It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I love LALD, TMWTGG, FYEO, OP & I like TSWLM a whole lot.
Speaking of the sexism, I notice Moore has no issue jumping from woman to woman at all, like keeping Goodnight hidden in the closet for two hours while he has sex with Anders in TMWTGG, or complimenting Naomi's body right in front of Anya in TSWLM.
Oops, apologies! I forgot the thread only currently runs up to TMWTGG. Sorry to jump the gun on the topic.
Sounds good! I'll just leave it at that until we go from TSWLM onward. Very good thread idea, by the way.
He just feels more like James Bond to me, and much more realistic. And I think LALD is better than DAF and TMWTGG, by a considerable amount.
Sorry to take this off topic a bit, @chrisisall. ;-)
People will always be divided over Lazenby as Bond; he stands as my third favorite Bond actor, and will likely stay that way. Connery and Craig are at the top for me. LALD has the honor of being in my Top 10 (9 or 10), while TMTWGG is 17 and DAF is 18 right now for me.
My problem is when the characters become soooo bimbo-ish it becomes excruciating and unbelievable (that's the main reason I can't stand Mary Goodnight in MWTGG).
The other slappy scene that I don't think quite works is the one where Sean slaps Tiff poolside. I only say this because Tiff is established as a sympathetic character already.
We know that she is not a villain. But its a small quibble, because Sean does it to jar her to the reality of Plenty floating in the pool, and the deadly turn that events have taken, that now directly involve her.
In fact, the poolside scene is very reminiscent of the Orient Express slap of Tatiana, after Kerim is found dead- again to wake the girl to the seriousness of what is going on.
Although in the FRWL scene, Bond is trying to wake Tania out of her naivete, and also assure himself, once and for all, that she is indeed a dupe.
With Tiffany, he is trying to dispel her of her mixed-loyalties and duplicitous self-serving ways, and wake her to the deadly seriousness of the situation.
But still, as an audience, I do find both the Tatiana and Tiffany slaps to somewhat jar, because I know both girls to be "good" girls. Neither are villains. Rather they are pawns of villainy, both in need of a reality check that Bond delivers. It's how he delivers that jars.
I think it is significant though that we got no more good-girl slappy, post TMWTGG. Maybe because Rog couldn't pull it off, or maybe society was just waking up to the notion that violence against women was a serious issue, so better not to have Bond hitting any girls, whose villainy wasn't already firmly established.
The lesson of the Dink bum slap, is don't engage unwanted bum-slapping. Dink was fair game, as she and Bond had that kind of relationship. Dink's bum positively screamed slap me.
What doesn't work is the bum-slapping of girls who aren't receptive to it, and I don't think much has really changed there. Even 1964-era Bond, I don't think could bum-slap on the first date, just out of the blue. Then again maybe he could get away with it. Sean-Bond could overwhelm women with his pure dangerous, but charming animal magnetism.
A girl that dated Bond would probably be aware of his potential for such behaviour.
Re Pussy, I think she might have thought she could best Bond in judo. She was very sure of her own skills. She knew Bond had skills, but I don't think she could be sure for sure, that he could match her judo. She had to play to find out.
Anyway they were naturally attracted. The flirting started on the plane. It was just a matter of playing out the dance. It all came together in the barn.
The Rog and the harem scene does creep, but only because Rog and Mr. Sheik are both so randy. Combine that with the girls being so exaggeratedly compliant and you've got cringe city.
The two extremes clash. The scene seems to be utterly removed from reality, even within a Bond context.
Compare with, Bond and Tiger and the geisha girls in YOLT. Those scenes seemed to ring much truer. The whole scenario was better developed.
TSWLM harem scene I think was a bad imitation of the YOLT scene. The movies did have the same director.
Good comments @timmer!
I agree with you. The scenes in TSWLM versus the YOLT geisha scenes. The geishas are being paid for their services but that harem scene is glorifying slavery. Those girls are obviously victims of white slavery. Probably kidnapped by the likes of those characters in "Taken" and sold to the Arab sheiks (worthless motherfuckers)
*dark sarcasm*
PC is not a joke. It is about going along with any radical project the powers that be have up their sleeve at any given time, and the media make damn sure it works. People are so gullible it hurts.
Most movements get co-opted like that. :-<
However by the time we get to Rog's visit to the Sheik tent, its just icky. The scene comes out of the blue, and the Sheik seemed more Brit than Arab. I guess they were harem girls conscripted to hang around the tent and do the harem girl thing, but still there seemed no context. Rather it seemed like just a cheap attempt to replicate the old Connery-era macho mystique. IMO the scene went over like a lead balloon, but yes it is a bit like complaining about Austin Power's lechery.
To be honest I got a slightly sour taste from Andrea and the scene when he pushes the child into the canal in MWTGG (even Rog has said he doesn't like that bit now he's a member of UNICEF).
The Andrea thing, yeah, not so cool with that, but hey, Bond is a bastard at times, eh?
Like I said she made my day.
:D ;) :!!
Latterly, when on board the sub, the guy in charge offers the use of his shower. Anya's nostrils flare: "It is not necessary for you to show me special favours!" Quite right too. He replies: 'All the same, it might be better if I did...'. Now, I dunno. Is that funny? Is he saying, it would be better cos then I get to see you starkers in the shower... Or is it a mistimed joke, like she is being all bossy and rude, and he responds with only half-mock deference. Then, hey, it's okay, cos we get to see her tits in the next scene. I mean, can you imagine any such scene occurring today?
In fairness, context is a lot, and Bond is goading Anya not necessarily because she is a woman, but because she is a Russian, and a KGB agent at that, not nice people at all, so she kind of has it coming. But today, while we regard Putin as a bad guy, it is just him, we don't really stereotype nations in that negative way so much. It is always assumed that they are just under the cosh of some fat-faced, tinpot dictator with an odd hairstyle (have no one particular in mind).
With regards to the put downs, Anya gives as good as she gets. In fact, she gets one over on Bond more often than most of the Bond girls in the series.
Captain Carter offers Anya the use of his private bathroom because the alternative would be to use the communal showers along with the other sailors. I've never watched that scene and thought any different to be honest.
Talking of which, did anyone catch Ian 'Return of the Saint' Ogilvy in the Pythonesque Ripping Yarns on BBC4 a while back? Ogilvy played School Bully in this sendup of public school life, and did it well. It seems odd that at the time I saw Ogilvy as a second-rate Moore due to his Saint stint and TV prescence, he didn't quite break into movie stardom like Moore. Yet of course, Ogilvy was surely the better actor even if he didn't have Moore's physical stature. I mean, you have Ogilvy in the BBC classic I, Claudius co-starring George 'Sir Hilly' Baker, John Hurt, Derek Jacobi et al and you could not cast Moore in that. He was also in classics like The Witchfinder General with Vincent Price, nothing in Moore's portfolio matches those two, notwithstanding stuff like The Man Who Haunted Himself and The Rape of the Sabine Women...
I agree Anya puts one over Bond, it is just presented as if, wow, imagine a woman doing that! Though I should say, maybe I am going through a disgruntled phase, as it is only recently these objections have come to mind.
But yeah, it is a product of the times, but some of this stuff comes out better than others. Personally I don't find much of the Connery stuff too risible, though it's a decade earlier (though having young gals making eyes at his creaky old self in NSNA was his wtf? moment for me).