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So I got back to wrapping this up. A few more observations I noticed on this viewing.
1. The smart blood plays a big part in the plot. It allows Hinx to track Bond to the train in Morocco. and also probably is how the thugs cornered Bond and M in London.
Since MI6 knew Bond was being tracked, I wonder why they didn't get a message to him in Morocco so he could at least be ready for trouble. Similarly, he shouldn't have been allowed on the London raid due to this.
2. I assume Blofeld wanted Bond dead on the train (he had no interest in Madeleine), which is why Hinx tried to throw him off, & I further assume he later changed his mind and decided to welcome him to home base to finish him off there. Hence why he sent the Rolls.
I turned it off just after Bond was abducted in London. Couldn't get through the rest.
Dont try to make sense of the plot its mornonic.
Though you did clear some stuff up for me. Should they have used the tracker from CR as a cool callback instead of the smart blood nonsense
@bondjames On my last viewing of FRWL I took special note of the opening hunt in the garden, and Connery's acting as not-Bond. He's playing the guy playing Bond. The way he moves, the way he holds his gun, his expressions, he's playing all of it different to how he would the real Bond, but in a subtle enough way so as to not jar the audience. This might better belong in the 'things I never noticed before' thread, as it may very well be some well-worn observation (alternatively it may belong in the 'things that are BS from my head' thread if I'm projecting it) but it was my first time noticing it, and it made me appreciate all the more in Connery what I was speaking to earlier.
@thelivingroyale, it's funny that you respond to me from a post you said you agree with most of, because I feel the same with the above.
I don't mean to sound like I was taking Dalton to task. He's my #3 favorite behind Sean and Dan and that's exactly because of what you list above. I agree that you see effort in his portrayal as he goes to hell and back (sometimes too much, but still), and that he had some natural dynamics with those around him. I think he got saddled with stuff he couldn't handle, but you bet your arse that if I could see him continue through Brosnan's era with more movies I'd take it. He would've maybe worked better in a miniseries running through the books than in big screen films where he didn't have the same draw, but I appreciate a good deal of what he did and find some of his acting moments to be in the upper echelons. More often than not it's the writing and films themselves that fail him rather than the other way around, but Cubby, Glenn and co. couldn't get out of Moore mode to play to his strengths consistently.
I feel that Sean and Dan match who I envision Bond to be better, and realize that character's range more fully, but Dalton is an easy #3 and certainly did have something there, if only he was able to continue it. I'll have to share my blog reviews for the two films whenever I get them edited and posted, as I will explain what draws me better in those than I could off the cuff here.
@bondjames, I think by the time Bond is in position to head to Blofeld's base (right before the train fight, if I remember), Mallory has Q cancel the smart blood so that Bond can't be tracked, even by Nine Eyes, so there was no ability for the villains to keep track on him like that. I think Blofeld used satellite imagery to track Bond in place of the smart blood, which is why he was able to spot him and send the car out.
As for Hinx and his motives, I wonder this too. The only thing that makes sense to me is that, following Bond's butting in on his work to get at White, he personally comes to get the spy dead to rights on the train free from Blofeld's orders. It could be either way, but I think Blofeld gets too much enjoyment out of having Bond and Madeleine around his spot to have wanted them done in by another; it would take the pleasure out of him doing it himself and by his own terms. It's highly likely that, after he loses Madeleine to Bond in the plane chase and car crash in Austria, Blofeld tells Hinx to bugger off and decides to let the game play to him instead at the base knowing that Madeleine will lead Bond to the hotel and to where White was planning to get at him. Wanting to settle the score, Hinx then comes to Bond and gets his revenge. Makes more sense than Blofeld being his master to me.
