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Bond has had so many fights that it might serve the thread well if we broke them down into locations just to keep it all in a tight box.
This was like Bond's fifth train fight (FRWL, LALD, TSWLM, OP, SP)
It was good and well staged. I would rank it second to the one with Red Grant.
the other train fights were all good and had some great moments but Hinx beats all them falling only second to the FRWL Orient Express fight.
The tight quarters v. the openness of the Hinx fight. The OP fight took place in several parts of the train and on top of it and was good too.
Bond vs Alec
Bond vs thugs on the beach (OHMSS)
Bond vs Obano
Bond vs Osato thug (YOLT)
Bond vs Che Che
Bond vs Slate
Bond vs Hinx (intense but too derivative in terms of location and concept - best part is the kitchen scenario at the end because it's unique)
There is also a train fight in SF.
QoS, MI-GP & MI-RN are good examples.
My understanding was that in the script they wanted to give Dominic Greene a silent right-hand man. Just as an aside they jokingly referred to him as Elvis in the script as a placeholder name as the character had virtually no dialogue and was just there to reinforce Greene as the big bad of the film. The name stuck.
Then Antole Taubman was cast. He was one of the first names associated with QOS (aside Craig and Dench). We had scarcely any idea of the story at the time, except for knowing that it would somehow concern Vesper’s ex-boyfriend. So immediately speculation mounted that Taubman would play that role. It didn’t help that he talked up the role so much in the build-up. I recall him saying that Elvis and Greene were cousins and that little Elvis grew up on the wrong side of the tracks before being taken under the wing of Greene.
I think the haircut was just a silly idea that Taubman had and Forster thought was funny. I also remember reading an interview that Forster only cast Taubman as he was Swiss and he wanted a fellow countryman close by.
After all this……the role amounted to around 2 minutes of screentime and one line about being too hot in Panama. Hilarious.
Credit to Taubman for building up a pretty thinly-written role. Having thought about it for the last two minutes, Elvis might be the best thing about QOS.
VIVA LA ELVIS
Yes I'd rather they pay less to a lesser known actor who will have more character and screentime but still give his/her all.
Character aside, the fight is among the best in the franchise, even surpassing the *shock horror* FRWL fight.
It is a shame, as he had so much potential...
Some don't think Hinx carries weight as a character, but I heartily disagree. For a staple Bond character who isn't allowed to have any dialogue I thought he was terrifying from the start, even before he smacked heads off tables and smushed people's eyeballs with his bare hands. I know Goldfinger has a nostalgic hold on people here, as does Oddjob, but without the hat gag I fail to see how the character is so much more appealing than Hinx. I am never scared of Oddjob, the ending fight between him and Bond is the weakest of the Connery era, and there's nothing tense about their interactions at all. Like most things about that film its elements are heavily exaggerated.
In SP Hinx always sets me off, he always feels dangerous and Bond's fight with him is one of the messiest and most brutal things I've seen in a film of this kind. The score is cut out so you can hear the shattering of the glass as they ram each other into mirrors, you can hear the cracking and creaking of wood as Bond is piled through the damn walls of the train carriage and there's even a split-second moment where you can hear Hinx attempting to pry Bond's eyeballs out. Christ.
The best moment comes when Hinx keeps pummeling him and all Bond can do is throw utensils at him uselessly, his face showing just how fearful and out of it he is this time around in the face of a far superior combatant. Hinx is a great threat and counter to him in this film, and one of the only people he's faced who truly can exceed his abilities. The first time I saw the sequence I was shocked by it, and was tricked for a second into thinking Bond was totally going to die. It was exhilarating and downright terrifying to see Dan's Bond so out of sorts and at a loss for what to do, because he's always got a plan. The actor's ability to sell those emotions takes the fight to a whole other level, and watching it I'm scared for him.
Goldfinger had none of this, and without Barry's unsettling chime theme Oddjob would lack even more presence as a threat of any kind.
Bond vs. Grant gets the top spot in regards to best fights not only for the fight itself, which is nuts and claustrophobic, but also for what the fight represents. The entire film leads up to this one moment between Bond and Grant where the former finally knows what he's gotten himself into. Throughout the movie Grant has slipped from the shadows and done his work to save Bond and make the SPECTRE scheme go smoothly without being seen. As Nash we see him trying desperately to play British, a disguise which Bond gradually sniffs out as he finally catches on that something is amiss. At gun point Bond has to face being bragged at, but finds a cunning way to put the odds back in his favor before he and Grant do the dance, winner take all. The sequence pays off all the tension that lead up to it, and ends perfectly with Bond getting to call Grant "old man." It's a perfectly structured and paced script, making it one of the few Bond films that could be classed as perfect and that ends with Bond facing off against the "monster" of the adventure.
As good as the SP fight is, the sequence lacks the pay off the FRWL fight does simply because the latter fight is the true climax and high point of suspense in the film, while the former bout is simply another obstacle Bond faces on the road to a bigger threat. FRWL's script then builds the fight to be even more dramatic and tense, and because of that it lives in history above all other Bond fights for how unique it is in payoff and overall effect.
It's a decent fight but something's off about it. The fight has actually dropped in my list of rankings which is a shame because I really liked Hinx but he was terribly wasted and this particular fight scene could have really been one of the best.
@0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
I don't think that it is enough to look scary and to have physical strength. If he remains completely unsuccessfull in a film that lasts for 2 and a half hours it feels a bit like watching Wile E. Coyote. "Hinx is chasing Bond" and Bond simply escapes, Bond is chasing Hinx and succeeds, finally Hinx is fighting against Bond for no reasons and he loses again. Then he is not even brought back. It feels a lot like the cartoonish challenges between Bond and Jaws in TSWLM and MR which were very often only loosely connected to the plots of the films. The only difference is that in those two films, it was intended to bring in some comedy and irony and it therefore worked most of the time.
Is this the only Bond film your gf has seen? Bond's been beaten up many times before and been beaten up worse. Also, yes, Madeline saved him but similar instances have occurred throughout all 24 films; if it's not a person saving Bond it's a convenient gadget.
:D