Oh yes I know, but we had seen him win the Left hand drive db5 in CR. The TLD Aston Martin return ( intact !) Was a bigger suprise for me! If he had survived this movie and done a sixth, would we have found little nelly in his attic or something?
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Nah, we’d have seen the Lotus docked on the Thames.
The DB5 in Skyfall, revealing to be the Goldfinger car, creates a continuity error if you try to assume its the same car he won in CR. I doubt Bond would spend the money to convert the car to right hand drive and install all of those gadgets. I mean, this isn’t a Saab 900 turbo after all. The most likely explanation (outside of Mendes’s annoying nostalgia) is that the CR DB5 and the SF/SP/NTTD DB5 are 2 completely different vehicles.
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Bond definitely abuses government funds
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Here’s my take on the DB5 situation, being a bit of a car guy:
Left hand drive DB5’s in the 1960’s, such as what Dimitrios owned, were extremely rare even back then, let alone what’s left of the stock today. I think HE was the one who converted it, by converting a right to left. Bond would only have had to undo any conversions made to make it legal in the UK, which is absolutely doable.
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Agreed.
It also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for Bond to have yet another Aston Martin lying around. I can’t imagine that he has that much money just lying around to be collecting some of the most expensive cars in the world and having them stored just for the sake of it in London while he’s living in Jamaica.
The omega watches and Tom Ford hand tailored suit would say no-one making Bond films gives a toss about about how Bond affords things in real world terms.
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Bond wins a DB5 in a poker game. It’s destroyed in Matera and he collects the insurance on it, the proceeds from which he purchases the Volante.
I would argue he could have had that car without spending a pound on it.
But on top of that, if we’ve established his family was rich enough to own a house the size of Skyfall and employ someone like Kincade for decades, I have zero problem thinking he had the funds for Omega watches, Tom Ford suits, and an expensive car. I have those and I promise you Bond has more funds than I do.
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Most of it he just gets from the corporations who want him as testimonial.
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A far cry from the original Fleming bond!
Seemed a bit of a Harry Palmer to me!
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Fleming’s Bond was nothing like the dressman from the movie screen - largely because he dressed a lot like Fleming and he, Fleming, was an eccentric, even cheap dresser. Fleming wore short sleeved shirts which eliminated worn out cuffs (but cuffed jackets instead); and he tended to wear his suits well past the point were they turned shiny and frail. Amis remarked clotheswise Bond was in the middle between department store Barlow and dandy Steed.
Although it appears once the prospect of adapting the books to film became more concrete Fleming upped the stakes with choosing a Savile Row tailor for Bond to his own cheaper one. And On Her Majesty’s sees him stocking up on three button suits, a gold watch and fob and the Rolex. Bond is usually depicted as being able to afford all these toys without straining the budget. Even though he’s afraid having to borrow from M (who supposedly isn’t a wealthy man himself, in spite of dining at the Blades Club) should his bridge trick fail.
In short, Bond’s stuff (rarely branded) is expensive but well worn, maybe even a little shabby, like his suitcase in Diamonds Are Forever.
Alec Leamas went through a similar transformation in Martin Ritt’s THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. The book depicts a man on the unassuming side of the trade, wearing practical stuff he could easily blend in with even behind the Iron Curtain. In the film though he’s seen wearing cuff links and pretty well tailored, if not outrageously exclusive stuff.
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Oh yes, they have to look good on the big screen.i remember bond using the rolex as a knuckle duster in OHMSS and wondering if he could claim the money back from the department!
Although he mainly travels in first class, it’s mainly paid for by “universal exports” and no out of his own pocket
I suppose originally Fleming intended Bond to be classless. Yes, he’s got that huge Bentley - but it was already 20 years old when Casino Royale appeared. He’s got a ‘private income’, marking him out as what was often commonly understood to be a ‘gentleman’: somebody not having to work.
But he’s got no driver, porter, butler and his wealth is always shown short of being ‘really wealthy’ like the Blades mob. Much like Fleming himself seems to have felt most of his life, in spite of being privileged and certainly better off than 99 percent of his contemporaries. Bond is depicted as just what one might aspire to while always remaining just a bit beyond what one could actually reach if not coming from wealth. Well off but not rich.
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This is a good comparison. Nice site too.
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The GF DB5 appears in SF purely as a signifier that this is an Anniversary Movie, just like the whole trope of Bond being “old and played out”. So, yes, Mendes’ annoying nostalgia (although I think that suits SF as an anniversary movie. In SP it was just lazy and pointless).
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It is easy to look smart on a budget, for example, I have a vast collection of ties. A few years ago, some of the girls at work clubbed together and got me some presents for my birthday. One of them was a gingerbread man tie,made by Frederick Thomas,which set them back £20.
I have bought several of that brand since,as they are a nice weight and really good schmatter.
A few years ago I bought a tie with easter eggs and matching pocket square from a company in China,via eBay, for about £6.
Since then Frederick Thomas have started selling the exact same pattern tie for £20. The only difference is the weight of the tie and the lining,but I very much doubt that the casual person in the street would notice.
On a similar level, before my foot operation,I enjoyed cycling. I bought a compression vest In Lidl for £6.99, a man I worked with at the time,bought his for £74.99 In a cycle shop! It is essentially underwear,so who will see it???
A few weeks ago I saw a fashion tartan tie I liked on eBay. Although I will only ever wear my clan tartans, I don’t mind fashion tartans,as they are not actual clan tartans. The seller has several of these ties the reason was the £8 tie had a marks and Spencer label, the £4 tie, exactly the same did not!
This is summed up in this great quote from OHMSS:
“I have enough. Tracy has enough. It will be fun saving up to buy something we want but can’t quite afford. That is the only kind of money to have - not quite enough.”
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Just had a thought! Does Bond actually Own all these items outright? He could have bought them on finance and be paying them off still?
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He does like to ‘borrow’ things, like 009’s DB10 in SPECTRE.
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It was a £3 million prototype. Did Bond have to pay for that for driving it into the Tiber? Maybe that’s the real reason he retired….
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Bond does have a slight tendency to bully…I mean ask for favours from Q
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