Ever since they released the headbutt cut of Goldeneye there has been a headbutt epidemic. I can't go to the store without people trying to headbutt me at random.
I feel like I'm playing Mario Kart at that point! Martin Campbell said he didn't get on with Eric Serra, nor did he like the score he turned in, so I think if there was more time, Serra would have been fired and a new score done [like Dan Romer being replaced with Hans Zimmer for NTTD].
@@katashworth41horrible taste in women is called being a male human . It does not matter where a person lives , he will make some bad choices of women
I can only laugh at this, because when I watched Goldeneye as a child on VHS my mother was the censor, taping over Xenia's sex scene. The violence was fine, but sex scenes, hell no!
Similar to the "in the shoulder" line in OHMSS, I wonder if the addition of "Careless" after M said "Now we know what C stands for" was for the benefit of the censors in Spectre. That line always got a massive laugh before "Careless" whenever I saw it in the cinema.
I think Calvin said that was the reaction in his cinema viewing. Everyone laughed and then there was a groan, confused sound from audience when careless was said.
@@michaelbest6969 They should have left out the whole of that movie, it's utter garbage. Worst Bond film ever made, and I do not say that lightly at all. Simply because as godawful as AVTAK or DAF etc are, at the very least they are a bit of a laugh. Spectre is not just a bad movie, it's just utterly boring, pretentious and downright depressing at the same time, plus makes Blofeld Bond's brother like some cheap kitchen sink drama writing you'd get in a tv soap AND it has THE single most creepy Bond forcing himself on an unwilling widow who's husband he has only just executed...wth, so much for their big song and dance about modernizing. They completely overhauled the entire franchise as they did only to just immediately go back to retro 60s drivel, plus an even more creepy and downright unlikeable Bond. Making c**t jokes doesn't make it remotely better, it's actually just extremely crude, not clever at all. The less said about Bond randomly falling head over heels and quitting for some complete block of wood annoying and blank-faced woman he's only just met and had zero chemistry with the better.
@@AD-kv9kj 😂 Brutal review...but so true. Never actually thought about it as the absolute worst Bond movie ever but now I think about it all, I kind of agree
@@DYFLProductions Spectre works a lot better when watched in order as it's dealing with follow up from Skyfall while also setting up No Time to Die. It clearly suffered from production issues with the script [as it was being re-written on set] but I wouldn't say it was the worst Craig film [as it's better than Quantum of Solace], let alone the whole run . For my money the worst Bond ever is the 1967 Casino Royale film.
One of the reasons for reclassifying pre-80s Bonds might be that the 12 rating was only introduced in 1989. Prior to that, there was no rating that fell between PG and 15 and for the first Connery Bonds, there were only 3 classifications (Universal/Adult/X-rated), so they've partially been re-rated to reflect that there are simply more precise ratings available.
I think not seeing 006 get shot makes sense since he isn't actually dead. It might even have been a plot hole if there was blood or something. As for the guard in TND...let's face it, we all just assumed he was being that rare sensible minion who just chose to lie down and pretend he was knocked out to avoid fighting James Bond again.
@@calvindyson Hello, henchman hotline, how can I help you? Oh, I'm sorry, Goon #7777 is currently indisposed. No, he is currently undergoing our indoctrination process so as to not run off on assignment ever again...
It's like the writers wrote it that Alec never defected and Ouromov actually killed him, filmed the scene, then half way through making the rest of the movie said "Hey what if 006 didn't die, turned traitor, and is actually Janus? Oh crap we already filmed him getting shot in the head! Uhhh he planned it all along?". Because it doesn't make any sense. If Ouromov was using blanks on Alec to stage his death, how did he shoot that trigger happy soldier a minute later?
@@spencerkindra8822 The first bullet was a blank; the rest were real. But yes, it was a bit weird. Apparently, Trevalyn was originally meant to be an older mentor type, played by Alan Rickman, so maybe the scene played out differently at first.
And now we are waiting for an ultimate 3 hour version of Goldeneye, including Xenia head-butting someone continually for 40 solid minutes until what's left of the soldier is a headless stump gushing blood everywhere.....
Wait, what blood? There isn't any blood in that shot other than what you already saw from the fight. I just checked the scene again in slo-mo and there is no blood apart from the few specks on his hand that were already clearly visible in the fight scenes right before. His leg goes all over the place though and that always made me wince as a kid. Looks like his right leg breaks in multiple places.
The sci-fi movie Men in Black had a strange and creative censor edit here in Australia to get it down to a PG rating. Near the start of the film, Will Smith chases down the guy who blinks sideways, and the guy commits suicide by throwing himself off a rooftop. In the Aussie theatrical cut, and on TV at the time, he doesn't hit the ground with a thud. Instead, he disintegrates into sparkly stuff on the way down. It made it seem as if he'd teleported somewhere safe, so I spent the whole movie expecting him to show up again. 😅I was amazed when I saw MiB on DVD years later and the guy just ... went thud. A much racier (and unintentionally funny) cut happened on Aussie TV to the Spanish thriller Susanna (1996). It has a lot of steamy sex scenes, especially at the beginning. When it was shown on TV here late at night on our SBS channel, most of the sex was uncut--except for a few seconds when Eva Santolaria first gets astride her lover, Said Amel. In the uncut version, they have sex for a short while in that position. But in the edited version, no sooner has she hopped on top than he, uh, finishes too soon, if you know what I mean. That's okay mate, it happens to the best of us. (I have a good memory for that scene because, as a hormonal teen, I may or may not have taped it off TV and watched it a couple of times ...) Incidentally, regarding age classification ratings, the Aussie movie Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (about a gay drag show) has the best one ever. Often the rating sticker will include a summary of the content, such as 'low level violence' or 'moderate sexual references'. But on the DVD of Priscilla, the rating sticker says: 'Moderate sexual preferences.' I guess our classification board has a sense of humour. 😇
I can say without a doubt that the March 1999 broadcast of GOLDENEYE on ITV definitely had the Xenia headbutting Natalya moment (the 2000 dvd version anyway). I cant remember what year (maybe 2003) but there definitely was a broadcast of GOLDENEYE on TV that had the uncut rabbit punch and another moment that Alec shoots 2 (thats right) scientists in that room and they fall over and break the chemistry equipment while Bond unlocks the door to Facility. Sometimes TV does this (for timing and breaks) when they can get footage not released theatrically or on home media. 'SUPERMAN the movie' is a prime example of this. Hope that helps Calvin as those scenes are definitely out there, as well as other scenes aswell apparently.
Yea, when I saw Goldeneye back in 95 I was sure that Alec killed 2 scientists and also the shootout, when Bond and Nat first escape before the tank chase, I remember being longer and more violent.
@@markholohan4446 The shot of the scientists appears here during this interview with Sean Bean 48 seconds in. ruclips.net/video/mvek_zK7RWo/видео.html Also on a non censorship related note, I recall someone claiming that their 1996 VHS release had the original Tank Chase score by Eric Serra reinstated. Mine didn't but strangely enough and I don't know whether it's the Mandela effect or misremembering but I recall my 1990 VHS Rental copy of Licence To Kill had the deleted scene of Bond buying the speedboat that he takes to the Barrelhead Bar added back in.
@@JeffHooton-n4v as has been seen with Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, its possible that different versions can be released to different markets/uses, whether intentionally or not.
I remember being desperate to watch GoldenEye because it was the only Brosnan Bond film I hadn’t watched at that time. We knew there was a 12 version and a 15 version, and because I was quite young, my dad got me the 12 version for Christmas, and I was so thrilled! I didn’t think much about the difference between the uncut version and the cut version, but now I find it very interesting!
That was a really entertaining video dude. I had no idea about this. I'll probably end up buying the uncut versions of all the ones you mentioned now. (Nes Manga)
Great video, Calvin. Film buffs shouldn't have to wait years to see the most uncut version of their favourite movies due to the arbitrary rulings of censors and BBFC.
Yeah, I hate having to hunt down uncut versions of movies! When I was a teenager I pirated my movies and that was the only way to get some uncut versions at the time. It was beyond frustrating!
I remember actually being a little scared when I finally saw the uncut headbutt in Goldeneye... not because the scene was scary, but because I was witnessing the actors saying lines and doing things I had never seen before. I thought they had become sentient on my DVD. Censorship can scare a child!
Indeed. Especially when I would first watch the Bond films on the TV (thinking they were the real deal) and then seeing the uncut versions a little while later. It really shook me and threw me off guard. Even the milder Bond films like You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die. Censorship can indeed scare a child! Especially an autistic child!
I never realized how much seeing the head butts in the US version of Goldeneye when I was a teenager affected me, but I have to admit, I have headbutted 3 people so far today for practically no reason.
1:40 There are various reasons why 'Licence to Kill' is the lowest grossing Bond adjusted for inflation but being a 15 certificate in the UK lost a good chunk of the audience and probably is why subsequent films took the cuts for a 12 [I read the Milton Kreast death in LTK was cut down to avoid an R Rating in the USA] and 10:39 was in effect.
There have been rumblings about the BBFC bringing in a 15A certificate (prompted by kids being unable to see The Batman and the FNAF film) - if it does come in I wonder if EON will seize the opportunity or if LTK has spooked them so much they'll stick at 12A.
@@BenCol It would make sense as 'R' in america is pretty much that anyway for 17+ [and they want more people in the cinemas instead of waiting for streaming]. 'The Batman'+ Oppenheimer have shown that 15 doesn't mean it doesn't make a lot of money but I'd be surprised if Bond went in that direction [excess violence and swearing in Bond feels out of place a bit anyway imho].
Speaking of the Ninja Turtles - I learned years later that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 80s / 90s animated series) was titled Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK due to the censors restricting the showing of ninjas and specifically Michelangelo’s nunchucks. I wonder if that is related to their decision to remove Wei Lin’s throwing star in Tomorrow Never Dies.
What I like most about watching James Bond films on television is seeing what was cut, and how badly they did it. It makes for an interactive experience.
Story time! Here in the States when I was but 4 mature years old, Goldeneye was my first Bond film. I had the VHS from the James Bond 007 collection, and all the scenes were present: Xenia sex scene, the numerous head-buts, the judo chop was the insert shot filmed later, everything the ‘uncut’ DVD had. Likewise also for Tomorrow Never Dies, the shuriken throws were intact along with the boot to the head. We run a loose ship here in the US of A.
The most bizarre thing I have ever seen was when the Special Edition dvd of A View To A Kill got released here in Australia, it had an MA15+ rating. Very bizarre.
@@jamesatkinsonja I reckon so. I'm always shocked/impressed by the sadistic brutality of that sequence. Zorin gleefully machine gunning many, many of his own men. Plus you do see bullet hits as well as men being horribly electrocuted. And it goes on for a good while. I'd love to know if they had to cut that down back in 1985 to get the rating.
The strangest Aussie ratings incident I've heard of is an obscure Japanese anime called Plastic Little. When it was released in Australia on VHS tape in the 90s, it got an R18+ just for having some nudity (just boobs and bums), and a bit of blood. There was a minor kerfuffle in anime fan circles about it. Then it was mysteriously re-rated ... to PG. I say 're-rated' but there's no record of the first R rating on the classification site, only the PG one. There are VHS tapes and cases out there with both ratings labels on them, though. The content is identical on the R and PG tapes. Including the long and graphic trailer at the end of the tape for *other* anime--some of which really was R-rated!
