James Bond In Skyfall - Part 6

[TheVileOne]

I recall Fleming saying in the books that Bond had a visible scar on his face.

 

[Metallo]

Mistook your mean, because I always thought "pretty boy" was derogative phrase. And it seems you're using it against him in some way. Disagree with him not being able to play dark.

And I never bought him as convincingly dark with the smug delivery. Never said he was effeminate but compared to some of the more macho Bonds he was a pretty boy. Doesn't mean he couldn't do a good job but he was.

CR is not as over-the-top as DAD, but there were entire sequences in the first act that barely served the plot and were mostly there to beef up the spectacle (Bond's long, but amazing chase scene in Madgascar, the entire airport car chase and I don't recall the book CR ending with a Venician building sinking into the canals). And yes, you can say CR is closer to Dr. No and FRWL. But Connery was also in Goldfinger and Thunderball (closer to GoldenEye), as well as YOLT and DAF which is on the same goofy scale as DAD.

Like I said some are more than others. as for DAD vs YOLT...yeah they are both over the top...but YOLT was made in the 60's while DAD was made in the 2000s. Some of those things worked better in the past than they did later on. DAD was so concerned with in jokes for the anniversary and being a more generic action film that these things stood out even more. We didn't see Blofeld in powered armor

 

[Metallo]

I find The Man With The Golden Gun worse. At least DAF didn't put me to sleep.

TMWTGG is a pretty weak entry but it had a good villain in Scaramanga. Thats always been one of the odd things about that movie. The premise is good but the execution was "meh."

Blofeld in DRAG in DAF has to be one of the worst moments of the series. Never was crazy about Charles Gray in the role anyway but that was just lame. Jimmy Dean as a Howard Hughes inspired Willard Whyte was oddly hilarious. DAF was like the precursor to the Moore era except it wasn't nearly as good as some of Moore's efforts.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I feel that if we're going to compare DAD to any film it should be Moonraker.
That was just...ugh

 

[Metallo]

I feel that if we're going to compare DAD to any film it should be Moonraker.
That was just...ugh

DAD is Brosnans Moonraker. The point where the series got so bloated with the absurd that they had to pull back in the next one. Both were the fourth films for Brosnan and Moore. I think Moore and Brosnan were even around the same age in Moonraker and DAD.

Casino Royale may be more serious than DAD or Moonraker, but it is still a big budget action movie designed more for entertainment than art. There are plenty of big set pieces and stunts in Casino Royale. I love the Bond franchise, but all of them are at their heart popcorn films, as are franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The only one that doesn't really quite fit the same mold is From Russia with Love, but even it I would ultimately consider a popcorn flick.

Never said they weren't

 

[chamber-music]

Dalton was a good Bond I thought. I prefer him over Moore and Lazenby

 

[Sebastos]

Bond back in Turkey, new video below:

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I recall Fleming saying in the books that Bond had a visible scar on his face.

So does Brosnan.

 

[Metallo]

So does Brosnan.

Its in a different spot (not nearly as cool as Bonds cheek scar) and he got if AFTER he took the role (on the set of TND).

 

[The Guard]

With Brosnan's Bond, I've always got the sense that he his hiding some dark past and his normal demeanor is just a facade. He can very cold and bitter at times. This is shown a few times throughout his films, such as when Alec betrays him, his conversation on the beach with Natalya, getting drunk in his hotel in TND, his execution of Dr. Kaufmann, and the aforementioned shooting of Elektra.

This is always how I saw Brosnan's Bond...and he was excellent.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Its in a different spot (not nearly as cool as Bonds cheek scar) and he got if AFTER he took the role (on the set of TND).

Well, isn't that even more appropriate, that he got the scar during one of his Bond adventures?

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

With Brosnan's Bond, I've always got the sense that he his hiding some dark past and his normal demeanor is just a facade. He can very cold and bitter at times. This is shown a few times throughout his films, such as when Alec betrays him, his conversation on the beach with Natalya, getting drunk in his hotel in TND, his execution of Dr. Kaufmann, and the aforementioned shooting of Elektra.

This is always how I saw Brosnan's Bond...and he was excellent.

Complex people, especially those who have an abundance of different qualities that see them through such high stakes jobs as Bond has, are not as simple as to carry *one* defining characteristic.
His 'normal demeanor', which you say is a facade, is as truly a part of him as any sadness he may carry from a troubled past.
What he does, is not allow that troubled past to drag him down into the doldrums, and manages to keep alive the care-free personage he would carry *all the time*, if he had not encountered such a troubled past. He does not carry that pain inside him all the time, his anger only surfaces sometimes when he encounters exceptionally serious trouble from his enemies in his current life.

 

[ChickenScratch]

I recall Fleming saying in the books that Bond had a visible scar on his face.

Yeah, it's an almost white line extending from cheek to chin on his left side. I always interpreted one of the lines on Dalton's and now on DC's cheek as the scar.

 

[Metallo]

Well, isn't that even more appropriate, that he got the scar during one of his Bond adventures?

Uh he got the scar on his lip doing a stunt. he certainly wasn't cast with it the way Bonds always had one. If we're counting injuries we may as well acknowledge ALL the injuries all of them had doing stunts. It happens. Craig has gotten pretty banged up. He's got a scar on his hand...just like Bond. Not in the same place though.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Uh he got the scar on his lip doing a stunt. he certainly wasn't cast with it the way Bonds always had one. If we're counting injuries we may as well acknowledge ALL the injuries all of them had doing stunts. It happens. Craig has gotten pretty banged up. He's got a scar on his hand...just like Bond. Not in the same place though.

