Bond films and child viewers

2

Comments

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    "I'm afraid you've caught me with more than my hands up" went right over my 11 year old head. :))
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,158
    "Just keeping the British end up" made me go 'huh?' at the age of 10. I knew it had to be funny because my mother had tears in her eyes from laughter but I couldn't figure out what the heck the joke was. "He's just attempting re-entry"... now that one I did get surprisingly enough. ;-)
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited July 2014 Posts: 12,480
    I am so old. ;) Okay my opinion:

    Anyway ... I saw my first Bond at about age15, Diamonds Are Forever. I was certainly old enough. I went out and bought even more hot pants after watching Jill St. John and proudly wore them to school (rather liberal dress code at that time at my school). :D

    For younger kids (younger than 10, say), I would definitely not introduce them to any of Craig's Bond films. Too violent, for one thing. Any of Moore's would suffice, hopefully with an adult ready to talk about some things that may come up as questionable or out or curiousity ("Gee, were women really as annoyingly stupid and lacking in self esteem as Mary Goodnight?" for example). ;)

    Dalton's TLD is fine, LTK is okay but not for the very youngest, due to violence. I'd probably make that for a 10 year old and older (but that's me). I know kids today are more jaded and used to lots of violence. But still ...

    I think all of Brosnan's are fine but not as appropriate for younger kids as Moore's are. Moore's films are pretty much family friendly.

    Basically, I wouldn't have a child younger than say 7 years old watch any Bond film, exception being Dr. No.

    I think Dr. No is the mildest in terms of violence, treatment of women, sexual innuendo. FRWL a close second.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,158
    I'm going to disagree with you, @4EverBonded, if I may be so bold. ;-)

    - Quarrell gets burned alive (and there's that shriek!)
    - Bond shoots Dent in cold blood (one more in the back even when he's clearly dead.)
    - Then there's also the cyanide death of Mr Jones.

    I've always considered TB and YOLT fairly innocent Bond films. :-)
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    I'm fine with those scenes for ages 7 and up, with an adult present preferably.
    TB .... maybe. YOLT yeah okay pretty innocent for younger viewers.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    I'm fine with those scenes for ages 7 and up, with an adult present preferably.
    Baby, we come from the Vietnam War era, a little violence in a movie ain't nuthin'.
    ;)
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I saw YOLT when I was around 10. The space scenes were scary thanks to John Barry's epic score. His music can really bring out emotion. :p
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    chrisisall wrote: »
    I'm fine with those scenes for ages 7 and up, with an adult present preferably.
    Baby, we come from the Vietnam War era, a little violence in a movie ain't nuthin'.
    ;)

    Oh good, I can post from work computer :)

    Yeah, I hear you, @chrisisall, but I think kids are saturated with violence these days even more than ever, thru more media than ever. I think in general, having younger viewers with an adult, for nearly every Bond film, is still a good idea. I would hope a kid younger than 7 would not be left on his or her own at home anyway.
  • edited July 2014 Posts: 19,339
    "I think he's attempting re-entry Sir"...blatant innuendo..lucky i was 9 at the time haha
  • Posts: 6,396
    barryt007 wrote: »
    "I think he's attempting re-entry Sir"...blatant innuendo..lucky i was 9 at the time haha

    It took me to the age of 24 to understand that line. ;-) :D
  • Posts: 19,339
    barryt007 wrote: »
    "I think he's attempting re-entry Sir"...blatant innuendo..lucky i was 9 at the time haha

    It took me to the age of 24 to understand that line. ;-) :D
    Bloody hell Willy ,were you living in a Roger Moore bubble ?
  • Posts: 6,396
    barryt007 wrote: »
    barryt007 wrote: »
    "I think he's attempting re-entry Sir"...blatant innuendo..lucky i was 9 at the time haha

    It took me to the age of 24 to understand that line. ;-) :D
    Bloody hell Willy ,were you living in a Roger Moore bubble ?

    As if you believed I was still innocent and pure at that age! ;-)
  • Posts: 19,339
    he he ....didnt think so....;)
  • Posts: 11,189
    barryt007 wrote: »
    barryt007 wrote: »
    "I think he's attempting re-entry Sir"...blatant innuendo..lucky i was 9 at the time haha

    It took me to the age of 24 to understand that line. ;-) :D
    Bloody hell Willy ,were you living in a Roger Moore bubble ?

