Nudity in The Living Daylights

chrisisall

Man, do a search for Virginia Hey- nothing on that front(al boob shot)! It would *HAVE* to show up on some porn site at least!

Baltimore_007

Some people would of been looking here a few weeks back.. @-)

I saw Daylights on it's release in 1987 and to be truthful I don't recall at the time the scene in question as described by many here. I don't believe I've ever seen the incident as some have spoken about, all you get a brief side shot and even then that's nothing to get excited about, although immediately before there is a kind of oddity where it appears something was cut out so I'm guessing there was something more revealing but I've never seen it fully presented. Also later on, you can see some naked shots of some Russian soldiers when Bond is in Afghanistan from a distance, but I never paid much attention to that. Also talk of Major Anya Amasova taking a shower in TSWLM. Simply nothing to see, as with Maud Adams in Golden Gun, it was taken from a side angle through frosted glass and there really was nothing much to delight in (I'm afraid)

Jarrod

Man, I don't have to do a search, to confirm what I saw. I already know what I saw, I was merely passing it on, in case someone is interested. But I've tried my best to present this observation, but if you refuse to believe this, I can't help you. If you want to search to prove me wrong, fine. But you can't change my point of view on this, again, I know what I saw.

chrisisall

Jarrod wrote:

Man, I don't have to do a search, to confirm what I saw. I already know what I saw, I was merely passing it on

Funny thing is, I have a memory of the frontal shot as well, but it's from 25 years ago... I'm ASSUMING that my memory is an inflated one... but in all candour, I can't categorically dismiss your memory of it. It *MAY* have been excised/zoomed in on in a hurry after the initial release... anything at all can & does happen...

Lancaster007

thelordflasheart - I know what you're saying. I disremember a scene from the original Terminator film where Arnie shoots the first Sarah Connor, when I saw it on TV I thought it had been cut. It hadn't as I have the 18 cert DVD and it is as shown on TV. I just remember it being more graphic!
And on a Bond note: a friend of mine says that when he saw OHMSS on release Bond says 'he's forked off' when Blofeld gets caught in the Y of the branch on the toboggan run where in fact he says 'he's branched off', but my friend swears it was the former!

Jarrod

I've found two clippings from my area, and both mention brief nudity in the film. Just because you yourself haven't seen the scene, does not mean it doesn't exist. My memory is not playing tricks on me, I assure you.

http://postimage.org/image/u6jt991hv/

DarthDimi

All of those clippings are amazing! Thanks, chaps!

Grinderman

thelordflasheart wrote:

Jarrod wrote:

I know that my memory is good on this. I was 15, and as a 15 year old boy, I'm gonna take notice of a wide shot of boobs. Believe me on this.

I saw TLD twice in the theatres in Canada and I can assure you that there was no front shot of the actress where you saw her breasts. However, I don't doubt that you believe that you saw one.

There was a great research study done many years back on the fallibility of memory. The reason that I recall it so well (yes, I understand the irony) is that I read it less than two weeks after having a conversation with a writer friend of mine about how many people mis-remember plot points or scenes in films - very frustrating for him because, as a screenwriter, he labours over getting the most minute deatails of a scene perfect. We were talking about this because my roommate insisted that a very popular film ended with the main character committing suicide by jumping off of a building in the end, when in fact the final shot is just him standing there looking down and distraught. Despite it being a very famous film he wouldn't believe the several people who told him how it really ended, including a film critic! We eventually rented the movie so he could see for himself and he was shocked that he remembered so clearly something that never happened.

So the study had hundreds of university students watch a film and then they had to answer questions about it afterwards. One of the questions referenced a scene that wasn't in the film, such as "When the main character shot the guard...". Even on the first go-round about 15% of people said they remembered him doing that, but not the details. A week later they asked similar questions but now about half of the people "remembered" the scene, and after a third round of questioning another week later around 85% of the people "remembered" the scene. So the idea is that when a false memory is suggested, given time to germinate, and then reinforced it's indistinguishable for most people from a real memory. Friends of mine who are lawyers and police officers have also commented on this phenomenon.

