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Silver : Judi Dench
Bronze : Robert Brown
Silver: Judi Dench (my actual choice here would be Robert Brown as I'm no fan of either Dench or Fiennes), but since he's not on the choices, I would go with Judi Dench.
Bronze: Ralph Fiennes
Best sport or game played between Bond and the villain:
Here were my nominees:
1. The Backgammon game between Kamal Khan and Bond (Octopussy).
2. The Bird hunting between Bond and Drax (Moonraker).
3. The Fencing Game between Bond and Gustav Graves (Die Another Day).
4. The Poker Game between Bond and Le Chiffre (Casino Royale).
5. The Baccarat Game between Bond and Largo (Thunderball) or The Clay pigeon shooting game between Bond and Largo (Thunderball).
6. The Domination Game between Bond and Largo (Never Say Never Again).
7. The Final confrontation between Bond and Scaramanga (The Man With The Golden Gun).
Robert Brown is in the choices!
Most of us have been voting for him!
I have always wanted more scenes like this in a Bond movie. Scenes where you see the villain as a force to be reckoned with. I'd also love the villains to have their own gadgetry.
2. Robert Brown
3. John Huston
Same here. But I think @thedove would appreciate finishing out his current game.
Let me say that best M is a bit of a tough one. As we would normally consider one performance of the actor playing the character. The deck seems stacked in Judi Dench as her M was heavily in the story lines of both Brosnan and Craig. I don't think we have seen enough of Lee and Brown in the role to rank them. However, PM if you wish to come up with some nominees.
@MI6HQ whittle it down to 5 nominees and we shall consider it for our next nomination!
Yes, okay.....
Here's my five nominees:
1. The Backgammon game between Bond and Kamal Khan (Octopussy)
2. The Bird hunting between Bond and Hugo Drax (Moonraker).
3. The Fencing Game between Bond and Gustav Graves (Die Another Day).
4. The Baccarat Game between Bond and Le Chiffre (Thunderball).
5. Okay, I would replace this one with the Horse Race between Bond and Max Zorin (A View To A Kill).
Because there are scenes that are cool just for the action, and others that are notable for how the game is used to tell us more about Bond and his villain, to create even more of a rivalry between them. I feel this latter criteria is perhaps the most relevant or interesting, and can't imagine any list that didn't have the golf game between Bond and Goldfinger as an option (for how it increases tensions between the two and tells us how far Goldfinger will go to win), or even more so the poker game with Bond and Le Chiffre not just for how central it is to the entire plot but for how expertly it creates an engaging rivalry between the pair.
Unless it's mentioned explicitly somewhere the qualifications you should be deciding on.
Maybe it's just me, but I've never found that to make much sense. There should be a pervading qualifier or set of standards to vote on, otherwise what you're selecting just becomes kind of random and defeats the purpose of a vote. If you are choosing an item based upon your own qualifications, what exactly are you voting on? If you're voting for the same thing as another, but for different reasons, what are you voting for?
Am I making any sense?
As far as the list above goes, for instance, if we were voting on which scene is more engaging, the fencing sequence would be rather high for how fun the choreography is, but such a scene wouldn't rate very high if we were voting on how well it sets the stage for Bond's rivalry with the villain because it's little more than a fun romp. So the qualifications for the vote can vastly change what you are voting for in that case.
For me, it's both of these.
What worked best for both of these.
Yep!
The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it doesn't make any sense.
It's impossible to have one person nominate all the different selections members are going to subjectively hold, and we have more and more cases where members are just kind of dropping in to discuss their own subjective viewpoints than anything else already (myself included). Just feel like maybe that avenue, with a heavier focus on extended, and in depth discussion/s that replaces any voting, would be a more interesting and efficient way to go. Just my two cents, though.
I thought @thedove has, up until now, given good guidelines as to what we were supposed to vote on. So I think the sports categorising needs a bit more work. As you stated, for engagement the fencing scene does a great job, for representing the rules of the game - less so .
I agree, we need the poker game and the golf game too.
Yes, I've included that too in my private message to @thedove
Okay time for our next category. This one comes from @MI6HQ who has come up with a great category. The famous trope of Bond meeting a villain over a game of chance, or sport. The scene occurs early in the movie and will usually establish the villain and his/her weakness, there is usually a double meaning to the conversation that occurs. Some are tense, others have a glint of humour. But they do advance the plot and develop the characters.
What I would like the academy to consider is which one of these does the best job of establishing the villain, has the best dialogue, and shows Bond besting the villain at his own game. You can consider the interplay during the game, and after. Please judge the scene as it is in the film, try not to bring in your feelings about the film as a whole.
With due respect to @MI6HQ I have altered the list to best reflect what we are to judge.
Here are the nominees for best Villain meets Bond over a game sequence:
Given the criteria, which one deserves the Bondie for the best gaming sequence between a villain and Bond.
