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Also (dont laugh!), the hotel room scene in DAD with Chang hiding behind the glass.
Very true. Silva's Introductory scene is one of the very few good and original things in that movie.
We have to remember that DN through to TB were all pretty faithful to Fleming so most of what's in them would be not original hence why Connery isn't mentioned much in this post.
Exactly.
Love that moment too.
Agreed.
Totally agree.
I could see Fleming coming up with a veritable cemetery for Soviet iconography as a setting.
The hotel scene in tnd with doctor Kaufman
No it doesn't. It feels very much like "that's what people expect to be in a James Bond movie", just like so many other things in GE.
Which is absolutely fine with me, but you won't find a scene evoking the feel of this one in Fleming's novels. Actually Fleming's James Bond was quite short on banter and, come to think about it, flirting as well
Yes, I suppose it's all subjective in nature. I'm still really glad I created this thread, though.
Been ages since I read FYEO/Risico so I can't recall those scenes in the short stories.
Bond has dinner with an Italian Kristatos in the Risico short story. The scene with Lisl also plays out on a similar fashion. There isn't a Casino scene your right. But I totally agree, the essence of Fleming is all there.
That's right. Dinner with Kristatos in Risico. I love that whole mid section of FYEO as it evokes Fleming's spirit quite well.
Basically, which (if any) sequences in the films that weren't originally written by Fleming evoke his style?
But isn't the horse race cheating in AVTAK at least partially inspired from the novel DAF and Camille's background inspired by the short story FYEO?
Off the top of my head Silva's appearance is pure original Fleming villain and the use of French in Craig movies is very Flemingesque.
Dr. No:
Miss Taro is barely a character in the novel, but I absolutely love how Maibaum and the other writers gave her more of a part in the story. She goes from being a glorified conspirator in a file room to a truly interesting feminine force of danger who could be called the series first femme fatale.
The scene that feels ripped out of an unused draft of Fleming's Dr. No is the one that comes as Bond arrives to make appointments with Taro at her home in the Jamaican hills. I think Fleming could've dreamed up a very similar scene where Taro, suspected by Bond as involved with Dr. No, lures the spy to her home to get him out in the open for a kill by the Three Blind Mice. When Bond arrives at Taro's, fresh from killing the Mice, we can see the look of shock in her face to see him alive, a moment I could see Fleming describe in writing.
"Bond looked into the face ahead of him as the door opened, the delicate eyelids suddenly parting from the dilated eyes to create a mask of shock. He perceived that his arrival wasn't part of the plan."
The scene is played so wondrously silent by Sean and Zena Marshall, a little chess game of body language and verbal scheming. Bond gets rough with the girl, grabbing her playfully by the towel and pulling her in, masking his knowledge of her linkage to No as foreplay. In the same token, Taro knows Bond has killed the Mice and that she needs to find another way to get him rubbed out. As their night goes on following their lovemaking, Taro wants to keep Bond in her house so that he can be made vulnerable for the kill and Bond, knowing her intention, wants to get out of the house and masks his escape as a dinner date. The moments lead up to Bond winning out in the end, delivering Taro into police hands and cutting off one of Dr. No's contacts. All of this is played with the kind of subtlety Fleming could've, as he was great at creating some fiery dynamics between Bond and women.
The moment the battle between Bond and Taro sets up, of Bond killing Dr. No, is another perfectly Flemingesque scene. The way Bond strategically uses pillows to make Dent think he's in bed, how Bond hides and lies in wait playing cards, and that look on his face after killing Dent, one of disgust and maybe regret, are all elements I could see reading in the novel version of Dr. No.
Brilliant stuff, and though the movie version of Dr. No lacks my favorite part of the book, Bond's grueling endurance through No's trials, there's a lot of purely original stuff in it that feels as if it's only adapting what Fleming had already written.
From Russia with Love:
I've been somewhat vocal about how I vastly prefer the movie version of From Russia with Love, and much of that is down to how Maibaum and how the other writers were able to make changes to the pacing and content of the story that really helped to make it move and feel better.
I think one of the greatest strengths of the film, and what the book lacks for structure and pacing's sake, is the ability it has to shadow Grant and follow him as he does his thing in Istanbul. I love the creepy and ominous backstory to the Grant character in the novel and how he's built up as this wereman, but I feel he's a wasted character because the way the story was set up in the story makes us lose track of him right after he takes the mission and we never hear of him again until he's about to die. For all the lead up to him being Bond's enemy, the symbol of England he wants to destroy, it all feels very anticlimactic because I never feel the novel is leading to a face-off between them (and even the fight itself is rather poor and over before you know it).