Now with films, I've seen people misremember many things and I've done it myself. The most common things? Anything sensationalistic because we build up the shock factor in our minds. So anything with brutal violence or surprising sexuality gets exaggerated in our own minds over time. I hope this isn't disappointing but it's a much more reasonable (and expected) explanation than you getting to see some rogue print of the film that no one else ever saw...

Yep. There's also that study where people were shown the shower scene in "Psycho", and were asked later to describe what they saw. These people had never seen the movie, so they did not know what was coming. Surprisingly, a substantial number of people swore that the scene was in color, vividly describing the "red" blood as it flowed down the drain, and even what color the shower curtain was, etc.

Of course, as we all know, Psycho was shot in black and white.

BritishChap007

Jarrod wrote:

Dude, I know what I saw. But if you choose not to believe me, I could care less. And I have seen plenty of films that were PG and had nudity in them. The side shot of the actresses' breasts wouldn't qualify as brief nudity in a description. I do think they had an issue with this one, because it was removed immediately. And I wasn't some over imaginative child who's blown a memory out of proportion. But, whatever, believe what you want.

@MasterDahark

Feelings towards Timothy Dalton was pretty mixed I've got some more interesting clipping if you're interested.

Awesome clippings. Truly a treat. Thank you.

Although, has anyone ever noticed that ever since NSNA, that has been to go to pic of Connery for the media? Bizarre.

Master_Dahark

Jarrod wrote:

@MasterDahark
Feelings towards Timothy Dalton was pretty mixed I've got some more interesting clipping if you're interested.

I just realized I never thanked you for the links- awesome finds Jarrod!

This one makes me insane with anger though:

Jarrod

Here is the continuation on the "Deadly Dull Review":



Also, I forgot to add the 1st part of the "USA Weekend" article. (sorry about that):



Here's another little piece of interesting trivia:



And I just finished scanning even more clippings that I collected at the time...

Samuel001

Thanks for all these clippings, really wonderful to read what was made of Dalton in '87.

Matt_Sherman

That was the lovely Virginia Hey distracting Pushkin as was said. She's great and has quite the following from TV and other work. She appeared at my SpyFest in Los Angeles. It was a shocking trick for Bond to pull and added to the edge in The Living Daylights.

Jarrod

I believe she was in Road Warrior and dated John Taylor (the bass player) from Duran Duran.

UlyssesGamma_Hose

Jarrod wrote:

I've found two clippings from my area, and both mention brief nudity in the film.

http://postimage.org/image/u6jt991hv/

Yes, but the 'side-boob' shot counts as brief nudity.

Why would there be a full-on shot when it's not necessary to tell the story, and it would drive the rating up? I'm not doubting you, but it doesn't make much sense.

Master_Dahark

When I watch the DVD it does seem to jump cut a bit right there-- not unlike MayDay's boob shot in AVTAK. It does make me think that they initially showed more, and then changed it.

I don't recall ever seeing more than a side boob of Virginia Hey in TLD, but you know-- if I ever wanted to see more, we have this wonderful device called the internet! ;)

timmer

@jarrod. Maybe you did see an unedited print of the film, with actual frontal breast nudity, but its the first I' ve heard of it. The side-shot, I think is what the "brief nudity" warning refers to.
I did see TLD in cinema when it was released, and I don't remember any full front-on breast shot. In fact what we got on the dvd, the SE edition anyway, seems to be, what was also seen in cinema, ie fleeting nudity - the side-boob shot.
As we all know, to keep it's PG rating, that's about as far as a Bond film will ever go - brief fleeting nudity. eg Tania in FRWL scampering across the room, Bach in the shower, Virginia Hey in TLD, Chiu Me alive in a pool, Plenty dead in a pool, Maud Adams stepping out of the shower, and maybe a few other examples.

