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No, in DAF. Long since you saw the films ?
You cannot seriously call those slapstick moments "revenge". The "real" Blofeld's fate was left ambiguous at best at the end of DAF and the PTS of FYEO barely counts. Besides, in both cases, the "end of Blofeld" was made to look like a happy party, with Bond smiling his way through it as if he's winking at us, saying "see, these are the perks of the job!" If that was their idea of taking revenge for Tracy's death, it comes off as an insult. There's neither tension nor drama to be found in those scenes. They play as too casual for a Bond bent on taking revenge. And if you don't know the backstory, you might even fail to connect Tracy's grave to Blofeld, like me, when I first saw the film at the age of 8. Even if the fact of a dead (?) Blofeld counts as hard myth in either DAF or FYEO, they tonally do not fit the notion of James Bond taking revenge. Remember the anger in Dalton's face during LTK? THAT's a Bond who is willing to plough through an army of thugs just to see his personal enemy bleed or burn to death.
I could say the same thing about the seriousness behind killing off the entire Spectre organization in NTTD as well then based on that analysis. An organization so secret and so imbedded in every part of society suddenly and stupidly decide to all meet in one location so a new no named angry boy villain with apparently an endless supply of funding and free range can off them all at once with some nano tech virus...seems a little strange that more caution wasn't taken by an organization that stood the test of time in the previous movies...should we maybe not take this last film seriously and just wait for the next slapstick rendition of a fake revenge plot overrun with drama and special effects?
Wait, that's another debate. My post was simply meant in response to your question about whether or not the Blofeld revenge thing had been done. I really wasn't talking about NTTD.
Either way, Blofeld has been killed several times over now...revenge has been taken in one way or the other
Sorry, but Dimi is right. Thematically, tonally, FYEO nor DAF answer for OHMSS. It was a loose thread left hanging.
It's never a good thing when the films try to forge their own path, separate from the novels, but then also try to hit the beats the novels did so well in the story they were telling (one long continuous saga, culminating with TB, OHMSS, YOLT (as far as I'm concerned). They can't have their cake and eat it too.
In fact, Connery's Bond has never really actively and definately killed the main villain in any of his films (Dr. No and Goldfinger died more or less accidently during the climax. Even though Bond was involved, I would not call it an active kill. Largo and Klebb were killed by the Bond girl. The both Blofelds presumably survived (in YOLT definately)).
Since also Lazemby's Bond did not actively kill Bolfed in OHMSS, it was Roger Moore who first killed the main villain actively in LALD. He did so too in TMWTGG, TSWLM and MR.
On the contrary Connery's Bond killed lots of henchmen (Professor Dent, Red Grant, Oddjob, Vargas, Fiona Volpe (I see it as an active kill by Bond), Hans, Mr Wint and Mr. Kidd.
Furthermore, the FYEO bit is about EON giving McClory the finger, nothing more. There's no narrative tie-in with the rest of the film; what's worse is that in the actual film, Bond will lecture the girl on how it's so not cool to take revenge for the death of her parents, yet he allowed his biggest nemesis, and the killer of his wife, to plummet to death with a smile and a joke. In fact, he will take avenging Ferrara more seriously than avenging Tracy. No, I'm convinced the PTS is not an actual part of FYEO, but a subtle not so subtle anti-McClory nudge instead.
The farthest pre-Craig Bond has come to dealing with Blofeld is giving him a serious neck injury, assuming the exploding oil rig left him relatively unharmed (and what else can we surmise if we're shown nothing?)
I will say this, neither Fleming, old EON nor new EON have been able to give me a satisfying Blofeld death, but at least the NTTD death was the most graphical and explicit one, if not just another accident. Fleming's choices vis-à-vis Blofeld's death were interesting and creative, but I still sort of miss that moment where Bond can take it all in. Again, LKT did it best, IMO. The harpoon, then his satisfied look when Krest gets it and then showing Sanchez the lighter, lighting him on fire and staying put to watch him burn to death in agonizing shrieks, now THAT is how Bond takes revenge in my opinion.
I'm sure I'm sounding like a very dangerous person this way. ;-)
I once had a thread comparing killing of Main Villain percentages. Pierce comes out on top with 100%, Moore is close, as is Dalton (he had a split in his first one).
On similar topic, I don’t understand why the filmmakers wouldn’t show Camille killing that Bolivian general.
I assumed they did the gunshot from the perspective of outside the room so Greene could say "looks like you lost another one huehuheh" and create a bit of tension that maybe it was Camille that got shot.
But then it cuts back to him falling on the ground, so they pretty clearly show her killing him... did you want to see the bullet go into his brain?
I think that would not have worked. Honestly, Bond in 1981 was smarter than most people today. Revenge won't help you and you won 't find the relief you may be hoping for. And btw Bond did not seek for revenge on Blofeld in FYEO. It was the other way around. Blofeld Just wanted to kill Bond for whatever reason. Bond Just took the chance Out of the situation and killed him. Bond also did not intend to kill Loque just for taking revenge on Luigi's death. It was part of the mission in which Loque as Kristatos' henchman had to be stopped.
For some reasons Bond Fans nowadays always yell for more revenge in Bond films. Why are revenge plots so extremely interesting?
Not necessarily, it’s just a poor attempt at creating tension like you said. And to give Greene a moment to gloat. But it just makes him more annoying.
That’s your opinion. I think they should have given her the choice to kill or not to kill. It was dumb to take that choice away from her.
Different strokes.
“pleez dunt tolk to mee lick ayem STOOPID”
Sorry Greene, you kinda are.
Kind of reminds me of TLD; two villains dilute their memorability and impact a little. Not comparing Greene and Medrano to Koskov and Whitaker, as I do prefer the latter, but there is a similarity there I think.
I don't think these stories are about the villains in the way most Bond films are. I think you could say the same thing for NTTD as well.
It's a bit paternalistic but does fit with Moore's Bond in general. He's more reflective, less bloodthirsty at this stage.
Absolutely. Revenge plots are the bread and butter of tons of films. There's a certain subset of exploitation/horror films, for example, that thrives on the simple three-act structure of
1) The good people get humiliated, killed, raped, ... ;
2) They, or people close to them, slowly recover and discover they are virtually alone in their misery;
3) They fight back, set up an elaborate revenge plan, execute it to the satisfaction of our own bloodlust.
Films like The Last House Of The Left, I Spit On Your Grave, Straw Dogs, Ms .45, and others, some if not all of which are usually not to everybody's liking at all, are built on this structure. But even in less exploitative, more mainstream films, revenge can be a powerful tool with which to pull an audience in and never let go until the ultimate vendetta is executed.
An interesting discussion is whether or not we are all truly convinced that in the real world too, such gruesome revenge acts would leave us equally satisfied. ;-)
Depending on the circumstances I could see people being completely satisfied with a "John Wick" level of gruesome revenge
John Wick was the first thing I thought of when I read the discussion about revenge films. Haven’t seen them, but I understand they’re crazy popular for this reason.
But the living do. ;-)
I can't think of a pithy retort, so... fart.
You could've said, "The dead don't care about the living," and then I would've said, "But the living care about the dead." But "fart" is good. ;-)