Legendary director Steven Spielberg spoke out against the idea of revising old films to fit modern narratives. Spielberg spoke to TIME, saying that he believes that revising old art to fit the sensibilities of a modern audience is “sacrosanct.”
The director even admitted that he made a mistake when censoring guns out of his 1982 film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. He spoke about this to TIME, saying:
“That was a mistake; I never should have done that because 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 adhere to.”
Spielberg explained that he was worried that a scene showing federal agents approaching children with guns drawn may evoke fear in some of the audience. Regardless of the, he wished that he had never edited the scene. Spielberg admonished the idea that offensive language should be removed from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, saying:
“Nobody should ever take the chocolate out of Willy Wonka, and they shouldn’t take the chocolate or the vanilla or any other flavor out of anything that’s been written.”
Spielberg noted that these scenes in movies and books that may seem completely inconsolable in today’s time work as an important window into the time that the art was created:
“All our movies are a kind of measuring – 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.”
These comments come just a couple of weeks the publisher of “Gone With the Wind” deemed the book to be “racist” and “harmful.” According to a disclaimer and trigger warning at the beginning of the book, nothing in the text was changed but readers should be aware of the dangerous ideas in the texts:
“‘Gone with the Wind’ is a novel which includes problematic elements including the romanticization of a shocking era in our history and the horrors of slavery. The novel includes the representation of unacceptable practices, racist and stereotypical depictions and troubling themes, characterization, language and imagery.”
“The text of this book remains true to the original in every way and is reflective of the language and period in which it was originally written. We want to alert readers that there may be hurtful or indeed harmful phrases and terminology that were prevalent at the time this novel was written and which are true to the context of the historical setting of this novel. Pan Macmillan believes changing the text to reflect today’s world would undermine the authenticity of the original, so has chosen to leave the text in its entirety.”
“This does not, however, constitute an endorsement of the characterization, content or language used.”
While Spielberg did not comment directly on this instance, it would seem that he is not happy with publishers’ constant desire to make old works match the current era, instead off being true to the time in which the art was made.
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