It's certainly the best part of OP! ;)
From the very beginning, the game sets up the perfect battleground for Bond and Le Chiffre because both men know exactly who the other is. Bond has already heard about the mythic reputation of Le Chiffre from his briefing with M, and Le Chiffre enters the game already knowing exactly who Bond is, gleefully blowing his cover right to the man's face. This sets the stage for their conflict right off, and immediately shows Bond that he is up against a real man of strategy. He can't just beat Le Chiffre senseless with his fists, he has to use his mind and his intuition to win, which is a far different conflict than what we'd seen this Bond grapple with before (since he started the movie chasing and punching his way out of a jam). The blunt instrument would need to be sharp, precise, to claim his victory.
The poker game is a great choice to stage the Bond/villain dynamic around because to win, you can't just be good. It's not like a game of golf, or fencing, or any other kind of physical sport where your skill wins you the day more than any other factor and you can absolutely dominate an opponent if you're good enough. But in poker there is the element of luck, the great equalizer. Bond doesn't just have to be good enough to survive the game against high stakes players, he also has to have the odds in his favor and pray that Le Chiffre hasn't coaxed Lady Luck to his side. It's an engaging match because you aren't immediately certain Bond is going to win, because the probability of the game is always in swing. One hand you can dominate, the next five you find yourself at the mercy of the table. Making the game a mental one adds another layer. Bond and his opponents prey upon each other and their minds, manipulating their ticks and other cracks in their body language to deflate each other in an effort to climb another rung up the ladder to fortune.
I think what makes the poker game most notable is for how it goes out of its way to deflate Bond. The game isn't there to show Bond's superiority, or to give him a fun moment to show off and get back at the villain, and it isn't used as a quick vehicle to show Bond outsmarting the baddie in style. It's a true game of survival, and Bond has to fight for every inch of victory he claims. Le Chiffre is no slouch, but instead a human computer and Bond isn't in an advantageous position. The game is further notable for showing Bond truly at rock bottom, a failure. He lets his confidence get the best of him, doesn't account for Le Chiffre feigning a tell, and pays the price for it. If not for Felix, Bond would've been dead in the water. The game takes on a whole new life as Bond buys back in, now learning from his mistakes and not letting his confidence sink him. It's engaging to see a Bond who isn't guaranteed a win, and engaging all the more to see a Bond who can pick himself back up from ruin, rebuild and reclaim what he'd lost.
I'd also be negligent if I didn't highlight just how magnificent the interplay between Bond and Le Chiffre is, and how wonderfully Craig and Mikkelson play off each other. Nobody else at the table but these two men understand why they are there, and it's fascinating to watch Bond and Le Chiffre wage their own private battle in a public forum as the actors create a versatile dynamic for our eyes. Their remarks and looks back and forth, sometimes of boasting, sometimes of bitterness and anger, are intimate exchanges hidden to everyone around them who just see two men getting a bit too much into their game. The audience and the other players don't see the literal blood and sweat Bond loses to survive, as he fends off Obanno and his right hand man away from the table, or later on, when he survives his near death by poisoning thanks to Vesper. Bond's cold delivery about how the last hand nearly killed him following the attempted poisoning against him represents one such moment of 007 publicly and boldly clashing with Le Chiffre about their very private and personal battle that only they have the context of. All of these facets of the poker game create a situation where nowhere is safe for Bond, as there are threats to his safety everywhere. Even in GF Bond didn't have to worry about a sniper across the green shooting him as he made a putt, but in CR Bond has to watch for danger even as he's sat at the card table. All of this intensifies the hazards to Bond that the game and his opponent represents, and raises the stakes from a mere competition to a literal game of survival.
The game becomes one of survival for not just Bond, but for Le Chiffre, too. The only reason the game is even occurring is because the villain made a bad bet and now needs to regain the funds he's lost before his clients realize he's been playing fast and loose with their money. The fact that Le Chiffre needs to win this game to survive is yet another detail that elevates it from being just another sports scene in a Bond film, as the villain isn't just playing to win, he's playing for his life. With that much to lose, Le Chiffre becomes even more animalistic and even more desperate as Bond enters the picture, because the game demands it of him. What began as a game of frivolous competition mutates, as Le Chiffre gradually sees that Bond will continue to be a thorn in his side and not the pushover he likely expected. The villain's behavior grows more erratic, more sinister over time, and his playful glances at the beginning of the game fade, leaving behind only glares full of daggers as he realizes how close Bond is to signing his death warrant. How the game was used in this way, to incrementally raise the temperature of Bond and Le Chiffre's conflict and rapport over time, is thrilling to watch, as are the moments where both men are literally fighting to survive. Their minds and bodies are waged against each other, and pushed to their limits. And because a game of poker of the kind presented can naturally take a long time to conclude, we get treated to a chain of brilliantly executed moments such as the above, showcasing Bond and Le Chiffre's rivalry in all its many moods and tempers.
For all these reasons and more, I can't help but to go "all in" on CR's poker game.
That all being said you raise some great points about the sequence, and I think I will take @NickTwentyTwo sage advice and consider this 2 write in votes.
CR's poker game would have gotten my vote if it were included. It probably would have swept because it's such a focus of it's film. @thedove is right to conclude that the game is the plot of the film and therefore not apples to apples with other games/sports in other Bond films.
EDIT: IMO.