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As I said, Hugo Drax was posing as a British industrialist who had served in the War. It's his ogre teeth and strangely boisterous mannerisms (as if he's doing an impression of an English aristocrat) which are more noteworthy to Bond. Even the guy following Vesper in CR isn't necessarily denoted as dodgy or evil from his eye patch. From Bond's point of view he's a pleasant and rather un-noteworthy looking man except for his eye patch. The mention of it makes him stand out, but Bond doesn't seem to find it unusual or ominous. Again, while heroism is arguable, it was more likely Fleming would have seen men coming home after the War with things like limps, scars, eyepatches etc. so didn't have this bizarre modern fascination with it somehow conveying evil that we do today. While you say it's a cliche it's actually still very much used in many films, and for the Bond movies has gotten more pronounced during the Craig era.
True crime books/TV shows are often sensationalised and much information is given with hindsight, especially from those being interviewed. I love that sort of stuff by the way, but the fact is it's likely many people met these hardened criminals and had no idea how dangerous they were. That's what's most unsettling in a sense - that almost anyone under the right circumstances can become bad people.
Silva's glass jaw was forced in there and the idea was made worse especially by the CGI effect.
Of all the Blofeld rankings, which one comes out on top in most lists? It's Telly Savalas' and notice he doesn't have a scar but the acting and physicality are often noted as factors.
Silva's removal of the jaw further confronts M with the effects of her decisions.
As far as deformity, I'm thinking a physical condition or contributing events can draw the best or worst from a person. So I wouldn't include it out for future villains. Just as I'd expect no reservations for allies on that count.
It's not that it's used badly for those particular characters (they're certainly better than Safin and Blofeld's scars) but that it's a trope broadly been done to death with villains. Furiosa from Mad Max is an interesting one in that sense.
I mean, why not have something similar with a Bond girl? Incorporate some sort of outward injury into the narrative similar to Honey's broken nose in DN. Or indeed just have a Bond ally with an eye patch or a hook for a hand like in the novel. It'd be an interesting subversion within the context of the films. Heck, Bond's own injuries/scars are extensive but there within the novels too, especially in TB. They certainly give an insight into how dangerous his profession can be and the physical toll it can have.
The closest we can get here was the scar at Lupe Lamora's back when Sanchez horsewhipped her at the beginning.
The Gardner nivels had a Bond girl who had had a mastectomy, but any body-positivity in that (which would be truly great in a film) went out the window when she turned out to be… well, let’s just villainous and avoid big spoilers.
Bond himself is scarred in the DC portrayal, it’s all under his shirt… which of course he removes at least once a film.
It's from the poison that SPECTRE used to assassinate his family (he survives of course). Oh yes, Nena from For Special Services! That book is weird... as are all the Gardner Bond novels that I've read.
Craig's Bond gets one or two superficial injuries (mainly the bullet wound from SF... I think he has some bruises in QOS too). Fleming's Bond had all kinds of scars and untreated ailments (I think in TB he's described as having 'many scars' and even a bit of damage to his spine from jumping out of a train which gives him headaches... the health spa thing is played for laughs a bit in the novel and Bond is relatively cavalier about his injuries, but it is rather interesting and shows the damage such a man with that lifestyle and job can do to himself).
Ah yes, I knew it was from Blofeld. Also of course it saves on de-aging effects and allows a link from the masked assailant in the teaser to his later arrival. (See… it does serve two narrative purposes…)
Bond has a clear scar on his chest and collarbone area in NTTD likely from his moneypenny dive. There’s also the dodgy knee in-joke as well.
Can't remember that in NTTD. If it's there it's a good little detail as it's presumably meant to be from SF. I always got the sense that was Nomi's little gibe and not based on any real injury... I'm glad we didn't get too many 'Bond is old' jokes in NTTD... y'know, Craig giving a little 'oooh, my back' moment during an action scene, haha.
Stronger villains like Mr.White...were just creepy and elusive.
Well, when a police officer meets a well known member of the Montreal mob (for instance), they are very well aware of who they are, what they do and their stature. I guess there could be confirmation bias: they know they're facing criminals so they might think they look exactly like that.
Yeah, it's difficult to say, and not being a police officer I wouldn't know.
I suppose there's a similar thing with serial killers. Much of the time people recall them being rather charming, non-threatening people, but there those rare accounts where some get a sense straight away that something was wrong (ie. the famous 'Dating Game' tv show story where one of the contestants turned out to be a serial killer. The woman actually chose the guy to go on a date with but cancelled it when she got 'creepy' vibes off of him, which presumably saved her life).
A man can dream.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10962693/Director-Paul-Haggis-trial-October-NYC-raping-publicist-2013.html
Naomi's jibe was an in-joke about the filming. Craig damaged his knee during filming and was out of the running for a couple of weeks.
You and I both. I would've had no problems having similar type films with the same crew for the rest of the era.
Yep 100% mate. Craig's portrayal in CR/QOS was nothing short of magnificent. The tone of those films was so fresh and endearing, that's exactly where I want Bond to be.
I don't want Bond 26 to go lighter if anything I want them to commit to making it similar to CR/QOS throughout and not have an unbalanced uneven tone
That's actually a really good observation. I never made that connection before. Purely coincidental, of course, but it might go some way toward explaining why I like both endings so much.
:D
Waltz is very good in the hands of Tarantino. I've never seen him as good as he is in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.
I noticed. They are two of the best things to have happened to Bond in a long time. I'd love to see a return of them both.
QoS ages well with time....any film that copies much of the whole Bond formula thing with forced gags and jokes doesn't age well.
But to me it's not true that CR and QoS are so overly gritty in total - there's plenty of humor in them! Just think about the exchange of Mathis and his wife/girlfriend : "But it's cheap wine" and Craig's smile :-) Wonderful and funny. Plenty more examples you all know.
'You shot him at pointblank range and threw him off a roof'
'I did my best not to.'
Just one of many great lines from QOS that were darkly humorous without being lame gags like 'I got in some deep water.' I'd guess that Haggis wrote the black humour in QOS and his departure is why they lost track of it until Phoebe WB added some good lines to NTTD. Shame - the dark humour in QOS was exactly right for Craig.
Agree 100%. It seemed like from Skyfall onward that we increasingly went back more to the forced gags and unnatural humor (bad one liners). Spectre was pretty rough for me. PTS was great, then....that stupid music played when the helicopter 🚁 went upside down. Instantly made me think of Roger Moore and the “double-taking pigeon.” Why on earth would they put that in there? Why the fixation to turn Craig into Roger Moore? CR/QOS are my two favorite movies ever. Oh yeah, what about when DC fell into the chair into Spectre? Eye roll city. I made sure and waited on the credits to see that it said James Bond Daniel Craig and not Roger Moore. I thought all the other Bond actors (good, bad or ugly) were consistent on tone, but not Craig’s-his was all over the place after the first two. And that’s a shame. With this “reinvention” coming up, it will probably be the end of Bond as we know it.