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Comments
If you are happy to ignore the rule of law then I suggest you treat the verdict of 'The Battle For Bond' with slightly less contempt. This excellent book shows that Fleming lost interest in the whole TB project (and during this period was largely without inspiration for Bond as a whole) quite early on in the crafting of the story and - distasteful as it is to face up to - Mcclory and Whittingham were the 'creative force' that pushed it on.
Hmm not really sure how Fleming drawing from someone else's screenplay and then passing it off as his entirely his own work can be classed as irrelevant? His initial draft (which is actually pretty awful) really only features the bomb heist and the climactic underwater battle from the final story - and these were both McClory's ideas in the first place. As to who thought of what in terms of the later elements no one really knows but a lot of ideas weren't Fleming's. To say its all his work is rather like saying John Gardner is responsible for LTK and GE because he wrote the novelisation. Thats all Fleming's TB novel really is - a novelisation of a script he didnt write - albeit with his own distinct flourishes here and there.
By the time I exited cinema, that cold snowy, early evening winter day, I was a drooling, babbling, blubbering, Bond-world captive.
It took about two weeks to come back to reality. I was immersed in the Bond universe of TB and YOLT that long.
I was in total awe of both films then, and still am. I couldn't get enough of TB. Looking up at that big screen. Totally immersive experience. Felt like I was right underwater.
Then we went into space, and had a big war in a hollowed out volcano.
Like I said, real world didn't cut it for about two weeks.
TB is best appreciated on big screen with big sound. One needs to immerse.
But then the good: Connery in top (if flippant) form, some great fistacuffs, a good Bond girl with an EXCELLENT villainess, a good yarn of a plot (even though it has been done to death at this point) and that Bond-mania atmosphere that I almost can't explain. It's just a really cool film, if that makes sense.
Thunderball has always comfortably sat in my top ten, so I don't think it's particularly overrated.
What I am saying is that in the end, Fleming wrote the book, the characters and the narrative were his creation. King Lear was written by Shakespeare, not Geoffrey of Monmouth, even though it is in the Historia Regum Brittaniae where Shakespeare founds his inspiration.
I did not intend to ignore the rule of law, although I understand that my comment (which I wrote when I was tired) sounded like it. I was merely talking about the work of literature that is TB. In the end, as a finished novel it is the work of Ian Fleming and he put more on it than his name. He even used Blofeld as a recurring villain, the only one in the whole series.
There is no better company
;)
I actually think it's a good strong plot, regardless of who came up with it. Brilliant villainess (one of the best things about the film) and domino is pretty good too. largo for me is a little lacklustre and unthreatening and as Wizard has pointed out, there is a strange lack of any impending doom or danger in relation to Spectre's threat. You never get that race against time vibe that is so well done in other Bond movies, especially, dare I say it, in OP.
Music, sets, much of the cast are all fantastic. I just never grips me in the way the first three do, and doesn't provide the simple pleasure of a YOLT or TSWLM.
You may certainly dare Sir!
The OP countdown is the best in the series. When even the unflappable Roger Moore starts panicking it's an emergency that is best summed up by the boys from Bottom:
Richie: How's it looking Eddie?
Eddie: Well on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say its bicycle clip time!
I think as some others have already said - TB just adds up to less than the sum of its parts.
I think if I was Domino I'd be slightly more worried that Bond's arms might get tired and he drop me given he's the only one tied on. Hypothermia would be a secondary worry.
Has anyone also noticed how when Bond throws the rope out of the dinghy he leaves it underneath his arm? When that plane hits he's going to have his arm ripped out of its socket. Always annoys me - just another moment of TB sloppiness.
And the plot-relying-on-a-random-coincidence wheel turns again...
It's certainly the sexiest entry in the series and I don't mind the underwater scenes at all. I'm not going to get bogged down in the Fleming plagiarism case with McClory and Whittingham - I have The Battle for Bond but have not read it so I'm no expert on it; I leave that to others while I plough a different research furrow.
Feels more like a Jacques Cousteau film.
:))
I am enjoying everyone's comments. I had thought something was wrong with me because I was not that impressed with TB. @CTrent29 makes a good observation: TB is not widely discussed these days. It is still fun to watch but for the most part, the film may have lost some of its luster.
It has a great cosmetic look to it and it looks like it was made yesterday the colors so vibrant but I stand by my earlier comments. The film pales in comparison to what came before it (and after for the most part).
I'm feeling a TV spinoff here: 'James Bond, Health Farm P.I.'
Every week Bond uncovers some nefarious activity (Watergate, The Hitler Diaries, Why the BBC re-commission Mrs Browns Boys) completely by chance. At the end of each episode he ends up with a minor muscle strain necessitating him returning back to Shrublands to recuperate where he can find some more dodgy goings on by breaking into other patient's rooms in the next episode.
And JC was friends with Ian Fleming too. He inspired Fleming's underwater passages in the LALD novel too.
I have 'fess up to never actually seeing a JC film. Closest I've come is THe Life Aqautic! I guess what I meant was that it is visually stunning but has a documentary feel.
I believe JC said the diving in Montego Bay was amongst the best in the world in the 50s. Sadly it's all gone now. Jamaica's seas are totally trashed. Actually have some friends in Orachabessa this weekend doing an underwater sea litter pick. Tragic. Sure Fleming would have been heartbroken to see the dead coral, plastic detritus etc.
Yes, I meant to say that Young's Bond films (especially DN and TB) had a distinct documentary feel that added to the realism. And yes, I'm sure that Fleming would have been upset by the pollution in Jamaican waters these days as he was an early ecologist.