Very interesing video. I found the "no head-butts" rule fascinating because I'm a huge fan of head-butts specifically in fight scenes. Somehow there's a sort of shock value and brutality they bring that ups the anty. Whenever I see one that's convincing in a movie I find myself either saying out loud or thinking "Oh, Sh#t!" And that final fight scene in Goldeneye is more head-butt heavy than I realized.
Totally relate to this. Remeber watching the Connery films a few years back. Previously having watched endless censored ITV afternoon recorded films when younger. It was genuinely like watching Bond again with the added grit! :)
How about something about Bond themes? The Radiohead theme that never was. Little Anthony and the Imperials' version of You Only Live Twice that was promised to be in the film, until Frank Sinatra had a word! Love the channel Calvin.
He did a 'top 10 rejected bond theme songs' video a while back [2018]-maybe time for an update [especially as new information about Radiohead's theme was in the 'Sound of 007 documentary].
I'm American, so it seems like the versions of all the James Bond films on Blu-Ray are the full uncut versions. But seeing this video made me think of something tangentially related regarding censorship, although in this case the "censored" version didn't even work since the "uncut" version was an R (the equivalent of an 18) but the "censored" version was also an R. So, back in 2017 there was a movie called The Hitman's Bodyguard. It was released by the studios during the quiet part of the summer, but due to being one of the only movies out, it actually became a sleeper hit. And they had planned to make a sequel, it was scheduled to come out in 2020. But for reasons that I'm sure everyone knows, that didn't happen. It was delayed until 2021. And then it was released. But Americans who talked to people online from other countries noticed something. Our version of the movie was only 99 minutes long, whereas most of the other countries had a 116 minute long film. (Just for reference, the first Hitman's Bodyguard was 118 minutes long.) And by noticing the copyright date, the shorter version was a heavily edited one, the "uncut" version of the movie had a 2020 copyright, since it was finished and completely untouched. But the edited version had a 2021 copyright. So, the "extended" version was the definitive version. Now, since it's a 17 minute difference you might be thinking there's something major story wise that was taken out of the movie. But the answer is no. The cuts were mostly to shorten action scenes, cut a couple jokes, and even some censorship of the F-word (although it only goes from 194 to 152, so the word is still there plenty), but the most common cut was to get rid of the breathing room between jokes. As such, the US version is clearly the weaker version of the film, as the jokes don't have any time to actually land, and the pacing of the "extended" cut more matches the pacing of the first film (which was released "uncut" almost everywhere it released.)
Here in the US, I guess we got the full version based on what you’re reporting here. I’ve never not seen the headbutt scenes either on screen or in the video releases. I’m not sure what to make of them cutting these scenes. I mean…you show people getting shot or blown up but you cut a headbutt?! I’ve also never been traumatized by anything I’ve seen on screen because I know it’s make-believe. That’s a product of proper parenting IMO. I’ve also always been a student and fan of behind-the-scenes spots where you’re shown how a fight, stunt or SFX bit is created. Great content!
Ah censorship, one of my favourite topics. I don’t recall Goldeneye ever being released censored on any release version in Australia. All the cut scenes you described (other than the rough cut footage of course) remained on the PG VHS all the way through to the Blu-Ray. It actually surprises me that Goldeneye is still PG here in Oz, it should be an M15. Licence to Kill was also another one that was heavily edited for TV but the home video version was released uncut with an M15.
Some history: In 1999 James Ferman stepped down as Director of the BBFC, replaced by Robin Duval. To quote the BFI: "Duval was also concerned about accountability, and in September 2000 announced that the upshot of eighteen months of intensive research into public opinion was that the BBFC would no longer be cutting films for adults unless they were deemed to infringe the criminal law." So this change in leadership and public perception probably explains A) why the Bond films since TWINE onwards have been largely avoided any cuts and B) why we Brits got uncut versions of GE and TND without any issue. The BBFC regularly undertake public consultation as to what issues concern people (it was in the news recently that the Bob Marley film could be released 12A because maurianja is less of an issue now) so it's probable they also found parents were less concerned with the levels of violence they let their kids see. And while it's great "films for adults" aren't being cut anymore, the fact that the Bond films aren't just for adults is always going to be the issue - yes they're technically films for adults, but they're always going to edit it so it gets a 12A release so the kids can see it too (Licence to Kill and its underperformance with a 15 cert probably still haunts EON). I suppose it helps though that the BBFC (also during Duval's tenure) made the classification decision more open, as now a concerned parent can go online and read any film's report (this film contains X level of violence, Y level of gore, Z level of sex) and decide for themselves whether or not to take little Billy to see James Bond kill people. So I doubt we'd ever see anything like this again with the Bond films - any cuts will be at the pre-release stage and once the final edit is decided upon we won't then get any censored versions of it. Well, not in the UK and the US at least. But outside of Bond? Well hopefully when Robot Dreams gets its home release they'll let the bird flipping go without the big ugly black bars Curzon put over it in the cinema so the film could be released PG. And hopefully the situation with the new The Abyss remaster can be sorted out, though that's really an issue with UK law rather than the BBFC.
@@DafyddBrooks Yeah, James Ferman was. He was also the guy who had issues with nunchucks and other such weapons, even when it was just a link of sausages being used as nunchucks for a comedy bit in TMNT II (or, rather, TMHT II as it was then).
@@BenColThe 1988 UK VHS release of the 1977 Doctor Who story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" had every single shot containing nunchucks edited out of a fight scene. It is kind of funny when you consider all the other horrible things that happen in the story (suicide by scorpion venom, people being kidnapped to have their life force drained, plus knives and such apparently being totally acceptable weapons to show to kids), but that's censorship for you, I guess.
I remember Die Hard 5 being released in the USA as an R-Rating [to try an appease fans who didn't like the PG-13 rating of part 4] but it was a 12 in the UK with a long list on the BBFC website of the cuts made to get that certificate so the school holiday kids would see it before releasing the 15 version on DVD [amusingly the page at the time listed 'Patrick Stewart' in the cast when he's not in the film as they'd taking it from an early IMDB listing based on rumours!]
Funfact if this interests you: In the german version in theaters and the VHS release the death of Alec Trevelyan was cut. He just falls down, but the antenna is never coming for him. This was just added back in the DVD Special Edition. But we got all the headbutting from the get go.
I would prefer this cut. Just falling from the antenna would be fatal. I always though the bit where the wreckage falls on him as he screams his head off was a bit silly.
I like the bond movies and I love learning and talking about classification systems, so I feel like this video was tailor-made for me. Thank you very much!! :)
Annoyingly enough, in Ireland we had the censored versions, just because we had the UK VHS tapes with a sticker covering their rating with our own one on it lmao. Irish censors are more lenient than the UK ones, so I can assume that had we gotten our own version of the VHS we might’ve gotten the uncut version! I have lots of DVDs with a sticker rating a movie 12 covering an English 15.
Surely the most outrageous censorship is the removal of Mrs. Bell's expletive in afternoon television showings of LALD. I know in the US the sound of the rope 'landing' in the torture scene of CR was toned down compared to Britain during the original cinema run. Don't know if it returned for dvd etc.
ITV often edit the films for content but also to fit into a shorter slot [I remember watching a really badly edited version of Live and Let Die to get it into a 2 hour slot with adverts]. The TV edit of Tomorrow Never Dies hilariously implies that Dr Kaufman died from being electrocuted by the gadget rather than Bond shooting him in cold blood!
Re: The Xenia headbutt scene being included in the documentary, but not the actual film... I've seen that happen quite often. For some reason, "out of context" is fine, but in the context of the film, they have to cut it. Bizarre.
Honestly, I dont think Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies or Casino Royale deserve a 15 rating at all. License to kill for me is a fairly weak 15 rating, but I wouldnt give it a 12 any day. Infact I feel that movie deserves more gross attention of violence than Temple of Doom. It does seem like in the years between 89 and 95 that PG rated action films werent drawing in a teen crowd enough, so it must have been a conscience decision that the next movie was definitely going to need to be a 12/ PG13 in order to draw in that crowd and not just be another family movie. Rest in peace PG rated Bond movies :( 1962 -1987
I know what you mean about LTK... It definitely pushes the violence and intensity and has hard drugs at the centre of its plot so it makes sense it's a 15 and yet... It feels like a weak 15 compared to others that I've seen. Yet, a 12 would probably feel a little too low for it.
I presume 'Casino' got it for the torture scene. I remember USA youtube critic Chris Stuckmann saying he felt that it was skirting an R-Rating with that scene.
The hiring of Michael Kamen to do the score, and casting such 80's action staples as Robert Davi, Frank McRae and Grand L Bush meant they were trying to skew towards the audience for R rated crime movies.
From my side of the Channel, this is completely surrealistic. In France, Licence to Kill had no age restriction at all, and Casino Royale a mere warning for children under 10.
@@jamesatkinsonja i think the humour with the 'ive got an ich' line helped elevate that. though even the nail gun cutting the locater in his arm is a bit much too. then again i feel The dark knight 2 years later pushed it too
Interesting stuff. The version I always had as a kid (which was certainly before 2001) was recorded onto tape off the TV (this being in the UK too, btw) and I'm pretty sure that it had all the headbuttery goodness intact
was it? he was probably the best 007 ever imo , i mean he did remington Steele for years early which he nailed also. he suits that role. btw it wasn't cut way back at the movies, i saw all of this stuff when it first come out, only after did they cut it for t.v
The funniest thing here is the idea that parents actually take these ratings into consideration. It’s even worse in the video game industry. GTA is the most adult game ever and yet half the player base is under 17
It was Former BBFC head James Ferman who would cut headbutts and nunchucks on site (That’s why a string of sausages was mistakenly removed from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). He had a particularly vehement stance against headbutts. He was also the person who said that the exorcist would never be available for release On video or DVD in the UK while he was still in charge. This ruling was only relaxed when Ferman retired And about a month later Warner Brothers revealed plans to release the exorcist on DVD
I also started watching James Bond films when I was 11 years old. But in Brazil in 1997. Some films were only shown late at night. There were always cuts. But not headbutts.
Itv showed the film uncut. Weird, and Tomorrow Never Dies was also shown uncut. But strangely enough, Licence To Kill showed Timothy Dalton headbutting a villain. It was also featured the headbutting scene on the music video
Hey Calvin, speaking of rough cuts and workprints, maybe you could get into that rumored press release cut of TWINE one day, which, according to IMDB, ran about 160 minutes. IF that ever existed...
Like 'Tomorrow Never Dies' that film has copious deleted scenes on the DVD but like you I'm dubious there was nearly 30 mins cut out of a press version [rather than an in house workprint]. Of course Michael Apted has passed away so we'll never get a 'directors cut' of TWINE.
