Sebastian Faulks ridicules 'distasteful' Bond film 'Skyfall'

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  • Posts: 12,526
    It's just a film sebastian, a badly edited one, but never the less, it's just a film. Who knows how much of Harris' character was left on the editing suite floor, why don't you just Faulk off?

    =)) Gee, I bet he's never heard that one. ;)

    Love it! :)) I have not read Faulk's novel? So cannot really offer a valid point other than I am sure that not all fans of the continuation novels would have liked his take on the character?
  • Posts: 15,134
    Villiers53 wrote:
    Faulks' abortion of a Bond novel was about as popular with aficionados as a pork chop in a synagogue!
    His audacity in criticising one of the top three Bond films of all time (FRWL, OHMSS, SF - put them in any order you like) beggars belief and as fare as the delectable Ms.Harris is concerned, he should simply keep his mouth shut. She is smoking and I love her as Moneypenny.

    What did he say was wrong with FRWL? Sebastian Faulks is getting dangerously closer to become the next Michael Apted in my book, a self-absorbed idiot who has a superficial knowledge of Bond.

    One of Harris's flaws as Moneypenny I think was that she was too pretty for the role. I am sure she won't mind me saying this.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Ludovico wrote:
    One of Harris's flaws as Moneypenny I think was that she was too pretty for the role. I am sure she won't mind me saying this.

    Her flaw was that she didn't live up to expectations and was outperformed by pretty much every other actor in the movie. I hope and pray she settles into it with B24, preferably from behind a desk.
  • Posts: 15,134
    RC7 wrote:
    Ludovico wrote:
    One of Harris's flaws as Moneypenny I think was that she was too pretty for the role. I am sure she won't mind me saying this.

    Her flaw was that she didn't live up to expectations and was outperformed by pretty much every other actor in the movie. I hope and pray she settles into it with B24, preferably from behind a desk.

    I didn't like the fact that she was a former field agent. One of the flaws of SF I think. That said, she played her role very well nevertheless.
  • edited July 2013 Posts: 2,599
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.
  • Posts: 1,548
    The introduction of Moneypenny was done very well IMO so not quite sure what all the fuss is about on that score. Good to have a bit of background to the character for a change. Also I wonder if Sebastian Faulks has actually read any Fleming novels. Skyfall is classic Bond.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    LeChiffre wrote:
    The introduction of Moneypenny was done very well IMO so not quite sure what all the fuss is about on that score. Good to have a bit of background to the character for a change. Also I wonder if Sebastian Faulks has actually read any Fleming novels. Skyfall is classic Bond.

    Indeed. Faulks is a twit when it comes to Bond. He should put up or shut up in the famous words of John Major in the 1995 leadership contest.
  • edited July 2013 Posts: 2,599
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...

    Would you mind elaborating on this? Don't remember this.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Bounine wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...

    Would you mind elaborating on this? Don't remember this.

    I'd have to get back to you after I have a look through my books. I think Maxwell suggested she become the female M at the time of AVTAK too, though this only occurred with Judi Dench in GE some ten years later. I think that Maxwell said that Moneypenny was going to fly away on a mission and be missing presumed dead - there may have been something about a microdot too. It could just be my fevered imagination, but there's something there that could benefit from a bit more research certainly.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    "Mr Faulks' fellow panelist, Ian Fleming's biographer Andrew Lycett, disagreed with his criticism of Skyfall. "It gathered together all the ingredients of a Bond novel and I wasn't bored, I quite enjoyed it," he said."

    Lycett is spot on, Faulks is just plain wrong on this one.
  • edited July 2013 Posts: 686
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...

    He is not the only person to complain about Moneypenny in Skyfall

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9862492/Skyfall-weakened-by-its-downtrodden-women.html

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100204072/skyfall-failed-at-the-oscars-because-it-is-ridiculous-and-overhyped-and-its-james-bond-is-a-weary-anachronism/
  • Posts: 15,134
    Perdogg wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...

