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Bond at that moment: "Boy, I'm glad I'm not black right now".
It could've been interesting to seen LTK with a Christmas release as its only real competition in the action stakes was the Stallone/Kurt Russell flick Tango and Cash, which did pretty good, not stellar.
The other big films during that time that I recall were Born on the Fourth of July, Driving Miss Daisy, The War of the Roses and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
OMG that’s insane because I watched CR a few days ago and that’s exactly what I said out loud
Definitely one of my favourite scenes too. Wonderfully acted by Dalton.
Also, and this might be the right thread for it, I love Pam Bouvier!
I don't want to see Bond in the US again either, but I'm just wondering if for you and other Americans it's not a bit because it's too familiar a place and not exotic enough?
Me too GG !!!
Actually, I'd love to see a return to a more singular locale. I love Jamaica as seen in DN and the Bahamas in TB. YOLT makes me really want to visit Japan, for instance. . Some of the newer films don't spend enough time in one exotic location to give the film that extra atmosphere.
No arguments, there! :-D
As Zorro would say:
“FINALLY, we agree on something.” ;)
Haha indeed we do !!
Barry Nelson born San Farancisco.
Orson Welles born Kenosha,WI.
Jeffrey Wright born Washington DC.
Is there another version of CR out there I'm unaware of?
Again not wanting to have a go at Yanks and America particularly but America just lacks a bit of the class and mystique of Europe I'm afraid.
Istanbul, Venice, East Berlin, Vienna, Lake Garda, the Alps - these are Bondian locations.
Maybe it's something to do with the snootiness you get in Europe that doesn't exist as much in America? If you turn up at the average Bond location in jeans and trainers in Europe they wouldn't let you in (and a bloody good thing too) whereas I don't get the impression anyone makes such a big deal of such things stateside.
I remember going to Raffles in Singapore. I was gratified to see the hefty doorman (think Gobinda) quietly but firmly put his arm across the door as two yank backpackers tried to gain entry to the billiard bar then wave me through (obviously I was playing the colonial British overlord to the hilt and was dressed up like the man from Del Monte). That's the difference and that's what I want from a Bond location; a sense, as Basil Fawlty himself said, of 'turning away some of the riffraff'.
Mind you it's the same with Top Gear (proper Top Gear I mean not the multiethnic bullshit that's back on Sunday), I never get the same sense of romance and adventure when they drive across the states as I do when they drive across Europe.
I still think that one shouldn't necessarily use that as an indicator of how it could appear if done properly. If there's a will, there is ample evidence outside of the Bond universe to show that one could create a suitably lavish and stylish film set in the US. The natural scenery doesn't compare to the old world beauty of Europe or the exoticism of Asia, but there are still ways to make a film look appealing in a larger than life manner fitting for Bond.
You just need the right director. I guarantee you David Fincher, or anyone with the support of Roger Deakins, would be able to do it with considerable ease.
I agree, the crassy Las Vegas scenes in DAF being the absolute worst in that regard.
They
They could work but for me it's a case of why bother. I agree with @TheWizardOfIce that generally US locations in Bond movies were rather weak overall. We could have a Bond movie that features New York, Washington, Chicago... Or we could have a Bond movie that features Stockholm, Avignon, Bergamo... To name a few off my head. Places we don't see that often.
And I agree with your second point. I would love to see Bond in one main environment setting for most of the movie.
That's what I love about LTK. It's basically an 80s action movie/crime thriller where it all seems to be going so well for the villain until a pissed off James Bond (bunking off what the audience would expect to be the film, his mission in Istanbul) storms in, completely out of his usual element and wanted by his own government and goes on a revenge rampage. I wouldn't want every Bond film to be so different but as a one off, it's perfect.
How often do you see "Old World" places like Italy, Japan, Germany etc. in big film productions outside Bond?
You've sold me old son. If those are announced as the locations for B25 I'll be more than satisfied.