Always noticed that ITV (at least back in the day) used to always have the uncut shots on GoldenEye. I always found TV edits interesting -- the very old version of Basic Instinct on ITV was a joke. The sexual connotations was IN, the F word when used against someone, was not... LOL. RoboCop TV cut is a laugh too.. but still good to see for the nostalgia
Think of TV edits versions of 007 films. I'd love to see that and I have lots of content to share about that. Goldeneye on an afternoon ITV version cuts loads of stuff. Great content and more to discuss please Calvin
I was born and raised in the USA, so the version I watched was the US VHS tape. Here in the US we only have G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. The difference between R and NC-17 is that with the R rating people under 17 and under can get in if they're with their parents or guardians. NC-17 is strictly no children under 17.
Its still surreal to me that it took until the early 2000s for the UK to get a proper equivalent to PG-13. In the UK, 12 meant NO ONE under 12 could see the film. Apparently the reason it was changed was because a lot of kids wanted to see the first Raimi Spider-Man film but couldn't. The UK box office was far weaker compared to the US. So they had to introduce 12A and the film became one of the first reclassified and kids finally got to watch it. Meanwhile here in the US, my 6 year old self got to see that film with no issue, and didn't even know its rating until I got the VHS.
Long comment warning: Man, learning about cuts (and localization while we're at it) is more and more fascinating. And while I had a short time living in the UK (2010-2014), I do have some British import DVDs from when I lived there (notably DBZ - Season 1 from Manga UK; which contains the US Funimation dub uncut - both now owned by Crunchyroll and DBZ itself having a very interesting UK history, Scott Pilgrim vs The World - which has a fairly lenient of region codes that also includes being able to play in Australia and New Zealand, and Jackie Chan's Police Story from Hong Kong Legends). But I never knew how much of a clusterfuck the BBFC was. Especially from following Film Brain on Twitter and he brought up how the Indiana Jones re-releases were affected by the re-ratings. Bond films cut for the MPAA (PG-13) aren't this crazy, especially for Goldeneye. EDIT: Somewhat irrelevant, but also, learning about a cut graphic headshot that Trevelyan somehow survives. Now I feel extra relieved to make my Courier a James Bond type (stealth, guns/lasers, explosives, charisma, etc, loyalist for a government to a point - NCR, seducing more than one woman - except she's LGBTQ) every time I replay Fallout: New Vegas. Only the Courier was shot by a career criminal (RIP Matthew Perry), rather than a communist General. XD
Censorship in the Bond films has always been an issue, primarily in the 60s, although if i recall correctly a lot of it was due to sexuality, but there were cuts for violence as well (e.g in Dr No, Bond apprently emptied his entire magazine into Professor Dent in the original cut before being reduced to 2 shots.) As it was the 60s you had 3 ratings in the UK: U, A and X, so it was basically either the films were for everyone or just adults, which is obviously a much steeper gradient (for lack of a better term) than the 12, 15 and 18 ratings we have now. I think you should do a video on Bond censorship sometime, would be interesting to get your thoughts on it. Fun Fact: Goldeneye's primary antagonist Alec Trevelyan was named after BBFC director John Trevelyan, presumably as a dig at all the censorship he demanded. EDIT: Grammar and information.
Without wanting to sound pedantic, in the 60's you had U, A and X, though A was the same as PG. Bit confusing, as people thought A stood for Adult, rather than Advisory. In 1970 they introduce the AA, which was the same as the current 15.
First time I saw Goldeneye uncut was when ITV first screened it in 1999. I remember being a bit miffed at the time, that I had a sell-thru tape that had less footage than a "tv-version" and that I should have recorded it, but I didn't. It was the same with Licence to Kill. ITV would often show the full uncut version in the 90's. Not the BBFC approved version or even the MPAA cut, but the full "R rated" version, that I think only made it to Japan, till it was finally made available on the Ultimate Edition in 2006 and is now the more common version. Tomorrow Never Dies is an odd one, because the original cinema release was uncut, but it was shortened on VHS and the original DVD. The shot of Bond kicking a guy in the face was somewhat controversial at the time.. I remember reading a review in the Daily Mirror on release and the critic thought it was too thugish for Bond... but I guess killing the guard would have been fine? Once again, ITV showed it completely uncut when it premiered in late 1999. Never saw that uncut "rabbit punch" till now! To be honest, I think the cutting in the released print looks better ; focuses more on the aggression in Brosnan's face in the close-up... you don't need to see any more than that.
Didn't see you mention this cut in the video, but I'm sure decades ago now I remember seeing near the end when Janus' base blows up Natalya's co-worker Boris does his trademark "YES! I AM INVINCIBLE!" before he gets frozen solid by liquid nitrogen (I think) then falls over and is smashed into literal pieces.
Very interesting video Calvin....as an American, even though headbutts & some gratuitous violence weren't censored in most PG-13 and/or R rated movies over here, as a follow up video, you could also look into our MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), which handled our rating system here in the US and how they classified various action & horror movies of what could be shown (and even sometimes for how long) and what couldn't be shown in an American made movies to get that PG-13 and/or R rating & the struggles that producers, director's and editors had to go through to get such ratings. You might even find it interesting how the PG-13 rating came to be in existence and who suggested that idea for the PG-13 rating (prior to 1984 there was no PG-13, there was only G, PG, R and X/NC-17 for movies & how the films Poltergeist, Gremlins, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom and Ghostbusters were largely responsible for the creation of the PG-13 rating), also during the 80s, which was considered to be the 2nd heyday of horror movies (the 1st being the golden age of horror in the 30s, 40s & 50s), it appeared to many movie fans that the MPAA had a personal vendetta against the Friday The 13th movie franchise in particular (many of them were overly scrutinized by the MPAA specifically) when compared to many other horror movie franchises that were released at a lot of the same times (Halloween/Michael Myers, A Nightmare On Elm Street/Freddy, Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Leatherface, Hellraiser/Pinhead, Child's Play/Chucky, Living Dead/Zombie movies etc). Many of the Friday The 13th films were heavily censored (and were forced re-cuts) by the MPAA whereas many other horror films & their horror bits were glanced over (or even ignored entirely) at times....later in the 80s into the 90s, it also appeared that the MPAA really had it in for certain directors like Paul Verhoeven, Brian DePalma, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick, etc., and how the MPAA singled out & scrutinized those such director movies compared to other directors movies made during those same times....and now have the times and even the MPAA board members (and their standards) have changed over these many years.... fascinating stuff & worthy of a follow up video on bizarre rating classifications.
I remember seeing a old TV airing of *"Goldfinger"* and the pre-title sequence ends abruptly with 007 being nonchalant during to the explosion of Mr. Ramirez's factory and it jumps to the opening titles (it completely cuts out 007 kissing the dancer & then using her as a shield and Capungo later getting fried in the tub with a electric fan).
It’s interesting to have this video as an eye opener in terms of how important age ratings are for cinema releases. Casino Royale was my “life changer” cinematic experience after falling in love with Bond movies between DAD and 2006. I wouldn’t have been old enough to see CR in cinemas had it had a 15 rating, and subsequently wouldn’t have watched in 5 or so times on the big screen, and perhaps not put quite as much oil on the Bond fan fire in my early teens otherwise!
@@cooper5594 Fair enough! Maybe why it was in Goldeneye as they didn't realise that would get a 15 [as LTK would get it for the head explosion scene alone!].
Fun video, Calvin! Jeez, I get a TV channel at noon making some edits (even though kids have always watched Bond in full head-butting glory in theatres!), but it's bizarre to me that even the home media releases would be censored!
arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh drives me crazy now . what a waste of time. censoring . its an adult film leave everything in there. its not a kids film. whoever controls the censoring are bloody wrong (i censored my self just now)
What you are telling seems pretty odd to me. On my VHS recording of GoldenEye, which I recorded from the german Free TV around 1998, all those scenes are included. I don't even have to watch it again - I am 100% sure, since I watched this movie countless times from that VHS tape.
I remember during my initial Bond obsession seeing the 15 certificate on the Ultimate Edition of GoldenEye and being around 10 years old at that time I had to buy Die Another Day instead, despite the fact that I watched Casino Royale at that same tender age because that had a 12 rating. But the recut torture scene was permitted by the censors because 'Bond may be captured, tortured etc, but there's the expectation is he'll always survive' which it's ironic now given the ending of NTTD.
I suppose if we saw Felix's wife being tortured as opposed to him that would be far more problematic as most people would expect her to die [so it feels sadistic and gratuitous] while despite the horrible injuries, Felix is going to live [hence they tastefully didn't show her death in the film].
I remember the ITV premiere of Goldeneye on TV back in 1999 (I was 7 and being a Bond fan, I had to record it on the VHS). I was lucky to get the full, unedited version!
That's interesting, Calvin. Well, I realize that every country has their own content standards, but it's interesting that you mention in England about the headbutts being edited out. Here, in the United States, I remember the headbutt scenes being kept in the original Goldeneye movie cut. Interesting!
I've always had a question about Goldeneye's plot that maybe Calvin or someone here could answer. It's a lot more involved than at first glance so excuse the essay. Why do Ourumov and Travelyan stage the execution of 006 at the start? It seems the only reason to do that would be because they want to let Bond get away as an authoritative eye witness to 006 having been killed in action. I always thought this was a clever double reason as to why Ourumov keeps telling his troops to hold their fire (but you think it's just because he's NERVous of the nerve gas). Maybe it actually was but they didn't make sure all the details added up. Ourumov sends a ton of soldiers in who are firing a ton of rounds at both 007 and 006, with 006 genuinely shooting a load of his men too. I suppose you could just put that aside as Ourumov doesn't care at all about his fodder troops since he's defecting anyway, fair enough, and he just assumes the 00 agents won't get so easily killed. However, another side note is Bond clearly sees Ourumov fire a blank a few inches past 006s head and he lands with not a trace of blood. Bond would know full well he hadn't fired a live round, due to the basic nature of what happens when you do that to someone's head...though I guess it's meant to be so sudden and Bond is supposed to be in such shock he doesn't realise? Most crucially though, later in the movie Travelyan clearly says to Bond that he was supposed to die in the nerve gas facility..."Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" - "No, you were supposed to die for me." So...what? What exactly was this big plan? Why did Ourumov and Travelyan completely risk their own deaths and, according to Alec, want to kill Bond also while staging a completely unnecessary execution of Travelyan? Was the execution more for the sake of all the Russian troops to be eye witnesses? But they would have had a much clearer view of the fact Travelyan was not really shot. The soldiers are also clearly not under specific orders NOT to kill Bond, since they keep trying to and Ourumov keeps having to yell at them like he has poor control of his troops. I used to just gloss over all this as a kid but the more I looked at it, the more it seems to make no sense. What they SHOULD have done here is just not have Travelyan saying Bond was supposed to die later in the movie, and also just craft a few details of the opening sequence slightly differently, so it was more clear on rewatches that 006 lured Bond into witnessing his staged death, not have had it be a fake execution and just have 006 go silent then Bond peers out to see him dead on the ground and Ourumov trying to capture Bond as normal with his strict orders to his troops not to kill Bond as it basically already suggests. Ourumov should have wanted to capture Bond in order to then set up his safe escape, but of course Bond being Bond, he makes his clever escape there and then anyway. The troops go after him but Ourumov keeps insisting they don't kill him. This is actually basically how it already is in the movie, but just a few details contradict it. If the line "You were supposed to die for me" was cut out and 006s killing done in a slightly less obviously fake manner without Bond watching the fake shot, then it would all make sense.
