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
More like grayish-brown...
It's all over his line-delivery, which is over-enunciated, effete, and has a very self-satisfied tone, as if he was a naughty boy acting in a Christmas panto. He also overdoes the wide-eyed, eyebrows-arched psycho stare that ham actors use to telegraph villainy. He seems to be playing a villain in quote marks. Fleming's Blofeld started out as no-nonsense crime boss and only later had degenerated into a syphilitic Hitlerian freak-- Waltz leaps straight to freakishness and never portrays a convincing gangster.
And he has the worst fashion sense of any Blofeld--sockless loafers and a Nehru jacket? Euro-trash!
He's entertaining for sure but he's hardly stretching himself and just does what we all expect of him.
To say he's not stretching himself is disingenuous anyway, most actors take on Bond villain roles for the craic. He's no exception and he's suitably theatrical.
Why would he wear socks? He's in bleeding Morocco!
Fleming wrote Blofeld as a criminal mastermind more than a mere crime boss, a perfect puritan, as disciplined and perfectionist in evil as others are in art. Which is also pictured in Waltz's portrayal. But hey, I forgot, he does not wear socks. My bad. No socks.
I'm not criticising. I enjoyed his performance immensely. I'm glad we attract actors of this calibre and Christoph Waltz doing his thing as a Bond villain was always going to be fantastic fun
But Bond was wearing socks...
And if Fleming wrote Blofeld as a master criminal, why does Waltz dress like a douchebag hedge fund manager? I rest my case.
Putting aside the actors' motivations, the performances of best Bond villains were not overtly theatrical. Joseph Wiseman, Gert Frobe, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Davi, and fill-in-your-own-favorite etc. gave mostly serious performances devoid of flamboyance, mustache-twirling, or camp. True, Javier Bardem could get campy at times (every audience I watched Skyfall with giggled at his reaction when Bond stabbed him in the back) but those were the least effective parts of his performance.
Like I said, suitably theatrical, ie. when called for. He projects the gamut of takes on the character within a single performance. The Pohlmann/Dawson version in Rome, the Grey version in Morocco, the Pleasance version in London. I'm a fan of it. Wiseman is also theatrical in my book, when called for, as is Frobe/Collins, plus one of my personal favourites, Walken. For me, Waltz sits neatly in with these top notch performances. As for Bardem getting campy 'at times', his entire performance is ostentatious; lovably so.
Precisely.
My original complaint was tongue-in-cheek, but if we're going to take it seriously I'll say this: the problem is that Blofeld doesn't have a a weird perk or style. Instead he dresses like a Eurotrash financier. Not a good look for a villain, especially one we're supposed to take seriously. Even small details count.
No. I'm talking about theatricality of performance, not props. Wiseman actually underplays, very effectively, whereas Waltz overacts by over-elaborating his line delivery. The unseen Blofeld of FRWL/TB is also underplayed--he might speak in an improbably deep voice, but it's a near-monotone that projects calmness. Contrary to RC7, Frobe/Collins also gives an understated performance. Most good Bond villains do. They don't need to remind the audience that they're very naughty and villainous, which is what Waltz does. His Blofeld has nothing to do with Fleming, and not much to do with the earlier screen Blofelds either, aside from Gray's campfest. Blofeld is supposed to be a no-nonsense supervillain--making him Bond's resentful stepbrother cuts the character down to size, and Waltz's performance drives the final nail in the coffin. He makes me wish Spectre had used someone else as the villain.
I disagree, but then it is all a matter of taste.
There are different ways to be theatrical. Wiseman when he is unseen is very much theatrical. So is Frobe when Goldfinger explains Operation Grand Slam. Waltz by comparison is actually far more neutral overall. I wouldn't say that he is pure Fleming's Blofeld all the time but he is at least in some aspects. His introduction is suitably sinister and the glance he gives to Bond and Madeleine when he's captured is pure nastiness.
And tongue-in-cheek for tongue-in-cheek : at least Waltz does not smoke. Or as far as we know drink.
Haterz gonna hate @Ludovico.
I'd have to disagree with some of what you said: Blofeld IS the best villain. At least in the novels. He truly is Bond's Moriarty. In the movies, he's been hit (FRWL) and miss (DAF). Too often he was just a series of gimmicks and tropes. There is still this in SP and for the record I was against bringing the cat and the scar, but I am satisfied the way they used the tropes (I was happily surprised with the scar). And yes, they give a background to Blofeld. Maybe not the one I wanted ideally, but it does give Blofeld some motivations.
But where's the love?
RE: Waltz - I thought he underplayed actually - except for when he did his little 'Landa' turn at the MI6 HQ when he set the timer. He just didn't seem all that menacing to me however, perhaps because I just know him so well from his iconic Oscar winning Tarantino turns - not sure. I would have personally preferred someone a little more menacing physically, and a little more imposing, with a deeper voice.
How do you know? It all depends on what kind of person he would be. As long as he has the character of Blofeld, what does it matter if he´s from Africa or Holland?
Wait a minute, why aren´t we discussing this in the thread about Logan´s drafts???
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/14103/looking-through-john-logan-s-script-for-spectre#latest
Max Zorin is also my favorite (very menacing), and I doubt if the outlook of Silva is a homage to AVTAK.
Personally I'd prefer he was European, but that isn't the problem here. The key word is 'dictator', African or Dutch it doesn't matter. A man who runs a clandestine organisation the like of Spectre shouldn't simultaneously be seen as a public figure in the mould of an African warlord. So when you say, 'as long as he has the character' that is immediately sullied the moment he becomes an active and visible political figure. It moves the character so far away from source that you might as well abandon the concept completely and start afresh, which was obviously their thinking too. As grating as the childhood link may be for some people, the man, his business, the way he operates is an updated, but pretty faithful combination of the Fleming original, with hints of the cinematic.
Urbandictionary has supplied a definition close to mine:
True, Blofeld has yet to appear half-shaven or in jeans, but wait till the next film! I'll treat the Nehru jacket as Waltz-Blofeld indulging his retro hipster side.
No, you're referring to character's presentation, not his performance, which is always low-key.
Only when he starts getting passionate about gold and about committing the ultimate crime, and that's warranted by the character's obsessions. The fact that Frobe/Collins is otherwise restrained gives the scene even greater dramatic effect.
Aside from the awful Nehru jacket and Waltz's inane mugging perhaps. I've never been fond of Almond's proficient but lumpily ugly artwork. Waltz's hair is neither white nor longish, and neither Waltz nor Almond's Blofeld have eyes that are "rather frightening dark-green pools."
So that is why Spectre was so well received in Europe, and not in North America.