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Bond and Tatiana Sex Film in FRWL

DB5DB5
edited July 2011 in Bond Movies Posts: 408
OK, maybe I'm a little slow, but can someone please explain why SPECTRE makes a sex film of Bond and Tatiana in FRWL? I must have seen the film at least twenty times over the past thirty years and for the life of me I can't figure out what the point is. I know it's part of Grant's plan to steal the Lektor decoder from Bond, but no matter how many times I hear Grant's explanation I'm still puzzled. Exactly who is supposed to be be blackmailing who with the film? Who is supposed to kill who and then commit suicide? And why would they do that? If the purpose of the film and the letter is somehow to explain to the authorities why Bond and Tatiana are dead, how about Kerim and Benz? Can someone please explain all of this so that it makes some kind of sense to me?

Comments

  • forgotmyusernameforgotmyusername
    Posts: 2,782
    Spectre saw the future...and decided to make reality porn; a sex tape. The plan was to sell it to Vivid or Hustler for the highest price.

  • VirageVirage
    Posts: 1,856
    Red Herring I Guess
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,254
    There's a fairly clear explanation concerning the point of the sex tape in the novel iirc. And likewise iirc, it's all about attacking the soul and spirit of the 'superior' West. It's about damaging the morale and whatnot when one of Britain's top spies is caught in the middle of a nasty sex scandal in the heat of the Cold War. Imagine all the newspapers publishing the story of an agent who'd rather seduce an enemy spy and take his own life over love issues than serve and protect the pride of the Western military machine. I seem to remember that a couple of notorious cases of British agents defecting to the Sovjects really ended up disturbing many folks. In war, propaganda means everything. You need to keep people relaxed by at least pretending that you're bringing home one victory after the other. So I suppose it really boils down to the almost symbolical meaning of the incident. Bedding the enemy is bad enough, no doubt, but then committing suicide as well, over something 'ridiculous' as love no less, certainly must in a split-second destroy all laborious attempts to make your citizens believe you're on the winning hand. Remember, when Clinton got trapped in his fancy sex scandal, America was knocked off of its feet. A simple matter of oral sex, hardly worth an article in the most gossipy of tabloids, suddenly ends up in cases of perjury and such. People went screaming out loud about how America was sinking deeper than ever while I myself sat in my comfortable Belgian chair in perennial WTF mode. We were still recovering from our well-known and excessively published paedophilia scandals, involving hidden basements where dead corpses of abducted and abused children were found. In the USA, by contrast, the search for presidential sperm explored the limits of common sense (IMO). So one might assume that if something as silly as that can shake up the most powerful nation in the world in peacetime, a scandal like Bond and Tania's can easily cloud a nation in wartime, especially in the 50s and 60s.

    Disclaimer: I'm not an American so I'm not entitled to any judgement whatsoever concerning Clinton, his team of swimmers and a secretary. ;;)
  • thelordflasheartthelordflasheart
    Posts: 1,370
    It's about damaging the morale and whatnot when one of Britain's top spies is caught in the middle of a nasty sex scandal in the heat of the Cold War.
    Weren't there a couple of real-life sex scandals in the 50's that would have been fresh in the British audiences' mind at the time of FRWL? I think that the lack of context hurts that part of the plot, much like someone watching Dr. No now wonders why Bond stops and stares at the painting in Dr. No's lair.

  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,254
    Lack of context may indeed cause people to frown their eyebrows but I don't think it necessarily hurts that part of the plot. I honestly think that a damaged reputation for Britain's secret services resulting from such a major embarrassment is obvious enough to most people. You're right about the DN painting, however, but I don't think that many people will crack their noodle over this one shot. And luckily we still have the extra features on the DVD to explain a thing or two. ;;) What I find intriguing is how modern audiences respond to Bond's collaboration with the Mujahideen in TLD. I watched this film dozens of times pre-9/11. But things have changed... There's a real challenge for a Bond film to stand the test of time!
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,331
    Very well explained Darth! In those days everything concearning the covert 'war on ideaologies' was front-page news. A love scandal between a Russian clerk and a British spy would've embarrased both, but the Brits by far the most. Other Western contries would've openly wondered if they could trust the British.
    On the Mujahedeen: I don't think they really connect the dots. Remember, the Northern Alliance was also Mujahedeen and did basically the ground offensive against the Taliban.
  • shadowonthesunshadowonthesun Banned
    Posts: 1,894
    OK, maybe I'm a little slow, but can someone please explain why SPECTRE makes a sex film of Bond and Tatiana in FRWL? I must have seen the film at least twenty times over the past thirty years and for the life of me I can't figure out what the point is.
    It's to humiliate James Bond. Once Bond is dead, the sex tape was to be released, ruining his name. After all, Bond slept with Tatiana to get the Lektor. But then Bond was supposed to die and the Lektor stolen. SPECTRE wanted MI6 to think that Bond had been turned by the Russian agent he had been sent to turn himself.
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