And when Bond and Trevelyan didn't return MI6 would assume they were both killed. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It's classic write what is necessary for the scene and don't worry about how it all links together. As Guy Hamilton would say "put your brain under the seat and let's all go on a great ride". Its just as well the BBFC and MPAA made them cut the headshot as that would make even less sense. Trevelyan fakes his death, but we see blood and brain matter.
A good majority of it is just plot conveniences for the sake of the story. Some of it can be theorised about but most of it is just plot convince. The things I’ll say could be argued to have an explanation is: -The Russian soldiers weren’t in on the plan, Oremov had to send them in after 006/007 and they had to be genuinely killed to make it look real (this is the only objective fact id say). Id say they were willing to take the risk of both agents being killed since they’re both highly trained and their likely to survive. -006 being shot is the biggest plot hole here, sure bond could have missed it being a blank but as i said the russian soldiers were not in on the plan so how would they all miss that their general just missed the enemy’s head who’s now playing dead. The answer could come from the stated deleted scene in this video of 006 being shot and blood coming out, he might have had some fake blood packet on his head or in Ouromovs gun to make it look real (unrealistic yes, but its a bond film and im always willing to let them gadget away situations like this). -Of course the other biggest plot hole that bond was supposed to die there, which i think can be possibly theorised decently well out off. First id say that they were probably banking on bond surrendering to save alec (where they’d probably kill bond, “capture” alec and ourumov would help him “escape” from later), shooting alec was probably the backup plan incase the countdown for bond to walk out reached 0 (what else would they do, just stand up and say “woops you got us, alecs a bad guy”. They seem aware of bonds training meaning he’s at risk of escaping). Of course shooting trevelian was the backup incase bond escaped so that at least mi6 would think he was dead (making the plan not a total bust). -as for why ouromov orders his men not to shoot, well indoors i genuinely believe he is scared of the gas tanks and outdoors he only orders them not to fire once bonds close to the plane so he probably didn’t want to hit that. These are all just handwavey theories tho and as i said a lot of this is just plot convince
As a kid I had somewhat strict parents so I completely relate to this. All my favorite movies were recorded from tv and these were mostly the versions I saw. Arnold movies like Total Recall are, to this day, a delight to watch in all their uncensored glory. I spent so many years thinking Schwarzenegger responded to everything with “baloney!”
I never knew the headbutt scene existed until I got the ultimatum edition DVD in 2006, despite having renting it on VHS and DVD, as well as seeing it on TV, prior to this. If this was the case, they could have just released it with a 15 on the original VHS release. It reminds me of a scene in the UK VHS of Batman Returns, which is a 15, when Catwoman pulls the pipe from the gas tank, but the scene where she puts the aerosol cans in the microwave was removed
See some similar things in the USA. There have been some movies that have been given a lower rating when rereleased & a few that got a higher rating upon rerelease. Then there is Last Tango in Paris. the original rating was X (no NC-17) when it came out in 73. In 1981 United Artists issued an edited version that was rated R. The original NC-17 verssion is still available as well.
I recently found out the BBFC (presumably) had censored the scene in Ace Ventura 2 where Ace is making shadow puppets in the projector room. The uncensored version is so much funnier.
Most memorable Bond headbutt for me is from "Licence to Kill” where Timothy Dalton headbutt Benicio del Toro. I remember because it featured on Gladys Knight’s title soundtrack video.
Off topic but the most mind blowing uncensored film moment for me was when channel 4 showed Bruce lee films in the early 2000s and Way of the Dragon’s nunchaku scenes were back. Plus it was remastered. I never watched my vhs version again after that.
Great video, love to see the different edits and how to avoid the censor... hope you will do some video about the books on your book shelf, which ones are worth reading (guess everyone :) )
hi Calvin. loved this video and i do wonder what other Bond films are cut because of censorship issues if any at all. The BBFC also banned num-chuks in Bruce Lee's films for a very long time. 😀😀😀
Licence To Kill was passed as an 18 on first viewing by The BBFC. After EON complained, the BBFC advised how they could get a 15. Cubby was still not happy at that. The BBFC said they couldn't have a PG, but they could advise them on what cuts to make to get their upcoming new certificate, 12. However they wouldn't be able to release the film till August 1989. Cubby wasn't having that and so disgruntlingly accepted the 15 cert cuts advise. This was released in July. The following month Batman released as the first 12 certificate film and was the 2nd highest grossing film that year. Licence To Kill underperformed, partly due to its 15 certificate. Years later the 18 cert version was submitted to the BBFC and passed as 15. This is the version available on Blu Ray and released in cinemas in the last couple of years
@@davidjames579 They really should have delayed LTK for a few months, not only to get the 12 but also so it didn't get buried in the very busy summer of 1989 [similar to how Mission Impossible last summer grossed less than MI 4-6 partly due to Barbieheimer when this summer looks a lot thinner]. In fairness releasing event film in the autumn wasn't a 'done' thing at the time [Never Say Never Again only ended up there due to the production delays].
@@jamesatkinsonja yeah EON learnt their lesson and deliberately released GoldenEye outside of the Summer, in November 1995. A time of the year they have kept. Even if Tomorrow Never Dies opened in America on the same day as Titanic, in December 1997! That said it still made more money than GoldenEye!
Goldeneye was also edited for cable tv here in the US initially, although it’s no longer as strict. Orumov shooting the henchman during the slow creaky escape was cut, M’s line “if you don’t think I have the balls to send a man to die” was cut, the Xenia fight in the sauna was shortened with her Russian “F U” was cut. and the headbutt/violence cuts you showed here were also part of the edit. I have a funny cable tv recording of Live and Let Die on a tape where they censored Mr Big saying “honkey” and “stupid mother” at the beginning as well as Sheriff JW calling a black henchman “boy” leading to his “eh” being dubbed over each time.
Here in Australia I found the UK VHS tape in a 2nd hand bookstore and there are a couple of awkward inserts during the fight with Trevelyan, one insert is where he is straight up choking Bond and the other is when Bond kicks Trevelyan off the platform there is insert where Bond punches Trevelyan instead of headbutting him.
I noticed the headbutt on the dvd to the vhs the scene plays better with it. I always thought she hit her head on something we couldn’t see when she fell down. Also on the way down from the helicopter it’s so obvious that it’s not Famke Janssen the camera stays to long on her stunt double 😂.
11:01 - is seems the chaps in the BBFC have a "fear of any kind of physical intimacy" since they cut a Bond innuendo (sort of, the way it's cut, he still makes the joke) but did they forget that in OHMSS a guy gets diced by a snow machine? And then his guts spray out? For 1969 that was major gore. 1983's VTaK had a quicker cut and mostly off screen dicing death and it was only in 1989 with LtK that 007 gore back and even that was cut initially.
Great video! I actually had no idea Goldeneye had headbutt cuts, although I knew some of the sexual violence had been trimmed, and I'm normally obsessed with movie cuts. Ever since Bruce Lee's films got butchered in the 80's right up until 2002, I've found it a fascinating subject. I won't bore you with my 4 year search to find uncut pirate copies of Bruce's movies, but I remember watching Octopussy on tv several times where they removed the yo-yo saw completely and also any evidence of knife throwing. It made me go out to my local 'Video Magic' store and hire it just to see what was missing. Like I said, obsessed. 🙂
Because we moved to Switzerland before GoldenEye came out. Because of that I‘ve only ever owned the German releases. I don’t remember if anything was cut from the VHS or the DVD
The first version of Live and Let Die I ever saw had the scene where Bond fights Baron Samedi cut out. He just shoots clay Pigeon Samedi, frees Solitaire and they go down the lift.
I had a funny relationship to the Bonds as I grew up on the daytime screened ITV edited versions, and wow! Was that editing drastic. Also sometimes so they cut to an ad break at the mandated time. It was years before I watched the uncut versions on bought VHS and it was like seeing the films anew.
I first watched Goldeneye on its ITV movie premiere back in 1999 when I was 12 years old which was uncut with headbutts and I still have it on recorded vhs 📼
Ever since they released the headbutt cut of Goldeneye there has been a headbutt epidemic. I can't go to the store without people trying to headbutt me at random.
It was hard enough to go out before that, what with all the thigh-crushing going on. My mate even tried to kick me off an antenna dish.
@@doctorlolchicken7478 That's before you even get to dickheads clipping you to helicopters!
In fairness, you do live in Glasgow.
Is one of your neighbors Viggo Mortensen?
They cut out some of the violence in GoldenEye but left in the music during Xenia's Ferrari chase which is far more traumatising!
its.......its of its time for sure. they wanted to be trendy for the new young audience
That music was bad, even for the time.
I feel like I'm playing Mario Kart at that point! Martin Campbell said he didn't get on with Eric Serra, nor did he like the score he turned in, so I think if there was more time, Serra would have been fired and a new score done [like Dan Romer being replaced with Hans Zimmer for NTTD].
@@jamesatkinsonja Shame for John Altman that didn't come to pass - he could've rescored the whole film instead of just the tank chase.
@@jamesatkinsonja i don't think Dan Romer ever scored a single thing in NTTD.
So are we going to ignore Bond head butting the poor eject button on the helicopter? Buttons have feelings too you know.
Button lives matter.
#NotAllButtons
They just play the clip from GoldenEye Reload where Craig-Bond uses his shoulder 😂
@@BricklyDragon #NotAllButtons
They left in the ice surfing in Die Another Day which traumatises young and old to this day
😂
"Other than spawning my fear of any kind of physical intimacy""..." 😂😂
And it spawned my horrible taste in women lol
That’s just called ‘being British’
@@katashworth41horrible taste in women is called being a male human .
It does not matter where a person lives , he will make some bad choices of women
@@BouncingZeusThis better not awaken anything in me..
I think for many of us, it spawned something else entirely...
I can only laugh at this, because when I watched Goldeneye as a child on VHS my mother was the censor, taping over Xenia's sex scene. The violence was fine, but sex scenes, hell no!
That actually is a more balanced way of censoring. Sex should be only for adults
That is a very, very American approach to it.
@@Jabberwockybird No it isnt balanced, dumaz
Mines just fast forward through the scene, so I just saw white and black lines and them looking like their dancing 😂😅
This is an American thing.
Xenia has caused me a stiffness many a time.
Ok! 😅
In your shoulder? 😐
@@daveyjones7391 'not everyone's genitals are in the same place' Star Trek VI.
Similar to the "in the shoulder" line in OHMSS, I wonder if the addition of "Careless" after M said "Now we know what C stands for" was for the benefit of the censors in Spectre. That line always got a massive laugh before "Careless" whenever I saw it in the cinema.
Yes I agree to that I always felt they should of left the c explanation its far more funier
I think Calvin said that was the reaction in his cinema viewing. Everyone laughed and then there was a groan, confused sound from audience when careless was said.
@@michaelbest6969 They should have left out the whole of that movie, it's utter garbage. Worst Bond film ever made, and I do not say that lightly at all. Simply because as godawful as AVTAK or DAF etc are, at the very least they are a bit of a laugh. Spectre is not just a bad movie, it's just utterly boring, pretentious and downright depressing at the same time, plus makes Blofeld Bond's brother like some cheap kitchen sink drama writing you'd get in a tv soap AND it has THE single most creepy Bond forcing himself on an unwilling widow who's husband he has only just executed...wth, so much for their big song and dance about modernizing. They completely overhauled the entire franchise as they did only to just immediately go back to retro 60s drivel, plus an even more creepy and downright unlikeable Bond.
