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Yes, this.
I can't help it but I prefer Bond to be without any direct relatives or half-brothers/sisters. He is, in many ways, an isolated character: it grants him an absolute sort of freedom apart from his loyalty to Her Majesty of course. He is in many ways a social nomad; he goes where the mission takes him. We know his parents were killed in a climbing accident and an aunt raised him. That's enough. I believe he had an older brother according to some biography but he too is long gone. Bond is his own man, with obligations to no-one except in professional terms. It's always worked out just fine for him, so why the sudden fixation on his youth and family and whatnot?
Indeed, why must his biggest foe, the Moriarty to his Holmes, the Ra's Al Ghul to his Batman, the Vader to his Lu--okay, bad example--be a relative? It would have been one thing to make the two of them metaphorical brethren, but actual half-brothers? Come on! Besides, what's the point? Blofeld's daddy issues give him a reason for wanting to destroy Bond's life. But surely better motives could have been found? Or rather, why have that obsession at all? It weakens everything, especially Silva's motives, which were already more of the same, albeit mommy issues. It gets a bit messy that way. Suddenly, we're in soap series territory, where everyone is connected to everyone else and long lost and forgotten family members show up more or less when the screenwriters have nothing else to write about anymore. I'm sure we could have done without that; Bond is Blofeld's opponent, clear and simple. Did we really need more?
The only thing I can imagine is that they were going for a Shakespearean drama, in which case I must call them out as artistically pretentious and overconfident. It failed to leave any impact other than a really negative one. Even I, a staunch defender of SP, must concede that herein lies one of the biggest failures of the entire Bond series. Besides, it's not just Bond; it's everyone! M is quarrelling with a professional brother, Madeline has her own paternal demons to exorcise, Oberhausen is giving Bond the Freud, Lady Sciarra is facing matrimonial problems of sorts, ... Sure, GE brought up Bond's parents as well as Alec's, TWINE brought up patricide and involved Zukowsky's nephew (ugh!), DAD centred around a son wanting to impress his father and eventually killing him... (Sigmund Freud, analyse this--this--this.) In QOS, Camille mourns her parents and seeks revenge for their death, while at MI6 everyone treats M as a matriarch. What's this obsession with families?
I think it's about time we let that go. Enough already.
Brosnan was a John Calley choice.
Calley was briefly put in charge of United Artists around 1994-1995. He confronted EON with the lacklustre US box office of The Living Daylights and (especially) Licence to Kill, and asked for Dalton to be replaced, because they couldn't afford taking the risk of having three "flops" in a row for the franchise, especially after such a long gap in production. As a result, they had to change the lead to create even more buzz for Bond 17.
EON tried to stick with Dalton, who had struck a friendship with Wilson and the Broccolis, but lost the fight. As a favor to Dalton, they offered him with the opportunity to announce instead he had resigned.
When Cubby died in 1996, the family asked Dalton to be one of the pallbearers. They had a working relationship with Brosnan, but not ties as deep as with Dalton.
Also, Martin Campbell has stated in interviews that he didn't like Dalton as Bond and wouldn't have considered directing Goldeneye with Dalton as the lead.
Well Blofeld’s daddy issues were the reason why he started his criminal life, while Bond’s interfering with his business gave him a reason for wanting to destroy his world (both the MI6 for business and as a human for their past). Blofeld never became a criminal because of revenge towards Bond but since he’s a crazy psychotic kind of person he decided to toy with Bond’s emotions once the man came up, for a second time, in his life, out of envy and hate for what Bond, actually, represents. Someone who always “did it better”. Nothing that weird or blasphemous as I see things.
Plus Bond being at Oberhauser’s home from two winters, aka 8 months, makes the two “actual half brothers”? Come on...
Also found this article, don't know if it got posted: https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1197218/James-Bond-25-No-Time-To-Die-song-Tom-Walker
True. His performances post Goldeneye were horrible. I don’t know what happened...
Martin Campbell has a clear vision of what the character should be and what a particular actor can bring to the part. Terence Young was like that (except on Thunderball, where the balance of power had clearly shifted toward the producers). Peter Hunt was like that (except he tried too much to get Lazenby to play the character like Connery).
Spottiswoode, Apted and Tamahori didn't have as many affinities with the character, they went on autopilot, thinking of some "greatest hits" of what Bond had done in previous films, and Brosnan's performance went on autopilot too. And the thing is that I love Brosnan in a few comedies or dramas where he often plays somebody who overestimates his skills. The guy was terrific in The Tailor of Panama or The Ghost Writer. For Bond, he never got the equivalent of a Lewis Gilbert or a Christopher Wood who could adjust the character to his strengths, with the next entries sticking to these territories.
