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He puts the tracker on Elvis’s phone.
This. He hands the guard at the gate in Haiti his "business card" so that when Elvis or whoever called, he'd now have a link to be able to track the phone.
HA! You got me. :))
Or was the script better and therefore the character looked more engaged? I am not sure of the whole Connery wasn't having fun in YOLT story. Or that he looks bored. DAF gave him cracking good dialogue. While there are gadgets in DAF they don't overpower the film or take away from Bond's character. I mean you have fake fingerprints, a voice changer and not much else. Compare to YOLT where the gadgets were very much front and centre. From Little Nellie to safecrackers. Cigarette guns and the various other ninja weapons. Bond takes a backseat to things. I think this is what frustrated Connery. The dialogue in DAF is far superior to YOLT. Just my two cents.
Connery was a pro, and he wouldn't let his personal feelings about the role impose on his performance. This 'he looked bored' nonsense cropped up once in a book and everyone has latched on to it. His laconic, casual style which fitted FRWL and GF probably didn't fit in so well with the more gadget-driven YOLT, and therefore it stood out more.
I can't think of one scene where Connery looked bored. What I can see is Bond looking cool and laid back.
His look is far away from cool when he is waiting for Kissy during the fake wedding. He looks like 70 years old there...maybe this is the role he has to play but I definitely don t like it.
Preach it, @NicNac. Connery might have been bored with Bond by the time of YOLT, but it doesn't come across in his performance. He's just playing the role much like Roger Moore in Moonraker: laid-back and relaxed, anchoring the film's spectacle with his charming presence. Any more intensity in Connery's performance would have felt awkward in a film that is more comic-booky and outrageous than previous entries. The film is saying "this is fun, it's a romp", so Connery had to get with the program and play the part in a suitable way.
In DAF, I do think Bond the character comes across as bored, but that doesn't mean Connery the actor isn't engaged in the proceedings, it's just an acting choice. 007 seems particularly unfazed at the outrageous situations he finds himself in, and drops one-liners more casually and absent-mindedly than ever. This is perfectly suitable for the black comedy tone of the film.
Take a look at his performance in Rising Sun and you might draw the same conclusion that Connery looks bored. But I think it's the same as YOLT in terms of tone of the character. I remember Connery was very invested in Rising Sun.
Not in SKOH...
Just looked into this further and found this article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-surreal-tarot-cards-designed-salvador-dali-james-bond-movie-180973506/
A very interesting find, @ggl007. Thank you for sharing it with us!
"Legend has it that when preparing props for the James Bond film Live and Let Die, producer Albert Broccoli commissioned Surrealist maestro Salvador Dalí to create a custom deck of tarot cards. Inspired by his wife Gala, who nurtured his interest in mysticism, Dalí eagerly got to work, and continued the project of his own accord when the contractual deal fell through.
The work was published in a limited art edition in 1984 that has since long sold out, making Dalí the first renowned painter to create a completely new set of cards. Drawing on Western masterpieces from antiquity to modernity (including some of his own), Dalí seamlessly combined his knowledge of the arcane with his unmistakable wit. The result is a surreal kaleidoscope of European art history."
On that Note i have another fun story, and I can't believe i have never noticed this before, but i recently watched LALD with Rogs commentery, and when Bond meets Solitaire for the first time and she's laying the cards for him, Roger talks about the cards having a clearly visible '007' Design on the back.
It's supposedly just a funny accident, but once you see it you can never unsee. Maybe they had to get cheaper cards last minute, when the Dalí deal fell through.
After DAD, they really wanted to strip away the bloat the Brosnan years had accumulated, which unfortunately included Q and Moneypenny.
I'm surprised that you never noticed it before. I remember strongly that I saw it the first time I watched that movie in a theatre in early 1974 (and yes, of course I could never un-see it). I've always considered the entire Tarot stuff one of the few things I don't like about LALD, as part of the semi-supernatural/voodoo type of stuff that cannot be explained logically but is there. Apart from the soothsaying nonsense, even the deck doesn't make sense. And no, it's definitely not an accident.
Who is actually ‘in on it’? I’m assuming Ling is - but what about the gunmen? Are they shooting real or blank bullets - i.e. are they expecting to actually kill Bond, or know they are just pretending?
If they were all in on it, why the hassle of the springing the bed up?
What about the policemen? Are they in on it? If they are why the dialogue? If they aren’t, they don’t do a very good job of checking a shooting victim for signs of life.
And if the whole lot are in on, why not just dress the scene and leave Bond and Ling to a bit more ‘Chinese sexy time’?
I’ve always enjoyed the film and being a big Moonraker fan, I have no trouble just suspending all disbelief and going along for the ride, but if anyone does have a nicely wrapped up explanation for it all, I’d love to hear it. :)