And the Klebbie goes to...Worst execution of a good idea page 147

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  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,217
    That's the thing, he was just "fine." The buildup to his full appearance is great - the funeral, the SPECTRE meeting, and the start of the meteor room reunion - but once we have the full reveal, it's a fairly generic interpretation of Blofeld... some smirking, some torture, comical revenge schemes, etc.

    But that's what the writing called for. And, to be fair to him, his performance is only really allowed to be focused on in the last act. It's a missed opportunity for sure, but I don't put the things I dislike about the interpretation down to him. Waltz is an immense presence for such a small fellow.
  • DwayneDwayne New York City
    edited July 2020 Posts: 2,847
    Anthony Dawson and Eric Pohlmann

    The more I think about this question, the more I conclude that all of portrayals of Blofeld generally “fit” within the context of their particular. For example, while I generally dislike DAF, Charles Gray’s performance works given the campy nature of what surrounds him (and of course, he adds to the camp fest that is that film!). I’m not sure that Pleasance or Savalas would work here.

    My two cents anyway…. soon to be taken from me by Donald “extortion is my business” Pleasance.
    :))
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    edited July 2020 Posts: 5,433
    I fly to the stage with an envelope firmly in hand! The Bondie for best actor as Blofeld goes to Anthony Dawson and Eric Polhmann! Dawson comes to the stage to accept the award and mouths the words that Eric speaks! They received 15 votes from the academy. The remaining actors received:
    • Donald Pleasance received 3 votes
    • Charles Grey received 3 votes
    • Telly Savalas received 8 votes

    And now dear academy members we have been given some funds for a special award. Our good friend Willard Whyte has graciously donated the funds for us to create a lifetime achievement award. This prestigious award will be given to a person whose achievement in the series had an impact that lasted long after the person left the series.

    Willard has provided us with a short list of 5 potential award nominees. The nominees for the Willard Whyte award for Outstanding Contributions to the Bond Series are:
    • John Barry, providing the soundtracks for many of the earlier films. Barry created a Bond sound that lives on today in the series. Not just a composer he also helped to craft many of the outstanding themes from the movies!
    • Ken Adam, Adam provided the films with style! Wonderful sets that enhanced the story telling. Adam never really had a false step in any of his work. From underwater to space Adam designed some wonderful sets for the movies. (thanks @MakeshiftPython for the call out and edit help!)
    • Richard Maibaum. Richard was the screenwriter for many of the films cited by fans to be the best in the series. He seemed to know the character of Bond well and in some cases improved the plots of Fleming.
    • Terence Young. Terence understood Bond because he shared the style and tastes of the character. He was responsible for smoothing out the rough edges of Connery. But beyond that he directed 3 of the first 4 films. He did this in the span of 4 years. Unheard of today and never to be repeated with such high quality.
    • Michael G. Wilson. Michael worked his way up the chain of a production. He wrote and produced many of the later adventures and was the caretaker and bridged the gap till Barbara was able to assume some control. A screen writer, and producer Michael also has appeared in many of the films in small cameos.

    You will notice that Willard has decided to make his award for behind the scenes contributions to the series. He had a falling out with Albert and Harry after they destroyed his oil rig near Baja! So they didn't make his list.

    My dear academy members. Who should be awarded the first Willard Whyte lifetime achievement award? Please feel free to elaborate on why you chose your selected nominee.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,188
    First: It's Ken Adam, not Ken Adams. ;)

    Okay, wow, that's really hard to pick.

    I'll say Terence Young. He pretty much put together something that would permeate throughout the entire series, from the depiction of cinematic Bond to the visual aesthetic of Bond's world. Heavily assisted by Maibaum, Barry, and Adam, without a doubt. Heck, even M's office is still as Adam laid out in Craig's run. Wilson is the longest serving producer of Bond, overseeing four Bond eras in his time. Not too shabby. However, he also made Blofeld the foster brother of Bond, so I guess that's his biggest ding.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Adam is a strong contender, but this time my vote goes to John Barry.
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    Posts: 3,262
    I vote for the composer with the same initials as the superspy whose adventures we celebrate on these forums:

    John Barry
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    edited July 2020 Posts: 4,247
    Not saying it would have been easy, but it would have been possible to find an art director, a screenwriter, a director and a producer. But a film score is such a delicate and integral part of filmmaking that it could easily go wrong. Not that Monty Norman's work was that bad, but it didn't completely scream BOND.....Cubby and Harry knew it.

