Censorship of Bond movies

zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
in News Posts: 4,311
Bond films are not beyond the influence of the huge Chinese market on artistic decisions, as this interesting study on the global film making industry lays bare:

"It is no secret that international films, when screened before Chinese audiences, are often missing content—that certain scenes, lines of dialogue, or shots will have been removed at the censors’ behest. This is the most obvious way that China’s censors exercise their power: providing an ultimatum to studios that certain content must be cut or edited from the master version of the film in order to be allowed at all before Chinese theatergoers. (...)
For James Bond’s Skyfall (Sony Pictures, 2012), censors demanded a scene be cut where a Chinese security guard is killed, as well as references to sex work and police torture. (link)
In a previous James Bond movie, Casino Royale (Eon Productions et al., 2006), actress Judi Dench revealed that she had to re-dub one of her lines for the movie’s Chinese release, changing “Christ, I miss the Cold War” to “God, I miss the old times.”(link)"

Comments

  • Posts: 1,879
    This list could go on and on. I'm sure they didn't appreciate Mr. Ling and his country's contribution to Goldfinger or Blofeld's using Chinese backers to begin WWIII in YOLT. Did they change anything about Wai Lin in TND?
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,372
    Chinese censorship is borderline cringe and it's a shame that Hollywood constantly caters to them because $$$.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 2,895
    Pity the British can't be villains in Bond films like we are in lots of others - we don't give the vaguest how we're portrayed! :D
  • edited November 2021 Posts: 526
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Chinese censorship is borderline cringe and it's a shame that Hollywood constantly caters to them because $$$. [/quotes]
    My thoughts exactly @Creasy47
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,000
    I wish we could see the original cut of DN where Bond shoots Dent six times.
  • FeyadorFeyador Montreal, Canada
    edited November 2021 Posts: 721
    There was quite a lot of censorship on American TV in the 1970s, where ABC-TV was just about the only place to see retrospective Bond films for many of us - and only four or five times a year at that. So it was always an event. I was so young (and fan culture being in such a nascent state nothing like what it would become with the advent of the Internet), I would have had no idea what was missing or what was changed from broadcast to broadcast. Only latter would I learn that:

    Scenes like the Chew-Mee encounter in TMWTGG were completely excised; love scenes including the post-PTS scene in LALD with Madeleine Smith were badly trimmed of anything 'suggestive,' or removed entirely; gay indicative references regarding Wint & Kidd in DAF were excised; and in all the telecasts double entendres were often cut; tame swear words like 'hell' & "damn" routinely deleted; the fights scenes chopped-up to make them appear less violent; and even the gunbarrels were sometimes cut out inexplicably; and much, much else ...

    All quite naive, even by the standards of the day. Only with the appearance of home video in the next decade would I learn how Bond films were intended to be seen in their entirety ...
  • Posts: 1,879
    Feyador wrote: »
    There was quite a lot of censorship on American TV in the 1970s, where ABC-TV was just about the only place to see retrospective Bond films for many of us - and only four or five times a year at that. So it was always an event. I was so young (and fan culture being in such a nascent state nothing like what it would become with the advent of the Internet), I would have had no idea what was missing or what was changed from broadcast to broadcast. Only latter would I learn that:

    Scenes like the Chew-Mee encounter in TMWTGG were completely excised; love scenes including the post-PTS scene in LALD with Madeleine were badly trimmed of anything 'suggestive,' or removed entirely; gay indicative references regarding Wint & Kidd in DAF were excised; and in all the telecasts double entendres were often cut; tame swear words like 'hell' & "damn" routinely deleted; the fights scenes chopped-up to make them appear less violent; and even the gunbarrels were sometimes cut out inexplicably; and much, much else ...

    All quite naive, even by the standards of the day. Only with the appearance of home video in the next decade would I learn how Bond films were intended to be seen in their entirety ...

    I was right there with you. It also took me cable viewings or home video to realize what I was missing, although you'd notice an abrupt cut here and the music cuts out. But you are absolutely right, it was an event, especially for those of us who only had 3-4 channels.

    The one edit I could never understand the reason behind was in TB when Domino says to Bond "What sharp little eyes you've got" and he replies "Wait till you get to my teeth." They cut the reply and still can't figure how it was offensive.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    I don't think I've ever really got that gag! :D
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,728
    mtm wrote: »
    I don't think I've ever really got that gag! :D

    It's sexual innuendo. Biting and passionate kisses come to mind for me. But then again maybe I've watched too many Brosnan Bond films...
  • FeyadorFeyador Montreal, Canada
    edited November 2021 Posts: 721
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    I don't think I've ever really got that gag! :D

    It's sexual innuendo. Biting and passionate kisses come to mind for me. But then again maybe I've watched too many Brosnan Bond films...

    Oh, yeah, was thinking just the same ... no doubt his time with Fiona left quite the mark. 😏
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited November 2021 Posts: 14,861
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    I don't think I've ever really got that gag! :D

    It's sexual innuendo.

    See, I'm pretty good on innuendo, but that's not really an effectively dirty statement. Having sharp teeth isn't a sexy thing: it's certainly a point in the script where an innuendo gag would work, but sharp teeth aren't really like saying 'your mouth is big enough for me' or there's something massive in my pants etc.
    He just seems to be doing the big bad wolf act fairly straight: he's dangerous, but it's not really a sexy thing.