I think the movie version of From Russia with Love is able to create a series of Flemingesque moments that feel ripped right out of one of the man's drafts.
Because the film doesn't have to be glued to Bond's perspective at all times as Fleming was forced to in his writing, we get to actually see what Grant is doing in Istanbul when Bond is elsewhere (or right around the corner) as the killer orchestrates SPECTRE's plan, manipulates the Turks and Bulgars, frames, Kerim, protects Bond at the gypsy camp to keep him in play, makes sure Bond gets the consulate blueprints and makes it to the train with the decoder and kills Nash to take his place as Bond's associate to finally get the Lektor to his superiors. Because we get these scenes and see Grant forming his plan while moving Bond like a chess piece after every major moment in the plot, we're with him during each stage in the conflict. This gradual growth to the climax then makes the movie feel like it's actually building to Bond and Grant's final brutal face-off.
The book couldn't have given us chapters between Bond's story to give us Grant's POV in Istanbul to see what he's doing, so that aspect of their rivalry is never actively built up like it easily can in film because pacing isn't as hurt by sidetracking. To do what the film did with Grant, showing us his side of the action, Fleming would've had to make tons of extra chapters from his perspective, often repeating details we just read from Bond's POV, and that just wouldn't have flown. Being able to see what Grant is doing in reaction to what Bond is doing in the movie-or how Bond reacts to what Grant has done-also gives Grant such credibility as a threat, something that the book again fails to meet to such a degree because we never really see him do anything. To not have that feeling of momentum in the book around Grant just leaves me empty and makes the storytelling feel lacking.
Major kudos must be given to Maibaum and the other writers for using familiar scenes and settings from the book-the streets of Istanbul, the gypsy camp-and originally placing Grant right there with Bond in the shadows to create a building rivalry between them. To watch the book after reading the film like I did, I was constantly wondering where Grant was, or if a hint would be given to what he was doing, but Fleming keeps him held back until the very end. To get so much of Grant in the movie is one of its greatest assets, and I love that the writers were able to find ways to make him part of the action even when Fleming didn't.
Additionally, I think Maibaum and co. really helped the pacing of the film surrounding the Lektor/Spektor too, because the movie improves on the idea Fleming had in the book. In the book, Tatiana tells Bond she will get the decoder herself and bring it to him, something we never actually see happen although it would be exciting to see Bond break or sneak into the consulate himself to get the device. That Fleming didn't create a moment for Bond to be forced to get the Spektor this way makes this section of the book very limp, like a chapter is missing that would see the spy getting into the Russian headquarters to retrieve the object of his mission. After all, the decoder has been made up to be so very important in the book leading up to Tatiana giving it to Bond, yet in the end it feels inconsequential and unimportant since Bond never has to struggle to get it.
The scriptwriters of From Russia with Love understood how great it would be if Bond had to actually get the decoder himself instead of Tatiana just giving it to him, so that's what we get and boy does it improve things. We actually see him working to receive the plans as he attempts to try and break the Lektor out of Russian hands, and retrieving the decoder is added on top of all the other tension-building moments in the film he must endure to make it more packed with suspense and danger. By making Bond forced to get the decoder his own way without an easy way to do so, the device itself carries an importance it doesn't in the book because we see the strain and danger involved in getting it, more than just a throwaway McGuffin like in the book. This change to the story also creates moments where Bond must get information from Tatiana, like at the Mosque, that also allows us to see what Grant is doing as it forces the killer to make sure the Bulgar overseeing the exchange is killed, adding more content and tension to the proceedings. This moment then leads to the equally original and well crafted scene on the Bosphorus between Bond and Tatiana to discuss the device, not only growing their ample chemistry but also telling us about the device and why it's important for the heroes to get it.
For as well known as From Russia with Love is as being faithful to Fleming, there's a load of original content in it that completely changes the pacing, structure and content of the story to improve it and give it more tension. It gives us the above moments, but also Grant's garden maze of death, SPECTRE island, the extended train fight of Grant and Bond and places Tatiana right with Bond as he faces Klebb, putting the choice of who lives and dies in her hands to underscore her character's battle between her head and her heart. Maibaum and co. have to be commended for taking the great foundation Fleming provided and only building more greatness on top of it.
