MovieChat Forums > Licence to Kill (1989) Discussion > Were people overexaggerating when they s...

Were people overexaggerating when they said that the violence was too extreme for a Bond movie?

posted 4 years ago by TMC-4 (20258)
1 reply | jump to latest

What I mean is that the Bond franchise well before, Licence to Kill had very dark and disturbingly violent scenes. Take for instance, Moonraker, in which the main villain, Drax sends his dogs to maul to death his personal helicopter pilot, Corinne Dufour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3XNJ81gQYE

Sure, we don't actually see the woman be mauled by the dogs but it's still an extremely dark, terrifying, and tough scene to watch. Especially with the haunting music provided by John Barry.

[–] WilloughbyStain (195) 3 years ago

Not really. From a 2021 perspective arguably most of the Craig films have a bit more of an edge, but in 1989 it was quite jarring. Up until this point all Bond movies had been PG in the UK, sometimes with a few minor trims to get that rating, which meant that everyone could see them, whereas this was limited to audiences 15 and over and had to have several cuts to avoid the UK's highest rating (18+). It has quite a nasty tone throughout, and several moments of graphic violence. There had been creepy or nasty moments before, but the overall effect wasn't like this.