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Bond and Mr White

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  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I adore all of Craig's films as well.
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,474
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    Craig's tenure is the only one where I adore all the films in it (besides Dalton who never got a chance to have a proper tenure). I can't even say that for Connery.

    I agree. DAF is what hurt Connery's run. If Craig does have another film I hope it's at least as good as the others, because I've had an absolute blast with them. Personally, I think his tenure is a series high point, and I think we won't see a Bond era this great again for a long time.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    FoxRox wrote: »
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    Craig's tenure is the only one where I adore all the films in it (besides Dalton who never got a chance to have a proper tenure). I can't even say that for Connery.

    I agree. DAF is what hurt Connery's run. If Craig does have another film I hope it's at least as good as the others, because I've had an absolute blast with them. Personally, I think his tenure is a series high point, and I think we won't see a Bond era this great again for a long time.

    It is a return to the true artistry of the 60s, that really made a point of having Bond appear as a multi-layered, human character. The film production of this era, from its cinematography to directing and casts have been immaculate, as has the costume design, with Dan wearing some of Bond's all-time greatest suits and casual wear.

    I know some don't like how much of a character study these films have turned into, but I love its deep portrait of Bond and how it shied away from a tired, near parody-level formula. And though we get to know this Bond better than most (which I treat as an honor, not a negative), he still remains a mystery. I still wonder what drives Craig's Bond all the time, because he hides it all so well. As he himself would say, "I don't stop to think about it."

    I look forward to a deep, engrossing and emotional finale for his era in Bond 25 that gives us another CR level outing, all fingers crossed.
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    I adore all 25 Bond films, some more than others maybe.
  • Pierce2DanielPierce2Daniel
    Posts: 4,409
    I think Christensen gave one of the best performances in the film. It’s only a brief moment in the grand context of things, but the scene does A LOT.

    - It provides closure for those wanting to know more about the character of Mr White
    - It tells us about his current status within Quantum and Spectre
    - It finally gives him and Bond a great scene together (we were promised a great head-to-head at the end of CR that QOS didn’t really deliver on)
    - It’s also the most melancholic and measured scene in SP. One that plays out slowly and deliberately.

    Christensen does a lot in this quiet moment. He brings something quite tragic and menacing to the scene. Even if the actual idea of making the hero’s old foe his new ally is a little passé. However, it feels earned here, despite helping Bond, Mr White is far from redeemable. You also feel that Bond has not forgiven him.

    There is also something touching and a little vulgar about the way Bond reacts to White’s suicide.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    Craig's tenure is the only one where I adore all the films in it (besides Dalton who never got a chance to have a proper tenure). I can't even say that for Connery.

    I would add Lazenby personally.
  • CASINOROYALECASINOROYALE Somewhere hot
    edited November 2016 Posts: 1,003
    I still wish we would have gotten a Spectre meeting at the end of either Quantum or Skyfall. With a shadow over Blofelds face stroking the cat.
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,474
    Birdleson wrote: »
    QOS, maybe, but SF works so well not embroiled in all of this continuity nonsense.

    Despite any connections, I regard SF as Craig's standalone Bond adventure. It really feels pretty separated from his other 3 - and I mean that in the most positive way. I like all his films, and I liken SF to GF in that Spectre is (mostly, anyway, in SF's case) left out.
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    edited November 2016 Posts: 10,591
    Even prior to SP's release, I still regarded SF as being loosely connected to its predecessors. I always took Bond's "I know when a woman is afraid and pretending not to be" as a reference to Vesper.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Heck even SF indirectly referenced CR and QOS. "Don't touch your ear" and "We may still have one or two friends left in the CIA." Very loose but still nice to hear.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    jake24 wrote: »
    Even prior to SP's release, I still regarded SF as being loosely connected to its predecessors. I always took Bond's "I know when a woman is afraid and pretending not to be" as a reference to Vesper.

