The whole idea seemed to be to combine action with exposition - the absence of which was a flaw in TWINE. Sitting behind the wheel has become boring (unless your protective door has been yanked off and you can’t reach your machine gun). Having Bond collect intel from Moneypenny at the same time saves time - I respect that.
2 Likes
I always think on the bright side, and so I am always more interested in the positives than the negatives, and that’s why I enjoy SPECTRE.
3 Likes
Tomorrow Never Dies had a similar concept with the M briefing in the car.
And that’s how it should be done - make exposition more exciting, don’t undermine action with clumsy exposition.
I’m fine with them combining the action with exposition in the SPECTRE car chase. Consequently, I don’t think that’s the problem in the scene. It’s the lack of reality in there being no other cars on the streets other than Bond’s, Hinx’s, and the old man’s. That takes away a bit of the danger and thrill of the chase–and which also makes the exposition stand out maybe a little more than it should to those that don’t like the combination.
3 Likes
It would also help if Jinx actually bothered to ram Bond’s car when he caught up with him… The only damage done to Bond’s AM is self-inflicted!
Rome at night is deserted, I understand. So…
1 Like
The ‘Roger Moore’ chase’s main issue is that the scene that motivates it, the SPECTRE meeting, is dark and ominous, setting up Hinx as a terrifying monster. Then, as Hinx gives chases the genre suddenly shifts from dark thriller to light comedy.
At a guess I’d suggest that an earlier draft had an epic, but gritty, nail biting chase in mind. Then they decided to shove in the Moneypenny call so as not to need a separate scene for this. Then, they couldn’t resist sprucing their dialogue with the usual cheesy banter, but found it was negating the tension of the chase. Oh well, in for a penny… to hell with tension, let’s just go all out on the comedy! They added the slow driver and gambled that they could get away with going full Moore/Jaws, despite the previous scene being one of the canon’s darkest.
Of course that’s all guess work, but if it resembles the truth then they really screwed things up and I hope CJF has a tighter vision and resists the many cooks.
Moore’s films were light comedy, with a few dark moments sprinkled in. They got away with that. But a dark, gritty incarnation of Bond doesn’t so easily get away with sprinkles of light comedy.
Dark thriller combines well with satire and sardonic gallows humour (see Connery-Bond, or for the best example Dr Strangelove). But light comedy? Nope! This chase is proof of that.
3 Likes
Have to say I wouldn’t have minded Bond and Hinx ending up fighting in the Tiber, with Bond escaping by a hairbreadth. The call then could reach Bond dripping wet and leaving bloody footprints while astonished onlookers try to make sense of what they’ve just seen.
3 Likes
True, true…
Though the meeting sequence does begin and end with references to Mickey Mouse!
Yes, that’s a fair a comment. Hinx should have been able to hit Bond’s car at least once. He never feels like a genuine threat to Bond’s safety as he’s always just trailing behind. The flamethrower is an awesome gadget, though it won’t feel as satisfying as the NTTD miniguns due to Bond genuinely having to fight back - the trailer shows the DB5 being rammed and sprayed with bullets.
1 Like
Excellent idea!
Lol 
Forgive me if this has been answered before and/or this is the wrong thread, but a question re: the Rome car chase has been bugging me of late. The car chase, especially when compared to its contemporary MI:Rogue Nation, didn’t have an element of danger. Did government officials in Rome hamstring the producers with what they could and could not do in the scene? Thanks!
3 Likes
Good question. I only remember talk about concerns for a couple of buildings and sites. How much that prevented actual scope of stunts on location I cannot tell.
I think there were rumors of some last minute shoot alterations in the city. I think one stunt was going to involve drifting through a particular section of the city (was it via Quattro Fontaine?) and that got nixed.
I suppose it’s nowadays pretty hard to film something in the vein of QOS’s pre title sequence in an actual city, even at night with reduced traffic and as little as possible intrusion into the lives of habitants. You’d need to close off vast parts of a neighbourhood for weeks and that much dedication you cannot expect from even the most hardcore fans, let alone ordinary people living their lives. So the set pieces in recognisable cities and landmarks are almost always going to have to pull the punches - or apply CGI cosmetics heavily on the entire material, which then also dominates the look of the production. Films like RONIN today would probably be produced with a fraction of the actual location work.
The alternative would be to rebuild vast stretches on studio premises. This kind of thing is also done, but it’s hardly much cheaper. The expenses clock is running in overdrive with stunts and the actual cost-per-minute is astronomic. Stunts and sfx on-location is even more demanding, so anything you see set in Washington, Paris or Berlin is likely an expensive clip from a computer game.
Would the scene in question have profited from more - more dangerous - stunts? Could be. But as was pointed out, the problem seems to be not so much the action but the inconsequential writing where the threat of Hinx is concerned. That guy is wasted on the car chase. Having him meet Bond in the fashion shown in the train scene, that would have transported a far better sense of the threat.
Absolutely. I also really do not understand why they introduced Hinx and then let him die so early.
The surprise of his exit is not dramatically more valuable than having him stick around to the end.
This is so far a surprising mistake of the Craig era: the lack of a dominating physical menace.
2 Likes
Yes, they didn’t get permisssion for filming at the Quattro Fontane crossroads as the scenes were deemed to dangerous by city officials. But certainly wouldn’t have been much more than a few seconds which hardly could have saved the entire chase.
As Dustin pointed out, it’s certainly difficult to stage a car chase in a city like Rome. But if they chose to try, they should have at least included more than three other moving cars (or at least some people) and a bit more colateral damage than a parked car getting the roof ripped off, some damage to a few parked motorcycles and an old man almost fainting. Heck, there isn’t even any proper wheel-to-wheel action
But actually, it’s just two super sports cars driving at breakneck speed through the streets of a deserted city. One of the participiants makes a phone call in the middle of it. The Top Gear team driving the Circuito de Sir Francis Drake in the suburbs of Madrid had more action…
5 Likes
Linx feels like many a rewrite. It’s as if, in an early edition, he was a constant threat, then Craig broke his leg and Rome said no to a bigger car chase, so now only his entrance and his exit have the weight they intended for him.
2 Likes
I would have loved to see him at least return in the desert base, making it really difficult for CraigBond to escape with Madeleine.
1 Like