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

[cooleddie74]

It's telling how the Stromberg and Locque deaths work for Moore's Bond while him roughing up and slapping around Andrea Anders in TMWTGG doesn't. Moore's first two movies were written as if he were playing Connery's Bond, so the physical aggressiveness and casual misogyny don't work at all with a sweet, gentle man like Roger Moore.

 

[XCV330]

I hope Amazon remembers one thing: make the films fun. I'd also hope, if they plan to take it in multiple directions, to try a run at the books in the timeline they were intended. The original moonraker novel would make a great early cold-war film.

 

[Tallguy]

letting the henchman fall

"What a helpful chap." Really a very Connery moment. Except it's not really funny. It's not "I think they were on their way to a funeral." It's dry and it's still menacing. He could do this, he just usually didn't. (And wasn't written that way.)

along with kicking Locque's car off a cliff

Moore didn't like scenes like that

I had heard that about the car. Which was the best thing IN FYEO. But I never heard that about TSWLM which made me wonder if Rog had grown up or just figured he had more clout (AND was thinking about leaving anyway).

Films as well as books? Those who neglected the books might find themselves lost in the films (RUSSIA HOUSE especially)

Is there anyway to NOT be lost in Le Carre? The CHARACTERS are all lost.

Myself, I read Smiley's People and Tailor. I've never seen the Guinness shows but I saw the Oldman movie of Tinker. (It was suitably impenetrable.) Oh, and I saw The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. (Richard Burton beats up Bernard Lee! Not M!) I watched TSWCIFTC in a double feature with Our Man Flint. Head spinning mood switch!

I loved The Night Manager but felt the ending was a bit watery. (It just didn't add up with how unbeatable the antagonist was meant to be and had been through the show.) It was positively UPBEAT for Le Carre.

And of course Andor is John Le Carre's Star Wars.

 

[Captaindemotion]

This is the FUNNY Le Carre.

Le Carre On

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I had heard that about the car. Which was the best thing IN FYEO.

The ascent or being dragged behind the ship. But I'd agree, it's up there.

 

[XCV330]

I had heard that about the car. Which was the best thing IN FYEO. But I never heard that about TSWLM which made me wonder if Rog had grown up or just figured he had more clout (AND was thinking about leaving anyway).

I can't remember where he said it, of if it was in his memoirs. I think he was a lot more approachable than the other bond actors. Moore enjoyed the role and he would have been making them till the day he died if they'd let him.

Connery was just a different person. OTOH Connery once wrestled a handgun out of Lana Turner's abusive ex-boyfriend when he came on set to either kill or abduct her. When I see Connery disarm someone in a movie and think "is that realistic?" then I have to remind myself, "oh yeah.. he actually did that"

My favorite Moore story is the time he was going down to BBC and somehow still had the hairbrush transmitter prop from LALD. He thought the prop people might like it, so he stopped in at the Doctor Who set, and showed it to one of the prop people. They didn't recognize him, paid him some change, and he went on amused about the entire thing. It later showed up in Revenge of the Cybermen.
(I know, that's probably become like Aragon kicking a helmet story by now, everyone knows it).

 

[cooleddie74]

You can believe Sean Connery would get in a bar fight and probably win.

You can believe that Roger Moore owned said bar, would look at Connery after the fight is over and go, "Well done, my boy. And thanks for not wrecking the bar."

 

[Starkers]

If you want to see how utterly cold blooded Moore could be I recommend The Wild Geese.

 

[Starkers]

Le Carre On

That George Smiley right tinkered with my tailor he did!

 

[cooleddie74]

The moment he kills the surviving knife-throwing twin in Octopussy is also a savage one for Moore. His facial expression when he throws the killer's own knife into his chest is A-tier Roger Moore James Bond and I love it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I can't remember where he said it, of if it was in his memoirs. I think he was a lot more approachable than the other bond actors. Moore enjoyed the role and he would have been making them till the day he died if they'd let him.

Connery was just a different person. OTOH Connery once wrestled a handgun out of Lana Turner's abusive ex-boyfriend when he came on set to either kill or abduct her. When I see Connery disarm someone in a movie and think "is that realistic?" then I have to remind myself, "oh yeah.. he actually did that"

My favorite Moore story is the time he was going down to BBC and somehow still had the hairbrush transmitter prop from LALD. He thought the prop people might like it, so he stopped in at the Doctor Who set, and showed it to one of the prop people. They didn't recognize him, paid him some change, and he went on amused about the entire thing. It later showed up in Revenge of the Cybermen.
(I know, that's probably become like Aragon kicking a helmet story by now, everyone knows it).

