I don't know if it has been done but i thought of making this thread where we would tell the things we would change to each Bond film.
without changing the Bond actor that's the only unvalid change.
Now its turn for Thunderball to make some changes.
So here my Changes to Thunderball :
Making the last battle a bit shorter and maybe instead of Army VS Army just Bond vs Largo. That would mean he kills Largo instead of Domino so that means Domino should have freed herself and change the course of the Yacht to latter hlep Bond to gte into the yacht and have that ending there with Domino and James makingout.
Goldfinger
Id change the Main Bond Girl giving the lead to Tilly Masterson sister of Jill ( the actress who would play Tilly Be someone else)
I think Pussy Galore stays as a Femme Fatale second henchwoman to Goldfinger.
Tilly would be the one rescuing Bond in that farm and takes Bond's messge to Mi6 and the end well it would be Tilly who ends up in Bed with James.
From Russia with love
I would have taken out the fight between the two Gypsy girls, i think it adds nothing to the plot
I would have Add a second Bond girl its so strange this is the only Bond flick with Connery where he seduces only one girl maybe just use one of the Gypsy women as a Bond conquest.
Dr No
I would have made the last fight between Dr No and Bond a little longer or put Bond a bitt more in danger in that last fight.
Make the three mice scene as a pre tittles sequence and then the main Bond theme.
Comments
Remove the distracting sped up dialogue in Pussfellers bar
Longer and better fight between Bond and Dr No.
-Cut some of the fluff in all the beginning scenes before the casino scene in which Bond is introduced.
-Remove the part where the Three Mice are about to shoot Bond unawares and lucky for him a car just happens to pass by and save him. That was just dumb it did nothing for the film.
-Redo the car chase.
-Develop the plot point about Honey's father being killed by Dr. No or remove it altogether.
-Change the method by which Bond escapes. I don't care how the book was written; you come here and you tell me escape by ventilation isn't among the worst and tired cliches in fiction. Ever.
-The fight with Dr. No quality-wise is fine actually, but quantity wise there needed to be more. It's over before it starts.
-Put Honey in more danger at the end. She's sort of dying but sort of isn't, the film doesn't even know what peril Honey is supposed to be in.
Most of these are minor gripes because I rather like the film and its sense of minimalism. So it is all small potatoes.
I would remove the scrubbing of radiation from Bond and Honey. It's both long and unnecessary - and of course hilariously inaccurate. Oh how little they knew about radiation effects in 1962!
The obstacle course, though probably would have been cool. Still, I like the heating vent sequence. I suppose a little more involvement with John Barry might spruce things up a bit...although I do like a lot of Monty Norman's score.
I think Honey's story on Dr No was fine it enhancedwhy people were so scared of him and gave her character a 2nd dimention.
But i agree on putting honey on a bigger danger and give more suspense to their escape from the island.
As has been mentioned the tunnel escape should of been the pain endurance test of the novel, and likewise a giant squid at the end would of been great.
I like the padding of the film and it's colonial 50s feel but it did need more action (I could never understand why Bond didn't take the sten gun from the guard in the river, it would of made the dragon tank confrontation more dramatic).
Honey's entrance, I'd hate to sound all pervy but in the book she was naked, the image perfectly encapsulates Honey's character of vulnerability and sexual allure, it could of been tastefully done (though I wouldn't be too cross if it wasn't).
At the very least, he could have had an armed guard or two at the other end.
Yes I know, but since we don't see any she doesn't look like she's in much peril. Honey's story is a good concept, it just needed to be developed more, i.e. we should really feel that Honey hates Dr. No and wants to avenge her father. We don't get this. Therefore you could remove this plot point and the plot would be exactly the same.
Interesting idea. My only concern is we'd have the GB with a snippet of the Bond theme and then the full version as the main theme would we? Or use Underneath the Mango Tree as the main theme? (Pretty sure Harry wanted to do this.)
This 'fluff' of checking all the radio frequencies is great stuff.
Fair enough.
Were there any films with better car chases at this time? Then again GF was only two years later so something better is possible I guess?
It would be nice but is too extreme for audiences of the time. If it was made today we might well have got it. Actually it would've made a nice scene in SP if Franz had got his petty revenge on Bond by putting him through it. Cut the torture scene and the finale in MI6 and just have Bond go through the torture obstacle course and then blow the crater up. Although we would be getting very close to a remake of DN then and the nods to DN in those scenes are already very obvious as it is.
It's actually a pretty accurate depiction of dealing with low level contamination which is all they had been exposed to.
Watch Silkwood for a somewhat more realistic (not to mention harrowing) version of how the industry deals with such contamination and still does to the best of my knowledge.
Cut a scene lifted straight from Fleming? Yeah that's certainly the way to improve most Bond films.
This pretty much sums things up I think.
I think there was admiration from Bond and at the same time felt slightly sorry for her that so young she had to defend herself in those ways.
I liked that part of the film it made Honey and Bond have a connection and we understand why he did care for Honey
@ThewizardOfIce
Well they could just have changed the music in that scene for the Mango tree so we could get the Bond theme as the titles sequence.
Its a great that for the first film the film opened with the original Bond theme years would be a classic with all its variations.
@Szonana I like that scene too, for the emotive responses you outlined.
100% agree, my favourite by far.
I like the whole film in general its actually my favorite from Sean Connery but if i had to change a few things were the two i mentioned in my original post.
and i thought i saw more in that scene at crab key than it was, im glad you did notice the same feelings. Maybe reading too much into it
It would've been interesting if she was asleep when Dent arrived, and Bond used her as bait to be shot instead of filling the bed with pillows. A bit violent, but could've been an interesting twist on what actually happened.
I couldn't agree more. Although I'm not sure how it would've looked at the time, a novel-to-film adaptation change I would have enjoyed seeing is Bond fighting the giant squid toward the end of the novel.
Never thought about this before but Miss Taro's exit is quite bland compared to Fiona Volpe's death or Helga brandt.
And i like the idea of Dent shooting Miss Taro confusing her with Bond
Yes the main intention is what would you have changed if you were in the original production.
And i was doubting of doing it since i wasn't sure if it was already donr but it seems like it wasn't.
So when i get to two pages i will change the film
Was it jarring back in the 60's? Was rear projection the norm back then, or a cost cutting measure?
Agreed, otherwise you may as well remake the whole bloody film!
This.
Also this.