The James Bond Film Discussion Thread (With Bonus Lazenby!)

[CorporalClegg]

I like that idea.

The thing I liked most about Tanner was how it was always implied he was the person Bond hung out with off the clock. So, not only would that finally leave the yucky sexual harassment aspects of Moneypenny good and buried, but it would add the fun twist that Bond's best mate is actually a woman.

 

[publiusr]

This is a great video. And though it's unofficial from the perspective of the producers I like to believe in my own head canon that the gangster from Diamonds Are Forever is the same gangster in the pre-credits sequence of The Man With the Golden Gun.

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I didn’t know there was a pool down there…

 

[Cpt. MAGA Man]

I didn’t know there was a pool down there…

Producer Michael Wilson has made a few cameos in several movies.

 

[cooleddie74]

And then there's the legendary background cameo in AVTAK by Maud Adams that this video expounds upon. For a long time I thought the woman walking in the background of San Francisco when Bond is talking to Chuck Lee of the CIA and frequently pointed out as likely being Adams was indeed her, but apparently not.

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[Samurai8472]

It's like complaining there's a lot of sea and sun in Licence to Kill, and how many sea related scenes are there in LTK?

What I was trying to say was by the time of "Thunderball" the James Bond movies were basically just taking whatever flavor of month or theme and diving right into it

Thunderball- Water
You Only Live Twice- Bond goes Asian
OHMSS- Snowy settings

 

[cooleddie74]

OHMSS - pop songs("Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown")

 

[Starkers]

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the latest name to be linked with Bond. Supposedly he had an audition in September and impressed Barbara, Michael et al.

Assuming he did audition I'm guessing he'd be one of many, but it is interesting if he did blow them away. I think he has the physicality for the role, and at 32 he could potentially be Bond for some time. I'll be honest he wasn't someone I'd thought of but I can see it now.

I hope it is true because it at least means they're auditioning actors and are actually taking some positive action!

 

[Captaindemotion]

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the latest name to be linked with Bond. Supposedly he had an audition in September and impressed Barbara, Michael et al.

Assuming he did audition I'm guessing he'd be one of many, but it is interesting if he did blow them away. I think he has the physicality for the role, and at 32 he could potentially be Bond for some time. I'll be honest he wasn't someone I'd thought of but I can see it now.

I hope it is true because it at least means they're auditioning actors and are actually taking some positive action!

Hmmm, I think he’d be good, but on checking the story online, it seems to have originated with The Sun. So, maybe one to still treat with caution

 

[Starkers]

I'd thought it was the Mirror, but either way it's veracity is questionable.

It's interesting mainly because he isn't one of the usual suspects who gets a mention every six weeks or so, but he obviously isn't a complete unknown either. Not that I couldn't see them going with a complete unknown. I mean maybe not George levels of "Who the hell is he?" but maybe more a Connery/Dalton/Craig than Moore/Brosnan

Also as I say if they've started the auditioning process that's a positive as well so I'm hoping that at least that part of this is true, even if Taylor-Johnson wasn't actually one of the auditioned actors.

 

[Captaindemotion]

One of the first stories I found was from Esquire, which linked to the Sun. Linking to it, but I won’t link directly to the Sun. Perhaps the Mirror got there first, of course
https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a42081944/aaron-taylor-johnson-bond/

 

[cardinal biggles]

More realistically, as the films got further and further away from Fleming's novels, they felt like they were jumping on whatever the Hollywood bandwagon du jour was, especially Moore's films in the '70s:

Live and Let Die: Blaxploitation
The Man with the Golden Gun: Kung Fu films (with the first oil crisis shoehorned in)
The Spy Who Loved Me: Women's Lib in entertainment (Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels)
Moonraker: Sci-Fi (Star Wars, Close Encounters)

 

[cooleddie74]

And TSWLM also had a dominant water and ocean theme which dialed into the blockbuster status of the first Jaws.

In addition to having a villain named Jaws.

 

[cardinal biggles]

And TSWLM also had a dominant water and ocean theme which dialed into the blockbuster status of the first Jaws.

