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NOTE: For those not wishing to have any spoilers at all, you may not want to watch the trailer or at least not read our discussion. Just consider yourself forewarned. Speculation to ensue ...
SPECTRE Teaser Trailer - B-)
I think this is an awesome, exciting, and dramatic thriller. I like it not being filled with chase and action scenes - we know those things will be in it, though. This teaser truly seems to have had the serious Bond fans in mind. Very pleased with this!
Some points about what we see in this teaser trailer -
That photograph! Moneypenny gives Bond the folder then we see a photograph, and in that photo is a boy next to a man. We are all thinking (I think correctly) that the man is Hans Oberhauser. In the novels by Ian Fleming, he was a ski/climbing instructor whom Bond saw as a second father, after his own parents were killed. We are not shown the name Oberhauser in that, I believe (do tell me if you spot that for sure). But I do think it is Hans Oberhauser. The paper states something about guardianship or temporary guardianship. It is very intriguing. Especially as it shows two boys in the photo. So many of us can jump to the conclusion it is Oberhauser and the other boy is perhaps Oberhauser's own son.
And Mr. White's return! This is a biggie. I think most serious Bond fans are thrilled with this. It gives us a thread (granted a slim one, but that is all that is needed) to CR and QOS and therefore also Skyfall. That immediately gives this film more meaning. So wonderfully lit is this scene, the brief bit we get to see and hear. “'I always knew death would wear a familiar face ... but not yours." and "You're on a kite, dancing in a hurricane" Love the dialog! So superbly delivered. I always remember Jesper badmouthing the character and Bond films after QOS - I hope he ate a very big humble pie hat when Mendes approached him to return for this film.
And Bond hands him the SPECTRE ring! Thrilling and mysterious ... if this does not make you want to see the film, nothing will.
Homages - Ever since I decided I liked the title of the film simply because it is so 'in your face' about SPECTRE (and that means Blofeld at some point), I now look at other "obvious" nods the same way. Mendes is not pussyfooting around the issue. He is throwing us things, right in our face, from the beginning (title announcement and now the teaser trailer). However, keep in mind that some of this may easily be a misdirection by him. People saying that for sure now we can say Waltz is playing Blofeld are taking it a bit too far, in my opinion. Waltz may be Blofeld, and Mendes may go for that direct approach completely, but I am not sure. He could be made to look like he is Blofeld for 3/4 of the film (or more) and then have it revealed that someone else is the true "Blofeld" after all. Personally, I rather hope there is a surprise element left in the film. And Mendes may even pull a "double bluff" regarding that character. It makes this very exciting and intriguing! One thing I believe (and think would be the right thing to do) is that Blofeld is not killed off in this film. Daniel has a contract for one more, besides which it only makes sense in a profit-making, bottom line way for them to stretch this bit of pure gold (Bond vs. his greatest famous nemesis) to at least 2 films, not merely one.
So let's look at the boardroom scene in this trailer - an obvious, imposing villain sitting in the middle of our view flanked by his subordinates. Does this shot, the way it is framed, remind you of anything? I was asked that, and I did not pick up on it as an homage immediately. Except that it merely reminded me of many films, with bad guys at a board room meeting with the main villain at the head of the table. It reminded me of the cliched Austin Powers films, too, but also TSWLM, Oh, and the Kill Bill films. I suppose many films with this kind of setting. However, even though I sat thru Eyes Wide Shut once (I did not care for the film at all), I was not reminded of that. But I read a few comments saying it was a direct homage. Well, you know many scenes can be an unintended homage due to the history of films and Bond's own wonderful, long film history. However, if as claimed elsewhere on this forum, the script originally called for all the attendees at that table to be wearing masks, then it truly would be a direct homage to Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Not that I remember that scene in Eyes Wide Shut, I don't (I just blocked out most of the movie, I guess; I only liked Nicole in it and I hated the storyline) - but it was pointed out that happens in Eyes Wide Shut.