Thunderball:
Fiona Volpe has to be one of the greatest characters in the Bond films not created by Fleming, and I was shocked to find out she was completely original while looking into the book.
Fiona is such a well-defined and characterized figure in the action, more than just a sexy femme fatale. She is the one SPECTRE uses for execution missions, the operative chosen to wipe out Lippe, and she is trusted with the most high-risk and monumental schemes the organization has, like the plot to kill Domino's brother and replace him with a look-alike mole. She is also instantly given more credibility than everyone else she is going to be working with in the Bahamas, as she is the only one to constantly keep things in check and focused on the job. When Largo wants to risk sabotaging the nuclear plot to kill Bond, Fiona snaps at him to focus on the job and leave Bond to her. And when Bond is in his most dangerous position it isn't at the hands of Blofeld or Largo, it's because of Fiona as she manipulatively sleeps with him in the same way he could use women (like Taro in Dr. No) to make him vulnerable for ambush.
Fiona was created in response to the criticism Goldfinger's Pussy Galore received for falling into Bond's arms with little pressure during the pre-climax of that movie, and was intended to be the response to women who fell at the knees in front of Bond. This woman would have an almost masculine toughness and restraint, use sex as a weapon like Bond, and would stamp her feet and refuse to sing with a choir of angels to join the "good" side. Her ability to manipulate coldly and passionately makes her a thrill, a danger worth tempting, and the fact that she still stands apart from so many Bond women, good or bad, is a testament to her character and how she is used in the story and played by the alluring Ms. Paluzzi.
Just as Fiona is a complete original inside Thunderball, one of my favorite scenes of the entire series is original as well, as we see Bond breaking away from the woman and her SPECTRE kill squad. This moment more than most feels absolutely ripped out of Fleming's work, like a missing chapter of survival in the novel. The way Bond gets his karma for being played by his familiar strategy at the hands of Fiona, how he's at a loss in front of the goons' guns, and most vitally, the danger that is placed on Bond's life as he takes a bullet to the leg and limps away full of fear, is immaculate and perfectly portrayed. This image of Bond, a human facing death itself, couldn't be more in touch with Fleming's intent to make his spy feel everything he's given to the fullest extent of his tolerance.
The image of Bond ducking and diving through the crowds as Fiona and her gunmen search is thrilling, but things reach a crescendo as the action spills into the Kiss Kiss club. That one shot of Bond at the Kiss Kiss Club bar, completely out of ideas as he's surrounded from all sides, is Fleming's Bond come to life. We get to see Bond rush to think of an escape, awkwardly picking a dance parter, and feel a pang of surprise as Fiona is waiting there for him amidst the crowd. The image of that gun rising for the curtain, catching Bond's fearful eye, is just a perfect visual image of terror, and the dance floor of death is striking and bizarre enough to be a Fleming original. The moment is punctuated by Bond's last second attempt to drive Fiona between himself and the bullet as the rabid drums of the band disguise the sound, finishing with that still shot of the spy dancing with the woman's limp corpse as he attempts to cover up the blood seeping from the wound.
It's such an evocative, powerful moment, depicting a man driven to a kill while all the innocents around him are oblivious to what has just transpired. The isolation and loneliness of Bond's fight has seldom ever been more exemplified in a visual, and Sean's nuanced expression in the moment, as if Bond is saying, "I wish I didn't have to do this" is perfect and in tune with Fleming's reluctant and disgusted killer.
People who wonder why so many love Thunderball and consider it a classic in the series need only look at this moment.
Quantum of Solace:
It's very easy for me to imagine parts of Quantum of Solace's story as a forgotten novel occurring between Casino Royale and Live & Let Die. As anyone remotely familiar with the Fleming novels knows, the writer chose to end his first book with Bond creating a villain SMERSH to distract from his feelings for Vesper and it wasn't until many, many books later that we ever found out that the spy actually visited the grave of the woman he loved and lost on an annual basis. We never get to see Bond's softening view of Vesper develop over time, and can only assume that this gradual change of acceptance and forgiveness in the character happens in the years that followed his trials in Casino.
