Posted by ste7ens on 03/21/07 20:40

I noticed while enjoying the DTS soundtrack of my Region 3 "Casino
Royale" DVD that the international version runs ten seconds longer
than the US version. R1 time is 144:15, the R3 is 144:25.

I specifically detected some extra shots during the stairwell fight
sequence that are definitely not seen in the US release: an overhead
shot of the first guy impacting the floor 4 stories below; a shot of
the machete-wielding guy's face as Bond smashes it into the yellow
stained glass window; a tight shot of the bad guy's hand grabbing for
Vesper's ankle; a shot of Bond kicking in the bad guy's knee; a
protracted strangulation; and an additional lingering shot of the bad
guy's dead face, his eyes still open. Lo and behold, the intense bits
that represent the MPAA's boundary between a PG-13 and an R rating.

Not sure yet if there are more extra snips anywhere else in the film.

In a sidenote, when Daniel Craig did the talk show tour last autumn,
the film clip broadcast during his interview was a snippet of the
stairwell fight, and I swore from the moment I saw it that they'd used
an uncensored version containing the shots of the over-the-railing
impact and the face being smashed into the window. I caught it during
a rerun and, having already seen the movie 2x in theaters by the time
I saw this, I immediately noticed the extra bits I hadn't seen either
time previously. Now I know I wasn't imagining it.

Discuss...

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