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Comments
Personally I still think the verbal/physical dual between Grant and Bond on the Orient Express is the best scene in the series. But Bond's killing of Dent nonetheless remains a cracker.
Yes, and well put, @Thunderfinger.
I like the Dent scene BUT I love the few moments before that when Connery is arranging the bed as the record is playing in the background and the fan is turning above him. You can really feel the sweaty nature of Jamaca in that short sequence
Indeed. I hadn't noticed that myself. I really need to watch Dr. No again very soon. I'm a big Columbo fan, too. I think it's been noted that Connery plays Bond as something of a police detective throughout Dr. No and I like this aspect to the character very much!
In the shadow war, which is what Bond fights, Dent needed putting down. Just as a combat soldier is obligated to kill his enemy, so must Bond execute his duties.
Otherwise one should get another job ( soldiers that are conscripted excepted).
Yes I do think Dent was a very typical criminal, in that he was indeed motivated by greed.
Most of them are. They are amoral. They advance themselves, and knowingly at the expense of others.
But he's also a classic tragic figure in the sense that he proves a lot of the old adages; lie down with dogs, no honour among thieves etc.
You truck with these sorts (No) and you will get used and abused, get more than what you bargained for etc
Yes at the end, he was desperate to kill Bond to avoid the wrath of No. In over his head.
Lesson here I think is stay clear of these types. You won't survive such worlds unless you go all in, and even then, a bigger alpha will still eventually take you down.
@Soundofthesinners re evil. I don't think Dent was motivated by evil. I am not even sure No or Hitler were. But all succumbed to the seductive lure of evil which plays to our vanities. We are all vulnerable and susceptible to varying degrees but most of us can resist better than the likes of Dent.
Good topic btw. Dent is an interesting Bond villain. Not your typical all-in Bond villain type.
Dent is almost Hitchcockian, but unlike some of Hitchcock's characters Dent isn't terribly well developed. We don't see much of his good side. Rather he comes across as cowardly and weasal greedy. He is arguably every bit as corrupted as No, but just nowhere near as alpha.
I'm not sure about that. Seeing as Bond had just called the police to nick Miss Taro why couldn't they come back to apprehend Dent?
Bond needlessly kills an unarmed man who might have proved to have useful information when interrogated. OK it would deprive us of a great scene but there is no need for Bond to kill him except perhaps out of revenge for Strangways but of course in the films Bond and Strangways have no history.
That's one moment in SF I like when M says 'terminate him for Ronson' and Bond doesn't bat an eyelid.
That's exactly will the scene is so powerful - it shows Bond cold bloodedly kill a man that is by that stage unarmed, although having said that Dent had just tried to shoot him in bed and again face-to-face just before the two fatal shots from Bond's gun. The blame for this scene lies elsewhere, as Fleming did not have such a scene in the novel version and there was of course no Professor Dent. Still, a powerful scene, all things considered.
I think Bond had all he needed to know, or at least all that he could get from Dent. I doubt Dent would have talked, as he was so scared of his master.
Dent's second motivation, cowardice and fear, is just as fascinating as his first one, if indeed he was motivated by money. In fact, we only know for sure Dent obeys Dr No out of fear. I doubt he was ideologically motivated, I mean SPECTRE does not care about politics and No himself has contempt for the fighters of the Cold War. Could Dent obey out of some sort of cultist's fascination for his guru, in a way?
Well presumably Dent would have done a Mr Jones with cyanide out of fear for Dr No had they nicked him so I suppose its fairly moot.
One thing I just thought of; is the fabled 'had your six' scene actually Flemingesque at all?
Off the top of my head I can only think of the Robber as someone in Fleming Bond kills in cold blood and even then he has the revenge for Leiter and the fact they just had a firefight as motivation.
When I think about that, I would have to agree that I also don't think of that scene either as "Flemingesque". Just a great piece of cinema that shows a field agent who as he later says to Leiter, has been a clay pigeon all day. With Dent resisting his interrogation and then trying to kill him again, he'd had more than enough of the whole affair that day, plus getting spit in the face by Taro, bored and sweating in the dark waiting for the next wannabe hitman, and on top of all of that he was late for his boat trip to Crab Key.
Killing in cold blood never seemed to bother Connery Bond, I always thought this more a cinematic interpretation. Far from the "stupid policeman" that Dr. No underestimated him as.
I'm no Fleming expert but I find this scene to be Flemingesque from the standpoint of a secret agent who deals with the constant pressure and paranoia of being killed at any moment. It's a matter of survival and you must get them before they get you.
Yes, but in the novel of FRWL that you refer to there, James Bond is surely the World's Biggest Hypocrite when Fleming says that Bond had never killed in cold blood and disapproved of Kerim Bey's assassination. What?! Isn't this the same character who had to COLD-BLOODEDLY ASSASSINATE TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE during the last war in order to become a Double-O agent with a licence to kill in the line of duty and as a British Secret Service agent? Double standards, methinks, on a colossal scale.
Yes, he is like you and me, good observation.
When Young was about to make the follow up, he read in the script that Blofeld was Dents identical hand twin, so he phoned Awesome Dawson, and told him he needed him again.
Dawson: "No way. That tarantula freaked me out, and I still have a bullet in my spine that the doctors werent able to remove. I can hardly walk."
Young: :So you can just sit in a chair, then. And all we we want you to do is stroke some pussy."
Dawson: "When do I begin?"
Dawson was so disappointed when filming commenced, they had to dub his bitter voice.
True story. Or so I claim.
I just saw this now.
"....stroke some pussy. When do I begin? :))