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How often have we seen it in Bond? The one in LTK comes out of nowhere and is uncalled for. The only others I can think of are in OHMSS and DAD, and the only one that works is in OHMSS when Bond is knocked out.
Obviously to reintroduce Sean, but I wonder what other ideas were tossed around?
Yes I think you're right. That's the only way it makes sense.
Ive never noticed that at all?? Maybe I'm too busy spotting the stunt double!
I remember seeing this clip when Craig was on Letterman in 2006 and worrying that the film would contain lots of manipulated speed - slow-mo, speed ramps, etc. like Die Another Day. Luckily not!
Daniel Craig is a great James Bond, he's the best actor to ever take on the role and his era has for the most part been a success for me (I like CR, I really like SF, and I love SP). But, he never really became Bond for me.
With Dalton (the first Bond I saw as a kid, so for me he was Bond straight away), and eventually Brosnan (not sure when the specific point was but by the end of his era he'd become synonymous with the role, when I thought of Bond I thought of him), the two eras I lived through before DC, I watched them and they just were James Bond. I didn't see the actors, I saw them, and I wasn't comparing them to any of the others in the back of my mind. Even in the back of my mind, it never got to that point with Craig, and I can think of a couple of reasons why
The first two (arguably three actually) films we got the Bond begins arc. So in my mind he wasn't Bond yet because he was still becoming Bond.
Then, even as the fully formed 007, his films were full of homages and callbacks. It's hard to just think "this is James Bond" when the film is constantly reminding you of Connery, Moore and even Brosnan (the exploding pen comment). The fourth wall breaking self homaging was mot only reminding me that he was just an actor playing a character, taking me out of the film, but also constantly inviting comparison to the previous actors.
The third point is the general lack of exposure he's gotten. His films were spread out over a long period of time and in terms of merchandise, multimedia stuff, there doesn't seem to be as much presence as before. With Brosnan you had a film every two years and multiple video games in between that. With Craig, he does a film every few years and either does non Bond projects or disappears of the face of the earth inbetween. There also seems to be less presence in terms of merchandise. They don't really do the video games anymore for instance and even though Craig does stuff like the heineken and sony ads whenever a new film does come around, it feels like there's less exposure of him as Bond than with Brosnan (I think this is because Brosnan generally kept a higher profile than Craig and did TV appearances, etc, reminding you of his assosciation with the role). You also had lunchboxes, posters, etc, with his silhouette on, and maybe it's because I'm a lot older now but I've never seen anything like that for Craig.
That last point isn't a criticism, there's nothing wrong with wanting to keep brand integrity and all that (I do think the longer gaps between films is a problem though) but imo, all these things combined mean that for me, despite being in the role nearly 10 years, Craig still feels like the "new Bond". I never just think of him as James Bond as I did with Brosnan (I'd say at some point during TND is where he stopped being "the new one" for me), despite how good he is in the role.
I have almost the same feelings about Daniel Craig. I have never felt that he has ever really become Bond. I guess they should have finished the "He is just becoming Bond" story much earlier. Him being still emotionally damaged by Vesper's death makes it even harder to accept him as Bond. At some point in time they should have made him more relaxed. Like Roger Moore he could still have some serious moments (TSWLM or FYEO) which would then even be a bit more effective.
I just knew the makers had made a great choice of actor for 007.
He was cool, arrogant and self assured. From that moment on I'm afraid poor old Pierce became a distant memory!
I wouldn't say Bond still feels emotionally damaged by Vesper. He left that part of his life behind in QoS when he symbolically let go of the locket and got Yusef into custody.
Bond staring at a tape of Vesper's interrogation in White's old hotel in SP doesn't mean he's still damaged. He still feels things, he's bloody human for crying out loud, but he's not in the fetal position over it. One of the main themes of the film is the dead coming back from the past to disrupt the present, and that was one of Bond's moments. He's obviously dealt with what Vesper brought on him, good or bad, and it's changed him because of that; looking at that tape is just him being confronted with that strange past again which he's repressed.
The tape itself offers a great symbolic contrast because after Bond gained a bit of respect for White seeing him in the sad state he was, reforming against SPECTRE's sadistic wishes and dying for it, he is reminded how cold White was as well, and how far he was willing to go in the business they share to get what he wanted. Again feeding into the idea that maybe Bond should get out while he still can.
When i re-evaluated Craig, his performance in this scene made me realise he is one of the best Bonds.
In fairness, under the same circumstances I think Pierce would have shouted, but had Sir Roger Moore played 007 in that scene, he would have kept it simple, serious and far more effective. Along the lines how he played the city hall sequence when Zorin shoots Howe. As it stands, this intense moment in SP is unintentionally funny. I almost start cracking up when they knock Bond down.
