60 Years of Bond on Film

[MisterCairo]

Not sure if this posted elsewhere, but on the 5th of October, 1962, Dr. No premiered.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/james-bond-60-1.6607001

Looking for Bond 7 on the big screen (non-canon films do not count, except Never Say Never Again, for obvious reasons).

 

[MisterCairo]

Duplicate, pls delete!

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Bond fell victim to the times. Hugh Hefner similar hedonist style, obviously posh publisher, also outlived his era.
Within his enigma Bond did try his best to remain true to type. Those outside his particular orbit or hostile to the man
himself responsible for his film portrayal, wielded axe against his iconic state, cudgel took here and there, so over time
man and moment were hacked without cease. Eventually a cumulative reductio adsurdum resulted. I thought Brosnan had the best of Bond whatnot. Too dense the writ, too heavy the hammer. Now with the latest chiseled
Hollywood singer with all the girl agents it's all too much chipped away. Studio intention made clear emasculate Bond.
Never much a Craig fan but his go with Bond not all bad just never quite perfect fit. So there gauntlet lays.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Bond fell victim to the times. Hugh Hefner similar hedonist style, obviously posh publisher, also outlived his era.
Within his enigma Bond did try his best to remain true to type. Those outside his particular orbit or hostile to the man
himself responsible for his film portrayal, wielded axe against his iconic state, cudgel took here and there, so over time
man and moment were hacked without cease. Eventually a cumulative reductio adsurdum resulted. I thought Brosnan had the best of Bond whatnot. Too dense the writ, too heavy the hammer. Now with the latest chiseled
Hollywood singer with all the girl agents it's all too much chipped away. Studio intention made clear emasculate Bond.
Never much a Craig fan but his go with Bond not all bad just never quite perfect fit. So there gauntlet lays.

Where doesn’t the gauntlet lay after 60 years in this world??
Why should the Bonds be different then reality??
After all, Bond is just a character in a movie.
Poetic wax not withstanding.
B

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Bond is his own man. Created by Fleming, and writ large no doubt though essentially his own possession.
Against the grain, well schooled and a Second World War veteran, Royal Navy, a commander. Bond has not evolved.
Nor should he.

 

[AmateisGal]

I am a huge, lifelong James Bond fan. I used to watch the Bond movies on TV with my Dad.

So I was quite excited for No Time To Die.

I left the movie theater in an absolute rage. You do not kill James Bond. You just don't. I do not know what the writers were thinking, what the producers were thinking, what anyone involved in this movie was thinking. Not only did they kill him off, they also had this stupid, hopelessly contrived plot of "Oh yes, I got pregnant and she's your baby, but I hid that fact from you for all these years and when you first asked me if she was yours, I denied it." I mean, this is Harlequin Romance bad writing.

I always watch Bond films multiple times. I own them on DVD. I will sometimes have a Bond movie marathon. But I will never, repeat NEVER, watch No Time To Die again. Once was enough.

Thus endeth the rant.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Bond aced? I've not kept pace with the franchise for a few films. All I thought to have presumed was his
Jamaica retirement, which prefaced his return for another go ahead. Dashed out to read a quick snip and bag it.
I was more put off by the studio downsize of Fleming's boy but this far exceeded anything expected.

 

[AmateisGal]

Bond aced? I've not kept pace with the franchise for a few films. All I thought to have presumed was his
Jamaica retirement, which prefaced his return for another go ahead. Dashed out to read a quick snip and bag it.
I was more put off by the studio downsize of Fleming's boy but this far exceeded anything expected.

Yep. That's the one thing you can count on with Bond films - he will survive. It doesn't matter if it's a nuclear weapon about to go off or whatever, he will SURVIVE. But they killed him. They *&^*%I* killed James Bond! I don't think I've ever been so mad at a movie in all my life.

I have no idea where they'll go from here. They'll need a new M, a new Moneypenny, a new Q, everything.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Yep. That's the one thing you can count on with Bond films - he will survive. It doesn't matter if it's a nuclear weapon about to go off or whatever, he will SURVIVE. But they killed him. They *&^*%I* killed James Bond! I don't think I've ever been so mad at a movie in all my life.