Making c**t jokes doesn't make it remotely better, it's actually just extremely crude, not clever at all. The less said about Bond randomly falling head over heels and quitting for some complete block of wood annoying and blank-faced woman he's only just met and had zero chemistry with the better.
@@AD-kv9kj 😂 Brutal review...but so true. Never actually thought about it as the absolute worst Bond movie ever but now I think about it all, I kind of agree
@@DYFLProductions Spectre works a lot better when watched in order as it's dealing with follow up from Skyfall while also setting up No Time to Die. It clearly suffered from production issues with the script [as it was being re-written on set] but I wouldn't say it was the worst Craig film [as it's better than Quantum of Solace], let alone the whole run . For my money the worst Bond ever is the 1967 Casino Royale film.
One of the reasons for reclassifying pre-80s Bonds might be that the 12 rating was only introduced in 1989. Prior to that, there was no rating that fell between PG and 15 and for the first Connery Bonds, there were only 3 classifications (Universal/Adult/X-rated), so they've partially been re-rated to reflect that there are simply more precise ratings available.
Brilliant piece Calvin. Was always curious about these cuts. Very informative. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I think not seeing 006 get shot makes sense since he isn't actually dead. It might even have been a plot hole if there was blood or something.
As for the guard in TND...let's face it, we all just assumed he was being that rare sensible minion who just chose to lie down and pretend he was knocked out to avoid fighting James Bond again.
I LOVE that reasoning for why the minion chose to stay down 😂 maybe he was even able to abandon ship before it all went down
@@calvindyson We can only hope.
@@calvindyson Hello, henchman hotline, how can I help you?
Oh, I'm sorry, Goon #7777 is currently indisposed. No, he is currently undergoing our indoctrination process so as to not run off on assignment ever again...
It's like the writers wrote it that Alec never defected and Ouromov actually killed him, filmed the scene, then half way through making the rest of the movie said "Hey what if 006 didn't die, turned traitor, and is actually Janus? Oh crap we already filmed him getting shot in the head! Uhhh he planned it all along?". Because it doesn't make any sense. If Ouromov was using blanks on Alec to stage his death, how did he shoot that trigger happy soldier a minute later?
@@spencerkindra8822 The first bullet was a blank; the rest were real. But yes, it was a bit weird. Apparently, Trevalyn was originally meant to be an older mentor type, played by Alan Rickman, so maybe the scene played out differently at first.
And now we are waiting for an ultimate 3 hour version of Goldeneye, including Xenia head-butting someone continually for 40 solid minutes until what's left of the soldier is a headless stump gushing blood everywhere.....
I also need to see uncut more in depth footage of Xenia crushing men with her thighs. For reasons.
Add some classic music and you got yourself a Tarantino flick.
@@drochinoshe’s gotta be barefoot though, that man is a freak.
And then she has sex with it.
I just wanted to say that I love your channel. Your insight and well put together videos are a delight to watch. Thank you!
Very kind of you and thanks so much for this 😁😁 it’s my pleasure and I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos!
I think you will also find that at the end, when Trevelyan hits the dish, the redness of his blood is desaturated to make it lees gory
Wait, what blood? There isn't any blood in that shot other than what you already saw from the fight. I just checked the scene again in slo-mo and there is no blood apart from the few specks on his hand that were already clearly visible in the fight scenes right before. His leg goes all over the place though and that always made me wince as a kid. Looks like his right leg breaks in multiple places.
@@AD-kv9kjAside from blood in his hand, there's also blood spilling out of his mouth
@@AD-kv9kj He gets blood on his forehead during the fight, there is less blood after his fall
The sci-fi movie Men in Black had a strange and creative censor edit here in Australia to get it down to a PG rating. Near the start of the film, Will Smith chases down the guy who blinks sideways, and the guy commits suicide by throwing himself off a rooftop. In the Aussie theatrical cut, and on TV at the time, he doesn't hit the ground with a thud. Instead, he disintegrates into sparkly stuff on the way down. It made it seem as if he'd teleported somewhere safe, so I spent the whole movie expecting him to show up again. 😅I was amazed when I saw MiB on DVD years later and the guy just ... went thud.
A much racier (and unintentionally funny) cut happened on Aussie TV to the Spanish thriller Susanna (1996). It has a lot of steamy sex scenes, especially at the beginning. When it was shown on TV here late at night on our SBS channel, most of the sex was uncut--except for a few seconds when Eva Santolaria first gets astride her lover, Said Amel. In the uncut version, they have sex for a short while in that position. But in the edited version, no sooner has she hopped on top than he, uh, finishes too soon, if you know what I mean. That's okay mate, it happens to the best of us.
(I have a good memory for that scene because, as a hormonal teen, I may or may not have taped it off TV and watched it a couple of times ...)
Incidentally, regarding age classification ratings, the Aussie movie Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (about a gay drag show) has the best one ever. Often the rating sticker will include a summary of the content, such as 'low level violence' or 'moderate sexual references'. But on the DVD of Priscilla, the rating sticker says: 'Moderate sexual preferences.' I guess our classification board has a sense of humour. 😇
I can say without a doubt that the March 1999 broadcast of GOLDENEYE on ITV definitely had the Xenia headbutting Natalya moment (the 2000 dvd version anyway).
I cant remember what year (maybe 2003) but there definitely was a broadcast of GOLDENEYE on TV that had the uncut rabbit punch and another moment that Alec shoots 2 (thats right) scientists in that room and they fall over and break the chemistry equipment while Bond unlocks the door to Facility.
Sometimes TV does this (for timing and breaks) when they can get footage not released theatrically or on home media. 'SUPERMAN the movie' is a prime example of this.
Hope that helps Calvin as those scenes are definitely out there, as well as other scenes aswell apparently.
Yea, when I saw Goldeneye back in 95 I was sure that Alec killed 2 scientists and also the shootout, when Bond and Nat first escape before the tank chase, I remember being longer and more violent.
@@markholohan4446 The shot of the scientists appears here during this interview with Sean Bean 48 seconds in. ruclips.net/video/mvek_zK7RWo/видео.html
Also on a non censorship related note, I recall someone claiming that their 1996 VHS release had the original Tank Chase score by Eric Serra reinstated. Mine didn't but strangely enough and I don't know whether it's the Mandela effect or misremembering but I recall my 1990 VHS Rental copy of Licence To Kill had the deleted scene of Bond buying the speedboat that he takes to the Barrelhead Bar added back in.
@@JeffHooton-n4v as has been seen with Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, its possible that different versions can be released to different markets/uses, whether intentionally or not.
@@markholohan4446 thanks sharing. these things change between release and home media too
@@davidjames579 yeah very true
I remember being desperate to watch GoldenEye because it was the only Brosnan Bond film I hadn’t watched at that time. We knew there was a 12 version and a 15 version, and because I was quite young, my dad got me the 12 version for Christmas, and I was so thrilled!
I didn’t think much about the difference between the uncut version and the cut version, but now I find it very interesting!
That was a really entertaining video dude. I had no idea about this. I'll probably end up buying the uncut versions of all the ones you mentioned now.
(Nes Manga)
Great video, Calvin. Film buffs shouldn't have to wait years to see the most uncut version of their favourite movies due to the arbitrary rulings of censors and BBFC.
Yeah, I hate having to hunt down uncut versions of movies! When I was a teenager I pirated my movies and that was the only way to get some uncut versions at the time. It was beyond frustrating!
At least now a days you'd get the uncut version on DVD a few months later or the clips would end up on youtube.
I remember actually being a little scared when I finally saw the uncut headbutt in Goldeneye... not because the scene was scary, but because I was witnessing the actors saying lines and doing things I had never seen before. I thought they had become sentient on my DVD. Censorship can scare a child!
Indeed. Especially when I would first watch the Bond films on the TV (thinking they were the real deal) and then seeing the uncut versions a little while later. It really shook me and threw me off guard. Even the milder Bond films like You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die. Censorship can indeed scare a child! Especially an autistic child!
Another great video Calvin. Surprising how entertaining a video about censorship can be
I never realized how much seeing the head butts in the US version of Goldeneye when I was a teenager affected me, but I have to admit, I have headbutted 3 people so far today for practically no reason.
1:40 There are various reasons why 'Licence to Kill' is the lowest grossing Bond adjusted for inflation but being a 15 certificate in the UK lost a good chunk of the audience and probably is why subsequent films took the cuts for a 12 [I read the Milton Kreast death in LTK was cut down to avoid an R Rating in the USA] and 10:39 was in effect.
There have been rumblings about the BBFC bringing in a 15A certificate (prompted by kids being unable to see The Batman and the FNAF film) - if it does come in I wonder if EON will seize the opportunity or if LTK has spooked them so much they'll stick at 12A.
Very true
@@BenCol It would make sense as 'R' in america is pretty much that anyway for 17+ [and they want more people in the cinemas instead of waiting for streaming]. 'The Batman'+ Oppenheimer have shown that 15 doesn't mean it doesn't make a lot of money but I'd be surprised if Bond went in that direction [excess violence and swearing in Bond feels out of place a bit anyway imho].
@@BenCol They've already poured cold water on a '15a' happening as recently as January this year
@@stuffedsheepshead Ah. I guess Bond is staying at 12A for the foreseeable future then.
Sean Connery’s James Bond headbutts someone in the opening action sequence for _Never Say Never Again._
ITV tends to cut that bit out.
@@AndrewChapmanSeems a lot of
inconsistency in censorship rules.
Speaking of the Ninja Turtles - I learned years later that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 80s / 90s animated series) was titled Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK due to the censors restricting the showing of ninjas and specifically Michelangelo’s nunchucks. I wonder if that is related to their decision to remove Wei Lin’s throwing star in Tomorrow Never Dies.
The age at which I first saw that scene with Xenia and the admiral explains a lot about my development
What I like most about watching James Bond films on television is seeing what was cut, and how badly they did it. It makes for an interactive experience.
Story time! Here in the States when I was but 4 mature years old, Goldeneye was my first Bond film. I had the VHS from the James Bond 007 collection, and all the scenes were present: Xenia sex scene, the numerous head-buts, the judo chop was the insert shot filmed later, everything the ‘uncut’ DVD had. Likewise also for Tomorrow Never Dies, the shuriken throws were intact along with the boot to the head. We run a loose ship here in the US of A.
You also got Licence To Kill as a PG-13!
@@davidjames579I actually miss when PG-13 meant something.
The most bizarre thing I have ever seen was when the Special Edition dvd of A View To A Kill got released here in Australia, it had an MA15+ rating. Very bizarre.
I wonder if that was due to to the infamous 'mine massacre scene!'
@@jamesatkinsonja I reckon so. I'm always shocked/impressed by the sadistic brutality of that sequence. Zorin gleefully machine gunning many, many of his own men. Plus you do see bullet hits as well as men being horribly electrocuted. And it goes on for a good while. I'd love to know if they had to cut that down back in 1985 to get the rating.
