Last year, Ian Flemings Publications released newly censored versions of the original James Bond novels for the series’ 70th anniversary, after sensitive readers made changes to the text they deemed inappropriate for modern audiences.
And now the early 007 movies are facing similar scrutiny as the British Film Institute labels Sean Connery James Bond movies and other classics of the Sixties and Seventies with trigger warnings for potentially offended 21st-century cinemagoers.
As reported by the Daily Telegraph, the BFI’s cinema on London’s Southbank has warned visitors: “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.”
The Connery Bond movies in question are 1964’s Goldfinger and 1968’s You Only Live Twice, with the latter including the warning “contains outdated racial stereotypes”.
Goldfinger features a scene where 007 physically forces himself on top of Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore, before she succumbs to him.
Meanwhile, the Japan-set You Only Live Twice includes Connery in yellowface disguise. And in one scene the spy is told “In Japan, men come first, women come second”, to which Bond replies, ‘I just might retire to here.”
Other movies at the BFI with the trigger warning including Sir Michael Caine’s Deadfall and The Ipcress File.
Peter Sellers’ 1960 crime movie Never Let Go has the alert to “racist attitudes and language”. Meanwhile, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman’s 1960 classic Midnight Cowboy is warned as including “homophobic language and sexual violence.”
A spokesman for the BFI said: “We have flagged a number of films in the season with warnings and put a warning in at the start of the season as these are mainly British Sixties and Seventies titles that need some context.”