    Yes, the Craig era is a journey, and each film a leg. This tenure is about watching a man develop and adapt over time, through his rises and falls, and you can spot the instances in the other films that've caused him to grow and change.
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,474
    Just got to rewatch the final scene between Bond and Mr. White. It's definitely one of SP's best moments - always a really bittersweet thing for me, to get closure from Mr. White's character but also see him go. Been a pretty solid rewatch of SP; it'll keep at #10 for now on my list. I just love that it gives Craig a more classic Bond feel, and finally gives us Craig Bond vs. Blofeld.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @FoxRox, I love Bond's reaction to the shot as well, averting his eyes, and how he pulls White's eyelids down as a coroner would afterwards. White has nobody around, and Bond must confirm his passing. Fitting, as Bond is characterized as a messenger of death in his skeleton get-up right from the PTS.
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,474
    Very true. I find it fascinating how opinions of SP are heavily divided everywhere. I really do enjoy it. It's not quite in my top tier, but there is a lot to like about it for me - primarily the PTS, Mr. White, action sequences (all very good), and Blofeld/Spectre's return.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    FoxRox wrote: »
    Very true. I find it fascinating how opinions of SP are heavily divided everywhere. I really do enjoy it. It's not quite in my top tier, but there is a lot to like about it for me - primarily the PTS, Mr. White, action sequences (all very good), and Blofeld/Spectre's return.

    @FoxRox, SP reminds me of FRWL in that there's an ominous, demented presence to it throughout that doesn't let up.

    I said once in another thread that watching SP to me is like driving down a pitch black road, with the only lights coming from your vehicle, and all you can think about is being watched. The discomfort I feel in the Rome meeting, at Lucia's villa, at White's Austrian hideaway, in the Moroccan hotel room, the train fight, in the torture scene and in the ruins of MI6 really do it for me. Such atmosphere, and a beautiful approach to sound design and tension that ramp up that feeling of discomfort and uneasiness.

    I don't know many Bond films outside Young's movies that can provide that feeling, especially sans a Barry score.
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,474
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    FoxRox wrote: »
    Very true. I find it fascinating how opinions of SP are heavily divided everywhere. I really do enjoy it. It's not quite in my top tier, but there is a lot to like about it for me - primarily the PTS, Mr. White, action sequences (all very good), and Blofeld/Spectre's return.

    @FoxRox, SP reminds me of FRWL in that there's an ominous, demented presence to it throughout that doesn't let up.

    I said once in another thread that watching SP to me is like driving down a pitch black road, with the only lights coming from your vehicle, and all you can think about is being watched. The discomfort I feel in the Rome meeting, at Lucia's villa, at White's Austrian hideaway, in the Moroccan hotel room, the train fight, in the torture scene and in the ruins of MI6 really do it for me. Such atmosphere, and a beautiful approach to sound design and tension that ramp up that feeling of discomfort and uneasiness.

    I don't know many Bond films outside Young's movies that can provide that feeling, especially sans a Barry score.

    I'm totally with you on that! You're exactly right. The atmosphere is excellent. This was my best watch of SP I think; I just feel good after having watched it! I don't know if Craig will get to do another, but SP is a satisfactory enough ending to me if he doesn't. Very enjoyable.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @FoxRox, I know what you mean. When the London finale begins, I get a really good feeling that doesn't really let up. "Bond is home," I think, and watching him enter into his past figuratively and literally in the MI6 ruins, how he races to save Madeleine against the odds and then how he walks off the bridge with her, leaving Blofeld there like a pathetic sack of potatoes just makes me feel so good. For the first time in a long time, Bond is actually thinking about his life and what he wants out of it, as opposed to what his orders are of what his duty is. Now he's his own boss.