One of the many reasons I really respect and love Quantum of Solace as a story is because of how it does what Fleming did under the layers of Bond in silence: it shows the spy grieving and gradually trying to reach a level of acceptance and forgiveness regarding Vesper. The movie is very mature and well crafted, showing Bond going through each step of grief that one could actually track, starting the movie with anger at what Vesper had done with sides of his guilt-ridden care for her bleeding through and finishing with him moving on healthily from that stage of his life. While feigning absolute indifference to Vesper in front of those he doesn't want to know the truth throughout, we see a very human (and Flemingesque) Bond stealing Vesper's photo from a file and drinking himself into a stupor on the plane while pretending he'd forgotten the name of the drink he created in tribute to her to avoid the real pain and vulnerability he feels.
These aspects of the film and how Bond is developed in it are elements I could see Fleming writing into a book following Casino Royale, as he wrote similar ones to depict Bond reacting to Tracy's death following On Her Majesty's. I think he'd have done something approximating what I feel Quantum does beautifully, showing Bond subtly dealing with what Vesper has done to him while trying to repress his emotions to avoid feeling compromised. This was Fleming's character all over, a human who didn't want to appear human when at his lowest, like when he says, "The bitch is dead" at the of Casino to make it appear as if the woman was nothing to him.
The ending of the film, depicting Bond finally coming into contact with the man who tricked Vesper into being a mole, is one that feels very in touch with Fleming. A quiet but tense dialogue, depicting his spy trying to get the context he needs to accept what has happened to move on, could happen in any short story or maybe as the conclusion of a novel. I really love that the movie doesn't allow us to hear what Yusef tells Bond, because I could see Fleming doing the same thing by ending a chapter with Bond just beginning to question a SMERSH operative about Vesper before starting the next chapter with him exiting the building as MI6 personnel go in to make the arrest. It's more powerful not to know what Yusef said, a private moment between two men, though we can tell pretty closely what Bond now knows, that Vesper was tricked into the plot against her wishes. Bond is then able to see the woman as a victim of circumstance much like he was, the context that paves the way to his forgiveness.
I really appreciate that Quantum chose to travel down such an original but highly Flemingesque road to actually show us Bond growing to move on from Vesper, and how it charts his development over time. It's a very human portrait of real grief played with great nuance by Dan, and I think it's very in touch with the human moments Fleming often put his spy into that had an existential edge to them. The movie really becomes a message of forgiveness and also warns about revenge to patch up our losses, themes realized between the character triangle of Bond, Mathis and Camille. It's a very unique and fascinating film, and one I love.
Skyfall:
Skyfall has appeared in this thread a good deal already, not only for some scenes with a Fleming edge (Silva's intro, Severine at the casino) but also for the imagery of the movie, and I definitely agree. There's something about the movie that feels very in tune with the imagination of Fleming, and I think that's down to Deakins doing his damnedest to paint a vibrant, eerie and vivid cacophony of color and composition. Bond's dazed drinking on the beach definitely channels how Fleming could show Bond at his lowest, just as Bond's battle with Patrice in the the techno nightmare skyscraper, the spy's approach to the hyper-lit casino in Macau and the soft eeriness of Scotland could all be a part of the visual language of Fleming's books. They are the kinds of bizarre but instantly transportive visuals you could imagine the writer perfectly describing in his work, to set a scene or capture the imagination of a reader.
I could talk about this aspect of Skyfall all day, but one part of the film I want to touch on that really carries a strong Fleming spark to me is really anything to do with Severine. The woman connects well to the kinds of haunted and deeply fascinating women of mystery Fleming could create, perhaps best seen in Tiffany or Tracy, and she would be right at home as the object of Bond's desire in any story. I love the powerful image of Severine looking out over where Bond was across the other skyscraper following Patrice's death, her hair flowing in the wind, or the look of shaking fear in her body language as she tries to get Bond to help her at the casino. She's just as fascinating as she is sympathetic, the perfect ingredients for a strong Fleming Bond girl.
The movie builds Severine up as a very tragic character, and uses a lot of theme and imagery to do so in the way that Fleming would often rely on description to gives us information about his female characters. Most notable is how, during the casino scenes, Berenice overtly plays Severine as a dragon-like woman, smoking her cigarette and blowing the smoke out her nostrils and mouth like that mythical creature, even down to her pointed nails that aren't far removed from the talons the beasts have. These aspects of how the character of Severine is played may seem to exist on accident or appear to be random ticks on Berenice's part, but we can quickly see that this body language of Severine is an intended part of the film's visual language. The movie under Mendes' leadership has used imagery to tell us things about this character like Fleming would use images and description to do the same in his books.
