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Don't let GL see all these positive reviews about TD. She will claim it's all part of an anti-Craig conspiracy. It is a well known fact, afterall, that everyone hated Dalton.
@Getafix With GL, she would make you think that Dalton was sexually unattractive and has no screen presence. Man, but perhaps the Dalton I saw in the films is from an alternate universe!:) A mass audience is not necessarily the best judge of taste. Otherwise N-Dubz or JLS would not have huge popularity. They are probably considered sexier than Dalton these days.
I don't think a woman meeting Dalton in his prime would prefer not to invite him in for a quick coffee. Some women these days would shag Wayne Rooney if a newspaper said he is sexy!
I worked in a call centre and I was privy to some conversations that would make you cringe. Bad taste is a commonality these days and it stems from the fit in with what everyone else is thinking. Sheep are more common than wolves!:) But which animal has the true power?
You're more than welcome, @chrisisall :)
Lol, yes.. that Dalton, so un-charismatic and unappealing even mini-me has more screen presence. Who are all us women on the interwebs singing his praises and calling him hot stuff? Surely we are all alien amazons.
TD went for the troubled Bond, struggling to sleep, hating his job, barely able to disguise his self loathing because he is the man who has to pull the trigger. Whether he pulls it off successfully or not is immaterial. That is his Bond.
DC plays Bond in CR as a talented gung ho agent who makes it all up as he goes along. He suffers and becomes withdrawn when Vesper dies, and we see a different Bond from thereon. In SF the playful character we saw a lot of pre-Vesper's death returns. Craig has created a man who throughout a 3 picture arc (character arc, not storey arc) has found himself back where he started.
He isn't troubled by death and killing like TD's Bond, he quite enjoys the adrenalin kick it gives him.
In fact I might argue that no two Bond actors have offered such opposing performances.
Maybe it's more appropriate to consider the similarities in Moore and Brosnans performances.
There are many similarities worth discussing IMO.
\m/
But actually, I am done..
But Fleming's Bond was troubled by all the death and killing which is why he takes drugs and alcohol in huge quantities to bury the horror. Before he shoots the sniper in The Living Daylights novel he is taking tranquilisers to calm his nerves.
Daniel Craig therefore is not totally true to the literary character despite proclaiming he is, yet gets the bigger recognition of being Fleming's Bond with a touch of the cinematic style. And James Bond is not an SAS type but Royal Navy. Bond is not a thug.
Don't get me wrong, Daniel Craig is a superb actor, but he is not as close to the Fleming Bond as Dalton. If he was, he would be hated in the role. He is a mix and match Bond. And that is fine, but it is what it is! As clear as his blonde hair!:)
What about the novel The Man With The Golden Gun?, because you should read Bond's reaction after Scaramanga kills one of Bond's friends in a sadistic way.
Bond is not Jason Statham in Crank! And in QOS many remarked it may as well be.
Refreshing? I would call them stale and economic with the truth!:) Lies blacker than Dalton's hair!
:P :P :P :P :P
I actually agree with you that Dalton is probably closer to Fleming BUT one thing I don't remember Dalton doing that both Caig and Fleming's Bond did do was was drink to calm nerves. The Bond of the books did this many times (in MR before the card game with Drax he takes benzedrine, and in LALD he downs booze after his first encounter with Mr Big).
Good point @Bain123 I can only assume Dalton would have suggested it but the producers thought it may be too much and wanted him to be more of social drinker. Because Dalton being the actor he is would have wanted to cover as many aspects of the literary character. And that is an obvious one.
Case in point, there is a deleted scene in LTK where Bond is in his hotel room and there are bottles of alcohol to imply he has been doing a heavy session. But John Glen made a decision to cut. The film was too radical as it was.
John Glen in his book says he would argue with Dalton because Dalton wanted his hands in his pocket and Glen did not agree.