    I'll go with John Barry. Because whenever the Bond films were great or not that great, his scores stood out....almost like another character.
  • Posts: 631
    Ken Adam for me, please.

    I used to make cardboard models of his sets out of breakfast cereal boxes when I was a kid.

    The films that lack his sets (or sets in that Adamesque style) seem to be missing something, IMO, like a pop song without a bass line.
  • Posts: 2,165
    Whilst all of the nominees are more than deserving of winning the award, I feel that it ultimately has to go to the irriplaceable, the one and only... John Barry.

    I always felt that out of everyone who has worked on Bond, from behind the scenes staff to actors on screen, he is the one who has best "understood" what Bond is, and has consistently realised this, through 25 years of contribution to the series.

    When we think of Bond... where does your mind go to. Mine immediately goes to the music and the lush orchestrations that he gave the series. I could listen to a five second snippet of a track from any of Barry's 007 scores and instantly be able to identify which film it is from. He created a individualistic sound for each film whilst remaining firmly within the overall sound and style of Bond.

    There is no "bad" Barry Bond soundtracks. Only "great" to "outstanding". Even weaker films (looking at you DAF, TMWTGG, MR, AVTAK) have an excellent Barry soundtrack with them. DAF in particular I feel, is one of his best. An epic three film streak - YOLT, OHMSS and DAF, no other composer could even come close.

    He has provided an interpretation of the character of Bond that stands alongside the actors who have portrayed him. He is, in many ways, an unrecongised 007. A true legend of the series and of the film industry, his mark on Bond will cast a large shadow over every Bond movie made, until the end of time itself.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,134
    All great contenders of course. I guess it depends what you want from a film. For me, characters and acting are important, so is story-telling and directing. But music is integral as well. In fact, I'd argue music is the most important of all. I wouldn't rate a film among my favourites if I hated the music to it. On the other hand, I'd gladly listen to an album of a lesser film if the music was great.

    You'll have to do everything right of course. Directors, actors, writers, editors, cameramen, etc. But the music is the finishing touch. It's like the correct wine choice that makes your excellent dish even better. It's that last little piece that takes great filmmaking and makes it legendary.

    What would Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns have been like without Ennio Morricone's phenomenal music? Imagine George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead without Goblin's haunting electrorock? Didn't Stanley Kubrick perfect 2001 by inserting classical compositions?

    So what would 007 be without the James Bond Theme? Still that refined gentleman spy, surely, but with John Barry's ageless tune he has become a refined gentleman spy for the ages.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,304
    I vote for Maibaum, in a close one with Barry. But if I am counting correctly, Maibaum had the longest and most sustained contribution to the series of any of these filmmakers.
  • Posts: 7,430
    Defintely JOHN BARRY!
    Music maestro and just recently bought a Best of compilation of his work, no one compares!
  • MooseWithFleasMooseWithFleas Philadelphia
    Posts: 3,369
    I will go with Richard Maibaum as his work on 6 of the first 7 Bond films set the dialogue style and tone for the series, as well as transformed literary pages to screen, where much of the material IMO was not easy to adapt. His work throughout the rest of the series (7 additional films) continued to add to the series lore and give us many of the memorable one liners and dialogue that we receit on these boards and in our daily lives for ironic fun.
  • marcmarc Universal Exports
    Posts: 2,610
    thedove wrote: »
    You will notice that Willard has decided to make his award for behind the scenes contributions to the series. He had a falling out with Albert and Harry after they destroyed his oil rig near Baja! So they didn't make his list.
    Baja? I haven't got anything in Baja!

    Ken Adam for his fantastic sets! With John Barry as an honourable second.