I have no idea where they'll go from here. They'll need a new M, a new Moneypenny, a new Q, every

I should toss a dart Doyle's way. All else will be a pre-postmortem, stories never told before. Sherlockian.
Must I ask, yes, most definitely. Purgatory or Hades for James? A rake his caliber would seem a made devil.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Yep. That's the one thing you can count on with Bond films - he will survive. It doesn't matter if it's a nuclear weapon about to go off or whatever, he will SURVIVE. But they killed him. They *&^*%I* killed James Bond! I don't think I've ever been so mad at a movie in all my life.

I have no idea where they'll go from here. They'll need a new M, a new Moneypenny, a new Q, everything.

OMG. Thanks for the warning. I’m a long time fan. I will not view it. Sacrilege! Really horrible.

Must I ask, yes, most definitely. Purgatory or Hades for James? A rake his caliber would seem a made devil.

Her Majesty’s psychopath. Likely deserves hades, but may get purgatory because, you know, he saved the world so many times. And he was so damned suave.

Speaking of heaven or hell, my sister laid it on me the other day that James Bond is the reason that men of MY generation are all so evil. This was surgically aimed to score a direct hit on me (my sister knows all my buttons) because, yes, from age 16 to 30 I never missed a Bond movie (basically mid 70s to late 80s).* Most of my friends were right there with me. Anyway, you can no doubt guess her argument.

How do you square the circle, Amateisgal? Must any male who is hoping to enter heaven —per my sis— hang up his martini shaker and swear off Bond? Maybe that’s why they killed him off: James Bond 007 was becoming an embarrassment. Not Implausible. [P.S. - The above is just a small example of a running gunfight between my sister and me on a range of topics. I generally do not buy into her baseline supposition(s).]

*BTW, I’m really not so evil. Only a little bit.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I believe Miss Amateis raised valid issue. I dashed out for a fast read on subject only to learn that Craig
himself slit Bond's throat because poor boy was tired of Bond. And the studio gave license to kill the franchise.
I frankly cannot make head or tail with this.
As to your sister's perspective, turn the cheek.
Bond really fell on his sword eons ago, though Brosnan had him pegged. What was left after Moore Pierce did
fair turn with but script and philosophic deconstruct ruined any fighting chance he might have otherwise had.
I won't see this.

 

[AmateisGal]

Well, I know Craig didn't want to do Bond anymore - and that's fine. Connery didn't want to do Bond anymore, and Brosnan didn't, either, and Dalton. But did they kill off Bond? NO THEY DID NOT. That's why I'm just baffled by the whole thing. Craig went from a relatively B-list actor to A list STAR with his turn as Bond, and aside from Connery, I really think he was Ian Fleming's Bond. Casino Royale was about as perfect a Bond film as you can get, Skyfall a close second. Judi Dench's M put it well in Casino Royale: Bond was a "blunt instrument." That's the Bond of Fleming's novels. If they change that to match our new woke society (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being woke, but Bond is NOT WOKE) then it will no longer be Fleming's character.

Honestly, I don't know what they're going to do. Did they metaphorically kill Bond the womanizer, the alcoholic, the 'blunt instrument' by killing Craig in the last film? Maybe. But in doing so, they will have killed Fleming's character. And Bond will no longer be Bond, and thus, the franchise should rightly die a quick death.

As far as your sister goes, tell her to chill. LOL. I LOVE Bond. That doesn't mean I want to marry him! He'd be fun for a few weeks but then I'd get tired of him and move on.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Well, the bloke's not woke, quite fairly put. However there seemed modern culture's Bond clash with
man and myth. Hammer and chisel. Fleming's Bond was Cambridge (my baccalaureate alma), the Royal Navy,
Second War, and recruited as RN commander to fight the Cold War. Whatever faults, foibles, personal habits
are par with genuine nerve necessary for the job. Sinners not saints are Secret Service.