    It's quite beautiful, really, and because we've grown alongside Craig's Bond so much in the past four films, the moment where he backs away feels earned. I still don't think we're done with his story yet, but for now, I feel good.
  • SeanCraigSeanCraig Germany
    Posts: 732
    The whole Mr. White sequence and the story arc about his daughter are the true highlights in the movie where so much is "meh" within the script.
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    The good thing about SF as a standalone film is you can easily omit it and enjoy the best trilogy of the series CR QOS SP only rivalled by DN FRWL GF really.
  • JET007JET007
    Posts: 632
    Man, I already loved SP, but this thread is making me love it even more!

    One of my favourite moments in QOS is when Bond walks past White during the Tosca performance. To go from his elegance in that scene to how disheveled he was in the first SP trailer was such a shock to me and built my anticipation greatly.
  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    Posts: 12,837
    I agree with everyone who's saying SF should have been stand alone. I thought it was great how SP tied things together but Silva's involvement was a step too far, imo. I don't see the point in it really. Continuity doesn't have to be the villains all work for one organisation. There was already more than enough to tie SF in to the rest of the era anyway (the introduction of Q MP and Mallory, MI6 being destroyed, etc), it'd already made its mark. There was no need for Silva to be in Spectre imo. Felt like a contrivance too far for me. SF would have been better off left as a stand alone story that affected the ongoing Quantum/Spectre arc indirectly.
    CASINOROYALE wrote: »
    I still wish we would have gotten a Spectre meeting at the end of either Quantum or Skyfall. With a shadow over Blofelds face stroking the cat.

    That would have been cool. I mean I know that they didn't have things planned as far back as CR and QoS but a final scene at the end of SF teasing Blofeld would have been amazing.

    It'll never happen but I'd love it if whenever they next release the films on bluray/dvd/etc they added a couple of FRWL/TB esque Blofeld scenes into Craig's first three.
  • Tuck91Tuck91
    Posts: 1,680
    Blofeld may have visited the Quantum desert base as well as Casino Royale hotel.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    It's cool to think that Hinx may have been the one who killed Greene with "2 bullets found in the back of his skull." We know who uses a double barrel pistol. :D
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Or playing Gin in the room next to the chess room.
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    Posts: 10,591
    Murdock wrote: »
    It's cool to think that Hinx may have been the one who killed Greene with "2 bullets found in the back of his skull." We know who uses a double barrel pistol. :D
    I like to think Mr. Hinx was responsible for the eye injuries of both Le Chiffre and Gettler.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    jake24 wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    It's cool to think that Hinx may have been the one who killed Greene with "2 bullets found in the back of his skull." We know who uses a double barrel pistol. :D
    I like to think Mr. Hinx was responsible for the eye injuries of both Le Chiffre and Gettler.
    That's one thing I never thought about! Great catch. Nice to see he's now moved on from one eye to two! Thank goodness nobody ever called him Thumbs. :))
  • w2bondw2bond is indeed a very rare breed
    Posts: 2,252
    jake24 wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    It's cool to think that Hinx may have been the one who killed Greene with "2 bullets found in the back of his skull." We know who uses a double barrel pistol. :D
    I like to think Mr. Hinx was responsible for the eye injuries of both Le Chiffre and Gettler.

    Yes but blood coming from the eye is merely a derangement of the tear duct... Nothing sinister ;-)

  • IncompetentHenchmanIncompetentHenchman
    Posts: 1,817
    I don't think Hinx killed Greene. In fact, Greene's death is clearly recalled in Lucia's attempted murder. Greene would have died in similar circumstances and by similar means.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Quantum sure are motivated to tie up loose ends if they're willing to trace Greene to a remote desert and drive out 20 miles just to shoot him.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    w2bond wrote: »
    jake24 wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    It's cool to think that Hinx may have been the one who killed Greene with "2 bullets found in the back of his skull." We know who uses a double barrel pistol. :D
    I like to think Mr. Hinx was responsible for the eye injuries of both Le Chiffre and Gettler.

    Yes but blood coming from the eye is merely a derangement of the tear duct... Nothing sinister ;-)
    My creativity has no ends... :))
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