MolaRam2 said:
Wikipedia isn't exactly the most reliable source. We all know Spielberg is the polar opposite of Charlton Heston after he changed the guns in E.T. to walkie talkies. Yes, Spielberg allows guns in his 'adult' films, but he unfortenately shys away from them in his family films. Most evidence points to Spielberg making KOTCS so anti-gun. Charlton Heston took his gun obssession too far, just as Spielberg has taken his anti-gun obssession too far.
FWIW, I've read (no, I don't remember where) that Steven Spielberg changed the guns to walkie-talkies to deal with a perceived issue in the story's narrative logic, and it had nothing to do with wanting to soften the threat - apparently, he decided after making the movie that it just didn't make much sense for the agents to suddenly be willing to use deadly force to stop E.T. and Elliott, since they'd had the scientists and doctors frantically working to try to save their lives just minutes earlier. One could argue that the agents would do things differently now that the alien and his human co-conspirator were out running around loose and all, but I can still see why it'd be a sticking point for someone. IIRC, Spielberg discussed this with Roger Ebert as far back as around the initial video release of the movie, more than a decade before making the alterations for the anniversary release, so it could well have been something that just bugged him for a long time. It's possible I'm wrong about this, though...
At any rate, there's more than enough gun stuff in his other movies that it just doesn't make any sense to talk of Spielberg taking an "anti-gun obsession too far." He incorporates guns and violence in a movie whenever it's appropriate for the movie. Something like
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial can have them but doesn't particularly need them, I think, and it doesn't much matter for that movie in the grand scheme of things whether there are guns in it or not, as far as presenting the movie simply as a movie goes. The one inarguable reason for keeping the guns there (and all other scenes the way they were before) is the importance of keeping the original version of the movie accessible because of its historical significance, and that's addressed by putting it out on DVD alongside the 20th anniversary revision, which Spielberg did.