  • Wow, this is a tough one! All the nominees are worthy of the award, so in the end, it's a question of what one values the most. For me, as much as I love the astonishing sets of Ken Adam and the haunting music of John Barry... the script comes first. So my vote goes to Richard Maibaum.
  • Posts: 928
    John Barry - made Bond music its own genre.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,551
    marc wrote: »
    thedove wrote: »
    You will notice that Willard has decided to make his award for behind the scenes contributions to the series. He had a falling out with Albert and Harry after they destroyed his oil rig near Baja! So they didn't make his list.
    Baja? I haven't got anything in Baja!

    Ken Adam for his fantastic sets! With John Barry as an honourable second.

    Exactly what I was thinking when I read that! :P For that reason I'll mirror @marc's vote.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,217
    This is a near impossible choice. Definitely the toughest one we've had so far, as if you take the contributions of any one of these away, we are left with a considerable hole greater than any one film, character or moment.
  • Posts: 1,917
    Very hard, this one. All these nominees contributed so strongly to what makes Bond special, their talents coming together as one to create the ongoing legend of Bond.

    For me, it comes down to Maibaum and Young. Adam's sets are like another character, but his absence didn't harm FRWL and OHMSS. The films wouldn't be the same without Barry's contribution, so he's a not-too-distant third. MGW was more of a collaborator without a clear area to call his very own, so he'll fall to the bottom.

    I would actually substitute Peter Hunt in there instead of Wilson as a nominee. He helped create a new style of editing that helped these films move and promoted a prominent film scholar or critic to claim that someday all films would be made this way. To top it off, Hunt also would go on to direct one of the series' most beloved entries.

    Young set the tone and style for the series. Had it not been for his direction and influence, the series could've easily ended up being just like any other film of the era and Bond could've easily faded into obscurity. Against him is that it was Guy Hamilton's work on GF that elevated the series to next level.

    So I select Maibaum since he was able to blend Fleming with the demands of adding material that would work on the screen. Yes, he had collaborators, but I look at 2 factors that really help his case: 1. His absence from YOLT, where Roald Dahl was the sole writer, was really felt as the film is primarily spectacle while tossing out a lot of worthy Fleming material. 2. OHMSS which he was pretty much solely responsible for. It seems post-OHMSS that his work was often rewritten or had more influence from other writers, but his contributions still showed.

  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,266
    Tough choice. But I think that of all the fantastic work these people have done, it wasn't only creating the sound we all know and love, but beeing able to actually make bad films come over good. DAF is just a sloppy, badly made film made worse by the director and editor, but saved by a fantastic soundtrack. Same goes for yolt. So Barry it is.
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    Posts: 7,021
    This is a near impossible choice. Definitely the toughest one we've had so far, as if you take the contributions of any one of these away, we are left with a considerable hole greater than any one film, character or moment.
    My thoughts exactly. I can't bring myself to choose one person over the others. The identity and the quality of the Bond films can't be reduced to a single element. It's the whole package which has made them work and which has made them last.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    edited July 2020 Posts: 8,188
    mattjoes wrote: »
    This is a near impossible choice. Definitely the toughest one we've had so far, as if you take the contributions of any one of these away, we are left with a considerable hole greater than any one film, character or moment.
    My thoughts exactly. I can't bring myself to choose one person over the others. The identity and the quality of the Bond films can't be reduced to a single element. It's the whole package which has made them work and which has made them last.

    Cubby once said in his Oscar speech that film is a collaborative effort, and he would know best from how the 60s films turned out, with each member of the crew that added to the film. The only reason I selected Terence Young was because he was the guy that worked with all these amazing filmmakers like Maibaum, Adam, and John Barry to make Bond what it is. Every time I showed DR. NO to people who hadn't watched it before they're ALWAYS surprised to see all the major elements that make Bond are already in play, despite not yet having a pre-title sequence, full Barry score, gadgets, etc. There's enough in that first film to really kick off the franchise in a way that is still recognizable to this day.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,433
    I agree @MakeshiftPython Terence Young was a really fine choice for the first films.

    I may bring back the lifetime achievement award for a future category. I was never making this as an MVP award. I was curious if there was a person the academy felt should be honoured for their contributions to the series.

