Their Best of Bond

I tend to lend more credence to the Uses and Gratifications Model of media, in we tend to seek out what we want from it, not that we are told by the media and, I’ll be honest, how much I enjoy Casino Royale is down to my own personal tastes and life experiences, from how it relates to other media interests and my hobbies.

It’s based on the first adult book I read, featuring an ensemble of actors I adore in all things; indeed Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen and Jeffrey Wright are in the three representative ensemble casts of my favourite tv series of 2010’s (Penny Dreadful, Hannibal and Westworld) and Craig himself is the brilliant lead in 2 things from 04 that I still love and rewatch (Archangel and Layer Cake) In regards to the film itself, it then features, as prominent set pieces, two of my non Bond interests (parkour and poker) and a rocking theme tune by a musician I adored and bought the music of right up until his tragic death.

In regards to how much my own heterosexualality is related to Bond…it isn’t for the most part (It relates far more to Buffy The Vampire slayer and other Whedon works) ALTHOUGH it could be argued, if you prefer the hypodermic needle model, that my own fondness for women who are secure in who they are, and are very independently minded, could have been sparked by the Bond girls of the Brosnan era, where the leading (so I mean Electra in regards to TWINE) actress is, more often than not, very much her own woman with her own role and agenda in the story, separate from Bond. How well that was done is debatable, but certainly was their aim.

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In regards to the actual game, I’ll take a stab at the directors who did more than one

Terence Young; From Russia With Love

Guy Hamilton; Goldfinger

Lewis Gilbert; The Spy Who Loved Me

John Glenn; Licence To Kill

Martin Campbell; Casino Royale

Sam Mendes; Skyfall

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I want to say thank you to Stbernard and Orion for their responses. I am a bit hectic today at work, and will be able to respond properly later today.

I’m tempted to go against the grain and say, Lazenby’s best part is his Hilary Bray impersonation. Hear me out…

Lazenby doing Bond isn’t really that hard, he got the right physique and all it takes to make that thing work was really a few well tailored outfits, a Bond car and a glitzy watch and he was ready to go. He was convincing enough to even make the logic holes in the first act disappear.*

The real piece of work for Lazenby was to pull off the slightly stuffy but approachable Sir Hilary persona with caped coat, pipe, glasses and tweed trilby. This outfit was deliberately chosen for a touch of caricature - but just a touch, not more. And it would have been all too easy to turn farcical with the frilly shirt and kilt. But Lazenby pulls them off just as easily as the cardigan he’s sporting while drawing up Blofeld’s pedigree. We know it’s Bond underneath - as do the ladies, apparently - but it’s not Bond looking ludicrous. To me, that’s the best part of Lazenby’s performance.

*Nobody ever asks why he would spot a girl going for a swim and immediately assume she’s going to kill herself and must be rescued. Likewise, nobody ever asks why there would be a number of armed goons beating him up for his pains. Or why the girl would give him her room number only to wait for him in his room. While in her room there’s another thug waiting for Bond. Nobody asks this, not even Bond. These things just happen.

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Who was Connerys wig maker? , Their best work was Thunderball I think

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Shirley Bassey: Damn, cannot decide here either, so… GF for the daredevil attitude, DAF for the elegant melancholy and MR for the haunting grandeur.

Bernard Lee: Hard to say, too. I´ll choose DAF.

Lois Maxwell: OHMSS, just for that last moment.

Desmond Llewelyn: I must say, he had his best chemistry, for my taste, with Moore and Brosnan. With Moore he was the slightly older nerdy brother, with Brosnan the grumpy grandpa. So: FYEO and GE.

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Victor Tourjansky - The Spy who Loved Me (one really cannot beat the original on this occasion)
David Hedison - Live and Let Die

Ralph Feinnes - Skyfall
Ben Wishaw - Skyfall
Naomie Harris - Skyfall
Sam Mendes - Skyfall
Thomas Newman - Skyfall
(and anyone else so far involved in only but both Skyfall and SPECTRE - Skyfall. Slightly monotonous theme, but then SPECTRE is very poor).

Rory Kinnear - Quantum of Solace
Giancarlo Giannini - Quantum of Solace

With it being released alongside such classics as Terminator Genisys and Pan, and they had relativly smooth productions by comparison, Spectre is actually a very good film , just not as universally adored as its immediette predecessor.