@@jamesatkinsonja i'm very surprised that passed uncensored here given how violent it was.
The strangest Aussie ratings incident I've heard of is an obscure Japanese anime called Plastic Little. When it was released in Australia on VHS tape in the 90s, it got an R18+ just for having some nudity (just boobs and bums), and a bit of blood. There was a minor kerfuffle in anime fan circles about it. Then it was mysteriously re-rated ... to PG.
I say 're-rated' but there's no record of the first R rating on the classification site, only the PG one. There are VHS tapes and cases out there with both ratings labels on them, though. The content is identical on the R and PG tapes. Including the long and graphic trailer at the end of the tape for *other* anime--some of which really was R-rated!
I think it'd be for Roger saying Fuck him, in the deleted scene that's clearly just an outtake. If they included all of Roger's it'd be adults only!
Very interesing video. I found the "no head-butts" rule fascinating because I'm a huge fan of head-butts specifically in fight scenes. Somehow there's a sort of shock value and brutality they bring that ups the anty. Whenever I see one that's convincing in a movie I find myself either saying out loud or thinking "Oh, Sh#t!" And that final fight scene in Goldeneye is more head-butt heavy than I realized.
Totally relate to this. Remeber watching the Connery films a few years back. Previously having watched endless censored ITV afternoon recorded films when younger.
It was genuinely like watching Bond again with the added grit! :)
How about something about Bond themes? The Radiohead theme that never was. Little Anthony and the Imperials' version of You Only Live Twice that was promised to be in the film, until Frank Sinatra had a word! Love the channel Calvin.
He did a 'top 10 rejected bond theme songs' video a while back [2018]-maybe time for an update [especially as new information about Radiohead's theme was in the 'Sound of 007 documentary].
I'm American, so it seems like the versions of all the James Bond films on Blu-Ray are the full uncut versions. But seeing this video made me think of something tangentially related regarding censorship, although in this case the "censored" version didn't even work since the "uncut" version was an R (the equivalent of an 18) but the "censored" version was also an R.
So, back in 2017 there was a movie called The Hitman's Bodyguard. It was released by the studios during the quiet part of the summer, but due to being one of the only movies out, it actually became a sleeper hit. And they had planned to make a sequel, it was scheduled to come out in 2020. But for reasons that I'm sure everyone knows, that didn't happen. It was delayed until 2021. And then it was released.
But Americans who talked to people online from other countries noticed something. Our version of the movie was only 99 minutes long, whereas most of the other countries had a 116 minute long film. (Just for reference, the first Hitman's Bodyguard was 118 minutes long.) And by noticing the copyright date, the shorter version was a heavily edited one, the "uncut" version of the movie had a 2020 copyright, since it was finished and completely untouched. But the edited version had a 2021 copyright. So, the "extended" version was the definitive version.
Now, since it's a 17 minute difference you might be thinking there's something major story wise that was taken out of the movie. But the answer is no. The cuts were mostly to shorten action scenes, cut a couple jokes, and even some censorship of the F-word (although it only goes from 194 to 152, so the word is still there plenty), but the most common cut was to get rid of the breathing room between jokes. As such, the US version is clearly the weaker version of the film, as the jokes don't have any time to actually land, and the pacing of the "extended" cut more matches the pacing of the first film (which was released "uncut" almost everywhere it released.)
I remember sneaking in to watch Licence to Kill and there being a massive fuss about it being a 15 certificate at the time.
Nice one! Will you make some other videos talking about the censored version of Licence To Kill and Tomorrow Never Dies?
Here in the US, I guess we got the full version based on what you’re reporting here. I’ve never not seen the headbutt scenes either on screen or in the video releases. I’m not sure what to make of them cutting these scenes. I mean…you show people getting shot or blown up but you cut a headbutt?! I’ve also never been traumatized by anything I’ve seen on screen because I know it’s make-believe. That’s a product of proper parenting IMO. I’ve also always been a student and fan of behind-the-scenes spots where you’re shown how a fight, stunt or SFX bit is created. Great content!
Ah censorship, one of my favourite topics. I don’t recall Goldeneye ever being released censored on any release version in Australia. All the cut scenes you described (other than the rough cut footage of course) remained on the PG VHS all the way through to the Blu-Ray. It actually surprises me that Goldeneye is still PG here in Oz, it should be an M15.
Licence to Kill was also another one that was heavily edited for TV but the home video version was released uncut with an M15.
Some history: In 1999 James Ferman stepped down as Director of the BBFC, replaced by Robin Duval. To quote the BFI: "Duval was also concerned about accountability, and in September 2000 announced that the upshot of eighteen months of intensive research into public opinion was that the BBFC would no longer be cutting films for adults unless they were deemed to infringe the criminal law."
So this change in leadership and public perception probably explains A) why the Bond films since TWINE onwards have been largely avoided any cuts and B) why we Brits got uncut versions of GE and TND without any issue. The BBFC regularly undertake public consultation as to what issues concern people (it was in the news recently that the Bob Marley film could be released 12A because maurianja is less of an issue now) so it's probable they also found parents were less concerned with the levels of violence they let their kids see.
And while it's great "films for adults" aren't being cut anymore, the fact that the Bond films aren't just for adults is always going to be the issue - yes they're technically films for adults, but they're always going to edit it so it gets a 12A release so the kids can see it too (Licence to Kill and its underperformance with a 15 cert probably still haunts EON). I suppose it helps though that the BBFC (also during Duval's tenure) made the classification decision more open, as now a concerned parent can go online and read any film's report (this film contains X level of violence, Y level of gore, Z level of sex) and decide for themselves whether or not to take little Billy to see James Bond kill people.
So I doubt we'd ever see anything like this again with the Bond films - any cuts will be at the pre-release stage and once the final edit is decided upon we won't then get any censored versions of it. Well, not in the UK and the US at least.
But outside of Bond? Well hopefully when Robot Dreams gets its home release they'll let the bird flipping go without the big ugly black bars Curzon put over it in the cinema so the film could be released PG. And hopefully the situation with the new The Abyss remaster can be sorted out, though that's really an issue with UK law rather than the BBFC.
Was that the same guy who regretted giving robin hood 1991 a PG rating?
@@DafyddBrooks Yeah, James Ferman was. He was also the guy who had issues with nunchucks and other such weapons, even when it was just a link of sausages being used as nunchucks for a comedy bit in TMNT II (or, rather, TMHT II as it was then).
@@BenColThe 1988 UK VHS release of the 1977 Doctor Who story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" had every single shot containing nunchucks edited out of a fight scene. It is kind of funny when you consider all the other horrible things that happen in the story (suicide by scorpion venom, people being kidnapped to have their life force drained, plus knives and such apparently being totally acceptable weapons to show to kids), but that's censorship for you, I guess.
I remember Die Hard 5 being released in the USA as an R-Rating [to try an appease fans who didn't like the PG-13 rating of part 4] but it was a 12 in the UK with a long list on the BBFC website of the cuts made to get that certificate so the school holiday kids would see it before releasing the 15 version on DVD [amusingly the page at the time listed 'Patrick Stewart' in the cast when he's not in the film as they'd taking it from an early IMDB listing based on rumours!]
Rocky 5 [at least used to be] a PG in the UK but in Ireland it was a 15, probably due to the end street fight.
Funfact if this interests you: In the german version in theaters and the VHS release the death of Alec Trevelyan was cut. He just falls down, but the antenna is never coming for him. This was just added back in the DVD Special Edition. But we got all the headbutting from the get go.
I would prefer this cut. Just falling from the antenna would be fatal. I always though the bit where the wreckage falls on him as he screams his head off was a bit silly.
I like the bond movies and I love learning and talking about classification systems, so I feel like this video was tailor-made for me. Thank you very much!! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Proud to confirm that we didn't have these censored cuts in Australian VHS releases.
woooooow. is there any other cuts in the movie that calvin didnt mention?? Alec shooting 2 scientists for example??
Annoyingly enough, in Ireland we had the censored versions, just because we had the UK VHS tapes with a sticker covering their rating with our own one on it lmao. Irish censors are more lenient than the UK ones, so I can assume that had we gotten our own version of the VHS we might’ve gotten the uncut version! I have lots of DVDs with a sticker rating a movie 12 covering an English 15.
Surely the most outrageous censorship is the removal of Mrs. Bell's expletive in afternoon television showings of LALD. I know in the US the sound of the rope 'landing' in the torture scene of CR was toned down compared to Britain during the original cinema run. Don't know if it returned for dvd etc.
ITV often edit the films for content but also to fit into a shorter slot [I remember watching a really badly edited version of Live and Let Die to get it into a 2 hour slot with adverts]. The TV edit of Tomorrow Never Dies hilariously implies that Dr Kaufman died from being electrocuted by the gadget rather than Bond shooting him in cold blood!
Itv rewrote Marty McFly's letter to Doc Brown.
Re: The Xenia headbutt scene being included in the documentary, but not the actual film...
I've seen that happen quite often. For some reason, "out of context" is fine, but in the context of the film, they have to cut it. Bizarre.
Honestly, I dont think Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies or Casino Royale deserve a 15 rating at all.
License to kill for me is a fairly weak 15 rating, but I wouldnt give it a 12 any day. Infact I feel that movie deserves more gross attention of violence than Temple of Doom.
It does seem like in the years between 89 and 95 that PG rated action films werent drawing in a teen crowd enough, so it must have been a conscience decision that the next movie was definitely going to need to be a 12/ PG13 in order to draw in that crowd and not just be another family movie.
Rest in peace PG rated Bond movies :( 1962 -1987
I know what you mean about LTK... It definitely pushes the violence and intensity and has hard drugs at the centre of its plot so it makes sense it's a 15 and yet... It feels like a weak 15 compared to others that I've seen. Yet, a 12 would probably feel a little too low for it.
I presume 'Casino' got it for the torture scene. I remember USA youtube critic Chris Stuckmann saying he felt that it was skirting an R-Rating with that scene.
The hiring of Michael Kamen to do the score, and casting such 80's action staples as Robert Davi, Frank McRae and Grand L Bush meant they were trying to skew towards the audience for R rated crime movies.
From my side of the Channel, this is completely surrealistic. In France, Licence to Kill had no age restriction at all, and Casino Royale a mere warning for children under 10.
@@jamesatkinsonja i think the humour with the 'ive got an ich' line helped elevate that. though even the nail gun cutting the locater in his arm is a bit much too. then again i feel The dark knight 2 years later pushed it too
Interesting stuff. The version I always had as a kid (which was certainly before 2001) was recorded onto tape off the TV (this being in the UK too, btw) and I'm pretty sure that it had all the headbuttery goodness intact
was it? he was probably the best 007 ever imo , i mean he did remington Steele for years early which he nailed also. he suits that role. btw it wasn't cut way back at the movies, i saw all of this stuff when it first come out, only after did they cut it for t.v
The funniest thing here is the idea that parents actually take these ratings into consideration. It’s even worse in the video game industry. GTA is the most adult game ever and yet half the player base is under 17
It was Former BBFC head James Ferman who would cut headbutts and nunchucks on site (That’s why a string of sausages was mistakenly removed from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). He had a particularly vehement stance against headbutts.
