31 days, 31 questions

Special Interest Games
101

I hadn’t mean to imply Roger failed to deliver in the Andrea scene, just that it was, to me, a wholly unwelcome development. As far as that goes, I don’t like it when Sean slaps Tatiana in FRWL, and I feel like the Andrea scene is a misguided nod to that one (“Look, Roger’s as hard-edged as Sean was!”)

I agree however that it doesn’t exactly come from left field and is entirely consistent with Roger’s portrayal throughout MWTGG, which is to say mean-spirited, unchivalrous, conniving and dyspeptic. Indeed, everyone in the film is irritable, miserable and nasty with the notable exception of Scaramanga, who while technically the villain remains the only character who seems to be enjoying his life. I am firmly convinced this is a major reason Lee is routinely singled out as the best thing about the movie.

I do agree it’s a missed opportunity not to have had Roger ever play a movie villain. Indeed he was on record as having really wanted the titular role in “Day of the Jackal” (for which he was at least considered). And I have to say I enjoy Brosnan’s turn as a deceitful lowlife in “Tailor of Panama” better than any of his turns as Bond, so it’s tempting to daydream about what might have been. But while I’m willing to enjoy Bond portrayals as disparate as “brooding blunt instrument” and “imperturbable playboy jokester,” I am not broad-minded enough to include “cowardly, abusive rat bastard.” Maybe it’s just me.

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102

No. Same here. Bond should remain a hero, despite or due to his flaws.

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103

To be clear, I have no problem with Bond fighting dirty if that’s what it takes to win. I just think this was gratuitously cruel and petty. There’s a difference between “ruthless” and “sociopath.”

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104

I did like this line from later in the film though:

“When I kill, its on the specific orders of my government. And those I kill are themselves killers.”

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105

December 7:

So many fine moments to choose from for Moore’s best performance…I’m afraid I shall, like others, have a hard time to choose that best moment. What comes to my mind again and again though is that first moment I saw Roger Moore in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME’s Lotus/heli chase: a white car pursued by a - mostly - black helicopter spewing death at breakneck speed, the pilot a beautiful woman who, in a brief gap during hostilities, winks at Bond.

And Moore giving her a short smile back; unable, no, unwilling to stop flirting even if his counterpart is about to blow him into smouldering pieces.

It’s of course a bit ludicrous, a bit silly - but then again it’s not. It points to something deeper than the 00 licence, a character trait that refuses to let the world’s demands interfere with one’s personal poise.

In this spirit, with considerate poise and charm, Moore’s Bond then shows the uninvited guest the door. By blowing her to smouldering pieces.

Moore’s worst scene? That too is difficult to choose since I feel he’s usually tried to give his best and the things sticking out are parts that were deliberately written this way: Going after the world’s most deadly assassin who sent him, or so he must think, a personal calling card. It’s not bound to improve his manners any more than interrogating a CIA traitor at gunpoint or running from a gang of hoodlums out for his hide.

The results are grating scenes, akin to a Lego model using different brick sizes to construct a familiar shape. They make for uncomfortable watching, yes. Yet, I’m not sure they are Moore’s worst. For me his worst scene, though again not actually due to his acting, is the Golden Gate fight that simply lacks visual pace and urgency and can’t convince on any level, not even when stuntmen act out a sadly pedestrian choreography. The closeups in back-projection don’t help the case and the overall result looks tired bordering on bored. It’s not fun any more.

Later, in his last showering scene with his co-star, Moore is actually hardly even visible. He was fading away all through the previous 130 minutes.

An aside to Moore playing a villain: Some years ago Jim suggested Moore would have been a perfect Harry Flashman. I used to picture Flashman much like Connery in his THE FIRST GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY/THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING phase. But personality-wise Moore would have been ideal to depict that anti-hero in his various facets, not least the fabulously ironic element of a scoundrel, coward and notorious Lothario becoming the equivalent of a Victorian rockstar, a hero constantly on the run while kicking and bullying those weaker than himself.

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106

It’s a great line that gets to Roger’s version of Bond: he does what needs to be done for queen and country, but there’s plenty of things he’d rather be doing than killing people. That’s in contrast to Connery’s Bond who seems (to me, anyway) to enjoy a good killing as much as he does a good wine or a good suit. Or Craig’s Bond, who seems pretty much born to kill so we’re just lucky “M” found a way to point him in a helpful direction.

But in the same conversation, he rather rudely answers Scaramanga’s remark about settling things like gentlemen with, “I doubt you qualify on that score.” Based on what we’ve seen of Bond in the film, and pretty much the one before, that’s definitely a case of “Pot, meet kettle.”

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107

It should perhaps better be ‘I doubt we qualify on that score.’

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108

… or in many other Bond movies (or read in the novels). When you look at him from the outside view, he’s not a very likeable character, at times.

To say it with Solange: “But much more interesting.” :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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109

Notice they both cheat, though Bond does it more successfully.

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110

Agreed. I think TMWTGG is a good example of a conundrum that a work of art can present. Being cruel to women was acceptable/unacceptable behavior in both society and culture at the time of the film (think Faye Dunaway getting slapped by Jack Nicholson in the last reel of CHINATOWN). Being forceful with women was just something men had to resort to at times–not the best or first option, but occasionally necessary. The justification was that this is just the way men and women are at root, and women often force men to be this way: think Ralph and Alice Kramden.

