He’s the womanising spy, famed for his rampant alcohol abuse and insanely-high kill count. But now it appears cinemagoers need to be warned about James Bond‘s antics, which might leave them ‘shaken, not stirred’.
Snowflakes at the British Film Institute have issued an ‘absurd’ trigger alert for modern day film-goers, warning 007’s movies could ’cause offence’ and upset modern-day film lovers.
The BFI, which is tasked with promoting and preserving the best of British cinema, has issued a blanket warning for the beloved spy franchise, which last year marked its 70th anniversary.
Film buffs attending a season of classic movies have been warned Bond’s adventures ‘will cause offence today’, with big screen hits like Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice containing language and themes that were ‘prevalent’ in the 1960s.
A note, cautioning would-be viewers, has been fitted outside BFI’s cinema on London‘s Southbank, reports the Telegraph. It says: ‘Please note that many of these films contain language, images or other content that reflect views prevalent in its time but will cause offence today (as they did then).
‘The titles are included here for historical, cultural or aesthetic reasons and these views are in no way endorsed by the BFI or its partners.’
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The warning has been issued for a selection of films as part of a seasonal look at the work of composer John Barry, who provided the scores for Sean Connery‘s 1964 classic, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice.
In Goldfinger, Bond is shown in a scene throwing Pussy Galore – played by Honour Blackman – to the floor in a barn before pinning her down and forcing himself on her.
An additional warning for the 1968 release of You Only Live Twice said the film contained ‘outdated racial stereotypes’, in which the film sees Bond undergoing cosmetic surgery to look more Japanese.
The film also features the bowler hat-wearing henchman, Oddjob, who suffers from a cleft palate, has been highlighted by some campaigners as an example of villains being given physical disfigurements or disabilities.
But the trigger warnings have been mocked online, with one person raging: ‘What a bull***t time we are living’, while another added: ‘James Bond getting a trigger warning is hilarious and absolutely absurd! More pandering to the snowflakes!’
A second Bond fan added: ‘I’m not sure how the modern viewer survives in real life. Original Bond films are very good. Far better than the recent ones.’
Others on X, formerly Twitter, said the warnings were another example of ‘wokery’.
‘I’m fed up with this WOKERY. Every program or film seems to have a “disclaimer” ahead of it, YET there are worse things on the news every single day suggesting that society or some sections of it have regressed and far more depraved than anything that was ever on TV or the cinema,’ one person wrote.
Agreeing, another said: ‘The only trigger relevant to #Bond films is that on his Walther PPK. This is yet another example of the #Woke rewriting of history. Leave #007 alone.’
But others backed the trigger warning, with one person tweeting: ‘They caused offence to me as a child and teenager. Even then I saw the misogynist BS. Have always loathed them and found them boring. Even good tunes nd sound tracks couldn’t lure me.’
The news comes as it was revealed ‘sensitivity readers’ had reworked and sanitised some of the original novels by Ian Fleming to remove offensive passages.
Casino Royale and Octopussy have been edited, with a raft of racist and sexist terms removed as the spy franchise marked its 70th anniversary last year.
The publishers of the books commissioned a review to modernise them, according to the Sunday Telegraph. It comes as children’s books by Roald Dahl have been stripped of potentially offensive language with the Oompa Loompas – the workers at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory – being made gender neutral.
In the new version of Bond novel Live And Let Die, a scene in which 007 visits a New York club is altered to remove reference to a striptease. In the 1954 original it says: ‘Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough.’
The revised version will now reportedly read: ‘Bond could sense the electric tension in the room.’
The N-word, which author Ian Fleming used to refer to black people when he was writing during the 1950s and 1960s, has been removed from the revised texts. However, outdated references to other ethnicities remain, as do phrases such as the ‘sweet tang of rape’, and the description of homosexuality as a ‘stubborn disability’.
James Bond novels including Casino Royale and Octopussy have been edited to suit modern sensibilities with a raft of racist and sexist terms removed ahead of the 70th anniversary of 007 this year.
The N-word, which author Ian Fleming used to refer to black people when he was writing during the 1950s and 1960s, has been removed from the revised texts. Pictured: Roger Moore and Maud Adams
Casino Royale, published in 1953, is one James Bond novel that is being edited to remove sexist and racist language
Bond publisher Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed terms to those more accepted today while ensuring they are in keeping with the time the books were written.
The reissued spy novels will feature a disclaimer that says: ‘This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.
‘A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set.’
Bond’s publishers, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, commissioned a review by ‘sensitivity readers’ of the classic texts under its control to modernise the works, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
In the sensitivity reader-approved version of Live and Let Die a scene in which Bond visits a nightclub in Harlem, New York, is altered to remove reference to a strip tease.
Other changes to Mr Fleming’s books result in some depictions of black people being reworked or removed.
Bond publisher Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed terms to those more accepted today while ensuring they are in keeping with the time the books were written. Pictured: Roger Moore in Octopussy
Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed terms to those more accepted today while ensuring they are in keeping with the time the books were written
However, outdated references to other ethnicities remain, such as Bond’s racial terms for east Asian people and the spy’s disparaging views of Oddjob, Goldfinger’s Korean henchman.
References to the ‘sweet tang of rape’, ‘blithering women’ failing to do a ‘man’s work’, and homosexuality being a ‘stubborn disability’ also remain.
The n-word, which Mr Fleming used to refer to black people when he was writing during the 1950s and 60s, has been almost entirely removed from the revised texts.
Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed terms to those more accepted today while ensuring they are in keeping with the time the books were written.
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Tom Cotterill