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Alternatively, what I watched was an inert, complacent shambles.

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I saw it at the time as Sir Rogers 8th Bond Movie, rather Craig’s Moonraker. Time will, I’m sure, be kind to its flaws and we shall a learn to love it by the time Bond 7s rather bloated mess of a 4th outing comes out. It’s the Circle of Bond.

So… Walter Gottel - FRWL

Hey, MOONRAKER was at least consistent fun. I´d call SPECTRE Craig´s Casino Royale (1967). :sunglasses:

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You got me there.

Sean Connery-FRWL (He’s a bit more fun and loose in GF but he seems to do a bit more in FRWL; his physicality shines in his fight with Grant, he’s charming in his hotel seduction scene with Tanya along with his furious side when Kerim Bey dies)

Roger Moore-TSWLM- (FYEO is a close second; I loved Moore’s chemistry with Bach and his confession for killing her lover; plenty of witticisms that feel neither cheesy or offensive which plagued his two previous Bond films)

George Lazenby (I appreciate his performance every time I watch OHMSS; There is undeniable chemistry with him and thespian Rigg. He’s helped tremendously by the direction of Hunt, but he’s a very convincing con artist. I almost tear up the end, depending on my mood)

Timothy Dalton-TLD (He carves out the identity of his portrayal of Bond clearly in the Pushkin interrogation scene. That’s his best bit in the entire movie; Maryam d’Abo is not a good actress but Dalton brings out some chemistry in his scenes with her; He’s fine in LTK but I feel his Bond was too much of a blunt instrument in the serving of the story. I prefer when he was bit more down-to-earth in TLD than the intentionally static single-minded approach in LTK)

Pierce Brosnan-TWINE (Broz’s performances, along his films, haven’t aged well for me. Brosnan is much more entertaining when he’s playing complete shithead characters in The Madator and The Tailor of Panama. He was a bit too smug and a bit of a pussycat in his Bond portrayal. In TWINE he shows more presence than his previous outings and has better chemistry with his leading ladies too. I enjoyed his one-on-one first meeting with Carlye’s Renard where Broz felt like for the first time a physical threat. I never bought him as that in his tenure as Bond)

Daniel Craig-CR (There’s nothing new for me to say about Craig except that in 2005 when he was announced as Bond I never jumped on the ‘craig is not bond’ train. I’m not asking for a ‘good for you reply’ but I thought the overreaction of his casting was insane. I saw Layer Cake after his initial casting and I thought he might make an alright Bond. :laughing:)

Girl chased down and torn apart by dogs - send in the space marines.

Is consistent the right word? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Depends on what one considers fun. :wink:

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Thats…unsettling…

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Very Draxesque…

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Cyril Castle - LALD, if only for the most beautiful man’s coat in cinema history

Ken Adam - Goldfinger. Might not be as epic as what would come but does have my favourite set of the series - the dining room at the Bank of England. Very special.

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Thanks for following through and generating this thread!

John Barry: Uniformly excellent throughout the series of course, but I give the nod to MR, where his majestic score lends a gravitas and grandeur that keeps things from tipping all the way into farce. There are plenty of moments Gilbert and Moore play for laughs, but there are plenty others with real menace and awe, largely thanks to Barry, and this creates an essential tension that makes the film work for me (YMMV, of course). The death of Corrine stands out, but most especially the “Flight Into Space” sequence, helping us muster that extra ounce of suspension of disbelief to really sell Derek Medding’s stellar model work and make the space station more awesome than daft. Even if you don’t like MR as much as I do (and you probably don’t!) try watching it without Barry’s score and see how flat it could have fallen. Honorable mentions to OHMSS and TLD for devising fresh new takes on Bond music when it would have been so easy to rest on his laurels.

John Stears: the Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger. 'Nuff said.

Maurice Binder: the title sequence to TSWLM, for me the most perfectly realized of its kind, and doubly impressive given it came so late in the game, when you’d think he’d be running out of ideas.

Ken Adam: like Barry, too many to pick just one, but if I have to, the volcano in YOLT. If the Bond films set the standards for spectacle and audacious excess in adventure films, the volcano hideout dialed it up to 11. The Liparus and Drax’s space station cemented his position as The Master, but that volcano put him on the throne to start with.

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