Craig wasn't Campbell's first choice (he championed Henry Cavill), but he was smart enough to adjust his vision and fully embrace Craig's strengths as an actor. And Craig also has a clear idea on how he should play the character. I'm not much of a fan of Quantum of Solace, but every time Craig is opposite Dench, Wright or Giannini, he has a blast with the dialog, and otherwise he still owns the part in some half-baked script. In Spectre, there are the scenes with Mr. White, and a few moments like the conversation with the rat where he still shines, but he isn't really comfortable with many elements of the script, and it shows in his performance. This is not a YOLT-level of Sean Connery disinterest, but it's almost as if you could feel him being miserable with the material he was given.
If Craig had been asked to surf on a tsunami ice wave, you know he would have made a point about how Bond should NEVER do something that ridiculous and he would have asked the scene to be totally rewritten. He would have thrown a tantrum if he had been forced to do it. But he's also been able to explain to the directors and the screenwriters what side of the character would be interesting to explore in his performance. Except on Spectre, and he can't hide his disappointment.
Based on what we saw in that Jamaica wrap-up, YES.
Not sure how to break this to you, but Brosnan was literally Cubby's first choice to replace Moore after AVTAK. In fact, his over-enthusiasm for Brosnan was what kept Brosnan from taking the role until 1995.
Cubby eagerly announced him to the press and had even gone so far as to shoot promotional material for TLD with him in it. But the media blitzkrieg lead to a tv show Brosnan was under contract to, getting another season, which in turn made Cubby turn to Dalton.
Safins henchman, Russian worker, Laboratory Team member, and lot's of Spectre-guys
Lourdes Faberes ... Spectre Agent
Ahmed Bakare ... Spectre VIP Guest
Rae Lim ... Spectre Agent
Paul O'Kelly ... Safins Henchmen
Julian Ferro ... MI6 Security Guard
Brigitte Millar ... Vogel
Toby Sauerback ... Guard
Iulia Filipovscaia ... Russian Worker
Ty Hurley ... Office Male
Rod Hunt ... Spectre Bodyguard
Douglas Bunn ... Spectre Member
Adnan Rashed ... Spectre Agent
Michael Herne ... Spectre Guest
Lampros Kalfuntzos ... Cyclist
Joe Grossi ... Hotel Porter
Mariia Legun ... Laboratory Team
Andy Cheung ... Spectre Agent
Andrew Reed ... Motorbike Rider
Omar Alboukharey ... Spectre Member (uncredited)
Rodrig Andrisan ... Spectre Member (uncredited)
Ali El Khodary ... Bodyguard (uncredited)
Andrew G. Ogleby ... MI6 Worker (uncredited)
Not sure how to break this to you, but Dalton was actually Cubby's first choice in 1986, he was offered the role ahead of Brosnan but had to decline due to not being available.
I kind of hope so. Would be neat to have one of these happen in the Craig era; they’re a classic Bond trope (big battles at the climax). I could also imagine another SPECTRE meeting, or maybe a scene of a bunch of members busting Blofeld out of jail.
Glad to see there is a cyclist in there - touch of the John Glen's? Will he topple over during a chase scene?
Yeah, Campbell extracted a sharp, refined performance from Brosnan. I just would have thought that Brosnan could have kept that up even if the other three directors didn't pay as much attention to him. Yeah, the "greatest hits" approach was present, not just in Brosnan's performance but in every facet of the films where every ingredient of the cinematic Bond world had to be incorporated which resulted in messy movies. They started going this way with Spectre too. Eon need to learn and hire directors and actors who have a clear consistent vision.
Which is why I hope that one of the twists in NTTD will be that Blofeld lied about it.
According to John Glen book, Cubby had to be persuaded on the "merits" of Brosnan by Michael Wilson and Glen himself.
Cubby always wanted Dalton as far back as OHMSS!
Think it's recently confirmed the truth. EON were sticking with Dalton, but he only wanted to do one movie and leave. That didn't suit EON and they parted company!
Yeah I think the official story that it was Dalton’s decision not to do any more has always sounded a bit whiffy. If you’re relaunching your series there’s no better way to get folks interested than a new lead, and certainly sticking with the one who hadn’t been a stellar hit in the part eight years ago isn’t going to create any kind of stir.
I liked the honesty with which we heard about Brosnan being dumped from the role. I don’t think it reflects badly on anyone.
No he didn't. Its a misconception that Dalton was considered to replace Connery when he quit in 1967/68. Dalton only had one film at that point - The Lion In Winter - which was released a few months after Lazenby was announced.
Dalton was considered the second time Connery quit after DAF. By that time he had played Heathcliffe in Wuthering Hieghts on top of other roles. And was an emerging British star.
Looks like Calley was right.
It's just a different filmmaker.
Mind you I don't hate QOS as much as a lot of us seem to do, but apart from Craig's performance there's not much that I find "great".