It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Of course there are a lot of other elements to TMWTGG that could use some revision, Moore is not the film’s problem.
The more serious bits of the film; possibly Dalton?
I'd also say Brosnan could have had a decent go at it. After all, he is an actor who managed to be the best thing (along with Pike) in the shambles that was DAD, and so he likely could have handled SP well enough.
He had similar moments of serious and light-hearted in OHMSS,and there would be no doubt he would have handled the fight sequences well.
This had elements of MooreBond in it after all,and BrosnanBond was tantalizingly close to getting it..
Personally,i think Craig could have made the film as good.
(And needless to say - change the bloody Bond girl !! )
Interesting point. And then again in 76/77 movie audiences were tailing off because of the invention of video cassettes. People were watching quite new films at home. Did that lead to the introduction of movie complexes, with multiple screens, arcades etc?
There's no reason to assume this would have been the case if Hunt was still directing and using the Maibaum/Hunt/Raven script. Connery was bored with appearing in conventional Bond films, but OHMSS would have offered him a greater acting challenge and a chance to escape the "gadgets and machinery" that he'd come to dislike in the series. And anyone who's seen The Offence or Robin and Marian knows that Connery can give superb dramatic performances when offered the chance.
Lazenby did a very good job as Bond in OHMSS. If Connery had said goodbye to the role in that film, he might have given an awesomely moving performance and made a great film even greater.
Connery was done with Bond, he didn’t want to keep doing it for years and years, he wanted to move on. That much is easily evident in YOLT. The only way he would’ve done OHMSS is if they backed a Brinks truck stuffed with cash to his house, as with DAF, and it wouldn’t have been prime Connery.
While I know it goes against the purpose of this topic, ultimately, I think that we get the movie we get. With Connery in OHMSS, do we get Diana Rigg? Do we get a faithful adaption of the novel? More importantly would we believe that Bond is emotionally hurt by Tracy’s murder? For (IMO) OHMSS swims or stinks on the believability of the Bond/Tracy relationship.
No doubt, Connery has forgotten more about acting than Lazenby will ever know, but given Connery’s Bond (or at-least the scripts that he was given), that last scene may not have worked quite the same with him in the role. Maybe, had OHMSS been filmed earlier in the series (right after FRWL?) – before Connery’s Bond became so established in the public’s mind – a more nuanced performance by him would have worked. But, again, that would have – to some degree – gone against the larger trend of how spies were being portrayed in the movies and TV at that time.
Its’ just an opinion, and I find it difficult to pin down, but I think that Lazenby’s very inexperience plays in the movies favor.
Connery wanted to move on because the films had become formulaic and time-consuming. Had he been offered a less formulaic and more challenging film (along with a bit more money and perhaps the guarantee this would be his last film) he likely would have risen to the occasion. If Hunt could get such a fine performance out of Lazenby, he could have easily engaged Connery's interest.
As for Roger Moore while I rate him fairly high this movie asked for some impressive physical performance which I could not see him do to be honest.
I do agree that Connery didn’t give a grumpy performance in DAF as he seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself. I also agree with his dislike of the long shooting schedules, which he made sure DAF didn’t suffer from in his contact. OHMSS was one of the longest Bond shoots ever and there’s no way the movie would’ve looked the same had Connery had his tight schedule restraints enforced for that movie.
What would be more interesting is what the movie would’ve looked like had say Terrence Stamp been cast, or even Oliver Reed. Two actors that were actually considered for the role before Lazenby was finally cast.
As for Roger Moore, he refused to sign up for Bond 7 which was going to be originally TMWTGG. Instead he signed up for more The Saint fearful of the public outcry that it wasn’t Connery that the public were going to be seeing in a Bond movie. Moore ruled himself out so was never in contention.
Putting aside all the contingencies and returning to the thread topic, I think that if Connery had been somehow persuaded to return to the role and star in OHMSS, it would have been an even better film. I believe he would have responded to what Hunt was trying to achieve.
Picturing Terence Stamp or Oliver Reed in the role would be interesting, but neither was a finalist for the role--according to Helfenstein, those were John Richardson, Hans De Vries, Robert Campbell, Anthony Rogers, and Lazenby (photos from the auditions can be found here.)