How Violent Should a Bond Film Be?

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  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,362
    They should be the most violent movies ever, After the Gunbarrel the blood should just remain on screen. :)) That being said, I don't mind some of the more grotesque example mentioned on here. It all served the story. I wouldn't want an R rated Bond but I think what we've had is fine.
  • @IncompetentHenchman

    What do you have against the Slade killing? Should Bond be tickling his opponents to death.

    Gosh if Dalton saw this thread he would be shaking his head in disbelief. In a Bond film, things have to turn NASTY.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    lol

    Didn't someone post a quote from Dalton saying that he preferred TLD over LTK because the gore made the movie "classless" or something?
  • lol

    Didn't someone post a quote from Dalton saying that he preferred TLD over LTK because the gore made the movie "classless" or something?

    That is true. Dalton said that he preferred Daylights given that LTK was just too brutal and too far removed from Bond. It had lost all class is pretty much what he said.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,838
    Violence is part of Bond- deal with it.
  • BMW_with_missilesBMW_with_missiles All the usual refinements.
    Posts: 3,000
    CraterGuns wrote: »
    My view of LTK has since improved, but QOS remains one of my lowest. The killing of Slate was nearly unwatchable.
    ???????

    A death in which barely a drop of blood is seen?

    Watch the scene carefully... The director uses broken red glass to subliminally suggest blood (which in reality would have been all over the place after the leg stabbing).

    That's right. They had to use broken glass to "suggest" the presence of blood. Did NOT show it.

    And that's going too far?

    Umm...you have that posted as my quote which it wasn't. Violence was not one of my issues with QoS.

    .
    doubleoego wrote: »
    I did have a problem with LTK. Mainly the scene with that vacuum chamber whatever-it-is where the guy basically explodes, and to a lesser extent, the scene with the henchman falling into the shredder (Excuse my lack of character names as I've only bothered to watch LTK once). I never want an R rated Bond as some people suggest, just like I never want an M rated Bond game. Imho a movie should thrill because of it's story, sets, pacing, action, etc...gore is usually a cheap trick.

    51sYN6YKTcL._SL1111_.jpg

    Try and get through at least one chapter every day if you have enough strength in your wrist to turn the pages ;)

    As others have said, my problem with the gore in LTK is that it's out of place in the Bond series. It's not that I can't "handle" it.
    I'm fine with having cruel, brutal deaths (especially if they enhance someone's character), it's just that they're always better done with a level of censoring. That's all.

    Agreed.
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Violence is part of Bond- deal with it.

    Also agreed, actually. I'm fine with the violence in 99% of the Bond movies. LTK just felt a bit out of place; unlike the rest of Bond.
  • @IncompetentHenchman

    What do you have against the Slade killing? Should Bond be tickling his opponents to death.

    Gosh if Dalton saw this thread he would be shaking his head in disbelief. In a Bond film, things have to turn NASTY.

    Well if you see my reply to what @ForYourEyesOnly you'll find that's not at all what he would have thought.

    Look there isn't actually that much I have against the Slate killing anymore. But the first of my gripes is that along with - like what - the first half hour of QOS, it does not advance the plot. The plot goes nowhere in the beginning of QOS. You just have all these action sequences for no reason. Car chase that does not advance the plot, Sienna chase that does not advance the plot, knife fight that comes out of nowhere and does not advance the plot. There is no narrative movement and by the time Slate got knifed I was lost as to why there wasn't really anything happening.

    The second is that - and of course this is contentious - but the first time viewer it is too dark and therefore weighs down the objective of a Bond film, which is to provide escapist fun. Or at least, all the others (barring LTK) knew that. When I first saw the film I mistook all of the red glass shards on the ground for blood so I realise know that I was wrong but the coldness of that scene is still quite notable.
  • People, I didn't say I didn't like violence in movies, but just that they should be appropriate for their type of film.

    For example, there should have been more kills in TMWTGG, which is a very anemic movie. Grand total of seven people die and Bond literally kills only one person; there is no sense of high stakes or that Bond is on a dangerous mission in that film.
  • BMW_with_missilesBMW_with_missiles All the usual refinements.
    Posts: 3,000
    Perhaps it would be a happier world if every thread began with;

    Allergen Warning: This thread contains opinions...and gluten. ;)
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    edited March 2016 Posts: 4,399
    some people have a problem with the gore - yet others rate Krest's head exploding as one of their favorite moments from LTK..... in all honesty, it wasn't that bad - it was pretty cartoony, and IMO is really no different than when Kananga turns into a balloon and pops at the end of LALD - the difference is, is that one had blood and other didn't..

    and to back up @WizardOfIce on the comparison between guy falling into the snow thrower in OHMSS and Dario falling into the grinder in LTK - again, they are practically the same.. yes, you see a few human chunks of Dario going through - put it's not like the camera shows in great detail his body getting pulverized - he more or less gets shredded and disappears into a cloud of pink dust, and then it's over... it's not like they focused on the puddle of Dario hitting the ground afterwards..

