10 Controversial James Bond Movie Moments That Couldn't Exist Today
7. That'll Keep You In Curry For A Few Weeks (Octopussy, 1983)
The exotic locale of 1983’s Octopussy offered a rare chance for mainstream Western cinema to explore the subtle and exquisite delights of the Indian subcontinent with nary a stereotype to be seen… or, perhaps not.
Pretty much every Indian trope under the sun was made use of, from snake charmers (playing the 007 theme, no less!) and sword eaters to bengal tigers and turban-clad henchmen.
And if there was an opportunity for Roger Moore’s Bond, that crafty bastion of British wit and sophistication, to make light of those Indians and their funny old eating habits, you’d better believe it was going to be taken.
Bond, that white saviour, bestows an exceedingly generous gift in the form of a giant pile of cash upon an Indian man before telling him “that’ll keep you in curry for a few weeks, won’t it?” The man smiles and nods gratefully as if he’d just heard a pleasant and warm compliment, instead of a casually flippant racist remark.
It would roughly be the equivalent of Bond strolling through Harlem or Tokyo and cracking wise about fried chicken and sushi. Talk about failing to curry favour with modern audiences.
We Brits don’t all drink cups of tea, either.
Modern day PC version: “You should find this sum of money sufficient to cover any of your culinary desires for a few weeks, whatever they may be.”