Good Clean Fun

Forty complaints, the highest number for any film last year, reached the British censor over some suggestions in Spectre that violence might be messy or painful. The twenty-fourth dollop of patriotic sado-candyfloss features eye-gouging and head-drilling; both scenes were made more humane before the 12A release was allowed, but it seems that even sound effects and facial expressions are too much for some. In the case of the Bond character, unwilling beneficiary of the cranial exploration, there is also a comforting lack of actual suspense, since the audience knows he will inevitably survive and prevail; nevertheless, pearls were duly clutched and the squeals of the disgusted duly rose in their eternally recurring tribute to Tunbridge Wells. The BBFC defended itself by stating that any suggestion of the violence doing actual harm had been edited out and that, in any case, the film made a great deal of money; which certainly settles the matter.