The films of the 1970s–especially in the earlier years of the decade–began simultaneously to explore the nature of male violence and to depict it with fewer reservations and greater specificity. SAF notes that a hero can remain one despite their flaws, but one of the questions being raised by the art of that era is whether or not violence, especially against women, should be regarded as a flaw or a a pathology, which, when engaged in, causes a character to downgrade from hero to protagonist.

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111

Buenos Aires
Bhutan
Sydney

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112

Dec. 7:

Roger Moore’s best scene: Moore was really good in the serious scenes when he had to be–confessing to Anya that he killed her lover in The Spy Who Loved Me and confronting Orlov on the train in Octopussy–but my choice goes to a signature Bond moment from For Your Eyes Only.

Having raced up a long stairway lining a hillside, Bond makes it to the top of the hill just in time to see an escaping Emile Leopold Locque’s Mercedes-Benz careening toward him. Does Moore’s Bond hurriedly fire off a couple of shots and get out of the way? No. Moore calmly and confidently plants his feet, fully facing the oncoming danger, and takes dead aim on his target. Two shots later, Locque is hit in the shoulder and his car veers off the road, crashing into a small stone wall and winding up precariously perched on the edge of a cliff. Moore slowly walks up to the car, sizes up the situation, and nods to himself. As Locque sits helpless, afraid to move in case any little motion tips the car over the edge, Moore plucks a dove-shaped pin out of his pocket, holds it up for Locque to see, and coldly says to Kristatos’ henchman, “You left this with Ferrara, I believe,” and tosses it through the open passenger window into the assassin’s lap. As Locque processes the significance of the pin, the car starts to slide further over the edge. Panicking, he lunges for the passenger door only to have Moore ruthlessly kick the car, sending it–and Locque–tumbling over the edge and killing the assassin. Bond has never been better and perhaps up till then, only ruthlessly matched by Sean Connery’s killing of Prof. R.J. Dent in Dr. No.

Moore’ least lovely scene: I’ll go with another from For Your Eyes Only, this in the pre-titles sequence. After a wheel-chair bound “Ernst Stavro Blofeld” (come on, we all know it was him), fails to kill Bond in a helicopter crash, Bond turns the tables on him and uses the helicopter strut to pick up Blofeld via his wheelchair. Then comes the cringeworthy part of the scene. As he pleads for his life, Blofeld says the most inane and idiotic thing ever uttered in a Bond film, “I’ll buy you a delicatessen…in stainless steel!” And then Moore’s Bond utters a quip that is not funny, “All right, keep your hair on,” as he pats the bald Blofeld’s head before promptly dropping him down an industrial smokestack. A really good scene up until that point falls completely flat and serves as an ignominious demise to a Bond’s “arch-rival”. It could have–and should have–ended better.

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113

Australia and New Zealand seem to be the ones often cited, although there does need to be a reason to go there; the problem with (say) Octopussy is that other than being able to go there, there’s no particular reason it’s actually partly set in India. Villain lives there, but could live anywhere. South Africa might be promising, lots of it is very photogenic, Western Canada too - but still - needs some sort of reason other than a tax incentive for filming there. Story first. I appreciate this is not how it tends to be done.

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114

Dec. 8:

Where would I like to see Bond go: Australia (Sydney, its opera house, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Australian Outback, in particular), South Africa (Johannesburg and/or Cape Town, maybe even a little safari to deal with poachers that turns out to only be the tip of the tentacle), and New Zealand top my list. Athens, Greece would also be good.

As for why to film there, a world leaders’ summit takes place there which is threatened by the villain, or the Royal Family visits there and the villain wants to assassinate them for some perceived wrongdoing or personal revenge. Or the villain is a businessman whose interests are heavily involved in Anglo-Aussie or Anglo-South African ties.

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115

Roger’s best scene? There are so many. My mind automatically goes to the Lotus Esprit chase and the Union Jack escape in terms of iconic action sequences. But in terms of acting and how it represents his Bond, I’m going with “You missed Mr. Bond.” -“Did I?” This scene nicely demonstrates Moore is a velvet sledgehammer. Well mannered but observant and precise.

Probably my choice too.

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116

Fully agreed. Violence against women often was considered as a disciplinary measure, putting the woman into the role of a child which the father has to slap sense into.

Disgusting. And this is not just a flaw, it is a pathological failure of a self-entitled brand of chauvinist pigs.

As for Andrea, however, well, she is an associate of the main villain. So Bond does not know whether she has lured him there in a plan to kill him.

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117

December 8:

Everything Jim has said.

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118

December 8:

To me the most obvious choice would be the UAE, Dubai or Abu-Dhabi. In years gone by the Bahamas was the place the mega-rich would hang out, these days its the UAE. It contains the height of luxury and decadence as well as architecture that could have come from a Ken Adam sketch book.

From my own travels I’d suggest Bali, a beautiful country largely untouched by the film industry.

Quebec City could be interesting too, it’s got a unique look and we also don’t get to see it often in film.

And while I’m not desperate for more Bond in America part of me would like to see Vermont as I’ve long felt that the events of FYEO (short story) could make for a coo pre-title sequence.

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119

December 8th - I would like to see Bond go to Ireland, for a close in look at the Shipwrecks of the armada and a former NI IRA / British double agent. Sort of mixing elements of Octopussy and Live and Let Die novels.
Remarkable scenery and some very beautiful city locations.

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120

December 8: Locations that Bond should most visit: Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Indonesia, Nepal, Spain, South Africa. Italy is iconic and one of the most beautiful countries in the world. But 4 of the last 5 films have had significant sequences set there and needs to be given a break.

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