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The PIERCE BROSNAN Appreciation thread - Discuss His Life, His Career, His Bond Films

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  • Comte_de_BleuchampComte_de_Bleuchamp
    edited September 2016 Posts: 382
    ClarkDevlin wrote: »
    They rejected him for a reason. He wanted to go to the Dalton route.

    I'm not seen any evidence as to that. I think he was almost was too pleased to have the role and just went along for the ride. Not a bad thing and certainly not unique to Pierce. From what I have seen he is humble about his time and even to the extent that he can hardly watch them because he sees it as missed opportunity.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    Comte_de_Bleuchamp wrote: »
    ClarkDevlin wrote: »
    They rejected him for a reason. He wanted to go to the Dalton route.

    I'm not seen any evidence as to that. I think he was almost was too pleased to have the role and just went along for the ride. Not a bad thing and certainly not unique to Pierce. From what I have seen he is humble about his time and even to the extent that he can hardly watch them because he sees it as missed opportunity.
    He did insist on many of the interviews always wanting his Bond to go dark. The World Is Not Enough was an attempt. A weak attempt. However, I still believe the Bond of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies suits him best, as I believe those indeed are his films when I think of a Brosnan Bond adventure. Good thing though Pierce is always humble about his work just like Moore was in his time.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 41,011
    Plenty of interviews have shown that Pierce would've been much happier playing the type of Bond that Craig is playing, but at the time, it wasn't meant to be and wasn't the angle they were going for.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    He kind of played an antagonized version of Craig's Bond in The Fourth Protocol.
  • Comte_de_BleuchampComte_de_Bleuchamp
    Posts: 382
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Plenty of interviews have shown that Pierce would've been much happier playing the type of Bond that Craig is playing, but at the time, it wasn't meant to be and wasn't the angle they were going for.

    You're talking about in retrospect. I can't imagine Dalton turning up on set, told about the invisible cars, and him being ok with it. At the time it's clear that Brosnan did not fight for a grittier Bond. I would say he's less cerebral than Dalton; didn't have a clear vision of what he wanted his Bond to be. I could be wrong and maybe he was just told no, but Dalton had a massive argument with Glen on LTK. What would he have done with Tamahori?
  • BAIN123BAIN123
    edited September 2016 Posts: 11,189
    I get the feeling Broz just did what he was told without putting up that much resistance. Even at the end of the DAD audio commentary he says (paraphrasing): "I'd like to try and go a bit darker but it's not really up to me, I'm just along for the ride."
  • Comte_de_BleuchampComte_de_Bleuchamp
    Posts: 382
    @BAIN123

    thanks, that quote encapsulates what I'm saying.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    We'll never know whatever happened behind the scenes. Pierce loved the character so much he didn't risk giving up on it despite his desires to go down the darker path, which pretty much speaks the truth for me rather than what they appear to claim in public (most of them sugar-coated denoted version of the truth). Sure he couldn't have spoken against the final say that the producers deliver in public at the time... His attempts at striking back at Eon began after they ejected his seat.

    Daniel, on the other hand, doesn't really care. It's just Barbara who wants to stick with him due to the portrayal of Bond she found genuine in Craig's tenure.
  • BAIN123BAIN123
    edited September 2016 Posts: 11,189
    To be honest I do wonder now whether Pierce liked the fame and the opportunities being Bond gave him rather the character of Bond himself.

    Moore similarly liked the money.

    Laz liked the glamorous lifestyle of shagging and getting drunk.

    With Craig it's hard to tell.

    The only one that seemed to like the original character was Dalton.

    Brosnan's knowledge of Fleming doesn't seem particularly good.

    (5.15)
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    ClarkDevlin wrote: »
    He kind of played an antagonized version of Craig's Bond in The Fourth Protocol.

    He was excellent in that,a perfect Bond audition...actually,i don't own that film,and I should do...time to head for Amazon methinks !

  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    edited September 2016 Posts: 15,423
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    To be honest I do wonder now whether Pierce liked the fame and the opportunities being Bond gave him rather the character of Bond himself.

    Moore similarly liked the money.

    Laz liked the glamorous lifestyle of shagging and getting drunk.

    With Craig it's hard to tell.

    The only one that seemed to like the original character was Dalton.

    Brosnan's knowledge of Fleming doesn't seem particularly good.

    (5.15)
    Connery himself wasn't a fan of the books and found the character very dull, he insists upon that in many interviews, often citing himself and Terence Young for injecting witticism and humour into the character.

    Moore and Brosnan didn't bother with the books, either.

    I can say that only Dalton is a fan of the literary character.

    I think Craig is more of... a businessman when it comes to the thing. He certainly doesn't like fame.
  • BAIN123BAIN123
    Posts: 11,189
    I remember that interview Connery did round the time of YOLT when he recalls saying to Fleming that he felt the books lacked humour. Fleming apparently was surprised as he felt his books had a fair bit of it.

    Connery has the advantage of being the only actor to actually talk about the part with Fleming himself.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I think Dan has read at least some of the books judging from some interviews I've seen, though I don't know if that knowledge is due to him reading the text or if he's simply citing other people's opinions that he's absorbed since taking the role.

    And I've heard that Dalton had the Fleming books on set with him to brush up during his movies. So Dalton is the only Bond actor to be absolutely confirmed as a Fleming reader, and a studied one at that. It's easy to see why he now has so many ardent fans: he treated the role of Bond as he would a Shakespearean part, putting in the reading time to "get" the character to effectively portray him and his world views credibly on screen.