He was also the person who said that the exorcist would never be available for release On video or DVD in the UK while he was still in charge.
This ruling was only relaxed when Ferman retired And about a month later Warner Brothers revealed plans to release the exorcist on DVD
I also started watching James Bond films when I was 11 years old. But in Brazil in 1997.
Some films were only shown late at night. There were always cuts. But not headbutts.
Itv showed the film uncut. Weird, and Tomorrow Never Dies was also shown uncut. But strangely enough, Licence To Kill showed Timothy Dalton headbutting a villain. It was also featured the headbutting scene on the music video
Hey Calvin, speaking of rough cuts and workprints, maybe you could get into that rumored press release cut of TWINE one day, which, according to IMDB, ran about 160 minutes. IF that ever existed...
Like 'Tomorrow Never Dies' that film has copious deleted scenes on the DVD but like you I'm dubious there was nearly 30 mins cut out of a press version [rather than an in house workprint]. Of course Michael Apted has passed away so we'll never get a 'directors cut' of TWINE.
In Spectre - Mr Hinx pushing in the guys eye balls has been censored on every UK tv broadcast
Always noticed that ITV (at least back in the day) used to always have the uncut shots on GoldenEye. I always found TV edits interesting -- the very old version of Basic Instinct on ITV was a joke. The sexual connotations was IN, the F word when used against someone, was not... LOL. RoboCop TV cut is a laugh too.. but still good to see for the nostalgia
Think of TV edits versions of 007 films. I'd love to see that and I have lots of content to share about that. Goldeneye on an afternoon ITV version cuts loads of stuff. Great content and more to discuss please Calvin
Yeah ITV cut pretty much all of Xenia's sexual stuff, making GoldenEye safe family viewing at last! 😂
@@PhoenixFilmsProductions loads get cut but they cut the sexy bits but left that head but in 😂
I was born and raised in the USA, so the version I watched was the US VHS tape. Here in the US we only have G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. The difference between R and NC-17 is that with the R rating people under 17 and under can get in if they're with their parents or guardians. NC-17 is strictly no children under 17.
Its still surreal to me that it took until the early 2000s for the UK to get a proper equivalent to PG-13. In the UK, 12 meant NO ONE under 12 could see the film. Apparently the reason it was changed was because a lot of kids wanted to see the first Raimi Spider-Man film but couldn't. The UK box office was far weaker compared to the US. So they had to introduce 12A and the film became one of the first reclassified and kids finally got to watch it. Meanwhile here in the US, my 6 year old self got to see that film with no issue, and didn't even know its rating until I got the VHS.
Long comment warning:
Man, learning about cuts (and localization while we're at it) is more and more fascinating. And while I had a short time living in the UK (2010-2014), I do have some British import DVDs from when I lived there (notably DBZ - Season 1 from Manga UK; which contains the US Funimation dub uncut - both now owned by Crunchyroll and DBZ itself having a very interesting UK history, Scott Pilgrim vs The World - which has a fairly lenient of region codes that also includes being able to play in Australia and New Zealand, and Jackie Chan's Police Story from Hong Kong Legends).
But I never knew how much of a clusterfuck the BBFC was. Especially from following Film Brain on Twitter and he brought up how the Indiana Jones re-releases were affected by the re-ratings. Bond films cut for the MPAA (PG-13) aren't this crazy, especially for Goldeneye.
EDIT: Somewhat irrelevant, but also, learning about a cut graphic headshot that Trevelyan somehow survives. Now I feel extra relieved to make my Courier a James Bond type (stealth, guns/lasers, explosives, charisma, etc, loyalist for a government to a point - NCR, seducing more than one woman - except she's LGBTQ) every time I replay Fallout: New Vegas. Only the Courier was shot by a career criminal (RIP Matthew Perry), rather than a communist General. XD
None of this stuff was cut in the US. I didn't know there was a censored version.
Man, I'm sorry. All of these scenes were present in the theatrical version of Goldeneye I saw in small town MIchigan, USA in November 1995.
Yes I remember the previous realise were cut even tomorrow never dies was cut
Good stuff. Love seeing your collection in the background.
Censorship in the Bond films has always been an issue, primarily in the 60s, although if i recall correctly a lot of it was due to sexuality, but there were cuts for violence as well (e.g in Dr No, Bond apprently emptied his entire magazine into Professor Dent in the original cut before being reduced to 2 shots.)
As it was the 60s you had 3 ratings in the UK: U, A and X, so it was basically either the films were for everyone or just adults, which is obviously a much steeper gradient (for lack of a better term) than the 12, 15 and 18 ratings we have now.
I think you should do a video on Bond censorship sometime, would be interesting to get your thoughts on it.
Fun Fact: Goldeneye's primary antagonist Alec Trevelyan was named after BBFC director John Trevelyan, presumably as a dig at all the censorship he demanded.
EDIT: Grammar and information.
Without wanting to sound pedantic, in the 60's you had U, A and X, though A was the same as PG. Bit confusing, as people thought A stood for Adult, rather than Advisory. In 1970 they introduce the AA, which was the same as the current 15.
@markedwards3927 I've edited it now, I dno why i put PG as I'm familiar with the A and the AA certificate
Thanks for letting me know 😀
First time I saw Goldeneye uncut was when ITV first screened it in 1999. I remember being a bit miffed at the time, that I had a sell-thru tape that had less footage than a "tv-version" and that I should have recorded it, but I didn't. It was the same with Licence to Kill. ITV would often show the full uncut version in the 90's. Not the BBFC approved version or even the MPAA cut, but the full "R rated" version, that I think only made it to Japan, till it was finally made available on the Ultimate Edition in 2006 and is now the more common version. Tomorrow Never Dies is an odd one, because the original cinema release was uncut, but it was shortened on VHS and the original DVD. The shot of Bond kicking a guy in the face was somewhat controversial at the time.. I remember reading a review in the Daily Mirror on release and the critic thought it was too thugish for Bond... but I guess killing the guard would have been fine? Once again, ITV showed it completely uncut when it premiered in late 1999.
Never saw that uncut "rabbit punch" till now! To be honest, I think the cutting in the released print looks better ; focuses more on the aggression in Brosnan's face in the close-up... you don't need to see any more than that.
Didn't see you mention this cut in the video, but I'm sure decades ago now I remember seeing near the end when Janus' base blows up Natalya's co-worker Boris does his trademark "YES! I AM INVINCIBLE!" before he gets frozen solid by liquid nitrogen (I think) then falls over and is smashed into literal pieces.
I do wish I had the uncut dvds you have there cause I’m obsessed with the cover arts. The holographic sleeves looks super clean.
I don't remember seeing any other than the uncut version in Finnish TV.
Very interesting video Calvin....as an American, even though headbutts & some gratuitous violence weren't censored in most PG-13 and/or R rated movies over here, as a follow up video, you could also look into our MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), which handled our rating system here in the US and how they classified various action & horror movies of what could be shown (and even sometimes for how long) and what couldn't be shown in an American made movies to get that PG-13 and/or R rating & the struggles that producers, director's and editors had to go through to get such ratings. You might even find it interesting how the PG-13 rating came to be in existence and who suggested that idea for the PG-13 rating (prior to 1984 there was no PG-13, there was only G, PG, R and X/NC-17 for movies & how the films Poltergeist, Gremlins, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom and Ghostbusters were largely responsible for the creation of the PG-13 rating), also during the 80s, which was considered to be the 2nd heyday of horror movies (the 1st being the golden age of horror in the 30s, 40s & 50s), it appeared to many movie fans that the MPAA had a personal vendetta against the Friday The 13th movie franchise in particular (many of them were overly scrutinized by the MPAA specifically) when compared to many other horror movie franchises that were released at a lot of the same times (Halloween/Michael Myers, A Nightmare On Elm Street/Freddy, Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Leatherface, Hellraiser/Pinhead, Child's Play/Chucky, Living Dead/Zombie movies etc). Many of the Friday The 13th films were heavily censored (and were forced re-cuts) by the MPAA whereas many other horror films & their horror bits were glanced over (or even ignored entirely) at times....later in the 80s into the 90s, it also appeared that the MPAA really had it in for certain directors like Paul Verhoeven, Brian DePalma, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick, etc., and how the MPAA singled out & scrutinized those such director movies compared to other directors movies made during those same times....and now have the times and even the MPAA board members (and their standards) have changed over these many years.... fascinating stuff & worthy of a follow up video on bizarre rating classifications.
I remember seeing a old TV airing
of *"Goldfinger"* and the pre-title
sequence ends abruptly with 007
being nonchalant during to the
explosion of Mr. Ramirez's factory
and it jumps to the opening titles
(it completely cuts out 007 kissing
the dancer & then using her as a
shield and Capungo later getting
fried in the tub with a electric fan).
It’s interesting to have this video as an eye opener in terms of how important age ratings are for cinema releases. Casino Royale was my “life changer” cinematic experience after falling in love with Bond movies between DAD and 2006. I wouldn’t have been old enough to see CR in cinemas had it had a 15 rating, and subsequently wouldn’t have watched in 5 or so times on the big screen, and perhaps not put quite as much oil on the Bond fan fire in my early teens otherwise!
There's a headbutt in Licence To Kill. Bond headbutts Dario in the climax
Of course that film is 15 anyway [the head exploding scene had to be cut down to avoid an R Rating in America].
@jamesatkinsonja I know yeah. Was just stating an instance of a headbutt before Goldeneye 😌
@@cooper5594 Fair enough! Maybe why it was in Goldeneye as they didn't realise that would get a 15 [as LTK would get it for the head explosion scene alone!].
“No one wins with a head butt.” -Paul Blart
Every time they is a cut scene a advert comes on so you know you missed something
Fun video, Calvin!
Jeez, I get a TV channel at noon making some edits (even though kids have always watched Bond in full head-butting glory in theatres!), but it's bizarre to me that even the home media releases would be censored!
arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh drives me crazy now . what a waste of time. censoring . its an adult film leave everything in there. its not a kids film. whoever controls the censoring are bloody wrong (i censored my self just now)
What you are telling seems pretty odd to me. On my VHS recording of GoldenEye, which I recorded from the german Free TV around 1998, all those scenes are included. I don't even have to watch it again - I am 100% sure, since I watched this movie countless times from that VHS tape.
I remember during my initial Bond obsession seeing the 15 certificate on the Ultimate Edition of GoldenEye and being around 10 years old at that time I had to buy Die Another Day instead, despite the fact that I watched Casino Royale at that same tender age because that had a 12 rating. But the recut torture scene was permitted by the censors because 'Bond may be captured, tortured etc, but there's the expectation is he'll always survive' which it's ironic now given the ending of NTTD.
I suppose if we saw Felix's wife being tortured as opposed to him that would be far more problematic as most people would expect her to die [so it feels sadistic and gratuitous] while despite the horrible injuries, Felix is going to live [hence they tastefully didn't show her death in the film].
I remember the ITV premiere of Goldeneye on TV back in 1999 (I was 7 and being a Bond fan, I had to record it on the VHS). I was lucky to get the full, unedited version!