You can believe Sean Connery would get in a bar fight and probably win.

You can believe that Roger Moore owned said bar, would look at Connery after the fight is over and go, "Well done, my boy. And thanks for not wrecking the bar."

I think I read somewhere that one of the reasons why Connery’s fight sequences were more convincing than Moore’s was that Rog was always very careful not to hurt stuntmen. “Sorry, old chap, hope that wasn’t too close for comfort.” Whereas Sean would be like “this is what they get paid for” and go for it.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Connery probably took the role of Bond far more seriously than Moore did and was also the quickest to try and distance himself from it once he left the series ("Zardoz" anyone?). Moore, even when he was still attached to the franchise, appeared on 'The Muppet Show' and 'Cannonball Run' spoofing his image of Bond.​

 

[Tosk]

I missed people talkin' 'bout Pierce, but I'll still post this.

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[CorporalCaptain]

The moment he kills the surviving knife-throwing twin in Octopussy is also a savage one for Moore. His facial expression when he throws the killer's own knife into his chest is A-tier Roger Moore James Bond and I love it.

They'd killed 009, so they had it coming.

 

[cooleddie74]

Moore played Bond as far more tongue-in-cheek than either Connery or Lazenby but knew that he had to - sometimes, if not often - remind the audience that 007 was a trained killer who's only alive because of his own intuition, skills from years on the job and Q's gadgets. His glare of raw anger is pretty effective and by 1983 Roger was so comfortable in the role he could play around with the parameters he'd set for himself.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I missed people talkin' 'bout Pierce, but I'll still post this.

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Here’s an interesting What-If. Two years before Taffin, Pierce was in a movie directed by John McTiernan, called Nomads. The same year that Taffin came out, McTiernan directed Die Hard, which famously (after the usual movie stars turned it down) cast in the lead role an actor who was until then known as a tv actor and who was one of the leads in a light-hearted detective show, with a “Will they/wont they” dynamic between the male and female leads. Yes, he went with the male star of Moonlighting but what if he’d instead chosen the star of Remington Steele?

We know that McT and Brosnan would later reunite for The Thomas Crown Affair, so it’s not like there would have been an objection on principle or a personal level.

I don’t think Pierce would’ve been as good a McClane as Bruce, but imagine he’s cast in the role, Bruno remains a tv star and what happens Bond? If Die Hard With A Vengeance still goes into production for a 1995 release, does this mean Brosnan can’t do Goldeneye? Would Robert Davi still appear in Die Hard and LTK? Would Goldeneye still steal DH 2’s ejector seat escape? So many other questions!

 

[Starkers]

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[Starkers]

Here’s an interesting What-If. Two years before Taffin, Pierce was in a movie directed by John McTiernan, called Nomads. The same year that Taffin came out, McTiernan directed Die Hard, which famously (after the usual movie stars turned it down) cast in the lead role an actor who was until then known as a tv actor and who was one of the leads in a light-hearted detective show, with a “Will they/wont they” dynamic between the male and female leads. Yes, he went with the male star of Moonlighting but what if he’d instead chosen the star of Remington Steele?

We know that McT and Brosnan would later reunite for The Thomas Crown Affair, so it’s not like there would have been an objection on principle or a personal level.

I don’t think Pierce would’ve been as good a McClane as Bruce, but imagine he’s cast in the role, Bruno remains a tv star and what happens Bond? If Die Hard With A Vengeance still goes into production for a 1995 release, does this mean Brosnan can’t do Goldeneye? Would Robert Davi still appear in Die Hard and LTK? Would Goldeneye still steal DH 2’s ejector seat escape? So many other questions!

It's genuinely hard to imagine anyone else playing McClane.

Of course the role was offered to Frank Sinatra first, imagine that version of Die Hard

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Huh, I didn't know that. Though in that case he probably wouldn't have been playing McClane, he'd be returning as Joe Leland from The Detective.

 

[Captaindemotion]

It's genuinely hard to imagine anyone else playing McClane.

Of course the role was offered to Frank Sinatra first, imagine that version of Die Hard

That was contractual, as he was in the film The Detective, the first book by author Roderick Thorpe to feature his hero Joe Leland, who was also in Nothing Lasts Forever, filmed as DH, with Joe Leland becoming John McClane.

Once the producers had breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn’t have to watch 73 year old Frank abseil off a roof in his vest, I think Richard Gere was their next choice, probably a less ideal choice than Pierce. But yeah, hard to imagine anyone other than Bruce, though, gun to my head, if I had to pick an actor from that time, I’d go with Mad Mel, Nic Cage or Mickey Rourke.