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Oh. Yeah, that's quite a bit more blatant. No real ambiguity there.
That Bond took an instant dislike to him? And that Felix had nothing good to say about him?
I wonder if Ash wasn't inspired by Graham Greene's The Quiet American, especially with the equally clean-cut Brendan Fraser incarnation in the superb if largely undervalued 2002 adaptation...
It could have gone either way. They could have shown dislike towards him at the beginning, and then appreciation for him once he'd proved himself.
It wasn't a giveaway at all that he was going to end up betraying them.
Yeah chat about killing Bond has been swirling around since then, and folks had been discussing it as a possibility... it didn't come as a massive shock. Which in a way kind of worked for it, because having a really big suspicion that he's going to die makes the first time where you see that scene where he puts them on the raft and says he'll be right back feel like a death knell is toiling.. there was a real knot in my stomach because I pretty much knew exactly where it was going, but I didn't want it to.
Then he gets shot and you think "ah damn, that's it then" (why was he running so carelessly? Who did he think opened the doors?!)
Personally I think that's great filmmaking. You were feeling the same thing as the characters in the scene.
That's it actually. I don't think the movie did suggest Ash was a turncoat until the reveal actually happens. I just figured he would be someone who inadvertently gets in the way of Bond doing his job.
I actually took that as perhaps a modern variation on DAF's "You just killed James Bond!" where Bond is some kind of superstar celebrity spy that everyone knows about from Amsterdam to Timbuktu.
It's not quite so ridiculous here because it's just within the international spy community. But it is pretty funny that Ash talks about Bond as if Ash has Bond's spy equivalent of a baseball card at home and wants him to sign it.
It'd seemed so ... especially as the camera lingered on Ash for a moment while Bond & Felix kept walking, entirely oblivious to it. Maybe it was meant to suggest a bumbling, inexperienced figure .... but otherwise innocent of any bad intentions? So, in effect, an act of misdirection on the part of the filmmakers?
Could be. I vaguely recall the part you're mentioning. Ash's over-the-top adoration of Bond already did suggest a kind of rookie-ness or inexperience. It was a little odd that Paloma embodied much the same thing. But they were both used so little in the film I guess that didn't matter in the end.
Or, that Paloma, like Ash, is pretending to me more inexperienced than she really is ...
I’m still not sure what they were going for with Paloma. It doesn’t make sense that she would tell Bond she had only been in training for three weeks and act all skittish if that weren’t the case. I think they may have been going for some kind of humor here that she’s really nervous about being in the field but then busts out all these incredible, natural combat skills she has. A case of her drastically underestimating her own ability.
I see what you're saying but again I think it's a little hindsight is 2020. You're right about economy of storytelling indicating that he's a little more important than they're letting on, but it could have led to him doing something good, not just something evil.
In other words, you're right about everything, but you're presenting Ash double-crossing them as the only possible resolution to what they were setting up.
Maybe the filmmakers were both providing some of the glamour that we associate with classic Bond Girls, while reverse-satirizing the more unfortunate examples of helper agents? (Mary Goodnight ... Rosie Carver, I'm looking at you ....)
Meaning, the filmmakers are satirizing audience expectations. 'Oh, here we go ... another ditzy, pretty young Bond girl,' you can imagine many saying to themselves upon seeing her at first.
Except she's not ditzy under the surface ... and probably uses her "inexperience" strategically so that men, especially, will underestimate her. Hence Bond's wryly skeptical comment afterwards, "Only three weeks ... huh?!" Or words to that effect ...
And that she has no interest in sleeping with Bond only furthers the riposte ....
Usually I'd agree wholeheartedly. CGI action sequences are the main reason I can't get into Marvel. However, I don't mind it too much here since it's a brief scene and more or less just a means to an end. Once they're on the island I'm all good. Fortunately it's a little tidier (to quote Safin) than a certain other Bond CGI action sequence. ;)
I don't recall what the Jamaican man says - I think some kind of local insult? - but I took it as a) Ash not being able to integrate into his environment the way these two grizzled field operators are and b) Ash maybe being a bit racist. I think he immediately checks for his sunglasses and wallet to see if he had been pickpocketed. But maybe I am imagining things.
Also, did Ash fire through his own cars windshield in the forest scene? That seems ill advised, doesn't it? I understand the advantage of not leaning Out, especially in a forest, but still the possible negative effects on your ability to see through the window as well as just a bump in the road leading you to basically shoot into you own motor block seem a bit crazy.
He calls them Babylon.
Something about growing up on "shrimp boats," I think, presumably an anecdote from Felix's past (on the Gulf of Mexico?), to which Bond responds, "you're from Milwaukee." Felix replies with something along the lines of, 'Oh, is that what I told you.'
There so much of interest going on this movie, especially with some of the dialogue (both extraneous and not) buried within the sound mix, that it's difficult to pick-up let alone recall it all.
Thanks, that's funny ... and accurate, at least regarding Ash, as things will develop.
Not being from Milwaukee I don't get Felix's slip up, but I could guess it from Bond's answer. Is it well known that you can't fish for shrimp around Milwaukee/Lake Michigan or something?? Or is it an activity not associated with that region of the US, causing Bond to immediately question it?
Same! Very captivating guy. I liked that they went with less screen time with these great characters; it would have been a shame if they’d outstayed their welcome. Less is more IMO.
I think that's the problem I was having. So much to look at in addition to the sound of the water pouring in, explosions, and music so the dialogue got a little bit lost in the theatre (among some other scenes in the film).
Bring on the home media release so we can further crack some of these mysteries!
Yes, I think that's right.
To me (and I'm from Nova Scotia but living in Montreal), "Milwaukee" connotes urban, where there wouldn't, I would think, be a large-scale shrimp fishing industry. Whereas that's something I would associate with Louisiana or Texas, where Felix in the books is born.
Ah right that makes sense then. Thanks!