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I don’t think this is a convincing argument. Bond for the most part drinks responsibly. He doesn’t indulge to the point that he can no longer function during a mission. That’s what sets him apart from criminals that drink irresponsibly. Cigarettes and drinks are not equal vices, and can’t be treated interchangeably. To this day, Bond can still walk into a casino, head to the bar area, and order a vodka martini. The same cannot be said about cigarettes, especially as more and more public places become designated smoke-free. They would tell Bond to take it outside if he wanted to smoke so badly.
I'm not talking to all the Bonds in general, but more about the Craig Era, I wished I've specified it more.
But there you are, of course the Classic Bonds knows how to put each things in moderation like drinking and yes, smoking.
That's also one of the things why I'm a bit fond of Moore's Bond too, he smokes, he drinks, but all in moderation, not too much.
But Craig's Bond went too far from it that he became the most alcoholic Bond.
Like what I've said, he's for me the least sophisticated of all the Bonds, because he leaned too much on being bad ass that he lacked the class which is one of the most important parts of Bond's character (even in the books).
That's why him drinking too much could be almost comparable to an irresponsible drinking like those of gangsters.
Reduce it, but not too much like the Craig Era.
I wish we could get back to the aspects of the Classic Bond where he doesn't drink that much to the point of being booze like Craig's Bond did, he puffs a bit, but not too much either too, it doesn't need to be in the Casino, it could be a cigar like what Moore did in LALD or in TMWTGG.
Or when Bond killed Professor Dent, just a matter of style, but not too much.
Think of Benoit Blanc (in Knives Out) of how he puffed a cigar, just like that.
And did anyone criticized it, like "Hey! Benoit Blanc is smoking! He's such a desperate guy!" I didn't heard any word from anyone about the way Benoit Blanc puffed his cigar, and I don't see any difference with Bond either.
I could also make an argument about the way Jamie Lee Curtis' character there (Linda Thrombrey) smoked her cigarette in that same film, yet there's no complaints, but when it comes to Bond, it's always a big deal.
For me, it's a part of their style.
That's one of the things, why I liked Knives Out and Glass Onion, I think Craig was a lot more sophisticated in those films than he was as Bond.
I wished we've seen that side of Craig when he was James Bond then.
I mean, have you read the first chapter of Goldfinger?
Everyone has been specifically saying that cigars are different and don't have that connotation.
That kind of makes the point though. She's not supposed to be cool; she's supposed to be highly strung and nervous, a character not to be trusted. The cigarettes are part of that character-building.
Craig Bond only was drunk once, when he allowed himself to mourn Vesper whilst on a plane, in QoS...
In Jamaica, in NTTD, I gather his intake of alcohol was directly related to his melancholy, a la the character in YOLT...Nomi nails it when she says he looks like he only has time to kill...
Yes, I've read it, but it doesn't looked good today compared then though, I mean it's no longer sophisticated nowadays.
As much as I don't liked period pieces, but the aspects that made Bond should be kept like drinking or smoking and etc.
But in creating period pieces means accepting the fact that Bond couldn't move forward and should stay in that timeline, and story and plot wise, there would be no innovations.
It's hard to combine both.
But here's my opinion, this is Bond whatever he would do, since he's a fictional character, if he smokes, he drinks hard or whatever he does, the critics shouldn't care because if they don't want Bond that way, then they shouldn't watch, now, if one is accepting Bond of who he is then fine.
So yes, he's still in the Contemporary times but he's still doing his habits like how it's written in the Fleming Books, now, it depends on the audience if they're going to watch it.
It's like rewriting Books for modern sensibilities.
If some people were sensitive about Fleming's texts, then better if they don't read those, but if some were accepting those books for how they're written they shouldn't be offensive of those texts.
As for the smoking, if I'm brutally honest Connery in Dr No was the only Bond that made smoking look cool. The less said about Pierce and his cigar in DAD the better
True; I also wish they'd kept that too. I mean, every time I watch Knives Out, it always strikes me how cool Craig is in that film, and the way it's pictured in that NTTD deleted scene, I think it would've been cool.
Of course, these days, grown-ups are less assumed to be able to differentiate between good and bad behaviour, but that's another debate.
As far as the book Bond goes, it was said in Goldfinger that he hadn't been drunk in years. So whilst he was a heavy drinker, he wasn't what we call a 'pisshead'. For want of a better term.
Yes he does overdo it a bit.
Like @mtm said Pierce just over does it a touch, as smooth as Pierce is, it didn't look natural.
Remember when those cat pictures leaked? It still seems really random almost 4 years on
Does much of anything look natural in Die Another Day? Other than Halle Berry?
It's Bond thinking "speaking of a mouthful, watch how much of this cigar smoke I can blow directly into your face."
Who knows? HB may have been a deep fake.
Haha good point
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11019321/amp/James-Bond-creator-Ian-Fleming-wary-women-drivers-revealed-13-rules-life-notebook.html
He wouldn't have trusted Lazenby in OHMSS, or Dalton in LTK then.... ;)