That's interesting, Calvin. Well, I realize that every country has their own content standards, but it's interesting that you mention in England about the headbutts being edited out. Here, in the United States, I remember the headbutt scenes being kept in the original Goldeneye movie cut. Interesting!
Talking of Shrek, Donkey headbuts a knight in the wrestling section of the first film. Not sure if animal headbuts count differently!
I've always had a question about Goldeneye's plot that maybe Calvin or someone here could answer. It's a lot more involved than at first glance so excuse the essay.
Why do Ourumov and Travelyan stage the execution of 006 at the start? It seems the only reason to do that would be because they want to let Bond get away as an authoritative eye witness to 006 having been killed in action. I always thought this was a clever double reason as to why Ourumov keeps telling his troops to hold their fire (but you think it's just because he's NERVous of the nerve gas). Maybe it actually was but they didn't make sure all the details added up.
Ourumov sends a ton of soldiers in who are firing a ton of rounds at both 007 and 006, with 006 genuinely shooting a load of his men too. I suppose you could just put that aside as Ourumov doesn't care at all about his fodder troops since he's defecting anyway, fair enough, and he just assumes the 00 agents won't get so easily killed. However, another side note is Bond clearly sees Ourumov fire a blank a few inches past 006s head and he lands with not a trace of blood. Bond would know full well he hadn't fired a live round, due to the basic nature of what happens when you do that to someone's head...though I guess it's meant to be so sudden and Bond is supposed to be in such shock he doesn't realise?
Most crucially though, later in the movie Travelyan clearly says to Bond that he was supposed to die in the nerve gas facility..."Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" - "No, you were supposed to die for me." So...what? What exactly was this big plan? Why did Ourumov and Travelyan completely risk their own deaths and, according to Alec, want to kill Bond also while staging a completely unnecessary execution of Travelyan? Was the execution more for the sake of all the Russian troops to be eye witnesses? But they would have had a much clearer view of the fact Travelyan was not really shot. The soldiers are also clearly not under specific orders NOT to kill Bond, since they keep trying to and Ourumov keeps having to yell at them like he has poor control of his troops.
I used to just gloss over all this as a kid but the more I looked at it, the more it seems to make no sense. What they SHOULD have done here is just not have Travelyan saying Bond was supposed to die later in the movie, and also just craft a few details of the opening sequence slightly differently, so it was more clear on rewatches that 006 lured Bond into witnessing his staged death, not have had it be a fake execution and just have 006 go silent then Bond peers out to see him dead on the ground and Ourumov trying to capture Bond as normal with his strict orders to his troops not to kill Bond as it basically already suggests. Ourumov should have wanted to capture Bond in order to then set up his safe escape, but of course Bond being Bond, he makes his clever escape there and then anyway. The troops go after him but Ourumov keeps insisting they don't kill him. This is actually basically how it already is in the movie, but just a few details contradict it. If the line "You were supposed to die for me" was cut out and 006s killing done in a slightly less obviously fake manner without Bond watching the fake shot, then it would all make sense.
And when Bond and Trevelyan didn't return MI6 would assume they were both killed. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It's classic write what is necessary for the scene and don't worry about how it all links together. As Guy Hamilton would say "put your brain under the seat and let's all go on a great ride". Its just as well the BBFC and MPAA made them cut the headshot as that would make even less sense. Trevelyan fakes his death, but we see blood and brain matter.
A good majority of it is just plot conveniences for the sake of the story. Some of it can be theorised about but most of it is just plot convince.
The things I’ll say could be argued to have an explanation is:
-The Russian soldiers weren’t in on the plan, Oremov had to send them in after 006/007 and they had to be genuinely killed to make it look real (this is the only objective fact id say). Id say they were willing to take the risk of both agents being killed since they’re both highly trained and their likely to survive.
-006 being shot is the biggest plot hole here, sure bond could have missed it being a blank but as i said the russian soldiers were not in on the plan so how would they all miss that their general just missed the enemy’s head who’s now playing dead. The answer could come from the stated deleted scene in this video of 006 being shot and blood coming out, he might have had some fake blood packet on his head or in Ouromovs gun to make it look real (unrealistic yes, but its a bond film and im always willing to let them gadget away situations like this).
-Of course the other biggest plot hole that bond was supposed to die there, which i think can be possibly theorised decently well out off. First id say that they were probably banking on bond surrendering to save alec (where they’d probably kill bond, “capture” alec and ourumov would help him “escape” from later), shooting alec was probably the backup plan incase the countdown for bond to walk out reached 0 (what else would they do, just stand up and say “woops you got us, alecs a bad guy”. They seem aware of bonds training meaning he’s at risk of escaping). Of course shooting trevelian was the backup incase bond escaped so that at least mi6 would think he was dead (making the plan not a total bust).
-as for why ouromov orders his men not to shoot, well indoors i genuinely believe he is scared of the gas tanks and outdoors he only orders them not to fire once bonds close to the plane so he probably didn’t want to hit that.
These are all just handwavey theories tho and as i said a lot of this is just plot convince
As a kid I had somewhat strict parents so I completely relate to this. All my favorite movies were recorded from tv and these were mostly the versions I saw. Arnold movies like Total Recall are, to this day, a delight to watch in all their uncensored glory. I spent so many years thinking Schwarzenegger responded to everything with “baloney!”
I never knew the headbutt scene existed until I got the ultimatum edition DVD in 2006, despite having renting it on VHS and DVD, as well as seeing it on TV, prior to this. If this was the case, they could have just released it with a 15 on the original VHS release. It reminds me of a scene in the UK VHS of Batman Returns, which is a 15, when Catwoman pulls the pipe from the gas tank, but the scene where she puts the aerosol cans in the microwave was removed
See some similar things in the USA. There have been some movies that have been given a lower rating when rereleased & a few that got a higher rating upon rerelease. Then there is Last Tango in Paris. the original rating was X (no NC-17) when it came out in 73. In 1981 United Artists issued an edited version that was rated R. The original NC-17 verssion is still available as well.
I recently found out the BBFC (presumably) had censored the scene in Ace Ventura 2 where Ace is making shadow puppets in the projector room. The uncensored version is so much funnier.
Most memorable Bond headbutt for me is from "Licence to Kill” where Timothy Dalton headbutt Benicio del Toro. I remember because it featured on Gladys Knight’s title soundtrack video.
Off topic but the most mind blowing uncensored film moment for me was when channel 4 showed Bruce lee films in the early 2000s and Way of the Dragon’s nunchaku scenes were back. Plus it was remastered. I never watched my vhs version again after that.
Great video, love to see the different edits and how to avoid the censor... hope you will do some video about the books on your book shelf, which ones are worth reading (guess everyone :) )
hi Calvin. loved this video and i do wonder what other Bond films are cut because of censorship issues if any at all. The BBFC also banned num-chuks in Bruce Lee's films for a very long time. 😀😀😀
Licence To Kill was passed as an 18 on first viewing by The BBFC. After EON complained, the BBFC advised how they could get a 15. Cubby was still not happy at that. The BBFC said they couldn't have a PG, but they could advise them on what cuts to make to get their upcoming new certificate, 12. However they wouldn't be able to release the film till August 1989. Cubby wasn't having that and so disgruntlingly accepted the 15 cert cuts advise. This was released in July. The following month Batman released as the first 12 certificate film and was the 2nd highest grossing film that year. Licence To Kill underperformed, partly due to its 15 certificate. Years later the 18 cert version was submitted to the BBFC and passed as 15. This is the version available on Blu Ray and released in cinemas in the last couple of years
@@davidjames579 They really should have delayed LTK for a few months, not only to get the 12 but also so it didn't get buried in the very busy summer of 1989 [similar to how Mission Impossible last summer grossed less than MI 4-6 partly due to Barbieheimer when this summer looks a lot thinner]. In fairness releasing event film in the autumn wasn't a 'done' thing at the time [Never Say Never Again only ended up there due to the production delays].
@@jamesatkinsonja yeah EON learnt their lesson and deliberately released GoldenEye outside of the Summer, in November 1995. A time of the year they have kept. Even if Tomorrow Never Dies opened in America on the same day as Titanic, in December 1997! That said it still made more money than GoldenEye!
Goldeneye was also edited for cable tv here in the US initially, although it’s no longer as strict. Orumov shooting the henchman during the slow creaky escape was cut, M’s line “if you don’t think I have the balls to send a man to die” was cut, the Xenia fight in the sauna was shortened with her Russian “F U” was cut. and the headbutt/violence cuts you showed here were also part of the edit.
I have a funny cable tv recording of Live and Let Die on a tape where they censored Mr Big saying “honkey” and “stupid mother” at the beginning as well as Sheriff JW calling a black henchman “boy” leading to his “eh” being dubbed over each time.
There's also the original scene with XO with the admiral that was cut... the scene we saw was the 2nd version. The 1st scene was deemed too rough...
Ah yes, the best scene in GoldenEye... the *headbutt.*
Here in Australia I found the UK VHS tape in a 2nd hand bookstore and there are a couple of awkward inserts during the fight with Trevelyan, one insert is where he is straight up choking Bond and the other is when Bond kicks Trevelyan off the platform there is insert where Bond punches Trevelyan instead of headbutting him.
I noticed the headbutt on the dvd to the vhs the scene plays better with it. I always thought she hit her head on something we couldn’t see when she fell down. Also on the way down from the helicopter it’s so obvious that it’s not Famke Janssen the camera stays to long on her stunt double 😂.
11:01 - is seems the chaps in the BBFC have a "fear of any kind of physical intimacy" since they cut a Bond innuendo (sort of, the way it's cut, he still makes the joke) but did they forget that in OHMSS a guy gets diced by a snow machine? And then his guts spray out? For 1969 that was major gore. 1983's VTaK had a quicker cut and mostly off screen dicing death and it was only in 1989 with LtK that 007 gore back and even that was cut initially.
Great video! I actually had no idea Goldeneye had headbutt cuts, although I knew some of the sexual violence had been trimmed, and I'm normally obsessed with movie cuts. Ever since Bruce Lee's films got butchered in the 80's right up until 2002, I've found it a fascinating subject. I won't bore you with my 4 year search to find uncut pirate copies of Bruce's movies, but I remember watching Octopussy on tv several times where they removed the yo-yo saw completely and also any evidence of knife throwing. It made me go out to my local 'Video Magic' store and hire it just to see what was missing. Like I said, obsessed. 🙂
Because we moved to Switzerland before GoldenEye came out. Because of that I‘ve only ever owned the German releases. I don’t remember if anything was cut from the VHS or the DVD
I definitely remember seeing the parts of the uncut version many years ago… probably on tv
The first version of Live and Let Die I ever saw had the scene where Bond fights Baron Samedi cut out.
He just shoots clay Pigeon Samedi, frees Solitaire and they go down the lift.
I had a funny relationship to the Bonds as I grew up on the daytime screened ITV edited versions, and wow! Was that editing drastic. Also sometimes so they cut to an ad break at the mandated time. It was years before I watched the uncut versions on bought VHS and it was like seeing the films anew.
I don’t know if it’s the same in the UK, but in North America sometimes there’s a warning that says special features are unrated.
I first watched Goldeneye on its ITV movie premiere back in 1999 when I was 12 years old which was uncut with headbutts and I still have it on recorded vhs 📼