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Comments
Hear his voice delivering some of those classic lines ! :)
You are being PC. Artistic freedom trumps--with great ease, I might add--the delicate sensitivities of designated victim groups. In other words, if the "disfigured community" gets its knickers in a twist because a Bond villain weeps blood or has a patch over his eye, it can get stuffed.
No. Bond no longer smokes alright. And more's the pity. And grown up? Ha. I'd say we've rejected unpleasant realities and become infantilized. If politically correct reality intrudes, we bang our spoons on our high chairs and whine for Nanny Obama or the UN Human Rights Commission or the EU to wade in and arrest those who hurt our feelings. And, worrisomely enough, they often do.
But a disfigurement cleverly used (Skyfall for exa,ple) can greatly add to a character, no doubt about it. Shouldn't be the main characterisation though. Hannibal Lecter is just an oordinary older guy really, Hopkins didn't need crutches or hooks from kindergarten horror stories, his depiction was evil enough, no?
We're talking about Fleming's Bond, not Silence of the Lambs. And Fleming tropes should never be jettisoned because they will offend the hurt-mongers. The deformities and tics of the villain are a key part of Fleming's Benign Bizarre. They are part of what makes the Bond series unique rather than cardboard Hollywood. Don't you guys believe in "diversity" rather than cookie-cutter conformity? Perhaps not.
my point is he used it so why not use it? It is part of Bond's mythos, so to speak. I am all for the banality of evil, Elmore Leonard used to make amazing characters like this, but Fleming was different.
With Blofeld Fleming was through with the totally gross deformities, the eyes and scarred nose being enough. And the eyes he hid behind tinted lenses in OHMSS. much more interesting for me was the samurai fetish and the beekeeper dress, great stuff.
Largo's eyepatch didn't bother me in the least. It didn't seem gratuitous, phony, or scream out "Eyepatch equals villain." On the other hand, Silva's facial transformation was just plain silly and ruined what otherwise should have been a great villain portrayal. Silva's transformation was in the same category as Jaws' teeth, only one was done with an appliance and the other CGI. Both were outside of reality, which is why they fail.
Have you actually read the description Fleming makes of Blofeld? Pure baroque. Through with deformities? And how about Irma Bunt?
You haven't read it. Blofeld has no scar save from his nose in ohmss, but he's depicted as larger than life, to a shakesperean degree. His mouth is like a badly healed wound, his eyes deep pools,,etc.
Yeah, whatever... I suggest you air out you head a bit, must have gotten stuck in a tight place... :)
One of the worst bits of "common knowledge" is that "you can't judge a book by its cover." More often than not, one's appearance is very indicative of their character. And as regards deformities, it's not a stretch that such a feature could cause one to be somewhat shunned and therefrom, to become resentful. It is not infrequent to encounter this in poor souls who are wheelchair-bound.
Yes. A guy named Strange. May have been in The Eiger Sanction.
Nope, I do know a thing or two about literature. Like I said, you haven't read it. Or paid attention. Not my problem. But here is an abridged description of Blofeld from TB:
'Blofeld's own eyes were deep black pools surrounded -totally surrounded, as Mussoloni's were- by very clear whites. The doll-like effect of this unusual symmetry was enhanced by long silken black eyelashes that should have belonged to a woman. The gaze of these soft doll's eyes was totally relaxed and rarely held any expression stronger than the mild curiosity in the object of their focus. (...)Blofeld's gaze was a microscope, the window on the world on a superbly clear brain, with a focus that had been sharpened by thirty years of danger and of keeping just one step ahead of it (...)
The skin beneath the eyes that now slowly, mildly, surveyed his colleagues was unpouched. There was no sign of debauchery, illness, or old age on the large, white, bland face under the square, wiry black crew-cut The jawline, going on the appropriate middle-aged fat of authority, showed decision and independence. Only the mouth under a heavy, squat nose, marred what might have been the face of a philosopher or a scientist. Proud and thin, like a badly-healed wound, the compressed, dark lips, capable of only false, ugly smiles, suggested contempt, tyranny, and cruelty. But to an almost Shakespearian degree. Nothing about Blofeld was small.''
Yeah, you are right. Just your average Joe. And he does not have a scar. Because he does not need a scar: Fleming pretty much describes him as an exceptional man whose appearance illustrates his exceptional, evil nature. He spends pages describing him. He does this for every single villain. Oh and in recent years, the bleeding eye of Le Chiffre, the overall appearance of Silva (inspired by Hugo Drax's?), heck, even Elvis's ridiculous hairdo, they are all direct use of Fleming's tropes regarding the villains. Barely modernized. Again, if you can't see it, it's not my problem.
Whisper than to a Professor of Criminology though...
PS and I suppose Stephen Hawking must be REALLY evil? and my God, how much collective evil was there at the 2012 Paralympics?
For the record the Blofeld of OHMSS actually had the badge of tertiary syphilis on his nose.