while since I read it, so may have missed something.
Fair enough re: Christie. I think she was technically very good at creating whodunnit puzzles, but if the genre doesn't appeal (it doesn't to me any more tbh) then there's not much reason to go there. Unless you really like the characters or something...
Posted by Keith-264 on July 19, 2024, 8:47 am, in reply to "Re: more examples..."
The last detective novel I read about five years ago was "Red Harvest", which had a splendid body-count but not much whodunnit? ;O)
I didn't see the racism in HoD endorsed by Conrad, more his grim amusement in the paradoxes and ironies of people who put heads on palings sneering at the locals. "The Siege of Krishnapur" (J. G. Farrell) is entertainingly satirical in its nods to HoD. It took until page 76 to describe an Indian as a person....;O)The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
I like Conrad...got a couple of As for my essays on him. Ended them with some quote like "In them days it was exploited ivory, today it is uranium". Something like that, inbetween the prof leering at my girlfiend at the time.
Re: more examples...
Posted by Keith-264 on July 19, 2024, 4:49 pm, in reply to "Re: more examples..."
Did his tail pop out?The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
on July 17, 2024, 11:07 am