    As if you believed I was still innocent and pure at that age! ;-)

    As was I believe it or not but by then I had clocked on to the sexual innuendo.

    Actually the one that took me a while to understand was the "cunning linguist " line.
  • Posts: 11,189
    Also for a long time I thought Connery was talking about Peter O'Toole when he was mentioning Plenty's "father".
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited July 2014 Posts: 24,158
    What made things worse for me is that when I was a kid, I paid a lot more attention to the subtitles because my understanding of English was still pretty thin. Translated puns are usually terrible. So for the life of me, I couldn't make sense of some of the double entendres. The translators did their best though. For example "I think he's attempting re-entry" was translated into the Dutch equivalent of "He's trying to get back in." At first I understood that as an obvious thing to do; a space shuttle trying to get back into our atmosphere. Couldn't figure out what made that a funny line. Of course a few years later I went "ooooooh!". :D But poor translations were pretty common too. "Just keeping the British end up, sir" was translated into something like "I'm only honouring Britain, sir." Pretty lame. ;-) Once my English had improved and the advent of DVDs left me with an opportunity to disable subtitles, I managed to catch up on some of the comedic lines.
  • pachazopachazo Make Your Choice
    Posts: 7,314
    "DarthDimi wrote:
    when I was a kid... my understanding of English was still pretty thin.
    And now you can write in English better than most of us here who were raised with it as their first language. That's quite an accomplishment. I'm not trying to suck up to one of the mods guys. I was just trying to give a sincere compliment.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,158
    Wow, thanks, @pachazo, yet I still think my English can improve tremendously. But I try. ;-) Again, thanks for the compliment. :)
  • M_BaljeM_Balje Amsterdam, Netherlands
    edited July 2014 Posts: 4,511
    Casino Royale should have got 16+ insteed of 12 and should at the discrimination, scream (Dutch: Groftaal gebruik) symbol to fair and violence symbol. Mabey the drugs symbol considerd too. Bond 24 and Bond 25 possible wil get/should get this too.

    nicam.jpg

    brand.gifKijkwijzer__grof_taalgebruik.pngimages?q=tbn:ANd9GcRfwQDGUVcNm5HnbB4Q9TNSy74x6NSVHSDy1rRGO8i4KEMNGmdn
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,158
    Drugs in CR? I'm a little confused.
  • Posts: 19,339
    Kids are a lot more resilient nowadays,they are watching horror films by the age of 11 (my 2 girls did !!) so i think a 12 cert is correct.There is nothing in the film to scare particularly.
    And if it was put up to a 15 cert then that would badly affect the takings at the box office ala LTK.
  • edited July 2014 Posts: 11,189
    barryt007 wrote: »
    Kids are a lot more resilient nowadays,they are watching horror films by the age of 11 (my 2 girls did !!) so i think a 12 cert is correct.There is nothing in the film to scare particularly.
    And if it was put up to a 15 cert then that would badly affect the takings at the box office ala LTK.

    I do think that the torture scene in CR is pretty brutal for a 12 certificate. As well as the full on screams Bond makes when he's being tortured we also see a close-up of Le-Chiffe with the bullet hole in his head. The violence isn't quite as graphic as LTK but it's not far behind IMO.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    Also for a long time I thought Connery was talking about Peter O'Toole when he was mentioning Plenty's "father".

    It was a reference to Peter O'Toole. That was always my understanding. :)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    A lot of times it's not what you show, but what's implied. To ME, the two worst moments are Dario & his honeymoon comment (I won't go into what that conjures in my head), and Severine being walked out all bloodied (She'd been obviously beaten, maybe even violated), and then shot (Not showing it actually makes it worse because 1) it's making the character disappear like a used tissue, and 2) what her face looks like with a bullet in it will always be worse than what the could have shown in a PG-13 movie).
  • Posts: 1,708
    I remember there being bit of an outcry when JP came out in Norway with "10" certificate , some kids got scared.