Jarrod

I saw this movie the first day it came out, it is not impossible for a cut like that to be made after the first weekend of the film. I didn't imagine it, I seriously saw the full on breast shot. If you look at the film, when the bodyguard looks at Virginia, there is a total pause, this scene was edited out of the film. Like I said, I only ever saw the scene once, but I could swear on a bible, that scene was edited. I've been a huge fan of the series since I was five, as you can see from my collection of clipping from this period, I took the series extremely seriously. I'm not making this up. But anyone can see the scene is awkward as it stands.

chrisisall

Jarrod wrote:

But anyone can see the scene is awkward as it stands.

Yeah, the shot does last a while where an insert of a close up would be placed...

Jarrod

When I first watched the VHS tape for the first time, I knew immediately it had been edited out.

DB5

Commander_Skyfall wrote:

Funnily enough, I watched From Russia with Love with my son at the weekend just because it happened to be on 007HD on Sky, you get a much clearer view of a nude Tatiana through the pink curtains as she sneaks into Bonds bed than I remember, peachy butt cheeks on full view.
My son was aghast!

Yes, I've also seen the version of FRWL where Tatiana's bare bottom is seen as she enters Bond's bedroom, although some tv showings have edited it. But my understanding is that that was not Daniella Bianchi's bottom. But it was memorable nonetheless!

oo7

DB5 wrote:

Commander_Skyfall wrote:

My son was aghast!

bondsum

The thing I don't understand is why would "they" cut the scene after only one week of showing this movie? For what purpose? The certificate had already been passed and there were no complaints as we'd have read about them in the press. You would also have a clipping amongst your fabulous collection stating as much. It would mean recalling all the prints and re-editing the scene for an alternative shot and that would've been noted in the press both sides of the Atlantic as much as a full topless alternative shot in the first place.

Once more, I was at the 29th June London Premiere which preceded your showing by a whole month and this "awkward" jump was the version I saw here.

But thanks for sharing your clippings.

Samuel001

http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/hitscr.htm

Looks like it's uncut to me.

@GavSalkeld would know. If only he was here.

Master_Dahark

The blu ray cover for YOLT is hilarious!! That's Connery with the cigarette and they photoshopped a gun in his hand!

Jarrod

If I'm wrong, why does the edit look so weird? Why does it stall on the bodyguard's expression? In the version I just watched at MOMA on Saturday, the edit was even stranger. The U.S. may have gotten a different version, I don't know. I wasn't at the London Premiere, but I can tell you that in Sacramento, California on July 31st, the version they were showing had the full on nude scene. You can either take my word on it, or not. But 2 Sacramento critics rated The Living Daylights PG for violence and brief nudity. Also, I've seen this kind of edit before with the 80s film Dreamscape (1984), which was one of the earliest PG-13 films released, and had a brief sex scene in it. When PG-13 was first issued as a rating, it was a little edgier than it is today (which is just pretty much a glorified PG rating). When I recently watched that film on DVD, I noticed that film too, had been cut a bit from the original version. Retroactive editing is not unheard of. As for full on breast shots in PG films, you can see this in the horror film Patrick (1978), Force 10 From Naverone (1978), another Timothy Dalton film called Permission To Kill (1975), the comedy Airplane (1980) (also has a flash edit of boobs) and The Woman In Red (1984). In any case, nudity in a PG movie is not unheard of. I just think it being a Bond film which had a history of being PG, probably was granted some leniency at first, but then then maybe they changed their mind.

Samuel001

There are also similar cuts in For Your Eyes Only when Melina Havelock's diving suit is cut and in A View To A Kill when Bond gets into Mayday's bed. Just part of the editing process.

Jarrod

But what I'm telling you is that when I first saw the film, the edit wasn't weird. There simply was a nude shot.

Samuel001

I understand that but I'm saying if you happen to be wrong, there seems to be an explanation for it.

Jarrod

Well considering the scene has never reappeared in the film, to this forum, it's assumed that I'm wrong.