Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Favourite Bond book vs. Favourite Bond movie...
chrisisall
Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
...which do you prefer?
For me-
Book- Moonraker (so serious, so quintessential early non-broader-appeal-focused Bond).
Movie- The Living Daylights (Dalton nailed it better than even Connery could, from a literary standpoint IMO).
TLD wins. The movie is a near religious experience for me, espionagically speaking. The seriousness of the novel MR mixed with a bit of the outlandish cinematic escapades of previous films.
I guess this divides the literary folk from the cinematic folk, but there might be some surprises... :-?
For me-
Book- Moonraker (so serious, so quintessential early non-broader-appeal-focused Bond).
Movie- The Living Daylights (Dalton nailed it better than even Connery could, from a literary standpoint IMO).
TLD wins. The movie is a near religious experience for me, espionagically speaking. The seriousness of the novel MR mixed with a bit of the outlandish cinematic escapades of previous films.
I guess this divides the literary folk from the cinematic folk, but there might be some surprises... :-?
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Film - Casino Royale
I say Casino Royale wins. One of the best movies ever vs. The best book ever. But I prefer films over books.
But music be the food of love! ;-)
Film- LTK
They're both similar in a way because both have the theme of revenge but I think LTK wins. I like Fleming's Bond but I prefer the films overall and I think the best Bond films are the movies that blur the line between film Bond and book Bond.
LTK does this brilliantly. It mixes film Bond and Fleming's character perfectly then dumps them into a brilliant little 80s action flick with a fantastic villain, brilliant action and a good story that has themes of revenge and loyalty and which pushes the character past his breaking point, turning him into a pissed off rogue agent.
Fleming hinted at this before. You got the sense that Bond was on the edge but he never went rogue. Even in YOLT when he was out for revenge, Tanaka had sent him to kill Blofeld anyway. LTK had the balls to go that step further and it did it brilliantly.
Oh boy, that's a hard question to answer. The stuff I love most about the novel are the card game (which Fleming made absolutely thrilling), Bond battling torture, the creeping paranoia on location at the casino, Bond and Mathis's talk of good and evil near the end (one of my favorite literary passages ever), and Bond's actions post Vesper's suicide which are compelling.
For me, the film brilliantly adapted and updated the source, has one of the best Bond performances we have yet to see, has the best Bond girl in Vesper, one of the best allies in Mathis, the best opening titles and song, the second best scene of the series (Bond meets Vesper), contains great villains and amazing tension, great action, brilliant dialogue, makes a character study of Bond again, and overall was blessed with a stellar cast and crew, including Martin at the helm in the director's chair. I also applaud the film's showcase of Bond and Vesper's relationship and growing love in the film, an infinitely more impressive presentation than found in the novel. You really feel like they are lost in love with each other onscreen, something I didn't really connect to when I read the novel. To be honest, I grew very tired of Vesper's constant whining as the pages thinned, and was slightly relieved when it was over. Literally the only thing I don't like about this film is the action sequence in Venice, because I would have rather seen an adaption of Vesper's death as it appears in the story, which I think is poetically done. Seeing Bond find Vesper dead and his reaction to that would have been masterfully portrayed by Daniel, and it is a real shame we missed out on it for one more action scene, though I do applaud its choreography and presentation onscreen.
Conclusion:
For now, I think I have to go with the film version, but I hope to read the novel more and more as time goes on, so I will get back to my feelings on this matter when they are more concrete.
=D>
Film: Goldeneye
I can't really decide which is better, but I am leaning towards Dr. No, as good as Goldeneye is.
Thank YOU for an engaging and thought-provoking thread topic!
So close to ideal for me, both. The film has a slight edge, though. But both are excellent.
CR - As much as I enjoy some of the very fine, atmospheric passages in the book, I do prefer the film (especially regarding Vesper's death and consequences).
CR (film)
As much as I think CR is one of the greatest films ever, I think OHMSS is THE best book ever. So I guess OHMSS wins by default? Then again, I do prefer film to literature as a medium... this is awfully complicated.
Film: On Her Majesty's Secret Service
I'll have to go with the film, OHMSS, for this match up.
I remember OHMSS (book) being particularly great, and reading it made me appreciate the film better, but the film just wasn't quite as perfect as the novel IMHO, as much as they tried to be faithful... but Rigg nailed Tracy!
I need to re-read all the stories, but my fav one was and probably will stay FRWL.
But as a whole, I think the literature of Bond will long remain relevant and exciting as opposed to the quickness of film to date and diminish over time. Moonraker today is just as great as Moonraker was upon release, and will continue to be onward. Yes Bond's opinions and views of the World may appear a stain of history in an otherwise relevant story. I think 'bad guy with a missile' and the current crisis in the Middle East are very similar and relevant themes, as well as the West vs. East battle that's been slowly brewing back into a boil recently.
To sum it up, any single book will always outlast any single film, and for that, Moonraker wins.
In my opinion of course, as I feel its now necessary to say in order to prevent any unwarranted reaction.
If I could keep only one of those it would definitely be Goldfinger.