    I got scared by Helga dying in YOLT , only 8 then.....also Jaws scared me when he went into the pyramid to kill Fekkesh.....same thing with scientists being gassed in MR , twas unsettling lol

    If I had kids I wouldn't let them watch LTK until about age 12.....I certainly wouldn't let them watch things like Cannibal Holocaust until 15 or older.
  • TokolosheTokoloshe Under your bed
    Posts: 2,667
    This thread has become relevant to me now, as having two children aged 7 and 5, I had been debating with myself the right time to introduce the older one (a boy) to the world of Bond. He is fairly intelligent and mature, but obviously some Bond films wouldn't be appropriate at this age. His topic for this term at school is 'space', so since Moonraker is one of the lighter films I thought I'd give it a go. Needless to say, he loved it.

    I explained most of the plot as we went along, mainly using the poisonous liquid as the recurring theme (Glass jars -> Venice -> Orchids -> Jungle -> Space). He found the multiple brown-haired female characters confusing. Corinne, Goodhead and Manuela all look fairly similar when you're young and he couldn't work out how the lady who was attacked by the dogs was then OK in the next scene (and several similar moments). This film could have done with a redhead or a blonde other than Dolly!

    Any suggestions for which films to watch next?
  • edited March 2017 Posts: 5,989
    In Germany, Bond movies (at least the last time I was there) were given an "Ab 12" certificate, sometimes (if my information is correct) with some cuts (I understand that the fight with Red Grant was edited in that version). Curiously enough, that was also the case for Condorman, which baffled me to no end when I went to see it way back when.

    In France, no such certificate was given, AFAIK, so children could go and see it. BTW, in Germany, children under 6 could not even go and see a Disney cartoon.
  • Posts: 40
    I was born a few weeks before FYEO came out, and my childhood interest in Bond probably peaked around age 11 or 12, that is right in the middle of the hiatus between Dalton and Brosnan. I was in the cinema for GE of course though :-)
    As a kid my favourite Bond was Roger, as he had the humour and the gadgets. The Connery Bonds were also more plot driven, whereas the Moore Bonds are generally easier to follow. My favourite was Moonraker - love the dart gun!
    I was fairly lucky, my parents considered Bond fairly tame for a kid, and by the time LTK was on the television I was well and truly old enough to watch it.
    My own boy is now nearly ten, and we have watched all the Bonds in order up the Craig era. The version of LTK we watched was off the tv, so some of the more egregious stuff had been cut out, but it was still probably inappropriate for him. Hence why we haven't moved on to the Craig films together, Zorin madly machine gunning his own people in AVTAK was also inappropriate but at least it wasn't graphically realistic, unlike LTK. I just don't think he's ready for people having their eyes ripped out and people getting drowned in sinks so Craigs Bond will have to wait a little.
    My own boys favourite Bond is Roger, because of the humour and gadgets and his favourite film is Moonraker. He really liked Jaws becoming a Bond ally, something I appreciated from MR when I was ten or eleven as well. I am often critical of Roger on these pages but it pays to remember how many kids he converted into fans. When I get around to it I might start a thread asking who was everyones favourite child hood Bond. I suspect Roger will canter it in.

  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Tokoloshe wrote: »

    Any suggestions for which films to watch next?

    Why not TSWLM? Kids like to see the same over and over. It s somewhat similar and much better.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    I have been recently contemplating this question myself, given that I have two precocious nephews (7 and 10) & a conservative and somewhat cautious sister when it comes to violence and sex on tv. I have asked both her and my brother in law to give me the privilege of introducing them to their first Bond film, and they have thankfully agreed. I've stressed the importance of this being done properly and with appropriate marketing and fanfare. They recognize that I am the only man for the job.

    We've debated ages and have tentatively decided that it would be ok when they both reach 10. She wanted me to start with a Roger Moore film and recommended TSWLM or MR. So we have our plan in place. The only issue now is whether they come across it inadvertently first on youtube or elsewhere which would be annoying.

    At the moment they are more obsessed with other fare, like Batman (they've watched all of the 1990's films but aren't permitted to watch the Nolan entries yet), The Avengers, Spiderman etc. They really enjoyed TFA but didn't like the Lucas prequels.
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