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We see the result of the void Dench M leaves, not only the result of not having Judi in the cast, but also how her being gone affects the story of the film and how the characters get on after the character's death. Bond wasn't going to hop on with Mallory right away no matter what, and though they worked alongside each other in SF I don't see those moments as those that solidify Bond and Mallory's bond forever. They're just starting out and, much like Bond and Dench M, they get off to a rough start. Thankfully Bond doesn't break into Mallory's home this time (he'd probably be shot if he did) but we can see their sometimes water and oil sensibilities that typifies many Bond/M interactions, especially in recent times, that take time to grow. Tim's Bond and Brown M went at it, the worst since Laz Bond called M a "monument" in OHMSS, Pierce Bond and Dench M (1) continued the icy trend and the Craig era has really made some magic around the Bond and M dynamic and made them partners through their developing relationship that was great to see.
I don't think we'll see Bond and Mallory become even a shadow of what Dench M and Bond had, but I don't think that should happen anyway as that was very special and very much its own thing. Craig Bond has only been used to taking orders from a woman from his time at MI6 and the bond he had with M was strong, so he has to course correct and adapt to facing off with another alpha in the boss seat all while still mourning the woman who was like a cantankerous mother to him. Not easy, to say the least.
But as we can see at the end of SP, Bond and Mallory see eye to eye and Mallory knows why Bond had to do what he did. Mallory even advocates to let Bond go it alone off the grid, realizing that the shape that the 00 section was in made it impossible to give him any assistance that would help him anyway without incurring the eyes of C and his SPECTRE contacts.
Mallory is imperfect and Dench M would've handled every decision of his differently (outside of shouting at Bond) but I'm glad that the script made Mallory stand out as his own man instead of being a carbon copy of Dench's interpretation. The man of the public Mallory is in SF is still there with a chip on his shoulder in SP as he tries to diplomatically protect the people he represents from the shadows, and we can see that by how he votes against Nine Eyes knowing that the leading intelligence heads weren't elected by their people to make such a call, a gigantic issue he has with the vote. That's something about his character that makes him stand out, and gives him principles. He can be a bit oblivious, awkward, daft and slow on the uptake, but he is definitely a man of Bond's world who understands what it's like to be in the field and I think what we see in SP is a man of the field trying to find a new place behind the office desk and doing so while stumbling at times. But as you say, he's still learning just as Bond must learn to work with him, as he had to learn to take orders from Dench's M.
If Mallory plays a decent part in Bond 25 I expect to find Bond and the boss on better terms, more understanding of who each other are without things tangling them up.
In TWINE it's recognized she got too personal and became manipulated by Elektra, resulting in the deaths of others and her own kidnapping. With SKYFALL, the hard decisions she made in the past return to haunt her but more than that, how she manages the issue present day leads her down a road to disgrace and failure. In both cases Bond intervenes and saves the day--it's his job.
Slightly disappointed the latest M isn't a crusty retired Navy admiral, but that's probably not such a good fit today. This new M is solid, the filmmakers really show some surprising insight into Bond, M, and how business works. I'm obviously looking forward to what happens next.
I flip flop with my appreciation of TB, like a flip-floppy thing. Today was a good day. To begin with I thought to myself “Let’s just get through this”. Which is a bad attitude to have going into ones favourite franchise. Predictably when it got to the Vulcan concealment, I was impatient. But then I thought, “What is the rush? A Bond movie usually is about 2 hours. That’s time to spend in a universe one professes to love. So, sit back and enjoy the epicness.”
One thing that struck me was the violence – strangulation, stabbing, asphyxiation, death by sharks, harpooning.... All displayed with graphic violence by sound effects maestro, Norman Wanstall, an underappreciated member of the Bond crew.
Royale’s Ranking, Bondathon October 2017
1. Casino Royale
2. Dr. No
3. Skyfall
4. Thunderball
5. Goldfinger
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. The World Is Not Enough
8. GoldenEye
9. Diamonds Are Forever
10. Live and Let Die
11. Die Another Day
12. The Man With The Golden Gun
Next up, On Her Majesties Secret Service. No links to Thunderball, but seen as its Christmas...
I always interpreted the scene with M like you, @RichardTheBruce and @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
Good point old chum!
Really enjoyed it, as always. Some films are guilty pleasures, and I guess this is one for me. Ultimately it's always Roger Moore that makes this film such a joy for me to revisit time and time again. I know many dislike his edgier take on the character in this film, complaining that it doesn't suit him. I feel the opposite, and truly wish he'd played Bond more like this during his long tenure. Due to his essentially pleasant on screen persona, I find that he can pull off some of the more disagreeable and ruthless behaviour without it coming across too rough. As an example, I actually like the much maligned Andrea interrogation scene precisely because Moore ends it with champagne, which is what I'd expect him to do. The dialogue exchange always brings a smile to my face as well ("Oh. Fascinating anatomical tidbit, but probably the most useless piece of information I ever heard. Unless of course the Bottom’s Up is a strip club and Scaramanga is performing there. You'll have to do better"). Sure, he also treats Mary like dirt, but there's a teasing style to it. Lazar is another great scene and once again, it's in the delivery and style. That threesome encounter in the Bangkok hotel is pure Moore Bond as well. I realize I'll always be in the minority on this one, but it remains one of my personal sentimental Bond faves.
It's in my Top 10...on 9 I think and my second favorite Moore film after TSWLM.
The film is filled with fantasy, suspense and fantastical elements. Moore never looked better than in this film.
The score adds greatly to it too. And the villain, the idea of it, he's literally the man with the golden gun. The gun itself is genius.
Funny, I kind of assumed, that this one of the general favorites.
