MovieChat Forums > GoldenEye (1995) Discussion > How did this and Tomorrow Never Dies get...

How did this and Tomorrow Never Dies get away with PG-13 ratings?

posted 9 years ago by queens2010
18 replies | jump to latest

I would think the scene where Xenia suffocates the man in bed alone would suffice to warrant Goldeneye and R rating. Granted, it would be a light R, but Brosnan's first two entries felt a bit rough to be rated PG-13. Is there just some double standard where Bond films can get away with content that other action films cannot? For example, in the Bourne films one never encounters the sort of gratuitous "shoot 'em up" that featured in the opening sequence of TND.

I started watching Goldeneye once with my mother at age 11, and 20 minutes in she was convinced I was way too young to be watching it. She half-jokingly said "I'll let you watch this when you're 15". Now I also went to see TWINE in the theater with her at roughly the same age, and she wasn't nearly as scandalized by my watching that one. She found it far less violent.

[–] ElBastardos 9 years ago

I think Goldeneye is the only Bond film that depicts a woman climaxing. You're right though, how they got away with a 12a is a bit mad.

[–] directorscut 9 years ago

Especially mad considering the 12A didn't exist until 2002...

Proud member of the Pro-film Anti-digital Society (PFADS).

[–] ElBastardos 9 years ago

Oops, meant PG-13. Damn alcohol.

[–] AlisonBlaire 9 years ago

There is also Die Another Day, where in their efforts to be more 'mature', EON subjected us to both Bond and Jinx climaxing.

As for the ratings, it's all dependant on different countries and how much is shown; the Onatopp scenes were basically trimmed to the extent that they were just tapping the edge of the PG13 rating, whereas before that the scene with her and the Admiral actually featured her beating him pretty viciously during sex, and the sauna scene was heavily revised from featuring actual sex; the ambiguity of whether or not the latter is a fight or sex scene probably helps, too. But yeah, different countries have different ratings - America demanded the trimming of Xenia headbutting Natalya, for instance.

[–] armenianmovieman 9 years ago

The stuff in Goldeneye with Xenia isn't as "roug" as my favorite example: In Bourne Ultimatum when Bourne slowly chokes the Moroccan assassin with a book.

that was just as graphic (if not more so) than Xenia and Bond fighting by the pool, or her doing her sex choke on Commander Farrell.

[–] AlisonBlaire 9 years ago

But the stuff in Goldeneye was more sexualised, so combining the two in the way displayed by Xenia was probably difficult to work with.

[–] sarizonana 9 years ago

Noo that was nothing compared to what we saw in 300 Raise of an empire

I bet the director of that film saw Goldeneye and said im gonna reprise this scene really pushing the envelope.

[–] Conquerer13 8 years ago

There is also Die Another Day, where in their efforts to be more 'mature', EON subjected us to both Bond and Jinx climaxing.

To be fair, she isn't actually climaxing. She's just sexually sadistic and making sounds as if she were.

[–] AlisonBlaire 8 years ago

No, Onatopp actually *is* having an orgasm at points in both the scene with the Admiral and during the sauna. Janssen and others basically confirmed this in a number of interviews.

[–] perfectpawn 9 years ago

You all are forgetting the brief flashes of female nudity in The Man With The Golden Gun. Ah, the '70s... And PG, too!

[–] lilwith 9 years ago

They got away with PG-13 because there was nothing to constitute an R rating. Call me desensitized but this movie screams PG-13 even for its time. Same with TND.

[–] DaveHasNoTimeForAnyOfThisBull 8 years ago

Correct, there is no excess amounts of blood, bullets going directly into another human's body, nipples on females, or buttocks or groin shots of a male or female cast member, or expletives spoken by a character.

Now ask me how I really feel, I'm just here for the comments.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] tong-47584 8 years ago

"I would think the scene where Xenia suffocates the man in bed alone would suffice to warrant Goldeneye and R rating."

I watched this movie when I was around 4-6 years old. Can you believe that? I watched it along with the other two films, Babe and Lion King, and it is my first Bond movie I watched. I didn't realize how mature the movie was at that time.

Recently (me around 20-21), I re-watched it again after many years have passed, barely remember the story except the opening part where Bond jumped off the top of the dam and the mention of 006, with hope to regain my childhood memory, when I saw Xenia choking the man in bed scene, I was shocked and a bit horrify.

It was a shock to me because at that time I didn't know about sex so I thought it was just another killing scene, but now I know that it is a sex scene of a woman who reached climax by killing other people. Well, this is not why I was shocked. The reason I was shocked was how young when I watched it and the fact that the kid version of me like to watch it over and over again, probably a hundred time, and still enjoy it.

If you wonder why my parents or grandparents let me watch it, Here are some possible reasons.
1. They are also Bond's fans. They might even introduce it to me as Bond's latest movie at that time and say that it is a good movie that I should watch. (I was born in 1994.)
2. I didn't know about movie rates such as G, PG, PG-13 or R exist until I went to the USA when I was 16-17 as an exchange student. My parents and grandparents are probably also not knowing because when I came back and mention about it, they seemed confused and had no idea what it is.

[–] TMC-4 8 years ago

Seriously, how come the Bond movies weren't rated PG-13 (which was introduced in-between Octopussy and A View to a Kill) until Licence to Kill back in 1989?

[–] tralycr_c-1 8 years ago

They weren't violent or sexual enough.

There is a man...he travels fast...he has purpose...he brings violence and destruction.

[–] AlisonBlaire 8 years ago

Because there was nothing really that offensive or shocking in them. Licence to Kill is actually fairly graphic in parts.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Disagree, they feel very PG-13 to me. You need to watch more R rated films.