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What Moonraker should have been like
Just a thought I had, as the U.S. spcae shuttle era ends...has anyone seen the Saint episode "Flight Plan" where Roger Moore, as the Saint, retrieves a stolen experimental British jet plane from Iron Curtain territory and flies it back to Britain? Perhaps Moonraker should have had Bond retrieve a stolen space shuttle from enemy territory (ie the Iron Curtain, or a terrorist camp on a remote island?) and returned it to the Americans. The space colony thing in the movie was, as we all know, way too far out, even for the Bonds of the 1970s. Feedback anyone?
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Comments
But I wouldn't be opposed to a more straightforward adaptation of the novel, with a different title and character names (in order not to confuse people).
I think a faithful MR adaptation would be as great as the epic Moore adventure we got in 1979.
The novel cannot really be filmed as it has been partly several times now in DAD & GE. It would feel like old cheese.
Now contrary to SaintMark, I would enjoy a proper literary based MR film, as long as they adapt it a bit, much like what was done with CR.
As for MR, I'm a little torn between two conflicting thoughts. Firstly, I don't want MR ('79) to be a never happened. I love this film - always have, always will. The mere thought of never hearing Barry's masterful score, seeing Rog's brilliant performance and experiencing the tremendous special effects is distracting. But by the same token, I dread the fact we might actually never see one of Fleming's best stories come to cinematic fruition.
The 'Moonraker novel plot' along with ex-Nazis and avenging the defeat in WWII was quite up to date in 1950s, but I'm sure the pop-culture has grown a little tired of it by 1970s. Moreover, I'm not suprised by the fact that the producers decided to jump on the sci-fi bandwagon, after all, Star Wars and Star Trek The Motion Picture were released around the same time and brough large profits.
What I enjoyed about the film were the action sequences and special effects. I appreciated the leads, mainly Moore and Lous Chiles. Barry's wonderfull score and top notch direction.
I must admit, that the film is ridiculous. but then which Bond film isn't. Anybody can openly mock every scene and detail in these movies. Thats why you have to have some distance towards these movies, do not take them too seriously, just leave your brain at the door. These aren't the films that carry a message, if you want such, just watch 'Forrest Gump' or tune in for an episode of Star Trek...
The early showdown with a card cheating "public hero" at Blades, Loelia Ponsonby and the powder-vine, the detective-style sorting of clues, and the seemingly available Gala Brand having been engaged the whole time... I would like to see these things in a movie. Sure, we've had different pieces of the book cut up and thrown around into various ways within the franchise, but the cohesive whole has yet to have been done justice.
As for modernizing it, the moonraker itself could be replaced with an experimental scud-missile-type surface-to-surface installment somewhere in the Middle East. Rather than a former Nazi hiding as a British war veteran, Drax (renamed, of course) could be an influential military leader of an ally nation, with hidden ties to Quantum. And rather than the target be London, it could be some sort of high-profile NATO target, or another economic scheme.
It would be nice if they used Gala Brand's name, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf
It's in London and is one of todays major economic centres of the world.
The camp humour and innuendo needed to be scaled down. Also the jungle launchsite and space satellite needed to be more solid in its reasons. There is no reason why a capitalist cannot have a private space programme but it needed to be authenticated. Maybe the film needed to be more of Bond doing detective work piecing the bits together to work out the space programme. Therefore Venice and probably California needs to be killed to the curb.
Set the entire thing in Brazil. The factories and facilities of assembling a space station can be half the story. What is Drax doing in the jungle? A good section can be Bond and Holly finding searching for the launchsite.
The space battle was probably necessary in the climate of Star Wars and Close Encounters, But the space programme and battle just needs a bit of credibility. Why? What? Where? When?
Or this.
they are boring ?
@do_me_nicely, you claim to have been bored with the Bond novels, yet agree that Moonraker as a novel would have been better than the film.
A strange thing to say if you've not read this Fleming classic. I'd suggest try re-reading all of the Fleming novels. You'll find them alot different to the movies, but in some cases so much better. Once in a while though, you'll see that EON stayed quite faithful to the novel. In the case of FRWL and OHMSS.
Is English not your first language do_me_nicely? I see you're from Canada but maybe English is a not your mother tongue?
Oh, yeah and Gala Brand.
* I hope from B23 onwards only 2 locations will be used.
As for DC and his "too many locations", Bond 23 looks very different in that regard, which should please many people. It's been a long time and it will be great to see fewer locations for once.