The Island Podcast: 007 Days of James Bond

Comments

• JBFan626

  September 2017 Posts: 1,497

  Episode 2 is up!
  
  Bond women, allies, and actors.
  
  itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/island-comics-scifi-fantasy/id1164627029
  
  Thanks
• JBFan626

  September 2017 Posts: 1,497

  The Final Episode our discussion was added: discussing the top 5 films and theme songs. Check it out. Thanks so much all for your time.
  
  itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/island-comics-scifi-fantasy/id1164627029
  
  
• 0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"

  September 2017 Posts: 28,694

  @JBFan626, I sometimes listen to podcasts while doing my art projects and, since I have some I'm putting together at the moment, I'll have to give these episodes a listen while I work and give you some feedback.
• 0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"

  September 2017 Posts: 28,694

  @JBFan626, just got done listening to the first podcast, and look forward to hearing the other two.
  
  Not really much to say on my side, as I found myself agreeing with the impressions of you and your friend on the majority of the categories. I definitely have some different tastes when it comes to Bond in comparison to the both of you, but in other ways we share a lot of the same enjoyment when it comes to particular elements.
  
  I was happy to see both Red Grant and Wint & Kidd getting some big notice in the talks, as they would easily make my list too. They aren't the go-to figures people usually pick from Bond henchmen over the likes of Jaws and Oddjob, so any time they get talked about is great to see from my perspective as they do represent highs in the series.
  
  You and Dan seem to favor the more classic, over the top and escapist Bond in comparison to my interest in the more stripped down and earnest films, so I'll be interested to see how you both rate other elements of 007's cinematic history as I go ahead.
• 0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"

  September 2017 Posts: 28,694

  @JBFan626, just got done listening to the second part of the podcast. I liked the first part, but this one was really fun to listen to as I found that the discussions were really given a lot of time to be substantive and well supported in arguments from both Dan and yourself. I've listened to Bond talks with fans before in podcast and video, but come away feeling that as an outsider I still know more than they do about certain aspects of the character, and I find myself correcting things they say a lot. I was very pleased to find out as I continued to listen that you and Dan really know your stuff and were knowledgable to the extent that any arguments you made, whether I agreed with them or not, I couldn't find fault in the logic as they were well supported to fit your perceptions of certain characters or actors. A lot of the points and counter-points you gave are those I'd have made as well, and on the whole I felt like I was listening to some pure fans, the kind that I would happily sit down with and talk Bond knowing that I would be conversing with people who really knew what they were talking about.
  
  Just some random notes I jotted as I went through the episode:
  
  *I was really taken aback and shocked that Dan was ready to take you to task for naming Domino as a possible top Bond girl, when he was gearing up to place Jinx in a similar position. I could not believe he was seriously trying to argue in Jinx's favor, and judging from your reaction I think we share the same low opinion of her (as you went on to argue quite well in your bottom five list to Dan's catatonic shock). Dan and I definitely have different ideas of who Bond is and what the films should be, but this was the big area (and really the only one) where I couldn't see where he was coming from at all. Jinx and most of Die Another Day really are two areas of the series that I find unsupportable from any standpoint.
  
  *I thought that you and Dan both gave great defenses of both Tracy and Vesper as your top choices, not only for the actresses playing them, but for how the characters ultimately impacted Bond forever after. I liked that instead of judging them on looks or general appeal you really analyzed how important the specific women were in the grand scheme either to the character of Bond or to the pop culture he himself impacted (like your choice of Honey, whose rise from the water is unforgettable despite her being a limited character or damsel).
  
  *I was chuckling to myself when Kara was mentioned and Dan was having a fit, asking you to argue in her defense. I wish I was there to argue in her favor, as I was talking at the screen and saying that she was a lot better than Dan was giving her credit for. She's an ordinary girl caught up in a crazy spy world she doesn't know, so I think a lot of what people don't like about her (naive) could be justified on that point alone, and I also like that she and Bond have a natural relationship and real chemistry. She also isn't a sexualized girl, showing that the series at the time really wanted to create female characters that were more than a body, pair of breasts and a behind. I think you noted in a roundabout way how this approach to character was lost in the Brosnan films that came after, highlighting Christmas Jones and that whole mess of a character that wasn't credible or even treated as someone with depth.
  
