In 2006, Daniel Craig made his debut as James Bond in the twenty-first instalment of the spy series: Casino Royale. Based on Ian Fleming's first novel, published in 1953, the film sees Bond obtain his licence to kill before setting out to foil the plans of Le Chiffre, a terrorist financier, with the help of treasury agent Vesper Lynd.
Classification Issues
- Violence
- There are scenes of moderate action violence, including fist fights and shootings. In one scene, a man is tortured for information.
- Additional issues
- Other issues include mild bad language and sex references
Cinema history
Casino Royale was first submitted to the BBFC in September 2006 for an advice viewing. The BBFC's Director and Senior Examiners determined that the film was largely containable at the distributor's requested 12A, with the exception of the torture sequence. Derived from Fleming's novel, this narratively significant scene sees Bond stripped naked and tied to a chair in which the wicker seat has been removed. Le Chiffre proceeds to beat Bond's genitals using knotted rope in the hope that he will reveal vital information. However, Bond remains defiant until a mysterious assassin appears and kills Le Chiffre.
In 2006, the BBFC’s Classification Guidelines stated that at 12A: “Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers [...] Violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood [...] Dangerous techniques should not dwell on imitable detail or appear pain or harm free.”
To achieve their preferred rating of 12A, the distributor was informed that the torture scene would have to be reduced in order to remove some of the focus on Bond's suffering as well as the suggestion that Le Chiffre is deriving sadistic or sexual pleasure from the violence.
In the formal submission of the film, the torture scene is notably different – particularly in the first half of the sequence where close-up shots of Bond's agonised face, his dribbling saliva following one blow, and Le Chiffre teasingly running the rope over Bond's bare chest were either removed or replaced with more distant shots that reduced the intensity of the sequence. The focus was now weighted in the second half of the scene, in which Bond's resilience and dark sense of humour emerges, mocking Le Chiffre and asking him to scratch “an itch… down there.” His defiance is shown to infuriate and humiliate Le Chiffre, subtly shifting the sense of power and control in Bond's favour.
The sequence is discreetly constructed, using high contrast light and shadow, careful composition, reaction shots, and sound to create the impression of Bond's pain and the method of torture without showing graphic detail. The Examiners also noted that Bond films are something of a 'known quantity', and many viewers will therefore have an expectation that Bond may be captured, tortured, or placed in precarious situations, but that he will always survive and overthrow the villain. From the laser running between Bond's legs in Goldfinger (1964) to the micro-drill torture in Spectre (2015), enduring and escaping torture is an established trope of the franchise.
Casino Royale is rated 12A for theatrical release and 12 on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Public reaction
During the film's theatrical run the BBFC received over 100 complaints from members of the public who felt it was too violent for 12A, perhaps because of the unexpected tonal shift from the preceding Brosnan films. Nevertheless, Casino Royale was a critical and commercial success, and in 2012 an extended cut was submitted to the Board that re-instated some of the previously removed material from the torture scene. The extended cut is classified 15.