Well, I'll be curious to read about all the homages that people see, when SPECTRE is released (but I'll read them AFTER I see the film for myself). And I'll bet money that not all the homages mentioned at that point were intentional. But some will be, for sure.
My conclusion - I'll finish my summing up by saying that I think Mendes is a highly intelligent, well informed (on Bond, too) and imaginative filmmaker who cares about making a gorgeous looking film (go, Hoyte van Hoytema!!) that has a solid, interesting story (I'm happy more than one screenwriter involved).
What do you think of the trailer? Everybody is welcome to comment, but I do especially want to hear from Originals about this! Thanks for joining us in this teaser trailer discussion.
Oh, Bond is back!! And so is SPECTRE ....
:-bd
I was going with the classic scene in SPECTRE's HQ in Thunderball on that one.
Yes, @Birdleson! - the reason why I like the SPECTRE trailer so much, is because its aimed at us. A very rare occurrence.
Has everyone noticed the style of jacket Waltz is wearing in that boardroom scene? Yes, that kind of collar ... apparently called a janker. That's new word for me. So deliberate Blofeld hints are already peeping out for sure. ;) I didn't see a cat yet, though ...
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=nehru+jacket&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=7j0gVYiLFoWAU66TgpAE&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=nehru+jacket+blofeld
It is also the style for many boys' school uniforms here. :)
Live and Let Die is awesome! B-) It's a great, fantastic Bond story and I will be adding my mini review later this week. It is the first Bond novel I read (if I recall correctly) and is full of great characters, action, and spookiness as well as thrills. 8-X
I hope other folks (especially Originals) can join in regarding this novel. As well as Casino Royale. As always, you are all welcome to post about the previous one under discussion, too. Any comments about the novel are welcome, as well as mini reviews of course (no formula there; just do your own thing).
Cheers! :-bd
First of all, as @Birdleson notes, this novel sets the template for the rest that follow, far more than was the case for Casino Royale. Additionally, I’d like to echo @Birdie in stating that Mr. Big is a truly memorable villain, a larger than life figure with leavening touches of humanity that emerge at surprising times and in surprising ways. His hirelings are likewise memorable, from the Whisper and Tee Hee to The Robber and (of course) the non character that is Baron Samedi.
But perhaps the most notable thing about this novel, the elephant in this particular room, is the issue of race. Let’s put this novel into the proper perspective: it was published in the middle fifties, at a point in time in which blacks were generally invisible in popular fiction or the movies except perhaps as menials or comedic relief. I can still remember seeing Amos & Andy on the television in the supposedly liberal San Francisco Bay area in the early sixties, some five or seven years after the publication of this novel. To put it lightly, blacks simply weren’t given much dignity in the popular culture of this novel’s time. In the Real World, blacks were just beginning to integrate Major League Baseball, to be seen as human beings in their own right, rather than second class citizens bound to the life of a menial servant. And yet, at this point in time, rule breaking Ian Fleming has taken it upon himself to present in this novel the world’s first Great Negro Criminal. Some folks look at this novel and claim that Fleming was a racist…I look at it in its context and proclaim that Fleming was taking great strides forward in his portrayal of black people in the world as it was at this time. Yes, he says some amazingly insensitive things when judged by the standards of today. There is a chapter set in a Harlem nightclub titled “Nigger Heaven,” and a passage early in the novel where a black sedan pulls away in “a smart, decisive bit of driving, but what startled Bond was that it had been a negress at the wheel, a fine looking negress in a black chauffeur’s uniform…” A few paragraphs later we are told that “Hardly anywhere in the world will you find a negress driving a car. A negress acting as a chauffeur is still more extraordinary.” I quote this passage not to condemn Fleming, but to praise him. His characters are behaving in a manner quite radically contrary to the cultural assumptions of their time. Fleming is known to have shoehorned more than a few of his attitudes and opinions into his protagonist. Here, he does the same for one of his favorite supporting characters. Take it away, Felix Leiter: “I like the Negroes and they know it somehow. I used to be an afficianado of Harlem. Wrote a few pieces on Dixieland Jazz for the Amsterdam News, one of the local papers. Did a series for the North American Newspaper Alliance on the negro theatre about the time Orson Welles put on his Macbeth with an all Negro cast at the Lafayette. So I know my way around up there. And I admire the way they’re getting on in the world, though God knows I can’t see the end of it.”
