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Yes, Connery/Moore had moment of emotions (as noted, Connery's reaction to Kerim's death, being angry at M, killing Grishka for 009), but those moments were over in a heartbeat, and they went back to their respective mission straight away.
In the novel OHMSS, M is behind Bond's idea to go to Draco, but M "can't go to the P.M about it" - i.e, not officially sanctioned. But M gives Bond his blessing. He and Bond "didn't mind getting sacked, but we (M and Bond) don't want the Government mixed up in another U2 fiasco."
Yet in the film Bond goes rogue. I suppose the "anti - hero" was in vogue in 1969. Having Bond disobey the "man". See, the Bond series was doing the "going rogue" aspect before anyone else in the spy genre. Bourne my ass.
OP and AVTAK have made similar reversals, only going in the opposite direction.
Technicality maybe.
I'm thinking the filmmakers wanted to keep things simple ie have M uphold the official party line, yet have Bond display an independent utilitarian streak that boss M could not display.
Later, make it clear, that M was not very arsed about Bond's decision, as long as Bond pulled it off, and didn't make M look bad.
Anyway, for theatregoers, I think it all jived nicely. Bond's actions seemed very bold and clever, while M played his role too.
We have seen M give Bond a little nudge-nudge wink-wink. Even in CR, Dench manipulated Bond into going to Bahamas, but avoided giving him the order.
M has suggested Bond take holidays a few times with a nudge-nudge wink. This went down in the TMWTGG office briefing.
There are probably other movie examples.
But now Craig is resigning, going rogue, escaping British secret service capture, breaking into M's house, hacking Mi6 computers and playing dead all the time. So it's easy to forget how LTK was a break with a lot of what we had known and experienced as Bond fans up to that point.
Like MR and Bond's hankering to go to Rio, for example.
I think that was a beautiful scene. Given that this was one of Lee's last moments on screen as M, I really like his affectionate "I know you're the best and I'm just going to trust you"-attitude of him towards Bond.
"I think I can recall you mentioning it." Love that moment.
I really do need to watch Skyfall again. I've only seen it once all the way through. I fell asleep on my second viewing attempt (granted, that was after a long day at work), so I think it might drop in my rankings too.
Except the PTS and the Macau Casino scene the film is an endless bore. And once Silva enters the screen it gets additionally annoying and borderline Bond parody like.
I quite agree. Really touching scene between Bond and M. Such understated trust and respect. A quite fitting way to say goodbye to Lee's definitive M.
In fact, I'm currently placing the later three Bonds above the first three, and I never thought I would put johnny-come-latelys Brosnan and Craig ahead of Connery and Laz.
Welcome to the dark side.
Having said that, of the last two I was unsure of Skyfall on first viewing and loved Spectre. A couple of viewings later Spectre dropped, Skyfall went up and they have swapped over in my affections.
Like @Agent_99 the recent Bondathon has made me see Brosnan in a different light and I was, on balance quite impressed with how he handled the role.
That is very nice to hear. Since you are a Dalton fan it is not surprising that you also like FYEO. I guess FYEO is Moore's best film but it would have worked very well with Dalton, too. I think it is quite similar to TLD in many ways:
Both are more serious films that brought Bond down to earth again.
Both have a plot twist with reard to the main villain.
The henchmen do play a bigger part, especially in the first half of the film when it is not yet clear who the main villain is. Both henchmen die in a very memorable way.
Both are Cold War thrillers and have adapted quite a big share from Flemming's novels.
Both have some lighthearted actions scenes (Citroen chase vs. cello chase)
Both rely on a European setting.
Bond is more serious and is with reagard to the Bond girl more protective.
The Bond girls are very essential to the plots and have a rich back story.
A relatively high share of sacrificial lambs.
@GBF, it's interesting that you mention the parallels to TLD, because I was actually reminded of FYEO as I watched TLD a few nights back. They both are cut from the same cloth & are from the same universe.
I've recently begun to look more favourably on Brosnan's contribution to Bondom. I've always thought he was a bit of a lightweight, but my disappointment with SP ( since that last film reminds me of a poor man's Brosnan entry) has made me reassess his tenure more favourably. He's much better than I remembered, although some of his acting idiosyncrasies & characterization continue to annoy me.
I agree on both accounts. As I'm a Dalton defender I used to think I wasn't allowed to like Pierce. I've grown nostalgically fond of him however. Maybe it's the Mendes episodes that make me grow towards the fun of films such as GE. Also, I like how elegant Brosnan moves and dresses, a far cry from Craig in that regard.
I was told there would be cookies?
We have cake. This may or may not be a lie.
I'm glad to hear it. It certainly is a great looking film. After the 60's classics, it's probably the one that benefits the most from the blu ray upgrade.
That is a great story @j_w_pepper! Despite its well known flaws, there really are many things to appreciate about MR. Like you said, it's all about one's mindset going in.
Truer words were never spoken. I'm in absolute agreement with you there.