I think the same in relation to Dalton and Brosnan to be honest.
However, I do agree about the Mr White footage in SP. The scene doesn't quite have the impact I think it was intended to have.
I made a point on the Bond actor thread that playing Bond is not always easy. The delivery and approach must be subtle in my view, and not overt. Craig demonstrated that nicely in CR during the Vesper shower scene, when he first notices her sitting there, and again when he confronts Yusef at the end of QoS. Different emotions in both cases, but perfectly captured.
Its a very strange scene in general. I don't understand the point of it, or why it should warrant such an intense reaction from Bond. I don't think Craig is to blame really.
The point is, on Blofeld's side he's proving his side that something horrific can bring about something beautiful-White killing himself brought Bond to Madeleine-just as his ordered bombings in Africa brought Nine Eyes to life, while on Bond's side, he doesn't want Madeleine to see her father kill himself, and since Bond gave him the gun and almost made a contractual unemotional agreement with him to find her and protect her, she could take umbrage to what he's tried to do. At the start, Madeleine is simply Bond's way of finding Blofeld; only later does something deeper develop, and Madeleine could have been driven by emotion and grief in that moment to look badly on Bond.
Or, Bond knows the control Blofeld likes to have and how he likes to bring out people's past trauma to his own use, and so he strikes out against Ernst for trying to do that to Madeleine as well, and so Bond makes her look to him instead of the video to make her feel less fear, just as he held her hand in the car ride there.
I think it's a chilling scene. Bond shares his disgust for Blofeld, Blofeld shuts off his agents' monitors and they turn and face him like robots, Bond is helpless on the floor as Ernst tries to bring trauma on Madeleine, and Léa's jittered performance as the gunshot in the video rings out in the room is perfect, capped off by the concussive sound that hits right as Bond is knocked out and everything turns to black.
I would buy all that if it wasn't for the fact that Madeleine is portraid as a very strong and independent girl with lots of guts and bravery, who knowingly was raised by a gangster and assassin, being well used to that cynical side of the world. One would think having to save her family with a gun as a child would hardening enough. Yet seeing her dad commit suicide is supposed to completely traumatize her? I just don't buy it, sorry.
Moore is great in that scene after Tibbett is kilked. He means business. Craig is great in the shower scene and confronting Yusef. Subtle, but the emotions are there. Also the M death he is genuinely moving.
@jobo, I wouldn't say Madeleine got "used to" the life White had as much as she and her mother got sick of it and escaped. It's clear Madeleine is strong and independent, but despised the life her father led, which is why she hid away where he couldn't find her, as she didn't want to have any part of what he was doing, or be connected with him whatsoever.
She understood him, but that doesn't mean she approved of what he did. It's also part of the reason why she has mixed feelings about staying with Bond near the end of the film. She knows that the life Bond leads is as attached to him as the life her father had was attached to him, and she knows how hard it can be for someone like him to leave it behind. Bond understood that Madeleine would only accept him if he left it all behind, which he does in an effort to explore a new life with her.
As for her reaction in that HQ scene as the suicide plays, how do you expect her to act as she watches her father prepare to take his own life? It's a situation of tragedy, because though Madeleine didn't approve of White's choices, she wasn't aware of his turn against SPECTRE or the noble reasons he had to welcome death rather than become more of a monster than he already was alongside Blofeld. I think part of Madeleine felt guilty for not reaching out to White, and hated herself for letting her father die thinking she wanted nothing to do with him. White's last decision he made in his life was to condemn Blofeld and SPECTRE for killing innocent women and children, and I'm certain that was because he instantly thought of Madeleine and her mother being victims of the same attacks and couldn't stomach going on. In his last days, White was for the first time in a long time consumed with thoughts and worries about the people his actions had coldly affected, instead of himself. He's not a hero and not meant to be one, just a bad man who realized his evil and tried to gain back the humanity he'd lost somewhere along the way, despite it all being too late. He's one of the biggest figures of tragedy in the series for me.
With all this knowledge about her father as she confronted the video, Madeleine would have to be cold as ice not to feel shaken by what her father did with her memory in his heart. He's still her father, after all, and obviously she cared for him. She didn't hate him, but their relationship is far more complex than we or Bond could even begin to know, and located somewhere in their time together, was love.
Madeleine and White's father/daughter relationship felt very genuine to me and reminded me of how real abusive relationships can be, whether they are based on psychological or physical trauma. A child can look at their parent and feel great pain from what they have done to them or others and hate the idea of that coldness existing in them, yet still love them and miss them when they're gone. As with everything relating to humans, our relationships with each other are complicated and never black and white or easy to comprehend.
That's the feeling I got with Madeleine's view of White too. She hated what he did, but he was still her father and she didn't want to see him die like that no matter what he may have done, especially in front of her eyes.