  *Not much to say on the topic of allies as I liked the picks and defenses (great to see Columbo getting a shout out), but I was surprised neither you or Dan suggested Mathis to the pack. I expected Kerim, and I love him for the same reasons you both mentioned. I would've included Gogol or Pushkin as well if I was doing a list, as I am particularly fascinated with how the Bond series in the 70s and 80s took Russian characters and dared to show them as partners to the western powers of the Brits and Americans in a time when Communist was enemy number 1. A brave move by the series and I think Gogol and Pushkin are beautifully drawn characters that show the other side of the iron curtain and exhibit for viewers that, despite cultural and geographic borders, the Russians and British didn't have to be enemies and weren't that different in their desire to protect their people and avert unnecessary conflict at the end of the day.
  
  *I found the discussion of the Bond actors really interesting, and on the whole I was agreeing more with you than Dan (this is usually the case anyway, as I think of the two you and I line up more in what we like in the films). I think Dalton is way better than Dan was giving him credit for, and the elements that he sees as lacking in the way Tim played Bond, his sensitivity or ability to love, is something that I see quite strongly. I only have to look at how Tim's Bond treats Kara or how close he is with Felix and Della and so moved with anger and revenge to get Sanchez after he harms them to see that he is a man capable of great care, so much so that he will kill to protect those he loves. Tim is a very human Bond for me, always has been, and with how Dan loves George I really thought he'd be more appreciative of what Tim was doing in his films and how he brought out that human side of Bond.
  
  *I think Daniel Craig has a lot more to him that what Dan thought as well, and sometimes for the same reasons as Tim, where he has genuine care for the women he meets. You were both were astute to point out that Dan's Bond films haven't really focused on him in those relationships, as Vesper is a focus of half the movies and the rest have him dealing with only one major Bond girl in the form of Madeleine, so I was happy you laid out that disclaimer.
  
  I don't see the Craig era as disconnected as you and Dan seem to, especially the issues you have with Skyfall, as I think that is a film sometimes misread when it comes to its overall message. I think Dan's Bond is now seen as this geezer who is past it and trying to acclimate to a world he doesn't know post-Skyfall, but I don't think that is what that film was really about. People like Mallory or Moneypenny called Bond an old dog or point out that maybe he should high-tail it from MI6 throughout the film, but those were the perceptions of other characters and not the real truth we have to accept. We, the viewer, see that Bond's biggest hurdle isn't his body or his ability to do the work anymore (though he must come back from two bullet wounds that throw off his aim, they are temporary hang-ups), it's more an issue of trust and dependability for him. His biggest issue is not feeling trusted to do the work, and so he and M must rebuild that bridge between them so that she can see what he's made of. A lot of the characters in the film treat Bond's demeanor as a man too old for spying but it's more about him reconnecting to the job from a mental level instead of a physical one, to prove himself and that he can be trusted as an agent.
  
  The old fashioned theme of the movie, and how Bond is built up as a man out of time, I think fits in more with who Bond is and always has been, and not to any statement that Skyfall is trying to make about him being too old to be around in the modern age. Bond is a 50s/60s character imbued with the values of the time in which Fleming created him, and so much time has passed that we now find his old-fashioned values of looking your enemy in the eye, of spying using real agents and not robots, of respecting old tools and not new gizmos, as things that really don't exist as much anymore in this futuristic landscape we call the present. Bond represents what happens when the new age encroaches on the old way of doing things, when technology overtakes the military and the civilized world, and I think Skyfall was smart to show that the job of spies, which has almost always been very primitive in comparison to the crazy advances of modern technology, threatened by the world we live in now that prefers drones to soldiers and where we want computers to replace any signs of humanity we have left in society. It wasn't so much about Bond's fight to stay relevant, it was a statement beyond just one man that showed how much we've lost touch of the values we used to have in our search to progress, and how that progression can sometimes actually be a regression. In the end Bond proves that there is value in having a man or woman at our defense and not a computer, because human beings carry that vital essence no bit of wiring can have: instincts, heart, and the ability to feel compassion.
  