    He is not the only person to complain about Moneypenny in Skyfall

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9862492/Skyfall-weakened-by-its-downtrodden-women.html

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100204072/skyfall-failed-at-the-oscars-because-it-is-ridiculous-and-overhyped-and-its-james-bond-is-a-weary-anachronism/

    I lost it when he complained that M is a poor shot. Not all spies are operatives, or good shoters, or even have army backgrounds and at her age, do we expect that she should be Dirty Harry in a skirt?
  • Posts: 2,483
    Ludovico wrote:
    Perdogg wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...

    He is not the only person to complain about Moneypenny in Skyfall

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9862492/Skyfall-weakened-by-its-downtrodden-women.html

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100204072/skyfall-failed-at-the-oscars-because-it-is-ridiculous-and-overhyped-and-its-james-bond-is-a-weary-anachronism/

    I lost it when he complained that M is a poor shot. Not all spies are operatives, or good shoters, or even have army backgrounds and at her age, do we expect that she should be Dirty Harry in a skirt?

    The feministas, oh so predictably, will bitch when every single woman isn't portrayed as Superwoman. They are silly twits.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Ludovico wrote:
    Perdogg wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    No, I didn't like how Penny was a former field agent either. I thought that was a major flaw of SF. If Mendes puts her back into the field for Bond 24 I'll retch. That part at the end of SF when Bond says "by the way, we haven't been properly introduced" and she introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, for me, is a cheesy scene. It could have been done in a more natural way. It rings Purvis and Wade to me, but who knows...

    As for Faulks, I've read a number of his books which I thoroughly enjoyed. He is a fantastic writer but DMC is utterly disappointing. It felt like very little effort was put into it at all.

    Ironic how when Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny she was debarred around the time of DAF to go off on a field mission of her own or maybe even be killed off on a field mission. It seems that the creative team behind Skyfall have rather changed tack on this and given a field agent background to a desk agent character in the new Moneypenny. How things change over time...

    He is not the only person to complain about Moneypenny in Skyfall

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9862492/Skyfall-weakened-by-its-downtrodden-women.html

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100204072/skyfall-failed-at-the-oscars-because-it-is-ridiculous-and-overhyped-and-its-james-bond-is-a-weary-anachronism/

    I lost it when he complained that M is a poor shot. Not all spies are operatives, or good shoters, or even have army backgrounds and at her age, do we expect that she should be Dirty Harry in a skirt?

    Well, she was a rookie field agent - I thought that was the point, no? One of the reasons she was removed from the active list and demoted to the desk job. Again, it was an origin story for a well-known Bond universe character.
  • Posts: 6,396
    The only Benson novel i read was COLD, ironic really as that's exactly how it left me by the time I'd finished reading it. Just a totally insipid and pretty depressing read. I never bothered with any of this other Bond novels.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    The only Benson novel i read was COLD, ironic really as that's exactly how it left me by the time I'd finished reading it. Just a totally insipid and pretty depressing read. I never bothered with any of this other Bond novels.

    Although COLD was actually written by John Gardner - it was his last Bond novel.
  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    Oh, "good old" Faulks, I agree with him as much as I enjoyed reading DMC... X(
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Sandy wrote:
    Oh, "good old" Faulks, I agree with him as much as I enjoyed reading DMC... X(

    Sarcasm or truth there, @Sandy? You can't mean it!
  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    Oh, "good old" Faulks, I agree with him as much as I enjoyed reading DMC... X(

    Sarcasm or truth there, @Sandy? You can't mean it!

    Sarcasm @Dragonpol. I hated DMC with every pore of my being. I will never forgive the fact that he made Bond a boring old man :-w and that was just not nice.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Sandy wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    Oh, "good old" Faulks, I agree with him as much as I enjoyed reading DMC... X(

    Sarcasm or truth there, @Sandy? You can't mean it!

    Sarcasm @Dragonpol. I hated DMC with every pore of my being. I will never forgive the fact that he made Bond a boring old man :-w and that was just not nice.

    Yes, sorry. I misread what you wrote there. I agree. Sorry to come across as a bit thick there!
  • edited July 2013 Posts: 6,396
    Dragonpol wrote:
    The only Benson novel i read was COLD, ironic really as that's exactly how it left me by the time I'd finished reading it. Just a totally insipid and pretty depressing read. I never bothered with any of this other Bond novels.