Very very spot on!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
What I'm trying to say is that foreign locations are what the audience make of them. Today it's normal or at least within reach to travel just about everywhere. But fifty years ago you could basically come up with any place overseas and it would have been interesting. I found Kentucky (or its Pinewood personality) just as attractive as Jamaica at the time, and wouldn't have passed up Las Vegas as a destination either (which in the meantime I have deliberately avoided on several travels to the U.S.).
If the 60s films worked back then as travelogues, perhaps over the decades they've shifted to working more in time as well as place? As you say, @j_w_pepper 60s America was an exotic place — what's more, it still is. Over time the location of GF's second half has become specifically 1960s America not just America. While I agree that the Bond films have rarely done the US well, the best of them for me is definitely the Harlem stuff in LALD, and that most definitely works in a large way because of how much of a time capsule it is.
Bond: Where is my next mission M?
M: Oh, a strange land where their leaders can lose by three million votes and still get elected. An exotic place where there is three mass shootings a week but their citizenry have no free access to healthcare. A basket case where a paedophile can mobilise half of the electorate.
Bond: You are shipping me off to a different planet? Wasn't that one adventure in the 70's sufficient?
M: Oh no. This place exists.
Bond: With all due respect sir, that's utterly bonkers. Where in the developing world is this?
I saw it in the U.S. in two different cinemas. 6 times at one and 5 at the other.
The first weekend there was an okay, but not overwhelming amount of audience members. You didn't have to worry about anyone with a hat sitting in front of you, or even finding a decent seat.
I remember there had been a small blackout opening day, and I waited outside the theater prior to the first showing hoping the lights came back on and the attendant would let us in. There were a few people behind me in line, and a couple left to catch it at another cinema. Well, the city got the power back in time for the first 1 pm showing and I sat in the remodeled old school cinema not even bothering to go to the concession stand. The trailer that played was for the animated film All Dogs Go To Heaven. I've never seen that film and to this day still remember the music in the trailer.
Then the abbreviated version of the 1987 UA logo kicked in followed by the gunbarrel. Kamen's intense stretched out chords during the dots I thought was different, but was thrilled to hear the guitar melody make a comeback. I remember noticing the length of Tim's hair changing throughout the movie. Also the print was grainy in many shots. There a reel change during the casino sequence: Pam stacks some chips and it cuts to a close up of Sanchez. At that moment there was a remarkable change in the film stock. Suddenly the colors were more lush and the film looked cleaner. The red in Talisa's dress as the camera pans up really popped.
I recall audience reactions during LTK as well: they cheered as Bond water skied behind the plane, and when he pops the wheelie with the tanker truck. They laughed at Sanchez's quips, and during the Q scenes.
My initial reaction was it was great to finally see Felix get the shark treatment from the novels. Tim seemed really focused as thought he were playing Bond's primary objective of revenge in every scene. I loved Carey and Talisa and thought Sanchez was an improvement over Koskov. Benicio del Toro's Dario reminded me of some of the kids in middle school. A real wiesel of a Bond villain. I thought he was GREAT, and cheered when Bond knocks him down at the Barrelhead bar.
What was missing was a memorable score. As I left TLD, Barry's haunting music during the Afghanistan sequences stayed with me, but here nothing.
The next day I took my Dad to see it and he loved it. The following week I took my Mom. Although she hated the violence during the mines in AVTAK, this one didn't quite bother her. She thought Carey was a great Bond girl and Tim was her favorite 007 after Sean.
I probably saw it about once a week until it disappeared from cinemas late September. The matinee I caught on the last Thursday it played, I was the pretty much only one in attendance. I think there might have been one homeless guy in the back row using the film to get a couple hours sleep.
I loved LTK, and began saving up the money for the rather expensive $89.99 to purchase the film on VHS upon it's release the following January. Much like TLD, I'd probably watch it every other week until 1991 (when I was anticipating B17).