    Everyone else though, didn't seem interested or like they needed to pull on the text for inspiration. George liked what came of the role while he had it but not much beyond that and Roger played Roger, so I get why there wasn't interest on their sides. As for Pierce, well that video was pretty cringey. Ah well...
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    Dan has definitely read the books. I know he read CR, and if my memory serves me right, is quoted for also reading FRWL.
  • BAIN123BAIN123
    Posts: 11,189
    It seems fair to say that Dalton is (so far) the only one to really study the character and use the books as his basis.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    Yep!
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    To be honest I do wonder now whether Pierce liked the fame and the opportunities being Bond gave him rather the character of Bond himself.

    Moore similarly liked the money.

    Laz liked the glamorous lifestyle of shagging and getting drunk.

    With Craig it's hard to tell.

    The only one that seemed to like the original character was Dalton.

    Brosnan's knowledge of Fleming doesn't seem particularly good.

    (5.15)

    So there are only seven Bond books. Connery did the first five and then Moore the rest. Thanks for the info, Brosnan.
  • IGUANNAIGUANNA
    Posts: 1,296
    Wow, Brosnan knows his Bond. :)
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    The best "what if" of Bond for me would be to have Dalton as Bond with the kind of control Dan is able to have over the character, starring in movies pulling from Fleming most primarily. It's a shame the reception Dalton's run has gotten, being forgotten in some ways even today, though he paved the way for what Dan is able to now explore. Most people don't even know that, and that's a shame.

    Dalton had to pay the price for being the first man to tackle Fleming in a noticeable way, and post-Moore on top of that. After over a decade of the more light-hearted Moore Bond palette, it's no wonder Dalton's Bond was so shocking. Still, we have him to thank for presenting us with a vision of Bond that we now get to enjoy through Dan's work. What's the saying? "First in the door gets it in the-"
  • Comte_de_BleuchampComte_de_Bleuchamp
    Posts: 382
    That comes across as quite presumptuous. There are many of us who do not think of Dalton as a poor man's or unrealised Craig.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited September 2016 Posts: 23,883
    I'm not a Fleming connoisseur, but I've read comments by some who are on this forum who believe that Moore came quite close to nailing the literary character in his first two films.

    What I can say is I see elements of Fleming's character in all of them, but most notably in Connery's first two, Lazenby's only contribution, Moore's first two (and parts of TSWLM), Dalton's two, Brosnan's first and Craig's first three. There is an overriding approach to how the character is portrayed here which is consistent, so even though there are different actors playing him, one who's not versed in the literary character can realize it's the same character.

    I just don't believe that Dalton was able to sell the character properly for the film audience masses. His Bond was cold and dark - he got that bit correct. However he wasn't able to scale the characterization to a more wider audience. In fact, he may have taken it in the other direction with LTK, so it appealed to fewer of the masses. Craig has had the advantage of better scripts, direction and cast, which has helped him immeasurably. However, he also has big screen charisma, and that is clearly evident from the first frame at Dryden's office. That is where he firmly sold his Bond to me, followed by his acting in the Bahamas casino scene, the Solange seduction, and finally in the Vesper shower sequence.
  • SzonanaSzonana Mexico
    Posts: 1,130
    ClarkDevlin wrote: »
    We'll never know whatever happened behind the scenes. Pierce loved the character so much he didn't risk giving up on it despite his desires to go down the darker path, which pretty much speaks the truth for me rather than what they appear to claim in public (most of them sugar-coated denoted version of the truth). Sure he couldn't have spoken against the final say that the producers deliver in public at the time... His attempts at striking back at Eon began after they ejected his seat.

    Daniel, on the other hand, doesn't really care. It's just Barbara who wants to stick with him due to the portrayal of Bond she found genuine in Craig's tenure.


    I think Pierce is the one who loved the Character the Most but he loved the film franchise character.

    his need for the darker Bond I guess it's because he was eager to prove his talent as an actor if I would have been his PR agent i would have told him to just enjoy hisbtime as Bond and there would be other films to prove his worth as an actor in general.

    And yes the negative stuff came after his seat was ejected lol. while he had the role almost never complained towards the franchise.
    Just a bitt in Tomorrow never dies because he didn't get along with Teri Hatcher and from an interview i heard they did have a few problems with the scripts but he followed the game in his other three outings.

    Im guessing he might have asked them latter to go darker but they convinced him it wasn't the right moment and just to please him added a vrey few darker moments here and there.
    But i agree if a Bond actor loved James Bond was Pierce.




  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Interesting that OHMSS isn t a Fleming title, or even a part of the official film series. Neither is DAF apparently. I learn something new every day here.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    I really can't defend Pierce's ignorance on that front. I simply can't. :))
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    For those who wonder, this is what I have learned.

    Ian Fleming wrote:

    1 DR NO
    2 FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
    3 GOLDFINGER
    4 THUNDERBALL
    5 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
    6 LIVE AND LET DIE
    7 THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN:

    Same as the first seven in the film series.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    =))
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    CR is blocked out of his mind. Good for him.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,723
    Brosnan was probably trying to wind up Robert Pattinson. The guy looks like he just got out of bed, so Brosnan is probably wondering who on earth is sitting next to him.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    DaltonCraig007 wrote: »
    Brosnan was probably trying to wind up Robert Pattinson. The guy looks like he just got out of bed, so Brosnan is probably wondering who on earth is sitting next to him.

    Pattison always looks raggedy and unshowered. And yet he's considered a heartthrob by some. The mind boggles..
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,999
    So Brosnan has finally learned that Dr No was the first film. Isn't it the DAD audio commentary where he claims that it is the first book? I don't expect every Bond actor to read the books, but at least have a rudimentary knowledge of Bonds literary roots.
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    CR is blocked out of his mind. Good for him.

    "Casino Royale? Oh, right... the one I wasn't in."

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