  • Agent_OneAgent_One Ireland
    edited July 2020 Posts: 280
    I'm abstaining from this round, because I just can't choose between the nominees; they all made Bond what it is today, together.
  • Posts: 7,507
    Agent_One wrote: »
    I'm abstaining from this round, because I just can't choose between the nominees; they all made Bond what it is today, together.

    Seconded
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    Terribly difficult... Cubby was correct: film is a collaborative effort, and these giants shaped an iconic character, starting with the books and expanding from there... i don't know if I can choose one over the other.
  • OctopussyOctopussy Piz Gloria, Schilthorn, Switzerland.
    Posts: 1,081
    While it is difficult to choose a singular winner, I'll go with Terence Young. Young is largely responsible for the creation of cinematic Bond. The quintessential cocktail of elements which we associate with Bond on the silver screen are as a result of Young's influence on the first entries of the series. While Connery was a diamond in the rough, it was Young who turned him into Bond. He directed 3 of my favourite 5 Bond films and these - Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Thunderball - are still considered some of the best films to date. The fact that he directed the first 2 films and made them a success is apart of the reason we have the series today. He took Fleming's Bond and ultimately sexed up his ideas to make it more appealing to a larger audience.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    edited July 2020 Posts: 4,247
    Yeah, of course other aspects of filmmaking are equally pivotal. But the reason I chose Barry is, a good score turns a not too impressive film and even impressive film into something worthwhile....it lifts the film towards loftier heights. Imagine if Barry worked on SP with A-ha and the Pretenders, with the same plot. And SP as we know, had a top-notch director and crew.

    I honestly think creating the perfect score requires more cognitive focus. The rest of the crew require that as well, but they're more like artistic artisans, compared to the composer whose thoughts aren't entirely from the script. A composer needs to have ethereal thoughts when composing a film's score, which makes it more difficult. That's why Marvel, with all its excellence don't have consistently good scores....and that makes most of their films somewhat forgettable, coz once you've gotten the narrative and visuals, there's no striking cue stuck in the head to remind you to revisit that film.

    Even if we don't work on Bond films, I think in this community, we can find guys who can create sets, write scripts, direct and produce. For example, there aren't many of us who can successfully cover an instrumental version of The Cranberries' Animal Instinct on guitar or piano....before thinking about doing an original composition. So I think a score is that delicate.
  • Posts: 2,918
    Maibaum deserves the award. Of all the major players in the series, only Cubby had a longer or more influential involvement. With all due respect to Barry, a good script is more important than a good score. And while a journeyman director like Terence Young helped shape the first two Bond films, Maibaum not only adapted and scripted the films that put Bond on the map, but he also kept the later films on an even keel. Without Maibaum the series succumbed to excess and self-parody--that is why he was brought back after YOLT and MR. He was the man the producers trusted to restore Bond and keep him true to his roots, since it was Maibaum who had done the hard work of adapting Fleming at the start of the series. Other screenwriters came and went, but Maibaum was the through-line from 1962 to 1989, the master blueprint maker. That is a lifetime achievement.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,433
    Very interesting thoughts displayed by the academy! Willard Whyte has told me to shove the honour to the winner! So here is the winner of the Willard Whyte Lifetime Achievement Award...John Barry! He received 8 votes.

    The other nominees received the following:
    • Terence Young 2 votes
    • Ken Adam 3 votes
    • Richard Maibaum 5 votes
    • MGW 0 votes :(

    Now back to our awards and it's time for a Klebbie to be handed out. Our man Bond is a gentleman spy, but on a few occasions he hasn't always been gentlemanly. So here is a Klebbie for worst gentleman behaviour by our man!
    • James doesn't show paternal instincts and shoves boy off his boat from TMWTGG
    • James decides not to tip a bell hop while showing some homophobia in Brazil from MR
    • James rescues Camille and leaves her unconscious at a yacht club from QOS
    • James takes away the "power" of Solitaire by duping her with a stacked deck of cards from LALD
    • James slaps Dink and dispenses of her for the man talk with Felix from GF

    Since we have already had a few awards where his overall treatment of women have been discussed so for these moments they are other un-gentlemanly moments in the films.

    So which moment deserves a kick to the shins. What is the least gentlemanly moment from the series. Time for the academy to decide.
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