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Post by james on Jun 24, 2010 22:05:45 GMT -5
But when Bond tells Quarel to "Fetch my shoes."? Not 007's proudest moment. When I saw Dr. No at Film Forum a couple of years ago, that line got a big laugh, and someone yelled "Fetch them yourself!" James
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Post by Derrick on Jun 25, 2010 0:26:00 GMT -5
But when Bond tells Quarel to "Fetch my shoes."? Not 007's proudest moment. When I saw Dr. No at Film Forum a couple of years ago, that line got a big laugh, and someone yelled "Fetch them yourself!" James I get asked all the time how do I feel about that line. I just shrug. You sometimes have to look at movies in their historical context. It's nothing to be proud of that one man can talk to another like that, no matter what race the two men represent. But as anybody who's read the Fleming novels know, there was racist material in them way more offensive than anything in the movies.
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Post by grubl on Jun 25, 2010 0:41:19 GMT -5
Specifically the conversation between M and Bond in the novel LIVE AND LET DIE regarding the emergence of a black criminal mastermind.
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Post by Derrick on Jun 26, 2010 16:33:46 GMT -5
MY THREE TOP BOND GIRLS (LOOKS)
1: Honor Blackman 2: Jill St. John 3: Denise Richards
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Post by james on Jun 26, 2010 20:53:28 GMT -5
My top 3 Bond girls: 1. Diana Rigg 2. Diana Rigg 3. Diana Rigg James
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Post by Derrick on Jun 26, 2010 23:30:01 GMT -5
My Three Top Bond Villians:
1: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas) 2: Aris Kristatos 3: Elektra King
Honorable Mention: Mr. Big. The character from the book was truly a Bondian villain of towering evil. Despite the racial slurs that run through the book, LIVE AND LET DIE is worth reading. It is kind of interesting that while James Bond doesn't take a black supercriminal seriously, it's the American Felix Leiter (and a Texan, no less!) who tells Bond that he'd better not underestimate Mr. Big and his organization just because they're black.
And the movie version of Mr. Big could have been just as fascinating if the filmmakers had bothered to work at it a little more. The idea of Mr. Big, the drug lord of Harlem having another identity as Dr. Kanaga, the prime minister of an island nation was a dynamite idea that simply was not used to it's fullest potential. A large part of the problem was the lousy job the makeup department did on Yaphet Kotto. They didn't even try to come up with a professional makeup job to fool the audience into thinking that Mr. Big/Dr. Kanaga were two separate men.
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Post by grubl on Jun 26, 2010 23:33:50 GMT -5
That is a big issue for me as well. The books gave you such complex villians that were often just throw away characters in the films. Mr. Big being the greatest letdown. He is frightening, both physically and mentally, in the novel. The only villian that is probably superior in the films is Scaramanga.
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Post by Eddie Love on Jun 26, 2010 23:44:46 GMT -5
Yeah, the make-up is lame, but Kotto really goes balls-to-the-walls with his performance. He gives the otherwise kind of crass but enjoyable L&LD some real depth in the scene where he tears off his mask.
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Post by Derrick on Jun 27, 2010 22:35:58 GMT -5
That is a big issue for me as well. The books gave you such complex villains that were often just throw away characters in the films. Mr. Big being the greatest letdown. He is frightening, both physically and mentally, in the novel. The only villain that is probably superior in the films is Scaramanga. During The Connery Era, most of the villains did stay pretty close to the Fleming versions, I think. Dr. No, Rosa Klebb, Red Grant, Goldfinger and the Telly Savalas Ernst Blofeld were just about identical to the novel versions. I agree with a lot of you guys that the Charles Gray Blofeld is a big disappointment. It's when we get to Roger Moore's BondLite that we get the buffoons like Hugo Drax, Dr. Kanaga/Mr. Big, General Orlov and Max Zorin. Ari Kristatos, Kamal Khan, Stromberg and Scaramanga are the exceptions. Timothy Dalton had to put up with the Abbott and Costello of Bond Movies in Koskov and Whitaker but he was up against a winner in Robert Davi's Sanchez. It never fails to crack me up when Bond 'fans' say they're disappointed with Sanchez because he's not a supervillain out to rule the world. These 'fans' are usually ones who haven't read any of the books because Sanchez is exactly the type of villain the James Bond of the Fleming books would routinely fight. Pierce Brosnan's bad guys are split down the middle for me. I liked Alec Trevelyan and Elektra King a lot. Can't stand Gustav Graves and Elliot Carver. Especially Craver. I kept wishing somebody would snatch that stupid keyboard out of his hands and throw it in the nearest plasma furnace. LeChiffre: looked, sounded and acted like a Fleming villain. Dominic Greene was a total emabarrassment. The Connery Bond would have bitchsmacked Greene and sent him to bed with no supper the first time they met.
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Post by grubl on Jun 27, 2010 22:45:27 GMT -5
I agree that the Connery/Lazenby villians were overall better, and closer to the books (yes, LeChiffre was pretty close in the Craig film, I also liked Peter Lorre in the role). But Red Grant is so much more of an animal in the book. His backstory was really fleshed out and such a part of what made him so effective. Dr. No feels like almost two different characters to me (book vs. film). Rosa Kleb, Savalas and Goldfinger were indeed spot on.
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Post by Derrick on Jun 28, 2010 10:58:29 GMT -5
My Top Three Bond Theme Songs
1: GOLDFINGER 2: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER 3: MOONRAKER
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Post by james on Jun 28, 2010 12:01:59 GMT -5
Ari Kristatos, Kamal Khan, Stromberg and Scaramanga are the exceptions. As much as I dig Christopher Lee, I prefer Scaramanga in the book. Fleming* wrote the character as essentially a shadow version of James Bond; both men are professional killers who could be in the other's place with a few changes. Plus, the ending of the novel is an intense one-on-one shoot-out in a swamp (instead of the laser-beam stuff in the movie, invented by the screenwriters). (*or someone else, possibly Kingsley Amis, if you believe the conspiracy theory...)James
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Post by Derrick on Jun 28, 2010 23:19:27 GMT -5
Ari Kristatos, Kamal Khan, Stromberg and Scaramanga are the exceptions. As much as I dig Christopher Lee, I prefer Scaramanga in the book. Fleming* wrote the character as essentially a shadow version of James Bond; both men are professional killers who could be in the other's place with a few changes. Plus, the ending of the novel is an intense one-on-one shoot-out in a swamp (instead of the laser-beam stuff in the movie, invented by the screenwriters). (*or someone else, possibly Kingsley Amis, if you believe the conspiracy theory...)James I like both versions of Scaramanga equally. The Christopher Lee version had a certain charm and wit that elevated his stature in my eyes. But the thing I really like about the book version of Scaramanga? In that final shootout he has with Bond, he's well aware that Bond has lost his nerve and can't shoot him in cold blood, something that the Bond of ten years earlier would have done without a second's hesitation. In fact, for me that's the real meat of the novel: Bond's been through years and years of torture, relentless battle with the world's deadliest villains/assassins/gangsters/psychos, physical and psychological trauma and it's all finally catching up with him. You can't help but wonder was it really that hard for the Russians to brainwash 007 in attempting to assassinate M?
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