I just thought it was cooler that he got the scar during a Bond adventure, rather than having one from some other escapade, before he got cast, like you were thinking would have been cooler.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Complex people, especially those who have an abundance of different qualities that see them through such high stakes jobs as Bond has, are not as simple as to carry *one* defining characteristic.
His 'normal demeanor', which you say is a facade, is as truly a part of him as any sadness he may carry from a troubled past.
What he does, is not allow that troubled past to drag him down into the doldrums, and manages to keep alive the care-free personage he would carry *all the time*, if he had not encountered such a troubled past. He does not carry that pain inside him all the time, his anger only surfaces sometimes when he encounters exceptionally serious trouble from his enemies in his current life.

Yeah, I agree. Although he is cold and cruel the times we see inside his personality are not usually on mission. It's usually doing office work
('Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make bored.') or through other people's eyes ( Russian files in FRWL is a great example) or in very rare moments of contemplation. Though one could say his personallity is left open and raw for the whole world to see in OHMSS/YOLT/TMWTGG with the dead of Tracy, his loosing his mind, falling from grace, revenge and his reemergence.

One of the great tragedies of the movies is them never really doing full character arcs for Bond so you never really see much of a growth.

 

[Metallo]

I just thought it was cooler that he got the scar during a Bond adventure, rather than having one from some other escapade, before he got cast, like you were thinking would have been cooler.

They never really ackknowledge it though. Plus its not nearly as distinguishing as Bonds actual scar or John Connors facial scar. Would have been cool if they worked Brosnans in like was done with Fords chin scar in Last Crusade but they didn't.

Yeah, it's an almost white line extending from cheek to chin on his left side. I always interpreted one of the lines on Dalton's and now on DC's cheek as the scar.

Its funny we were talking about Hopkins in a bond movie earlier and I always notice that faint mark/scar he has above his left eye. A small distinguishing physical feature like most Bond film villains have.

He's not the book Blofeld but he could have been a pretty good movie style Blofeld

 

[Metallo]

Yeah, I agree. Although he is cold and cruel the times we see inside his personality are not usually on mission. It's usually doing office work
('Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make bored.') or through other people's eyes ( Russian files in FRWL is a great example) or in very rare moments of contemplation. Though one could say his personallity is left open and raw for the whole world to see in OHMSS/YOLT/TMWTGG with the dead of Tracy, his loosing his mind, falling from grace, revenge and his reemergence.

One of the great tragedies of the movies is them never really doing full character arcs for Bond so you never really see much of a growth.

I always wished we'd see some sort of proper period adaptations of the Bond novels/short stories in the correct order. As movies, a tv series, a mini series...anything. But with Eon in control that may never happen.

The Moonraker book for example sounds FAR more interesting that the almost totally different movie.

 

[Ajendo]

 

[A Necessary Evil]

Dat ass

 

[ChickenScratch]

I always wished we'd see some sort of proper period adaptations of the Bond novels/short stories in the correct order. As movies, a tv series, a mini series...anything. But with Eon in control that may never happen.

The Moonraker book for example sounds FAR more interesting that the almost totally different movie.

I always thought the best way to do it was with a TV mini-series each covering one book. Consistent cast, look, tone, proper development. It would be great, do the Fleming books (with referenced and flashbacks to Higson's Young Bond here and there to fill stuff in), then Amis' Colonel Sun, Faulk's Devil May Care, and even continue into john Gardner's run. Though I would end the run on Gardner's License Renewed since it's the first book of the 80's and was the first to present a middle aged Bond.

Why not do all the Gardner books? Well, most of them have been cannibalized for material so it's hard to do one without someone thinking it's been done. Plus in MR Bond mused how 00 agents didn't last long and their retirement date, so doing License Renewed and jumping ahead kinda bookends it well, showing he survived long enough to get old. Or you could just do the whole Gardner run too and end it with Captain Bond.

 

[Daniel Thompson]

Yeah, EON didn't think Grant would commit himself to a franchise, so they didn't offer him the role.

I always felt like the first two Bond movies, especially FRWL, had the feeling of a Hitchcock movie. They were both very Hitchcock inspired.

Hitchcock was suppose to direct a Bond film?

 

[Metallo]

I always thought the best way to do it was with a TV mini-series each covering one book. Consistent cast, look, tone, proper development. It would be great, do the Fleming books (with referenced and flashbacks to Higson's Young Bond here and there to fill stuff in), then Amis' Colonel Sun, Faulk's Devil May Care, and even continue into john Gardner's run. Though I would end the run on Gardner's License Renewed since it's the first book of the 80's and was the first to present a middle aged Bond.

Why not do all the Gardner books? Well, most of them have been cannibalized for material so it's hard to do one without someone thinking it's been done. Plus in MR Bond mused how 00 agents didn't last long and their retirement date, so doing License Renewed and jumping ahead kinda bookends it well, showing he survived long enough to get old. Or you could just do the whole Gardner run too and end it with Captain Bond.

That would be cool. I'd even love to see EON use some of the later books to base future films on. Like you said past films have cannibalized some of the non Fleming works already so why not? Some of those books have good stories. The Craig reboot offers them a lot of opportunities to take advantage of.

Hitchcock was suppose to direct a Bond film?

I don't know if he was ever officially asked to direct a film but I know for years people asked him if he would direct a Bond film or what his Bond film would be like. I think he always said something to the effect that North By Northwest essentially was his Bond-like film.

Could have been something if he had made Casino Royale in the 50's with Cary Grant and and maybe even one of the un official Le Chiffres Peter Lorre or Orson Welles.

John Frankenheimer is another guy that might have been able to direct a good Bond movie back then.

 

[baerrtt]

^
Hitchcock was interested in directing THUNDERBALL but inevitably asked for too much creative control in a meeting with producers Broccoli and Saltzman.

 

[Ajendo]

True and Grant WAS offered the role but he didn't want to commit to doing more than one film.