  *To quickly touch on George, I think Dan undersold on Dalton and Craig, and oversold on George. I love George and think he did a way better job in On Her Majesty's than I think most give him credit for (to get that out of the way), and I was happy to hear that you both used the Becoming Bond documentary to support your feelings on him. I just don't think he was a top, top Bond, and I would never rank him about Sean, Dan or Tim, as I view them as actor's actors who really brought a sense of naturalism to the role when George was just dipping his toes in as an inexperienced performer. I was surprised that, for all he was given credit for, nobody mentioned his great physicality that really makes that film credible in the action department with him going at in in so much of the fights and overall action sequences in the film. I overwhelmingly agree that he really sold the moments with Tracy that he had to, like the ski rescue or barn scene, and I also agree that he made that last two minutes of the film truly emotional and I too tear up every time I watch the aftermath of Tracy's death. That's probably George's best work in the movie hands down, and it showed what he could really do in a moment that is shockingly heartfelt and raw.
  
  *It's hard to say how Sean would've done in On Her Majesty's, but I think it would've gone a lot better than Dan thinks it would've. Sean's Bond was definitely known as a Bond who would have a new girl in every film, sure, but I think part of what would've made his part in that film so impactful and special is that we would see this so-called "womanizer" struck by this mysterious Tracy woman that made him rethink his ideas of love and commitment. In that way I think the expectation audiences had of Sean's Bond would've been wildly flipped as he fell in love and married, and that same flip of the script would've really left an impact that rippled in pop culture's minds because we'd see how much Sean's Bond had changed in attitude just to have it all taken away. But I try not to bother thinking of what-ifs, like George's Bond and Draco going after Blofeld and Bunt in a revenge-driven Diamonds Are Forever or Dalton getting all the 90s to himself, as it just keeps me up at night.
  
  *Lastly, I really loved your talk on Roger. I've never been a fan of Roger's Bond or his films, as they feel too removed from what I expect in the movies and I'd probably rank him last for that reason, but you both really highlighted why he meant so much to you in a fashion I couldn't argue against. You made two points that I feel the same about in regards to Roger, and one was how smart/knowledgable his Bond was. I think one really gets the feeling while watching his Bond films that Roger's spy absorbed the cultures of all the places he traveled to and was able to encyclopedically pull out random facts whenever he needed them. This made him feel like a man of the world, and I love that about his Bond.
  
  I also think that by mentioning that clown scene in Octopussy you hit on the real pervasive strength, as implausible as it was, that Roger had, and that was his ability to somehow make anything work, no matter how silly. You and Dan are right that nobody, not Sean or Tim or Daniel or Pierce, could've ever made that bomb defusing scene work, and yet Roger was not only able to make it not seem as silly as it maybe should've been seen, but even made a feeling of danger and tension and vulnerability cascade off the screen. I personally really like that scene and the first time I saw it I was blown away by how much Roger was able to sell Bond's despair and worry in that moment. He really had a knack for taking the worst written quips or the silliest scenes and playing them with more naturalness and credibility than they likely deserved. Somehow, he always pulled it off and gave it his all; in the end, I have to respect that.
  
  
  I look forward to listening to the third and final episode, and I'll update with more notes when I get to it. Really enjoying these, and I appreciate you linking us to them on the forum.
  
  
  Brady
• JBFan626

  April 2018 Posts: 1,497

  @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Thank you so much for listening! I apologize for not responding to you sooner as I haven't been on here very consistently, so I just noticed your comments now. I appreciate your positive feedback about knowledge of the subject. I guess years of participating on mi6 paid off!
  
  Good points about Dalton. I agree on the human qualities he personifies in his performance. I think this is down to his acting experience as well as how he sought to approach the character from a more down to Earth perspective having read Fleming. I'm still reading through your comments now, some really good observations.
  
  We had a lot of fun recording this podcast. Most of it was off the cuff. We're thinking of continuing on with more episodes as we get closer to Bond25 - maybe looking at individual films in the series.