TMWTGG has a grumpier tone but it feels like a true sequel to LALD. It’s an underrated movie that sags in the middle but has a fantastic, Fleming like finale. I get the feeling from Moore’s performance that Bond is rattled by the idea of being hunted by a world class assassin, which something I don’t think we had seen up until that point or since. Even the perceived disappointments in the series play their part in course correction and lifting their game. TMWTGG is a good example of that.
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April 22nd
Connery Goldfinger - Thunderball does the same job but better.
Moore AVTAK - too old, Stacey worrying and aside from the Villains nothing new to see.
Dalton LTK, hard choice but the first 20 minutes of TLD are the greatest bond film ever.
Brosnan DAD - bereft of ideas and momentum.
Craig Skyfall - overindulgant
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April 23
Table F for me, gladly eat a terrible meal with Pussy Galore and Vesper Lynd, also Moonraker is charming company
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I’m tempted by Table A as without Cubby and the Bond theme so many entries would suffer. But then there’s that dimwit Rosie tooting away on the slide whistle…
I might have to with Table F as I rather fancy my chances with Vesper, Pussy and Chew Mee once every other male in the place save Jaws and myself are dead. If only there wasn’t that upsetting sound every time his fork touches those teeth…
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Let’s hope he does not bite his tongue.
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Table A: Rosie and the slide-whistle. Sorry. No way
Table B: A contender.
Table C: Guy Hamilton–yeah!!! Prussic acid for the rest.
Table D: “Where is the rest of me?”
Table E: No appeal.
Table F: A contender.
So Table B: Good novel and great song. Brosnan stories would be nice. Thomas Newman warms a seat, but…
I will join Stbernard and David_M (I will be no competition for him with the ladies) at Table F.
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It is, and it speaks volumes that I never even thought about that. Thinking about Bond films and historical anniversaries at the same time never was my strong suit.
But Moonraker does turn it around from being as tasteless as the Bond we all know and love basically always is. By making the eugenics-obsessive fail due to a steel-toothed giant‘s love for a pigtail-and-braces-wearing, steel-toothed obsessed young woman.
Diversity wins over right wing wanna be nazi.
If that is not proof for Bond‘s progressiveness, in 1979, of all years! Who can say that Bond only followed trends at that time? It damned sure set one!
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Because the film as a whole is sugar coated, the plot is accepted and people don’t fully grasp its severity. The stakes have never been higher, and for a film that keeps pushing the envelope it’s oddly appropriate that the conclusion is something so dark, because it allows Bond to then save the day in the grandest way possible.
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When I first saw MR in the cinema as a 14-year-old, I certainly thought, “He’s Space Hitler,” but at the time it totally fit in with pop culture. I remember a lot of literary and cinema thrillers of the day hinging on the threat of a Nazi resurgence, as if the Fourth Reich could pop up anywhere at any time if we were caught napping. It was not unusual for me, on a visit to the convenience store for my weekly comic fix, to see the cover of a tabloid claiming to have discovered HItler alive and well in Argentina or some other refuge (his only rival in the “still secretly alive” department was JFK).
“Poison gas from orbit” is an easily grasped threat, and notions of “racial purity” are a clear tip-off to a lunatic mind, so I didn’t read much into it then or now. It was just a way to give groovy disco-era Bond a chance to crush Nazis, which was and remains cinematic gold IMHO.
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Exactly.
“The Boys from Brazil” (1976)
THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978)
“The Holcroft Covenant” (1978)
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Ex-Nazis also figured in “Marathon Man” (76), “The Eiger Sanction” (75), “The Odessa File” (74) and others. Plus they tended to show up as TV villains. I may have had a provincial view of things, though, as a lot of kids in my town seemed obsessed with WW2 and Nazi iconography. I remember going to a gun show with my dad where several dealers had tables full of Nazi firearms, uniform parts, medals, helmets and flags that were supposedly taken from prisoners (or dead soldiers) in the war. I’m not sure how many were legit and whether you could get away with selling ANY of it today (I haven’t been to a gun show in decades), but it made an impression on my young mind that for a lot of people WW2 was not ancient history, and Nazi imagery was “cool.”
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That’s why I like both so much: they show that Bond is not infallible and subject to the circumstances he throws himself in, as a disruptive element. And it makes the villain all the more powerful because he jumps at every chance.
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That. And his Britishness? And his own brilliance at deflating every bad guy’s hubris?
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As characters, Bond and Holmes are different in terms of abilities, lifestyles, attitudes and time periods (usually) but in a “broad strokes” view…which is to say to the “Average Joe”…they’re alike in a very important way: they’re “The British Hero.” They’re aren’t a lot of UK-born heroes that have conquered the world in the way Bond and Holmes have, becoming as popular abroad as at home, with that success coming at least partly because of their Britishness. There’s King Arthur, maybe, and Robin Hood. Arguably Tarzan, though his British heritage is largely irrelevant in the films.
I’d argue Bond and Holmes are also both better known from films than the original texts, and obviously both have been adapted multiple times featuring multiple actors (Roger Moore played them both!). Both are famous enough that an article of clothing is identified with them: any guy in a tux hopes to hear “you look like James Bond” and no one can wear a deerstalker hat unless they’re ready for the Sherlock Holmes jokes. Likewise both have catchphrases that every would-be wit and every lazy journalist will go to without fail: “Shaken Not Stirred” and “Elementary, my dear Watson.”
So yeah, there’s not much they have in common in terms of actual character, but in the sense of being iconic figures and cultural touchstones, they are definitely in a rarified strata, which I feel is what’s being referenced when they’re held up as similar. Also up there are Superman and Mickey Mouse, but they’re not British.
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To be honest, I think they’d both be kind of irritating to hang out with…
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They’re both that friend you like for very short periods and with long gaps between meetings.
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Both fascinating to watch and even admirable in their own way, but best experienced from a safe distance.
Also: both like to smoke and both are opinionated cusses (but they’re British so it’s cute, and let’s face it expected).
Um…Bond drives a handsome car and Holmes rides in a hansom cab?
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Ain‘t Watson Sherlock‘s Q (and Moneypenny)?
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I came to Sherlock Holmes through the Basil Rathbone movies. We often discuss about whether or not to update Bond. With the Rathbone/Holmes movies, all but the first two were updated to the time of their making, with the first updated one stating at the beginning that Holmes was “ageless, invincible and unchanging,” and would be seen “solving significant problems of the present day.” Sounds like a brief for the cinematic Bond.
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I was all for Holmes battling Nazis and 40s-era gangster types.
Could have done without the Louise Brooks hairstyle, however…
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