For context: My Top 10
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Dr. No
Casino Royale
Goldfinger
You Only Live Twice
The Spy Who Loved Me
GoldenEye
Diamonds Are Forever
The Man With The Golden Gun
Skyfall
However, I'm thinking that I'm enjoying Diamonds Are Forever more. Moving it out of my bottom 3, but only just (#21). Watching it with the sort of Moonraker attitude and forgetting that it follows On Her Majesty's Secret Service definitely helps with just enjoying the campy tone. There's a lot to complain about but I like Charles Gray as the villain, there's some pretty funny dialogue and a couple of good action scenes. Works well as a "guilty pleasure" thing I suppose, but to me it'll always be the weakest of Connery's six.
@RichardTheBruce, I didn't mean to make Dench M seem perfect while pointing out how the scripts have made Mallory a fallible character. I agree that Dench M wasn't a girl scout or perfect, and that's part of why I liked her so much. She was a tough bitch, loud and opinionated about everything concerning her work, able to take any man down a peg, sometimes driven by personal emotion (Bond, namely) that leads her down tough roads, and a nostalgia for the old days that makes her stick out in a modern spy world. All these colorful aspects were always major positives to her character in my eyes, not negatives, and I'm sure you agree.
I think the only way to do a character like her was to treat her realistically, especially with how the tone of the Craig films changed to be more grounded and "real." If you have a leader like that in a position inside the gigantic intelligence community you're going to see them make mistakes or bad calls as they try their best to keep their ship afloat and Dench M was a realistic creation of that. She sometimes misreads situations or makes mistakes, but that's a very human thing to do and we see her real life counterparts make even bigger flubs to our own world. Part of what makes Dench M and Craig Bond so interesting to watch is that they're fallible people who are both able to push off from their failures or mistakes to continue to do their job. That was the whole point of SF, that even coming off a loss you can endure and fight on. The endurance of those characters and their shared stubbornness was always what made them a perfect match as a boss and employee, and you can see that Dench M sees herself in Bond throughout the era. It's no mistake that she gives Bond that stubborn and durable bulldog in her will, of course. She always knew who she was and who Bond was too, and decided long ago to treat her stubbornness as an advantage, not a disadvantage.
I would like to see the series continue to inject flaws into their characters as that is fundamentally what gives them depth and humanity. I'm critical of films where Bond is a superman and never faces challenge on his way to save the day, as that's a far cry from how Bond at his best should be. Fleming wrote Bond as a sometimes oblivious, daft and haphazard man who was often most responsible for his mistakes biting him in the rear, and I like that the Craig films especially have returned to making Bond a perfectly imperfect man. I don't want to watch a bunch of infallible heroes miss every obstacle to save the day, as that's bland and doesn't lead to much drama in the narrative. Fleming understood that and these latest film happily have too. Long may it continue.
That too; a detracting subplot. I just wish they'd developed the Bond vs Scaramanga idea more.
Young was always willing to show Bond and his allies struggling to win the day, and I really appreciate that. Bond and the other characters taking bloody damage is a part of every Young movie, from the minor things like Bond's bloody knuckles after hitting Jones in DN clear to him being shot and leaving tracks of blood in TB. Those touches always convey so much added fear and consequence to the action. It's one thing to give Bond opposition but another to show him exhausted, beaten by or terrified of that opposition. What a team EON had back then.
Sublime.
Royale’s Ranking, Bondathon October 2017
1. On Her Majesties Secret Service
2. Casino Royale
3. Dr. No
4. Skyfall
5. Thunderball
6. Goldfinger
7. Tomorrow Never Dies
8. The World Is Not Enough
9. GoldenEye
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Live and Let Die
12. Die Another Day
13. The Man With The Golden Gun
Next up, For Your Eyes Only, linked thusly to Majesties by Tracy. And snow.
@0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 - I quite agree. Even in the first scenes in Dr No - the murder of Strangways' secretary is quite shocking, plus flamethrower Quarrel. No wonder Paul Johnson infamous headline "Sex, snobbery and sadism" is almost a tag line for the Bond series.
I've always loved the film, but, as I get older (now in my 40s), I love it even more... It feels like it's one of Bond's earliest assignments, because of GL's clumsy freshness...
Got to be (apart from OHMSS) the go to Bond film at Xmas.
A big epic Bond movie. Great action, massive sets, lovely ladies and Rog at his very best.
Massively enjoyable as always.
Keeping the British end up indeed!
Enjoy, @bondjames
And Merry Christmas!
I may double bill it with some Cruise MI:4 GP badassery or the legendary Die Hard.
A double bill with Die Hard sounds like a perfect Christmas day!
Normally I ration my viewings of TSWLM (to once every couple of years) because I like it so much. However, I just completed my 3rd viewing this year. The first was under sad circumstances on the night Sir Rog passed away, the second was in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the film, and this one was because it just felt right. I loved every minute of it as always. This film just captures everything that makes cinematic Bond great as far as I'm concerned. A little bit of suspense, a little bit of spy work, a little bit of larger than life thrills, brilliant exotic locations, an excellent score, an even better title song, lots of hot babes and plenty of cool stunts. The icing on the cake is of course Sir Rog operating at the top of his game. Nobody does it better that's for sure.
Makes me feel sad for the rest--that they didn't quite get the same film event.
But there's always 2027.
Goldfinger?
I would agree with two of those. FRWL is the first. TSWLM is, I think, clearly Moore's most relaxed performance. As for Brosnan, I think he was better in TND, both physically and in his confidence.
This film is saved by some incredible action pieces and iconic moments such as the pretitles, Locque's death, Lisl's end on the beach, the keelhauling sequence and Bond scaling up to the monastery. Also a big fan of Melina. I wish that Kristatos would have met his end at the tip of her crossbow.