When Bond makes his way to Severine's boat following his brush with death in the casino, we find that the craft is tellingly called the "Chimera." For those not familiar with mythology, chimera are described as feminine beasts that breathe fire and have a lion's head, goat's body and a serpent's tail. Quite quickly we can see how Severine's dragon-like body language is connecting to how she is being characterized in other parts of the film's language, becoming just as much a symbol as she is a character. I could see Fleming describing a smoking woman Bond is meeting as the same dragon-like force of mystery the movie does, and even go so far as to make her boat named after the very beast he was implying she was. Fleming was quite brilliant at layered images and theme and calling back to them like this, as can be seen in just Moonraker alone where ideas or images he mentions in the first half are all called back to in the final few pages of that novel.
It's also quite telling that another definition of chimera is "a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve." With the relation Severine and the mythological chimera share in Skyfall already solidified, the comparison only continues because the character's ultimate goal in the film, to escape, is again commented on using the name of the creature. Severine doesn't just resemble traits of a chimera, her desire to escape is also a chimera, an eventuality she hopes and wishes for but one that will be impossible to achieve.
This discussion of Severine and the chimera of her escape carries into the scene that I think is extremely Flemingesque, Bond's approach to Silva's island and his time there. The image of Bond voyaging to the location like a Greek hero is in touch with the mythological connection of Severine and the chimera as well as how Bond himself is built up as an errant knight throughout the film, and the intro of Silva with that visual story of the rats is right at home with how Fleming would build up his sinister villains. Silva's speech to Bond regarding the island, of how he manipulated the inhabitants to flee, is a villain action that makes Silva feel of the same fabric as a Dr. No, who tricked the guards of his island to flee in the novel named after him.
The Fleming feeling of Skyfall really comes out during the shooting competition between Bond and Silva, a moment so layered in evocative and powerful imagery. The crumbled statue that Severine is shackled to is an image straight out of Percy Shelley's poem Ozymandias, a work that ridicules the power of empires in much the same way Silva makes light of Bond's attachment to the dying British empire. Fleming himself seemed to lament the death of the power Britain used to be, so I think he would've been fascinated (and maybe made upset) by a character like Silva who was created to mock what his island no longer was in the modern age. Again, the film is layering images and giving them meaning in a thematic way as it does with Severine and the chimera.
The shooting competition itself is so deliciously bizarre, and feels like something Fleming may've actually created in one of his own books by how theme and image all come together in an evocative scene of vivid visual power. A broken and troubled woman tied to a rock that mocks Bond's attachment to the realm of England? Check. The guns of the competition old style weapons of a bygone age (I'm getting Spectreville vibes here)? Check. A little shot of Macallan on Severine's head to link the competition to that of old age William Tell? Check. The scene is so out of time, so anti-modern, and that irony considering the tech based nature of the story is both purposeful and powerful. Like Bond in the middle of Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever, he travels from the modern Vegas to the anachronistic Spectreville of the Spangs, a place that connects to another time and age.
This battle between old and new, modern and old age, is part of what makes Skyfall so interesting and those elements can be see in the original yet highly Flemingesque scene on Silva's island that ground much of them in both the evocative and the bizarre.
Spectre:
As with Skyfall, there's a lot I could talk about regarding Spectre that evokes a Fleming touch. Much like the first Mendes film, this one carries a visual language that also feels ripped out of a Fleming book at points, like the vibrant and haunting imagery of the Day of the Dead parade, the rich and echoing Rome meeting of SPECTRE, the lonely and haunting trek Bond makes through Austrian waters and the imagery of the Moroccan scenes that recall Fleming's own time with the cultural touches of the architecture.
The first section of Spectre, from the opening to the point that Bond is at the SPECTRE meeting in Rome, really feels like content that could've been ripped from several Fleming short stories or novels. The pre-titles of the movie symbolizes Bond as a messenger of death with his evocative skeleton suit, an image I could see Fleming playing with just as I could see him using the Day of the Dead parade as a setting for Bond to meet with immediate death. The irony mixed with the self-awareness of the imagery would make for one helluva sequence in the books.