End quote, Texan Felix Leiter, noted journalist on cultural affairs and prognosticator from a time before the Civil Rights campaigns…
More to come from this reviewer as I make my way through the novel. Tonight, just for some contextual chaos, I'll be checking in with Roger Moore, Yaphet Koto and Jane Seymour. Perhaps David Hedison will share some tips regarding the local jazz scene...
Good to see you still playing. Do you get a chance to do that often?
All comments on this novel are welcome! (Mini reviews desired, but so are general comments.) :-bd
And you two California boys really should get together some time. That would be great! And the rocknroll tales you could swap ...! ;) I'd love to join you, but my next soiree in the U.S. is in about 7 years ...
I am nearly finished with the novel, but it will be one more day probably before I get my mini review in. I will say this, though: Live and Let Die is a whole other world and far, far removed from a British environment! As well as being a time capsule of a quite different era. It's a very enjoyable read. :-bd
I will say this: I glanced at Goodreads reviews only to see if it was rated down due to "racism" in it, and boy is it ever! So yeah, some people are highly offended and want to burn Fleming at a voodoo stake. 8-X I think some, possibly many, people believe that Fleming was indeed a racist and misogamist. Well, this will be my fourth time reading the novel, if I recall correctly, and I never felt a visceral, huge anger towards Fleming. Even as a teen I read it as being written from a different time, without excusing the attitude (though as @Beatles pointed out, even that is not quite what it seems) or what would now (and even in the 70's when I read the books) be considered racist or bigoted language. I was still able to enjoy the story for itself. @Beatles made some good points about that on the previous page.
Meanwhile, anyone have any other thoughts on this particular story? Please do chime in. Thanks! B-)
One further point I’d like to make about this novel has to do with the sheer weight of incident it contains. Smply put: there is so much taking place in this book that it couldn’t all fit into one Bond movie; instead, it is spread judiciously over three different films. To the best of my awareness, this is the only novel to be treated in this fashion. The bulk of the novel is of course contained within the film that bears its name… much of the climactic “human trawling” sequence, with Bond and Solitaire being towed through the coral reefs by a power boat, was utilized quite effectively in the movie version of For Your Eyes Only, with Solitaire being replaced by Melina Havelock…and the memorable sequence wherein Felix Leiter “disagreed with something that ate him” provides a key portion of the film, License to Kill. This book ought to be read in the author’s original form by every Bond fan, if only so that each one of us can appreciate the full story Fleming originally envisioned, rather than seeing it parceled out in the piecemeal fashion the filmmakers found necessary.
Still, the beauty of Fleming’s prose is a special reward all its own. A travel writer by profession, Fleming shines most when describing the various environments Bond is thrust into, and as Fleming found his own beloved vacation home at Goldeneye, his descriptions of Jamaica are among his most vivid. Fleming found several opportunities to involve Bond in adventures in the Caribbean…and this is the first of them. His description of Bond’s underwater crossing of Shark Bay to attack Mr. Big’s operation on the Isle of Surprise is full of beauty and danger in a mixture that Fleming really ought to have trademarked. His skill as a wordsmith is fully on display in this sequence, and this passage remains one of my own favorites in the entire Bond canon for sheer descriptive brilliance. If you can read only one Bond novel, I would actually suggest this one: so that one can judge the accusations of racism to one’s own satisfaction…so that one can see pieces of 3 different Bond movies put together as per the author’s original intent…so that one can experience the first rendering of the Bond formula in its own context…and so that one can view Jamaica as seen through Fleming’s eyes for the first time…Live And Let Die gets my highest recommendation!