 

[AmateisGal]

Well, the bloke's not woke, quite fairly put. However there seemed modern culture's Bond clash with
man and myth. Hammer and chisel. Fleming's Bond was Cambridge (my baccalaureate alma), the Royal Navy,
Second War, and recruited as RN commander to fight the Cold War. Whatever faults, foibles, personal habits
are par with genuine nerve necessary for the job. Sinners not saints are Secret Service.

Yep, I completely agree with you.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Ah. But these days, heroes are expected to be both woke and vulnerable. “You are not ready for the truth” need not apply.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Melissa, I've been watching Bond movies since the 60s, but I'm not quite the dedicated fan that you are.

I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected end of No Time to Die. Here was James Bond finally making the sacrifice play for a worthy cause vs. skating away from disaster (see: Tony Stark's arc - no pun intended - in the Marvel films). The essence of drama: character growth. Not something one usually associates with the James Bond series.

I first saw the Connery Bond films in late-60s rerelease double features. I saw the Moore Bond films when they were released because both of my roommates in those days were mega-Bond fans. I missed some/most of the Dalton and Brosnan films because by then I was so sick of their essentially formulaic nature... and my wife in those years wouldn't put up with what she considered the macho bushwa of James Bond. The Craig films were a step up, but even they aren't all good. (I've watched Quantum of Silence twice and still can't remember what the hell it's about!)

I applaud the film's guts in letting Bond die. Let the series return, perhaps with a Black or female Bond as some want, and just ignore the end of the last Craig film. Lord knows, they've ignored countless other details of the older films when they've wanted to throughout the run of the series.

Or alternatively, start making them as period pieces set in the 50s and 60s. Then Bond can comfortably be a man of his time, not a relic who doesn't belong in the 2020s.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I've Christmas week and slight YouTube peruse reveals the schism between male and female as shown
Tick Tock and what, replete attendant masculine comment, females to marked lesser number but there.
Neither first word nor last on the subject of Bond but 007 isn't a relic by any means. Masculinity is constant thru
history. Perhaps some evolve but natural to man. Others may hold grudge, resent as personal relationship issues
yet all besides.

 

[AmateisGal]

Melissa, I've been watching Bond movies since the 60s, but I'm not quite the dedicated fan that you are.

I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected end of No Time to Die. Here was James Bond finally making the sacrifice play for a worthy cause vs. skating away from disaster (see: Tony Stark's arc - no pun intended - in the Marvel films). The essence of drama: character growth. Not something one usually associates with the James Bond series.

I first saw the Connery Bond films in late-60s rerelease double features. I saw the Moore Bond films when they were released because both of my roommates in those days were mega-Bond fans. I missed some/most of the Dalton and Brosnan films because by then I was so sick of their essentially formulaic nature... and my wife in those years wouldn't put up with what she considered the macho bushwa of James Bond. The Craig films were a step up, but even they aren't all good. (I've watched Quantum of Silence twice and still can't remember what the hell it's about!)

I applaud the film's guts in letting Bond die. Let the series return, perhaps with a Black or female Bond as some want, and just ignore the end of the last Craig film. Lord knows, they've ignored countless other details of the older films when they've wanted to throughout the run of the series.

Or alternatively, start making them as period pieces set in the 50s and 60s. Then Bond can comfortably be a man of his time, not a relic who doesn't belong in the 2020s.

I'm all for setting them during the '50s and '60s. In fact, I hope that's what they do.

 

[Tiki Tom]

I would like to see an old fashioned, unapologetic, Cold War spy franchise set in the 1960s. That would float my boat. But I imagine we will have a ten year cool down period before someone attempts to reinvent 007. Hopefully the culture war will settle down by then.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Bond has been packed off to Coventry; Smiley remains, still Le Carre veered off to the left and his truancy
all the more tawdry given present tense match. The man himself revealed if not charlatan then certainly less
game, set, and match Diogenes, armed with years accumulate wisdom garnered in the fields of cold blooded spycraft.
His star has fallen, hardly to return. For author the quill has been dropped.
A good romp in the hay spy shag cozy, read near warm fire waits this stylus.