Storywise it’s a nifty inverse mirroring ON HER MAJESTY’S theme, I like that general idea. In visual terms though, in dramatic dimensions, it’s just there. Not doing a lot beyond keeping our rank and file busy with deciphering the Fleming genes in its DNA. For a prop that’s got such potential, see @Revelator’s suggestion above, it’s underplaying.
On the other hand, one has to view it from the casual audience perspective. It’s some scurrilous idle pastime Safin engages in, highly toxic and therefore dangerous - and that’s all the audience cares for. Nobody needs to know more or question its use and purpose any further. It is what it is.
You Only Live Twice has a certain ambience that I don’t think can be replicated in live action. It’s a piece of literature soaked in psychology and symbolism, primarily centred around death. To me, the purpose of the book’s garden is the advancement of Bond’s mental journey. The garden is a place where depressed people choose to die. The Bond at the beginning of the story would probably have welcomed such an opportunity. But when Bond finds himself in the garden later in the novel, he once again has purpose: to avenge Tracy by killing Blofeld.
Thank you @cgebby ! It’s wonderful to be back, it has been some time. Again, like many others, the majority of my contributions were on the old forum but I am very much revelling in discussing Bond again!
Reflecting on the ‘mosquito bite’ dialog is certainly interesting. It feels as though EON are beginning to pave the way for an extended Bond universe.
And further, in OHMSS “those girls are harmless without” Blofeld’s communication center controlling them. Whereas Heracles is lethal once it’s out. Which brings to mind the perfume “atomizer” Safin gives Madeleine. It’s just like what Blofeld gives his “angels of death” in the movie. Ironically, Blofeld sarcastically calls Bond his “avenging angel” minutes before he dies.
This movie’s almost a remake, no a reinterpretation, of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
I have a question about Primo. I think I have an answer but want to put it out to the CBn community as I don’t think anybody has brought this up.
In the first half of the film, Primo is clearly working for SPECTRE. He relates Blofeld’s message to Bond about “daughter of Spectre” and Obruchev hides the USB drive from him for poisoning spectre’s party. So it appears he’s not aware of the double cross. But after Blofeld dies and SPECTRE is eliminated, he’s working for Safin at his lair.
Did he switch allegiances? Was he Safin’s mole all along? Or does he just go to the highest bidder on henchmen for hire?
It’s a really interesting question, and I always fancied the idea of something like “Henchmen Inc.” with hundreds of workers on loan for jobs like this. Just remember, Drax on the phone looking for a replacement for Chang: “If you can get him…” And the guy who shows up is Jaws.
Maybe, Primo just wasn’t high enough in the SPECTRE food chain to be on the list of agents to be eliminated. In Cuba, Obruchev has to trick him when switching the USB-sticks, so he didn’t know what was going on. But with his old employers all dead, he needs a new job (there’s bills to pay).
The gunbarrel itself is poor, probably even the worst of the series in my opinion. The design, the colour, the fadeout… the only thing I like is that it’s at the start (but even that is ruined a bit by the Universal transition).
The CR “shake-up” of the gunbarrel made sense, but it’s incredible that each of Craig’s subsequent gunbarrels could be so bad and needlessly tinkered with. Guess this is what happens when each film and director feels the need to put their ‘stamp’ on it.
We didn’t get the Universal version in the US, but I quite like the NTTD gun barrel. The lack of blood is clearly foreshadowing the ending. It’s also the 2nd-best looking gun barrel of the Craig films, IMO. I know its a controversial opinion, but I still think the QoS gun barrel is the best looking one of the Craig films.
I got that too. The me when I first became a Bond fan would’ve had questions, looking for a way out. Two kids in, I get Bond’s point. If there is the slightest chance that your family would be harmed in exchange for you…it isn’t a debate