As with Severine in Skyfall, I also think that Lucia Sciarra makes for a perfectly Flemingesque character, mysterious and troubled, but alluring nonetheless. I could see Fleming writing a short story featuring Bond that charts its development as this part of the film does. I could see Fleming crafting a story that opens with Bond killing an assassin, purposefully creating a jarring moment for readers to experience, while spending the rest of the narrative having his spy tracking down the dead man's widow to secure her protection after realizing that he's guilty of compromising her. It would do what Spectre does, showing both sides of Bond: the killer and the man of compassion, the half monk, half hitman spy who is a sentimentalist at heart.
The image of Lucia moving through her villa while killers follow her from the shadows, leading to her near death outside her foundation is pitch perfect, and I could see Fleming writing the same sequence of events with the pop of shots revealing that Bond has been there to protect the woman from the very beginning. How Bond acts once he rescues Lucia is also very in touch with Fleming's Bond, as he is so upset with Sciarra not pleasuring the beauty that is this woman that he takes it upon himself to worship her and expend his lust upon her. Fleming's Bond is a very lustful man and is often driven by immense sexual desire, so if he was around a woman like Lucia who he knew hasn't being treated as she deserved, I could see him doing just what Craig's Bond is doing here by showing her a wild and ecstatic time to give her that special feeling.
The Rome meeting that follows the lovemaking of Bond and Lucia is another moment I could see Fleming writing, where his spy must enter into a secret and eerie meeting between conspirators to get the information he needs. How this scene uses shadow to hide Blofeld and sound to create the whisper-filled anxiety of the proceedings is immaculate, and I could see Fleming having some fun describing such a meeting between criminals. In From Russia with Love we can already see how he used the SMERSH meeting to poke fun at the Russians, and I think Spectre does a similar trick by partially making light of the SPECTRE members who all look like they want to flee their seats and by playing on the awkwardness with which Blofeld's close team pull out his chair, pull in his mic and lift hand and foot to help him. It feels bizarre, but perfect at the same time.
I also want to make a quick mention of the way Spectre uses Mr. White as a cautionary and haunting character, a sign to Bond of what a life badly led could turn into. I could see Fleming using a man of Bond's world to create this "what if" image before him, to show his character the result of the work he does and the damage it can do to your life and soul. The meeting between Bond and White, punctuated by the flying crows, the symbolic chess board and the breeze flowing in from busted windows is perfect in its isolation and weariness, atmospheric and evocative of so much. I think Fleming would've been able to create a similarly moody scene in one of his books, layering all the images and sounds of that cabin into something just as powerful.
The father and daughter dynamic of Spectre and the impossible reunion of White and Madeleine is also a surprisingly deep and cynical touch to the film that partially evokes some of the haunted relationships Fleming's characters have in his stories, which I enjoy. In a very existential way, the movie takes water from the same well Fleming drank so much from in his own work.
Quick Notable Mentions:
For Your Eyes Only & Vengeance: I could see Fleming having Bond make a passionate speech against the emptiness of vengeance to a young woman seeking to kill those who harmed her family, using his experience rallying against SMERSH as an example of why it's a bad course of action to undertake.
The Living Daylights & Whitaker: I think that Whitaker, despite being one of the weaker villains overall, does have some bizarre elements to him that give him somewhat of a Fleming touch. I could see the writer creating a villain like Whitaker in a story who is so egotistical about their strategical capabilities that they not only feign being in the military, but also replace the faces of notable commanders throughout history like Hannibal or Napoleon with their own image in a freaky and masturbatory hall of statues.
Quantum of Solace "I don't think the dead care about vengeance"
Skyfall -M: Chairman, "Ministers, today I've repeatedly heard how irrelevant my department has become. "Why do we need agents, the 00 section? Isn't it all rather quaint?" Well, I suppose I see a different world than you do and the truth is that what I see frightens me. I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map. They're not nations, they're individuals. And look around you. Who do you fear? Can you see a face, a uniform, a flag? No! Our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque! It's in the shadows. That's where we must do battle. So before you declare us irrelevant, ask yourselves, how safe do you feel? Just one more thing to say, my late husband was a great lover of poetry, and, em, I suppose some of it sunk in, despite my best intentions. And here today, I remember this, I think, from Tennyson: "We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and *not* to yield."
I think this about is about the best piece of writing in the film.
No, but that's a really blunt observation. You take out the "husband" reference the first and last part quoting the poem very much is his type of researched, educated writing.