But an alcoholic Bond in Dalton would have been wonderful! And in bed with two women!:)
B-)
Good article I must admit but the second still down is a good example of, what I consider to be, Dalton's "stagey" manner. The dramatic pose, the rather rich background, his appearance.
Stick a costume on him and it could be a shot from a period play.
Good point haha!!!
In fact, Cubby said in his book that he had never seen an actor go as far as Dalton did in researching and creating the layers of Bond's literary pyschological blueprint. GL will no doubt tell me I am talking from my aaaaaaaaaashhhhh! As Sean would say in his accent.:)
And probably that Bond was blonde in the books too!
Easy there!:)
Yes he did in the hotel room though I think it was more for product placement and Bond never drank Smirnoff but high quality Polish vodka in the Fleming novels. But it was not abusive or excessive as the literary Bond is. Kind of like when Dalton drinks champagne in the casino on Sanchez's tv monitors.
I did notice Brosnan's shirt was pristinely white after a major fight and not a crease. Man, I would love to know what stain preventer Bond's laundry detergent has in it because that is amazing!
I'm suprised they didn't show him washing it with a Fairy Non bio tablet :p
Good one! Yes, I think Pierce must have ironed quickly after using Fairy before Teri Hatcher walks in through his open door which was so the bad guys could have easier access to shoot a less then alert Bond.
Man his Bond was made of titanium he was so strong.
Well I'm not arguing who is and who isn't like Fleming's Bond, mainly because I don't really care. I have read and enjoyed the series, but the books no longer have any relevance to the film series. Modern audiences don't know who Ian Fleming is, let alone care whether the actor captures the characteristics of the book Bond.
Sad. but true.
This thread is asking about similarities or differences in acting styles of the two men?
I see little in the way of similarities, that's all.
It only affects hardcore fans like us really.
It's like comparing an apple to an orange. Like Dalton, Daniel Craig is not the type of actor to copy what has gone before and he actually said he agreed to do Bond but on the condition that he gets to build the character gradually.
I can pull up the interview where he says that.
The similarity they share is that they both radically shook up who the character is. But they are nothing alike. It obviously works but Eon handled Craig's tenure better whilst Dalton was thrown in after Moore's extremely popular style. And 4 years had elapsed between Brosnan's last film and Craig's first.
Moore's comedic style was massively popular with audiences and they assumed Dalton would follow in the same footsteps. Bond was not widely perceived as a serious character but a fun character.
And neither Dalton or Craig took the role to look good. They took it as a challenge and make their own stamp as stand alone Bond's. Neither are clones of the others. And both knew that a backlash would occur which takes guts.
And neither is Craig anything like Connery which is another falsehood. The personalities could not be more different. Perhaps in superficial mannerisms like cuff adjusting. But then again Brosnan did that too.
Very true when you are talking about the mass audience. That is why Brosnan's Bond was a huge hit. He gave them the cinematic version. Jokey Bond is popular and one day the franchise will do a u-turn when the market dictates that they need a change from serious Bond.
But to the fans that read an author's work, it can be appreciated when an actor delves into the part faithfully to the books. Dracula is another character that is hardly anything like Bram Stoker's book. Only Gary Oldman tried to, though Coppola made some changes.
I mean when I saw Gary Oldman's Dracula for the first time, I hated it. All I knew was Christopher Lee and thought he screwed the role up. Years alter after reading the book, I loved what Oldman had done.
And how many people read these days?
Eon have the advantage that there are so many ways James Bond can be played and accepted. The Craig era suits the times we live in. We have wars going on and as Eon said, a flippant Bond is not going to cut it. Plus the economy being rock bottom is not the time for a Bond to look like he has a easy glamorous life.
Bond suffering immensely makes him sub-consciously relate to what people are going through though obviously differently.
I thought DAD was the wrong film after 9/11 but production was too far in to change course for Eon. And CR makes nods to the post 9/11 world like the conspiracy theories how before the terrorist attacks some invested in airline stocks and made a huge profit after the attacks. The Bond films can be cutting edge politically when they want to and up to the minute.