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One thing I have always thought since first seeing TND (in the first days of its theatrical release in Germany): Take away the "ham" and caricature, and you have the Bond villain with probably the most likely and most logical motive of them all. No increasing the value of one's own gold by nuking much of the rest (I'm sure Goldfinger would have quickly realized that the rest of the world wouldn't appreciate that tacitly). No extorting of mere ransom money by threatening to ignite a nuke. No nuking that might render one's own country uninhabitable for ages. No attempts to create a new master race under the sea, or in space. No diamond-studded satellites, etc. etc.
But a clear-cut plan, whether displayed here realistically or not, to engage two major powers (OK, one's a pitiful little island according to some) in a war for the sole purpose of appropriating world's largest media market, i.e. for profit and power. It's happened before, and it might happen again. Carver is really William Randolph Hearst 2.0, with some Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch thrown in. Remember the Maine!
I do enjoy Stromberg's villainy as well. He a pretty good Blofeld proxy. In fact I would rate him over several official Blofelds.
Stromberg is a decent, underappreciated villain. I’d put him above the DAF, FYEO, and SP Blofelds. Roughly tied with YOLT Blofeld. Definitely prefer the FRWL/TB and OHMSS Blofelds though.
Agree with everything except your comments regarding Largo. I've always found Largo to be menacing and far superior to Goldfinger, IMO. The repartee between Bond and Largo in Thunderball is apart of what makes the film brilliant.
Carver is a wimp and the performance is far too comic and camp....it’s more Austin Powers than Bond.
I like Koskov.....he's a devious snake pretending to be a muppet. Whereas, Carver is just an example of 'hammy acting' and a 'comic character'.
The Living Daylights characters are also inspired by Fleming. In the short story that inspired the film, Koskov was instead known only as "272", and was legitimately defecting from the Soviet Union, whereas Kara Milovy's inspiration, Trigger, was the main antagonist. This was changed for the film.
Unfortunately, Carver has nothing in common with Fleming and is a poor villain in the cannon IMO.
I care. Koskov is pretending to be a pantomime wimp. Carver is a pantomime wimp who makes a mockery of the movie. The films have followed Fleming recently....the last time was in 2006 with CR.
I said the films followed Fleming in 2006 with CR which was brilliant. Have you read the novels???? The main issue with SPECTRE particularly was that they went totally against Fleming!l Skyfall and SPECTRE do not follow Fleming!!??
Kozkov pretends to be a defector and ‘simple’ in front of MI6 at the beginning of the film and in front of Pushkin at the end of the film. During the scenes with Whittaker and at the Russian airbase he is his true self.
He would probably have been a good Blofeld but as Stromberg he's pretty weak. Presumably in the hands of a younger (?) actor the webbed hands could have come into play in an action/swimming sequence or actual hand-to-hand combat of some sort.
And presumably as Blofeld he would have escaped?
As it stands he's above it all, much like the Blofeld he was intended to be.
Well said. I think the sparkling Bond vs Largo dialogue as they walk around Largo’s villa is easily one of the best bits of Thunderball, and arguably one of the best dialogue-focussed scenes in any of the series.
The only scene where Stromberg really works as a villain, I think, is when he’s about to blow Roger’s wedding tackle to kingdom come. Unfortunately he gets a load of bullets in his own lunchbox five seconds later. Exit Stromberg. Ah well
His performance is not terrible, but that "he does great" is quite some exaggeration... Boring character, lacklustre performance.
Lonsdale on the other hand is hilarious and does Christopher Wood justice.
I've always thought if a man is willing to kill untold numbers of people to start a war to build his media empire that's brilliant because it shows how mad he is in his lust for power. No, it's doesn't have the sexy evil of destroying the human race or irradiating the gold supply of the U.S., but it's unique and still evil.
And when you think of how dependent we are on forms of media now than we were 23 years ago and our need for immediate information, you can see him being on the forefront of that as well, keeping it relevant.
Stromberg always has been and remains my least favorite villain. Since he was written to be Blofeld before McClorey scuttled that, they just kind of left him blank, although the Wood novelization fills in the blanks. Juergens himself complained all he gets to do is push buttons. He has a cool voice and that's it. Even his death has a problem in how does the tube through which Stromberg shot the bolt at Bond stay open for Bond to shoot him through? I'm no expert at firearms, but is there any such device like that?
Largo is a good villain in that he's not just a villain but a more personal villain in that he and Bond are also competing over Domino. The pair have a nice antagonistic one-up game going on, and bonus points in his being directly involved in the action in the film instead of hiding out on his base of operations while subordinates do all the work.
Brandauer's NSNA Largo is another nice variation. I think, though, that I would have liked to have seen an actor closer to Fleming's description of Largo as a huge Sicilian that would've been a match for Connery in his '65 physical prime.
I've been up and down on Carver previously but lately I love his hammy performance. And so relevant now (except it's social media and not newspapers)
Quoted for truth! I agree completely regarding Stromberg and Drax. The pity is that the men playing them were excellent actors, but you'd never know it from watching those Bond films. Neither of the Bond girls in those films gives an particularly good performance either. Roger has some very fine moments in TSWLM but in MR he too seems enervated.
•TB is better than GF.
•Lazenby was a better choice for OHMSS than Connery.
•DAF isn't that bad.
•The Brosnan era is underrated. This includes DAD, apart from the CGI and endless quips/puns.
•Another Way to Die isn't a bad song.
•QOS is one of the best and SF is good but overrated.
•SP is far and away the worst of the series.
Agreed on the first two.
DAF is still tough for me to get through.
I think the Brosnan era has its moments, but other than GE none of the films are very consistent.
AWTD isn’t one of my favorites but I agree it’s not bad.
I love QOS, but it doesn’t make my Top 10, while I’ve always loved SF and it’s been in my Top 10 since I first saw it.
SP is my third-lowest ranked film, so while I don’t agree I definitely can understand where you’re coming from.
I agree.