In addition to having a villain named Jaws.

D'oh! I can't believe I forgot all about Jaws.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

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[Starkers]

More realistically, as the films got further and further away from Fleming's novels, they felt like they were jumping on whatever the Hollywood bandwagon du jour was, especially Moore's films in the '70s:

Live and Let Die: Blaxploitation
The Man with the Golden Gun: Kung Fu films (with the first oil crisis shoehorned in)
The Spy Who Loved Me: Women's Lib in entertainment (Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels)
Moonraker: Sci-Fi (Star Wars, Close Encounters)

Something else in Live and Let Die, can't be a coincidence that 007 is rocking a .44 magnum two years after Dirty Harry came out and the same year Magnum Force did.

Realistically the constant reinvention is part of what's kept the franchise going as long as it has.

And TSWLM also had a dominant water and ocean theme which dialed into the blockbuster status of the first Jaws.

In addition to having a villain named Jaws.

Who ends the film by killing a shark

 

[cardinal biggles]

Something else in Live and Let Die, can't be a coincidence that 007 is rocking a .44 magnum two years after Dirty Harry came out and the same year Magnum Force did.

Realistically the constant reinvention is part of what's kept the franchise going as long as it has.

No doubt. But there's definitely a shift from the 1960s, when Bond was the trend-setter spawning imitators (Matt Helm, In Like Flint, The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., etc.), to the 1970s where Bond is imitating whatever's hot at the moment.

 

[Starkers]

No doubt. But there's definitely a shift from the 1960s, when Bond was the trend-setter spawning imitators (Matt Helm, In Like Flint, The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., etc.), to the 1970s where Bond is imitating whatever's hot at the moment.

Oh absolutely, in the sixties for the most part* Bond was leading, but he's been following ever since arguably. Licence to Kill can be seen as a response to things like Lethal Weapon, and Craig's films obviously take stuff from Bourne and Nolan's Batman trilogy and maybe even the MI films (though I'd also counter argue that Bourne, Mission Impossible and Nolan's films aren't averse to riffing on Bond either)

*My one caveat to the Bond as a trendsetter in the 60s is always FRWL which, love it though I do, feels a trifle more old fashioned than every other Bond film of the era and very clearly takes a lot of cues from things like North by Northwest.

I do wonder if Bond will ever be the trendsetter again, or whether he even can be given how little there can be left to do with the spy genre that's truly original.

And just to widen my earlier comment about imitation being part of Bond's continuing success, it is only part of it, and ironically as much as moving with the times is a factor, nostalgia is too. Familiar tropes are as important as what's hot, and it's the merging of the two, along with the fact that people accepted other people could play Bond, that's got it this far, and though people bang on about Bourne and MI the fact remains that the Bourne film that didn't star Damon flopped, and that it's highly unlikely the MI franchise will continue once Tom hangs up his running shoes.

 

[cooleddie74]

Bond also switched to cigars with Moore taking over the role. A very '70s sensibility started to take root with DAF but kicked into the stratosphere with LALD. We wouldn't see Bond smoking another cigarette until, I believe, Timothy Dalton in TLD which also saw the return of an Aston Martin for the first time since Bond's was glimpsed in the background of Q Branch in Diamonds.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Bond also switched to cigars with Moore taking over the role. A very '70s sensibility started to take root with DAF but kicked into the stratosphere with LALD. We wouldn't see Bond smoking another cigarette until, I believe, Timothy Dalton in TLD which also saw the return of an Aston Martin for the first time since Bond's was glimpsed in the background of Q Branch in Diamonds.

Moore smoked cigars in his first two films; after that, I can't recall him smoking at all. He had a cigarette case that turned into a microfilm viewer in TSWLM, and was getting ready to smoke one when Anya blew knockout gas in his face, but I don't remember him actually lighting up in any of his films between TSWLM and AVTAK.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Apparently Moore gave up smoking cigarettes following a telling-off from Tony Curtis on the set of The Persuaders, but he continued to smoke cigars.