    Bond killing Slate in QOS - one of the best fight/kills in the entire series... just because there is blood doesn't make it gory.. it's not like he stabbed him and his femoral artery went spewing all over Bond and the walls.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    edited March 2016 Posts: 1,984
    Kananga's death is one of the worst in the series in my opinion, so that's consistent with what I think of Krest's death.

    And as I said, cruel deaths and violence are integral parts of Bond movies. Pornographic gore isn't. If you like it, then that's fine. At least agree that it wasn't necessary. That's all I'm trying to put across.
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    nothing is ever really necessary...... but do i have a problem with the stuff in LTK, or any other Bond film?... No..... I never sat back and went "wow, that was uncalled for." - except for perhaps that one deleted clip in DAF where you see Sean's bare ass. X_X
  • Kananga's death is one of the worst in the series in my opinion, so that's consistent with what I think of Krest's death.

    And as I said, cruel deaths and violence are integral parts of Bond movies. Pornographic gore isn't. If you like it, then that's fine. At least agree that it wasn't necessary. That's all I'm trying to put across.

    But Kananga's death is completely sanitised. No innards are seen when he explodes.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    @Scaramanga12 - I'm not complaining about innards. It's just the way he dies which is farcical (the whole final act is, really). Lets down the film, IMO.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    edited March 2016 Posts: 9,117
    lol

    Didn't someone post a quote from Dalton saying that he preferred TLD over LTK because the gore made the movie "classless" or something?

    That is true. Dalton said that he preferred Daylights given that LTK was just too brutal and too far removed from Bond. It had lost all class is pretty much what he said.

    When did he say this? Because that's not what he said at the time.

    On the night of the premiere and in other interviews he said TLD was a step in the right direction whereas LTK was 'a leap'.

    I think the more brutal violence in LTK was largely at Dalton's instigation so it's a bit rich if he moaned about it afterwards.

    It seems to me people are singling out LTK and QOS because the tone of the films makes them think they've seen more than they have.

    As already mentioned in terms of graphic gore Dario is no different to lots of guts guy, Slate is no more or less brutal than Grant or Obanno.

    Krest is what? A one second shot of his head swelling and then turning red. Is that really that graphic? It's not like everyone gets caked in his brains.

    I find the shot of Felix's bloody stump far more graphic yet no one's even mentioned that yet.

    But as a certain Mr Dalton also said on the night of the premiere when questioned about the level of violence 'People being fed to sharks, people being set on fire - it's all classic Bond.'

    Those complaining that these things have no place in Bond might have a point when referring to the the largely family friendly film series perpetuated by EON.

    But try reading some Fleming and you see that these things are totally appropriate. In just the first three books we have:

    * Two guys blown up leaving bits of their flesh hanging in the trees.
    * Bond getting his bollocks smashed leaving a large pool of blood on the floor.
    * Bond's finger slowly snapped (not gore but certainly extremely violent and disturbing).
    * Bond's back getting shredded.
    * Bond having his face burnt with a blowtorch.
    * Bond and Gala leaving bloody footsteps everywhere.

    If Fleming thinks this sort of thing worthy of inclusion who are we to demur?

  • edited March 2016 Posts: 11,189
    I think the Slate fight and the death of Sanchez are quite effective "violent" moments. You don't expect them and they could realistically happen. The head exploding of Krest is maybe a step too far though. I suspect if Fleming had included it, his critics would have been calling him "crude" or "gratuitous".

    ...but yes, I agree about the shot of Felix's severed leg. Definitely the most graphic shot in all of Bond. Roger Moore wouldn't have liked it.
  • Posts: 12,526
    They have to consider Box office takings due to film classifications around the world.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Then maybe Bond needs to move from cinema screens to...Netflix :-O
  • Posts: 1,997
    IMO what they did in QOS is the limited they should go to for how violent a Bond film should be. Yea LTK was a great movie it didn't feel like a Bond movie
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,838
    fjdinardo wrote: »
    IMO what they did in QOS is the limited they should go to for how violent a Bond film should be. Yea LTK was a great movie it didn't feel like a Bond movie

    It was a James movie.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Wasn't it Harry Saltzman who said Bond was sadism for the family ? ;)
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    fjdinardo wrote: »
    Yea LTK was a great movie it didn't feel like a Bond movie

    that wasn't because of the violence though - i think it probably more due to the fact that it was following the 80s "action movies for guys who like movies" trope of a vengeful rouge going after the man who killed/harmed someone he cared about.... this rouge angle was practically the staple of the action genre at the time... Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Rambo, etc.... it felt more like a hollywood action film than a Bond film at times.... i love the movie, but i can't help but recognize it..... it's not until Q shows back up that we are reminded that "oh yeah, it's a Bond movie." lol.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I love how Bond spreads the seeds of doubt with Sanchez , getting him to kill his own loyal
    men, allowing Bond to get closer to his target. :)
  • edited March 2016 Posts: 3,566
    Hi violent should a Bond movie be? At least as violent as a Donald Trump rally.

    I'm sorry, is this not the Next American President thread? Sorry, my mistake...
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,838
    I love how Bond spreads the seeds of doubt with Sanchez , getting him to kill his own loyal
    men, allowing Bond to get closer to his target. :)

    So Kurosawawa.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Everyone has " Borrowed " from him. ;)
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