    Roger telling Moneypenny that he'll "fill her in later"- now that's a proper innuendo :)
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    I don't think I've ever really got that gag! :D

    It's sexual innuendo.

    See, I'm pretty good on innuendo, but that's not really an effectively dirty statement. Having sharp teeth isn't a sexy thing: it's certainly a point in the script where an innuendo gag would work, but sharp teeth aren't really like saying 'your mouth is big enough for me' or there's something massive in my pants etc.
    He just seems to be doing the big bad wolf act fairly straight: he's dangerous, but it's not really a sexy thing.

    Roger telling Moneypenny that he'll "fill her in later"- now that's a proper innuendo :)

    I never saw the actual scene where he filled her in. Must have been censored as well.
  • FeyadorFeyador Montreal, Canada
    edited November 2021 Posts: 721
    BT3366 wrote: »
    Feyador wrote: »
    There was quite a lot of censorship on American TV in the 1970s, where ABC-TV was just about the only place to see retrospective Bond films for many of us - and only four or five times a year at that. So it was always an event. I was so young (and fan culture being in such a nascent state nothing like what it would become with the advent of the Internet), I would have had no idea what was missing or what was changed from broadcast to broadcast. Only latter would I learn that:

    Scenes like the Chew-Mee encounter in TMWTGG were completely excised; love scenes including the post-PTS scene in LALD with Madeleine were badly trimmed of anything 'suggestive,' or removed entirely; gay indicative references regarding Wint & Kidd in DAF were excised; and in all the telecasts double entendres were often cut; tame swear words like 'hell' & "damn" routinely deleted; the fights scenes chopped-up to make them appear less violent; and even the gunbarrels were sometimes cut out inexplicably; and much, much else ...

    All quite naive, even by the standards of the day. Only with the appearance of home video in the next decade would I learn how Bond films were intended to be seen in their entirety ...

    I was right there with you. It also took me cable viewings or home video to realize what I was missing, although you'd notice an abrupt cut here and the music cuts out. But you are absolutely right, it was an event, especially for those of us who only had 3-4 channels.

    The one edit I could never understand the reason behind was in TB when Domino says to Bond "What sharp little eyes you've got" and he replies "Wait till you get to my teeth." They cut the reply and still can't figure how it was offensive.

    Yeah, the ABC-TV cuts frequently rendered the narrative of the films nonsensical. I was just checking my tattered old copies of 'The Sight,' a Bond fanzine from the era out of Minnesota, which unfailingly charted these things. It notes that much of the Vargas death scene in a 1974 telecast of TB was omitted - including Vargas himself! Apparently, viewers saw Bond firing the spear gun and heard an "ugh" but did not see Vargas himself who had, of course, been pinned to a palm tree in the unedited original.

    I grew up in Nova Scotia and our ABC-TV affiliate was based in Maine. And that local affiliate carried Red Sox baseball games, which meant that they 'pre-empted,' much to my dismay, the 1980 telecast of OHMSS. Not censorship, exactly, but definitely one of the saddest days in the history of my Bond fandom! I had seen the notorious 1976 ABC re-edit of the film with voice-over narration, but it would not be until 1983 (or was it 1984?) and its belated release on VHS did I get to see the film properly - or "properly," given the cropping for the 1:33 ratio (I think) of TVs at the time.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."
  • I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."

    In The World Is Not Enough, when Elektra says, "You wouldn't shoot me...you'd miss me," after they show Bond hesitate they could have cut to that same card and called it a film there.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."

    In The World Is Not Enough, when Elektra says, "You wouldn't shoot me...you'd miss me," after they show Bond hesitate they could have cut to that same card and called it a film there.

    Yes, exactly, but the producers hate us fans and want us to suffer.
  • I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."

    In The World Is Not Enough, when Elektra says, "You wouldn't shoot me...you'd miss me," after they show Bond hesitate they could have cut to that same card and called it a film there.

    Yes, exactly, but the producers hate us fans and want us to suffer.

    Bond is just one of those kinds of characters. If only he could wind up with the girl at the end for once.
    Sometimes he doesn't wind up at the end at all!
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 2,895
    :D
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,728
    I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."

    In The World Is Not Enough, when Elektra says, "You wouldn't shoot me...you'd miss me," after they show Bond hesitate they could have cut to that same card and called it a film there.

    Yes, exactly, but the producers hate us fans and want us to suffer.

    Bond is just one of those kinds of characters. If only he could wind up with the girl at the end for once.
    Sometimes he doesn't wind up at the end at all!
    He needs the Doctor's Wind, if not the Undertaker's Wind.
  • Dragonpol wrote: »
    I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."

    In The World Is Not Enough, when Elektra says, "You wouldn't shoot me...you'd miss me," after they show Bond hesitate they could have cut to that same card and called it a film there.

    Yes, exactly, but the producers hate us fans and want us to suffer.

    Bond is just one of those kinds of characters. If only he could wind up with the girl at the end for once.
    Sometimes he doesn't wind up at the end at all!
    He needs the Doctor's Wind, if not the Undertaker's Wind.

    Indeed!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,728
    I wish they had censored the end of OHMSS, and just replaced it with a caption that said: "And they lived happily forever after."

    Believe it or not I've heard that one of Dennis Wheatley's novels ends with those words or a very close approximation of them.
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