I like that Hinx recalls Oddjob as a mute powerhouse of danger, but I think that SP should've given him spoken lines (or at least a bit more) and more character so that we knew his background and motivations. Oddjob is a blank slate and doesn't need to have a sense of deep character because you understand that he's Goldfinger's tool of destruction and that's all the purpose he serves. Hinx had a bigger role in bending the story, however, and I think something is lost by us not knowing what score he is settling or what is driving him. I appreciate the mystery, like his big entrance in Rome, but wanted and needed a bit more. After seeing Patrice in SF and him in SP it seems like SPECTRE love their mute assassins. Perhaps because they don't have loose lips and Blofeld doesn't have to worry about them slipping classified secrets? ;)
Ah yes @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 I remember that now. I still assume that Hinx was in fact dispatched by Blofeld to overpower and bring Bond in (perhaps he exceeded his orders), which is the only way to explain how he knew Bond was on that train. With respect to the Rolls, I assume Blofeld could have guessed where Bond was headed based on the route of the train (after Q deactivated the smart blood). How Bond knew he would be picked up there remains a mystery to me however (presumably he just took a guess) and it still doesn't explain how the thugs knew exactly where to intercept Bond/M in London without smartblood assistance.
Yes, I definitely agree here. I would have liked more clarity on Hinx's motives. While his Spectre meeting intro is chillingly cool, some background would have been nice. I'm probably in the minority, but I would have preferred if Guerra had some warning prior to his death to make it more of a fair fight. Hinx was a far more powerful man to begin with, and the way he surprised him wasn't so much menacing as brutally unfair.
As for Bond being picked up, I think he knew that if he followed the coordinates to the base as far as he could go, which was pretty close from what we can see, Blofeld would use his program (which Bond knew was in the works by that point) to spot him and come for him. Certainly not the craziest leap fans have to make with these films, and with the full scope of the world at his finger tips through servers and satellites, it's something Blofeld could easily pull off, especially if he was tracking a target just a mile or so away.
In London I simply assume that SPECTRE had heavy tails going on with numerous vehicles, which wouldn't be hard to manage for such a connected organization. Mallory could've easily been followed from MI6 or his home, locations well known to SPECTRE by nature, and if they had Mallory they had Bond and could trap them on their way to C.
More context for the above would've been nice, but sometimes the films leave you to wonder a lot for yourself. That can be fine, depending on the concept, but others not. I'm iffy at times about how much SP demands you to think for yourself, and that comes off as a bit too art house or European for me as that isn't what people expect Bond films to be. ;)
As for Hinx, I didn't really mind the Guerra scene. Blofeld wanted the best to get White and Hinx went into survival of the fittest mode to prove his worth; Guerra was also a bit of a egotistical prick, so I didn't mind it. It's something I'd expect such a dark organization to allow that controls vaccines to profit from suffering and traffics women for mass profit.
I agree about getting extra information on Hinx though. Sometimes the mystery of Bond films and plots are great, like in FRWL where you wonder whether Tatiana is siding with Bond or Klebb when she does something, or wondering in CR when Vesper is being controlled by Quantum or moved to Bond's side, but other times it's not, as in some of OHMSS, GF and parts of SP. The Craig era usually takes familiar elements and gives them a twist and I was hoping that in having a henchman as part of SP a twist would've been put on it where Hinx had a bit more context and motivation that was clear to set him apart from the others. In a way, I wanted more Jaws and less Oddjob, if that makes sense. ;)
You can never go wrong there!
GE = great
TND = solid
TWINE = it has it''s moments
DAD = just
Same here. I used to much prefer TWINE and put TND even below DAD once! GE has consistenly been my favorite at least. It's the weakest era of the actors who did 4+ IMO, but there is still enjoyment to be had. No such thing as an all-bad Bond film!
They are.
Oh you and your Brosnan hate
Please give us your thoughts afterwards, both of you, if you can. ;)
I agree. Objectively its probably a 7/10 Bond film, but to me it's a 8.5/10. There are only a few things that stand out and bother me. Otherwise else, its a wonderful film.
Objectively it's harder for me to rank since it has always been a favorite, but I still think it is pivotal and carried the Bond property as popular in the 90s. I think even the soundtrack, while not special, is overhated and has a couple highlights. It's at an impressive #4 in my overall ranking.
It's still #6 on my overall list but that Cuba part is a bit weaker. Awesome stunts and stealth scenes from the first part make up for it. Also not sure about that CIA character, maybe they tried to please American audience too much.
One wonders why Wade was there, and why they didn't just put Felix in there. I guess that, even though LTK was nearly a decade earlier, EON felt it'd be hard to explain a Felix who had been ravaged by sharks but who was still back in it with Bond. It's depressing that LTK is the last we see of the "old" Felix without explanation or what he did after.