Violent scenes land 007 a 0015 rating

SHAKEN, but not stirred, the Irish film censor has slapped a 15 certificate on the new James Bond film — the highest rating yet for a Bond film here.

The rating for the €79 million Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig in his first outing as 007, means under 15s who want to see it will have to be accompanied in the cinema by an adult. It is stricter than the British classification of 12A, even though the same version will be screened here.

But censor John Kelleher said he felt Irish parents would agree with the rating given the level of violence in what critics have described as one of the darkest, scariest and grittiest films of the franchise.

The 21st Bond film features a violent torture scene where Bond is stripped naked and tied to a chair while his genitals are lashed by a sadistic villain wielding a heavy knotted rope.

“There is a particularly strong scene: there are several. And our classification is based on the totality of the film, not on one scene,” Mr Kelleher said. “It’s not saying that kids can’t see it but the person who can decide that is the parent.

“The 15A certificate as opposed to 12A is a very strong signal that this contains strong violence.”

Most of the Connery and Moore Bond films were rated PG, meaning that children of all ages could watch them if their parents agreed. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond films received 12 certificates.

But some of Casino Royale’s torture scenes were cut from an unfinished version submitted by its producers to the British Board of Film Classification in order to secure the 12A cert for the final version.

The Motion Picture Association of America gave the film a PG-13 rating because of “intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content and nudity”.

The film, which also stars Judi Dench as M, and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, shows Bond as a raw recruit on his first mission as a secret agent, in which he earns his licence to kill. It goes on release here on November 16.