    Although COLD was actually written by John Gardner - it was his last Bond novel.

    You are of course quite right. Still a pile of crap though ;-)

    I can't even remember the one Benson novel I've read. How bad is that!!
  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    Oh, "good old" Faulks, I agree with him as much as I enjoyed reading DMC... X(

    Sarcasm or truth there, @Sandy? You can't mean it!

    Sarcasm @Dragonpol. I hated DMC with every pore of my being. I will never forgive the fact that he made Bond a boring old man :-w and that was just not nice.

    Yes, sorry. I misread what you wrote there. I agree. Sorry to come across as a bit thick there!

    Not at all, my comment was not so clear. It's just that DMC drives me insane!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Dragonpol wrote:
    The only Benson novel i read was COLD, ironic really as that's exactly how it left me by the time I'd finished reading it. Just a totally insipid and pretty depressing read. I never bothered with any of this other Bond novels.

    Although COLD was actually written by John Gardner - it was his last Bond novel.

    You are of course quite right. Still a pile of crap though ;-)

    I can't even remember the one Benson novel I've read. How bad is that!!

    I'm going to be doing a blog review series of the 1990s John Gardner Bond novels - it may interest you, or maybe not...

    Anyway, I've got a few new things to say in this review series even if John Gardner's works may not be every Bond fan's cup of tea.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Sandy wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    Oh, "good old" Faulks, I agree with him as much as I enjoyed reading DMC... X(

    Sarcasm or truth there, @Sandy? You can't mean it!

    Sarcasm @Dragonpol. I hated DMC with every pore of my being. I will never forgive the fact that he made Bond a boring old man :-w and that was just not nice.

    Yes, sorry. I misread what you wrote there. I agree. Sorry to come across as a bit thick there!

    Not at all, my comment was not so clear. It's just that DMC drives me insane!

    It's unreadable, I find. Give me Gardner and Benson any day.
  • Posts: 686
    Is it okay not to like Skyfall? Overall, I did not like it - who else is with me?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Perdogg wrote:
    Is it okay not to like Skyfall? Overall, I did not like it - who else is with me?

    I'm sure it's perfectly fine, @Perdogg. I just don't see your beef with the new GF, TSWLM and TLD, that's all!
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited July 2013 Posts: 17,804
    Perdogg wrote:
    Is it okay not to like Skyfall? Overall, I did not like it - who else is with me?

    I thought it was kinda weak. QOS was way better IMO.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    chrisisall wrote:
    Perdogg wrote:
    Is it okay not to like Skyfall? Overall, I did not like it - who else is with me?

    I thought it was kinda weak. QOS was way better IMO.

    Really?
  • edited July 2013 Posts: 4,622
    echo wrote:
    timmer wrote:
    Well, this bit I can't diagree with.
    "I found the last film pretty distasteful. One [of the Bond girls] couldn't act and the other had been previously exploited as a sex worker. And Bond walks into the shower and makes love to her. Casino Royale was much better," he told an audience at India's Jaipur Literature Festival.
    Zero understanding of Fleming's characters by Faulks. Look at Honey Ryder or even Domino.
    Not quite. You are assuming a direct parallel between Severine and both Honey and Domino, although Tiffany Case would be a better attempt at a parallel than Domino. Domino wasn't raped. She was Largo's kept woman, gangster mistress. Being a gangster moll is a precarious occupation. Lupe found herself in the same situation with Sanchez.
    Severine though is a slave, who was passed from one owner to another ie from the Triad to Silva.
    So Faulks is raising a fair point and he's not the only one to have raised it. I don't believe there is a parallel with any of Fleming's women, neither Honey nor Tiffany.
    This doesn't mean the whole situation with Bond and Severine is necessarily "wrong" or even badly conceived, but it shouldn't be a schock when reviewers, critics, movie-goers voice complaints or find the scenario unsettling.
    Sex slavery is a big issue these days. It goes on right under our noses (strippers/prostitues) in major western metropolises including the big burb that I live in.
    The filmmakers contrived this unique scenario all on their own.
    It's not a borrow from a Fleming precedent.

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