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Comments
Now that would have been brilliant,and made the 3rd act a lot more palatable.
And I must say Bond's accuracy shooting those useless SPECTRE guards,just after having his head drilled 3 times,was quite remarkable....
8-| 8-|
It was gratuitous and Craig looked like a ventriloquist 's dummy with that knob-like helmet. He looked incredibly short in that chair. Poor man's Clockwork Orange by Kubrick. The influence was too obvious.
The more money a Bond film has, the less creative. How much did Goldfinger or Thunderball cost? Mr Broccoli and Saltzman delivered more for less.
I miss the old days more now than ever!
I just laughed out loud when I saw that comment,and got funny looks from others in the office here haha
Thank you @barryt007 It had to be said. Give me the Craig of QOS anyday!
A good villain needs enough time and things to say to build up a rapport with bond. If we'd had a dinner scene we could have cut scooby doo at the end
I also like the live terrorism examples in the rejected script where they watch the explosion and aftermath
"We have all the time in the world," was the final line of a draft dated Dec. 1, 2014, one week before principal photography began.
During dinner, Blofeld recounts the story of how, as kids, he and Bond were playing poker. Blofeld had a really, really good hand. But he let Bond bluff him.
Thus, was Bond's arch foe born.
No, I am not joking.
It would have been dark, but I can't think of a better way to show audiences the power of SPECTRE and how far they'd be willing to go to get what they need.
Agreed. You'd think the "personal" element would have been strong enough without the brother thing. Blofeld could be vengeful towards Bond for ruining Spectre's plans in CR and QOS, and Bond investigating the terror attacks/Nine Eyes is the last straw.
Maybe not in most of the other films, but this is a series where those things happen (in the Craig era, I mean). In the movie SPECTRE talk about trafficking women, controlling the market for vaccines of deadly diseases, and all other sorts of dastardly acts. One thing the movie needed more of, and that no films with SPECTRE ever have, is a direct moment to feel the fear of SPECTRE's control. We see South Africa burning on TV, but I want to truly witness it beside Bond. You could've downplayed the human suffering to avoid going too "dark," but like all the other Blofeld featured movies, we need more reason to fear him.
I will say that I am often unsettled by Waltz's Blofeld in a way I only ever was with Savalas. I get goosebumps when Blofeld hypnotizes the women in OHMSS much in the way I do when Waltz's Blofeld has such control over his servants that they pulls his chair in and out for him, move his mic forward, and even speak and act for him. In the Moroccan headquarters, SPECTRE workers are buzzing around Blofeld like bees in a hive, and like the Queen, he flips a metaphorical switch in their heads. The moment he wants them to stand attention they immediately stop what they're doing, stand up in the exact same robotic way, and turn toward him even more robotically like programmed drones. That freaks me the hell out, and I love it. It's like Blofeld has used that torture chair on all of them and has drilled their brains so severely over time that he has control over all of them and their every response, like Pavlov and his dogs.
I don't feel that fear or undercurrent of menace with Pleasence or Gray, and I think Savalas' Blofeld is aided by being in one of the greatest films in the series. I still hold that Waltz's Blofeld is solid, however, and is underrated.
I still have an issue with the fact that this Blofeld's anger at Bond foiling all his past endeavors wasn't more stressed. It's clear that that is an obvious and large part of Blofeld's motivation for wanting Bond dead, as he sees him like a pest who won't die, but I wanted to really see his anger come out more regarding how 007 was able to single-handedly drive Quantum into the ground and shake up SPECTRE's ranks in major ways. It's there, but I wanted more, just like I always want more in these SPECTRE-featured movies. Briefings with Blofeld are grand, but I want to see the direct power of the organization in the small way FRWL shows us.
In the next film, if Dan returns, I want to see Blofeld and SPECTRE exert that influence. I want to see a court room scene with Blofeld answering for his crimes, and in the cryptic words he repeats to the judge and jury, you know he's got them all bought, or he's set up a way to blackmail or blow his way out of capture. Bond needs to feel powerless in the wake of Blofeld, and the film could even depict the very real world lives of high-profile criminals, who get plea deals for the information they have while the victims of their acts have no proper justice. In Casino Royale, Le Chiffre comments to Bond that he would be welcomed with open arms at MI6 because of the information and connections he had, and with Blofeld EON could finally show Bond how true that statement is. Bond leaves MI6 with his last act leading to the arrest of the man responsible for his biggest and most dangerous missions, yet when Blofeld is captured he makes a deal with the government to spill his guts to them in return for being treated to princely privilege, and the government listen to him.
Bond's final official act of bravery and heroism to stop Blofeld from being the king of the world leads him to being a king anyway, just with a different crown. Despite being chained up in capture, Blofeld would be offering the services and information from his blabbing lips for a price and all the nice treatment he can get, while government officials fall on his every word as they beg the man to spill about the planned terror attack he knows is coming in a major English region near them, and a similar strike coming in the United States shortly thereafter. Instead of delivering true punishment to Blofeld, the government would be siding with the maniac as a reluctant yet prized partner and resource of information for them. As Blofeld says in the movie, knowledge is all, and he's knowledge incarnate. It'd be Bond and Mallory's greatest nightmare, where the two traditionalists realize that their modern world no longer hold the beliefs and principles they do, other honor and justice and truth. And maybe it never has.
Can't quite remember, but wasn't that an episode of Sherlock?
That wasn't really a major plot line at all, a random dialogue, whereas I'd like to see this idea take center stage as a main theme of the story.
As for the SPECTRE aspect, I think that their manipulation and extortion and their ability to wreak havoc are direct bedfellows of one another. They work in secret through Dr. No, but their manipulation causes the slight collapse of the space program. Their plan in From Russia with Love is possibly the most secret, but the result is a massive slandering of the British service and all the implications that come of them stealing from the Russian consulate. In Thunderball, they again operate only through the government at a high level, but if they didn't get what they wanted they'd nuke Miami for Christ's sake, the biggest havoc any villain could hope to unleash. And in You Only Live Twice, they again manipulate super secretly, but the result of their scheme is the havoc of World War III between the major world powers.
So the 60s films showed SPECTRE's capacity to manipulate and extort, with their potential to cause destruction always on the table. It's just that we never see the latter, since Bond always stops it.
I think Bond 25 could give us both, showing Blofeld's ability to blackmail and be everywhere at once, while also unleashing his resources on anyone trying to get at him. In a since, giving us two for the price of one. I think SP already did a great job of telling us their power, with the Rome meeting divulging all their massive operations in every sector of business you could imagine, to the point that they controlled medicine for most major diseases and had plants inside governments everywhere. I just want to see what else they can do with those resources first hand, and to see Bond faced with their power until he actually thinks they're too big to stop.
It just seems like a natural story to tell. If ever there was a time, it's with Craig, because next time around I don't think depth and storytelling will be this stressed.