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This. If I need to explain why you're so wrong here, you won't get it anyway.
The comment of an idiot. The circus bomb defusing is without doubt the best bomb countdown in Bond and possibly the most tension filled climax to any Bond film. The clown costume only adds to this. Glen and Moore hit this scene out of the park and following on from Martin Grace's incredible stunt work this whole sequence is one of the best of the series.
Well said that man.
I don't understand the problem with Bond using a clown disguise...AT A CIRCUS!
The bomb defusing scene in OP would rival Hitchcock for build up and tension. And Moore plays it brilliantly.
Indeed. See my blog article here on the Flemingesque nature of that scene in Octopussy (1983):
http://www.thebondologistblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ian-flemings-second-uncompleted-short.html
THE RELEVANT QUOTES FROM THE ARTICLE:
"The reporter’s notes from Fleming’s notebook also revealed how Fleming had outlined prospective Bond works. Here are the plot outlines:
“Bond, as a double agent, has to shoot his own assistant in order to keep his cover…”
“A battle under Niagara Falls”
“A masquerade ball in which the benign clown is the Russian killer and the crowd thinks that a real fight is part of the buffoonery.” (As Nick Kincaid notes in the article there are shades of the 1983 film OCTOPUSSY here, where Bond, dressed as a clown has to persuade the American General that there is a nuclear bomb in the cannon waiting to go off any second.)
It is a wonderful piece of black tragic-comedy with clear Fleming roots. Consider, for instance, the scene in Fleming’s CASINO ROYALE where one of Le Chiffre’s Bulgar henchmen places his cane-gun against Bond’s spine and asks him to pull out of the high stakes game of baccarat:
‘Immediately he felt something hard press into the base of his spine, right into the cleft between his two buttocks on the padded chair.
At the same time a thick voice speaking southern French said softly, urgently, just behind his right ear:
‘This is a gun, monsieur. It is absolutely silent. It can blow the base of your spine off without a sound. You will appear to have fainted. I shall be gone. Withdraw your bet before I count ten. If you call for help I shall fire.’
The voice was confident. Bond believed it. These people had shown they would unhesitantly go to the limit. The thick walking-stick was explained. Bond knew the type of gun. The barrel a series of soft rubber baffles which absorbed the detonation, but which allowed the passage of the bullet. They had been invented and used in the war for assassinations. Bond had used them himself.
[…]
‘Trois’
Bond looked over at Vesper and Felix Leiter. They were smiling and talking to each other. The fools. Where was Mathis? Where were those famous men of his?
‘Quatre’
And the other spectators. This crowd of jabbering idiots. Couldn’t someone see what was happening? The chef de partie, the croupier, the huissier? (‘Casino Royale,’ Pan Books Ltd., London, 1965, pp. 87-8)
Another plot outline with a connected circus/fairground theme is:
“Fight in a fun fair with a man on the rollercoaster being shot at by another on the Big Wheel.”
In your opinion, and I did not need to insult you to make my point.
Fair enough, but what do you think of the extracts from my article that I have posted above in support of the Moore clown outfit bomb-defusing scene in Octopussy, @doubleohdad?
No way you get Connery, Laz or Craig to do something like that.
Not even this?
“A masquerade ball in which the benign clown is the Russian killer and the crowd thinks that a real fight is part of the buffoonery.” (As Nick Kincaid notes in the article there are shades of the 1983 film OCTOPUSSY here, where Bond, dressed as a clown has to persuade the American General that there is a nuclear bomb in the cannon waiting to go off any second.)
The Tarzan thing was a joke, though not crazy about the tie gag either.
That's a fair point, but I still think Moore's one liners held a fairly consistent level throughout his tenure (MR might be the exception). Many of us agree that the jokes dropped in quality during the Brosnan era and that the sexual induendos became increasingly more childish. Not Borsnan's fault of course, but there you go...
Sorry, I'm at sea... adrift...
Love that picture, two legends.
If TSWLM had had a Barry score, I might like it a wee bit better than OP just for that- as it is, OP is my idea of Moore's Bond at his best.
They don't even bother to make a new version of it from Moore. It's just an old recording. I remember watching part of a 30s Tarzan film on TV a few months back and realised it was the EXACT same sound effect.
That seems to be the consensus - but he was a much harder-edged Bond in the first two so I admire those films for that too.
How insulting.....Lol
I know - may be I went a bit far there. Sorry Sir Rog, no offence intended.
To clarrify, I don't mean that Moore's performances in any way resemble Brosnans in a qualitative sense, but simply their is a degree to which Rog is feeling his way into the role still.
Oh dear @chrisisall, I simply cannot agree. Spy wipes the floor with any Brosnan movie, as does OP. In my mind I don't really remember the Brosnan actions scenes or fights. Were any of them very memorable? Not for me any way. My memories of Brosnan are of the slightly smarmy and stilted dialogue, strange strutting and of course, the grunting and pain-facing. All memorable in their own way of course, but mostly signs of how Brosnan never really got a grip on who his Bond was. A sort of mid-management sales exec lost in a world of faux glamour and 'espionage'. The comic potential was huge, but never fully realised.
But I have to admit, TND is the least bad of the Brosnan movies. When I first saw it I really felt it was a significant step up from GE. Brosnan seemed to have improved somewhat. Arnold could only be an improvement on Serra, and Wai Lin, if not exactly a classic Bond girl, at least brought a little bit of gravitas to the proceedings. The story is derivative but serviceable and the production design a touch more sophisticated than anything we'd seen for quite a long time. Generally speaking, after the major disappointment of GE, I really felt things were heading in a positive direction. And then came TWINE (yawn) and DAD (vomit) and the not a moment too soon relief of the sacking. A sad end to a sorry era.
It was his last good effort at Bond however.
TWINE & DAD were complete garbage, from the title music (Garbage indeed) to the performances by nearly all concerned (Toby Stephen's sneer still hurts me to this day) to the pedestrian, very run-of the mill approach to the plotting. I'm very thankful that stain on the Bond era is over. Thank goodness Rosamund Pike did not suffer for being associated with that tripe (she was the only good thing in DAD).
To repeat what I said earlier, I don't think he made a bad Bond flick (I even liked TMWTGG), except maybe AVTAK, but he was almost a senior citizen by then so he could be forgiven.
AVTAK is flawed, but has some very enjoyable moments and scenes. Unfairly maligned, I think.