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Just a bit of humour, but his hair in LTK has come in for some criticism before. I mean come on, it looks ridiculous in the casino scenes! When I first saw the film I thought "What the hell were they thinking?!!"
My other criticisms of the film were all relevant and right in my opinion.
You never disappoint in these matters, @barryt007, so you needn't worry; I wasn't speaking of you. It's just that sometimes the way people respond to others' points, it's like you killed their mother, brought her back from the dead, slapped her, then killed her again. I certainly hope I don't act in such a way when I argue a point. If I do at any time, I need to rethink how I present my opinions to avoid becoming a person I don't respect.
Thanks pal !
That's not to say he doesn't have some effective moments in the film (his response to Della outside the house as he leaves is great) but I can't help but think of him as more one-note overall too. The "rage" Dalton is trying to convey feels forced.
Whether that's down to the scriptwriters or Dalton himself, I'm not sure. I suspect it's both, because I've never found Dalton convincing as a lover (he's just too serious a chap). Even Laz did a better job with it (although even he wasn't a patch on Connery/Moore).
I think they could have done without the casual sex (and mention of Bond as a serial lover) in TLD/LTK, as long as they incorporated more of the throwaway wit, because that's what contemporary heroes like Arnie, Bruce and Mel were doing at the time. Unfortunately, Dalton couldn't do that convincingly either, at least imho.
Ironically, Moore's FYEO had a far less sex driven Bond than either of Dalton's efforts.
I feel the same way about Craig too by the way. This is why his encounters with Severine and Lucia ring hollow to me and conversely his behaviour in QoS (and even in CR when he dumps Solange for the mission) is more believable. Having said that, the film makers smartly ensured that in both cases (SF & SP), it drove the narrative forward and that's why it still works.
Thanks @BAIN123
The Pushkin interrogation scene in TLD where Dalton is absolutely venomous and nails it from beginning to end shows just how good Dalton could play as Bond.
Which is why it was so puzzling to me why he seemed to be overplaying everything to the point where it seemed fake in LTK. He had a couple of nice moments in LTK but he was awesome all the way through TLD.
No comparison in my opinion.
Agreed.
I think there were a lot of factors there regarding Bond's sexual appetite. For one, AIDS had an impact at the time and I've heard that the knee-jerk reaction was not to show Bond sleeping with everything with two legs anymore, instead focusing the script on him romancing one woman who we never actually see him get intimate with.
As for the tone, as much as I'm saddened that the scripts still had Moore's style of quip at times, I can't blame EON for going that way. They were coming off of a long run of films with a distinct style, and had to go all in with a new Bond that was untested in the public eye. It's understandable that they'd include the lighter stuff from Moore's era as insurance in case people didn't take to Dalton's different approach, at least making the audiences feel like enough of old Bond was still there for them to enjoy. It was a self-preservation move.
As for Moore's Bond having less of a sexual appetite in FYEO than Dalton's Bond did, that's pretty easy to say when he was at least double the age of all the women around him! Bond could either indulge in women young enough to be his daughters or face statutory rape charges, and I think we both know what choice he had to make. ;)
Agreed. Dalton is just a bigger, more interesting draw to me in LTK. He's probably the least "stylish" Bond, always dressing in suits that look off the rack from the field, but that grounds him in my eyes a bit and makes him feel more real. The lack of glamor to his movies also helps to underscore their return to the spy-thrillers that Bond used to be when Tim was a wee lad, where Bond gets bloodied and messy in everything he wears while thirsting for retaliation.
Agreed. A bit more stylish polish would have done LTK good, and could have been injected without still losing the essence of what they were trying to convey there.
Style and what Bond wears is important, though, as it tells us a lot about who he is. Sean's Bond is probably the best blueprint, as his clothes were nice without being overt or "loud" in style, made with the right fabrics for every climate he faced. The man made simple gray suits look like the coolest things ever. You could tell Bond liked looking presentable, but wasn't trying to catch eyes at New York fashion week; his own man. This ultimately fails because Sean is so handsome and magnetic, though. ;)
Where I realized costume design can fail and make Bond seem not himself is with Roger and to some extent, Pierce. I think Roger's heavy use of double-breasted suits and cuts that ultimately make him look far too aristocratic really took away from his character, making his Bond feel like the upper crust type who'd scoff at civil service jobs like his own while munching on tons of caviar. In a different way, Pierce's suits are often killed by the use of those garish patterned ties, which Bond would never be caught dead in. I say this too often, but he looked like a used car salesman. My favorite suits of his, funnily enough, are those he wears open collar, like in the finale of TWINE and a small part of DAD. Pierce is the only Bond that actually feels more like Bond to me when he removes a tie! Funny, that.
I think they should get back to that early style. That doesn't mean going all fancy Kingsman though. Just ensure it's timeless and fits the purpose of the scene (whether that be watches, cars or suits). Nothing should stick out & be too obvious/overt.
yes.
The Glamour is a bit part of Fleming's writing, it's actually a big part of who Bond is, he is very particular about what he wears, eats, drinks etc. Bond would not wear an off the peg suit.
I don't know about George's suits. The one he wears cracking Gumbold's safe is good (a clear riff on Connery's default gray suits) and he looks good while at the college, but everything else signals the horrors of 70s style with the unsightly vibrant/mismatched colors and frills. The tuxedo is ruined, and the gold ensemble he wears in puke orange is another. Then there's whatever he has on for Draco's birthday. :-S
Sean, George and Roger were all victims of their time's fashions. Sean had to wear the worst tux in Bond history in DAF in addition to some wacky suits that just didn't work at all (a suit with a turtleneck in the desert?!), and Roger suffered not only from the wrong kinds of suits, but also the wide lapels, bad colors and disproportionate tailoring of the day. In the 80s he looked better, just bland instead of outlandish. Dalton probably wears suits with the least amount of verve out of all 6, but he did get lucky enough to skip the horrible fashion periods all those before him suffered under. That was not a nice time for glamor and style in Bond!
That's one thing I noticed about him. His tailoring doesn't seem as alluring to the camera compared to the others, who, even in poorer suits fashion-wise, had a cool aura about them. This could very well have been a deliberate choice but it does kind of reduce his presence/charisma.
With Craig, one has to be careful due to his build. They got it right in QoS, but have severely blown it on the formal side since then in my view (casual is still great). Cruise looks far better in the last two MI films in my view, and that's not a good thing for Bond.
The winking fish made you cry.
Yeah, especially the scene where Leiter is up for a bit of fishing a couple of days after his new wife was murdered...
You can see the hard work that went into it.
Perhaps that's why the addendum at the end feels so unsatisfying.
It's slightly outside my top 10 at present but I agree that there's quite a lot of strong points. Davi in particular is so good.
There's a "tattiness" to the film though in a lot of places. That's difficult to ignore.