A Similarity Between SPECTRE and Another Film - Spoilers!

tigers99

SPECTRE and Gladiator were both written by John Logan, and both feature 'Daddy Issues' in the form of one brother (or foster brother) being favoured over the other by the father/foster father. Anyone else notice this?

LeChiffre

good shout

FourDot

Well... all of Mendes's films deal with family units either developing or breaking apart so I'd look at the commonalities with his films first.

Ludovico

Yes I noticed. It's a common theme with Logan. Star Trek Nemesis (which I hated) had it too.

There's also influences of Eyes Wide Shut, The Godfather and a number of things taken from Fleming's novels.

SirHilaryBray

tigers99 wrote:

SPECTRE and Gladiator were both written by John Logan, and both feature 'Daddy Issues' in the form of one brother (or foster brother) being favoured over the other by the father/foster father. Anyone else notice this?

Great spot mate.

tigers99

Some more thoughts

Thing is it really works in Gladiator, primarily because you have the father at the start and his death inaugurates everything else that happens. Same as SPECTRE but having the scenes between Maximus and his father, with Phoenix' great portrayal envelopes us in the emotion of that narrative. Also having Maximus' wife and child hauntingly hung up for him to see, with the conviction that his wife was probably raped brings believability and immediacy to his character's emotional journey. The events of CR, QoS and SF seem so rooted in the past, especially given that QoS seemed to be a cathartic way of Bond getting over Vesper ('I don't think the dead care about vengeance') and that Bond is so assured in this film. I expected more of a reaction at the mention of Mr White. Thought Craig gave a great performance but Bond's emotional cues were a bit all over the place. He emits hardly any emotion at the mention of Mr White but almost as a fit when Madeleine is forced to watch her father's suicide.