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The James Bond Thread: RIP Robbie Coltrane


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Connery did seem to have this "Lets get this shit over with" look on his face. Doesn't help DAF was a bad film. Jill St. John was hot though. They seemed to have more fun off camera though. Connery plays golf and the Crew played the casinos.

At least in DAF Brosnan looked like he was into it.

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Even though Quantum is a mediocre film, Craig still gave a very good performance as Bond and was on par with Casino Royale, so even though it's not as good as either Casino or Skyfall, we can't really hold the film itself against him when ranking his performance. I'd agree that Roger was probably the most dedicated. Even though I hate A View To A Kill for reasons beyond Roger's age he at least looks like his having fun. Connery looks bored as hell in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds. I actually really like Brosnan's performance in Die Another Day. It's too bad the film didn't complement it.

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The pay cheque from DAF probably helped in putting the smile back on Connery's face. I actually base my high opinion on Connery on his performance. Just look how cool Sean is as Bond. He has this sort of bored nonchalant look on his face all the time, smug, confident, self-assured. There is no need for Craigian inner-turmoil with Connery. He simply knows he is Bond. Connery walks around with a cat like grace and then fights brutally, like an animal - see the Agent Grant fight on the train. There is no point hiding the sexism and chavinsim in Sean's performance. It is just perfect. Ironically, it is not very close to Fleming. Dalton and Craig are closer, in that they depict the inner turmoil of Bond from the pages. But I still say Sean is just perfect. It did help that the first four were masterpieces, and, that they were filmed in the '60s which I feel lends a certain look and taps into a certain cultural thing. So Bond became the cinematic version of The Beatles, the mini skirt, 'free love' etc. Bond became part of the 'swingin '60s' culture (even though it - ironically - is still essentially a guy in a suit carrying out Her Majesty's work).

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Connery has that natural charisma on screen, but apparently a lot of the way he approached Bond was all coached by Terrence Young. Connery himself has said that, as well as countless filmmakers who've been involved with the series. The first four Connery films came out at the perfect time. Connery is the epitome of cool in those films.

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It started to look silly after 1965. Lazenby wanted Bond to be more human. It would have been interested to see where he would take the character if he did more films. I actually think Roger Moore took the character in that direction, especially in The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. Connery's quips after killing henchmen was actually not true to the character. But Young felt the film would have been too grim so he had Bond make jokes after the demise of henchmen.

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From what I gather on Dr. No both in the "Inside Dr. No" documentary and John Cork's book, the original script was actually pretty devoid of humor. Connery and Young were concerned and decided to try it out during filming of the drive with Mr. Jones ("I'm a very nervous passenger" and "Make sure he doesn't get away") and then decided that they liked it and tried to find more places to squeeze in humor.

I don't think it's fair to say just Lazenby wanted Bond to be more human. Connery certainly did and part of his dissatisfaction of the series was that Bond was becoming too much of a superhero. He wanted to go back down to earth. He would have done On Her Majesty's Secret Service if he had got the deal he wanted.

It's kind of interesting that Connery wanted to do a more down to earth film, and that's exactly the kind of film that is made the first time he's out of the picture. Similar thing happened to Brosnan later on - he was desperate to do OHMSS Part 2 and the first film after him ends up more or less being that with Casino Royale.

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I have mixed feelings about what a Connery OHMSS would have been like. Connery certainly had the acting chops to pull off the Tracy story - significantly more than Lazenby (though I have to admit that Lazenby isn't all that bad for having no acting experience). Still, would he have been there just for the pay and phoned it in like You Only Live Twice, or would the down to earth script tailored to his liking have been enough to turn his focus around and give a performance in line with his first four Bonds? One of those great "what if" scenarios of the Bond series.

I also wonder if the series would have survived if they made Connery a partner like he wanted. Would it have stayed successful if Connery was in the role all the way through? They likely would have worked an aging Bond into the stories, so would the series have eventually run its course and died, or would Connery have stepped back to just producing and let another actor take the reigns?

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I'm listening to a guy who wrote Hollywood vs Aliens and he's a firm believer in extraterrestrials and that the government has influenced the way movies are made since the early 50s.

He mentions that the title character of Dr. No in the novel is actually an UFO grey who can glide around the room and tortures humans in his spare time.

Just found it interesting seeing as it's one of the few Bond films I've seen.

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I'm listening to a guy who wrote Hollywood vs Aliens and he's a firm believer in extraterrestrials and that the government has influenced the way movies are made since the early 50s.

He mentions that the title character of Dr. No in the novel is actually an UFO grey who can glide around the room and tortures humans in his spare time.

Just found it interesting seeing as it's one of the few Bond films I've seen.

:blink:
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He also mentions From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Those two aren't so much about aliens, but the Lecter? machine is the same as the real life Enigma machine from WWII and how Ian Fleming was in intelligence and was fictionalizing real things he dealt with.

The guy's name is Bruce Rux. It can be heard on binnallofamerica.com or on Binnall of America podcasts. Episode 2 of the Bruce Rux trilogy in season four.

Edit: Lektor

Edited by luciusfunk
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I have mixed feelings about what a Connery OHMSS would have been like. Connery certainly had the acting chops to pull off the Tracy story - significantly more than Lazenby (though I have to admit that Lazenby isn't all that bad for having no acting experience). Still, would he have been there just for the pay and phoned it in like You Only Live Twice, or would the down to earth script tailored to his liking have been enough to turn his focus around and give a performance in line with his first four Bonds? One of those great "what if" scenarios of the Bond series.

I also wonder if the series would have survived if they made Connery a partner like he wanted. Would it have stayed successful if Connery was in the role all the way through? They likely would have worked an aging Bond into the stories, so would the series have eventually run its course and died, or would Connery have stepped back to just producing and let another actor take the reigns?

If Connery hadn't been replaced, the series would have died.

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Pre-ordered mine from Amazon as well. I guess we'll see how well it holds up on Blu-ray.

Here's the latest box office report:

Domestic - $302,823,504

Foreign - $791,500,000

Worldwide - $1,094,323,504

It's beaten The Dark Knight Rises to become the 7th highest grossing film of all time. Quite an appropriate number I'd say.

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