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Comments
2/ Craig
3/Lazenby
4/ Moore
5/Dalton
6/Brosnan
Connery and Craig are pretty equal for me. Connery perhaps has the slight edge for being the original and setting the standard and for having the classic Fleming stories/novels behind his films. Craig is a superb Bond for out modern times.
1) Dalton
2) Craig
3) Connery
4) Moore
5) Lazenby
6) Brosnan
2. Moore
3. Connery
4. Lazenby
5. Dalton
6. Craig
2. Moore
3. Craig
4. Dalton
5. Lazenby
6. Brosnan
This isn’t to say that Connery’s successors don’t have their rightful admirers, but can a convincing case be made for any of them as the best Bond, the Form from which all other performances can be judged?
No. Connery, lest we forget, was deemed so integral to the role that he was brought back in the wake of Lazenby’s failure, returning to a desperate paycheck of £1.25m (about £17.2m today). In Diamonds Are Forever, amongst all the camp, a bruised, weathered and even jaded Bond was ready to do his duty and call it a career. The film was a hit. The faltering franchise was saved.
Yet it could have all been so different. “An overgrown stunt man” was the assessment from Ian Fleming upon first seeing Connery standing two inches taller than the eponymous character and delivering lines with that singular Edinburgh accent. His mind was changed after one film, and having watched Dr. No, Bond was retconned to have Scottish ancestry. Not only did Connery define Bond on screen, he did so on the page too.
Not that he had to put much effort in. Moonraker sees Bond so described: “certainly good-looking… a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold”, a man who spent his evenings “making love, with rather cold passion”. In Diamonds Are Forever, his scent is described as “slightly salty”, a “masculine aroma”. Connery captured that innate sense of a character already played across hundreds of pages and made it his own.
Really, when it comes down to James Bond it comes down to martinis, gambling, casual sexism, racial caricatures, and a figure who can pour himself into a tuxedo as easily as he can a martini. To hear “Bond, James Bond” is to hear it in the same voice as “do you expect me to die?” and as “Martini. Shaken, not stirred.” That voice is Sean Connery’s – the perfect Form, the first, the essential, the best.
Ultimately, the numbers never lie. According to Forbes, Connery's Bond films grossed a total of 4.5 billion dollars (adjusted to inflation). Craig's films (as an example) have grossed 3.6 billion. There were also fewer theaters in the '60s and '70s than there are now.
2. Craig.
3. Moore
4. Dalton
5. Lazenby
6. Brosnan
What you say about Connery is very true. And which other Bond actor could pull off a tango with such class?
Craig
Dalton
Moore
Brosnan
Lazenby
“No sooner has he burst on the scenes as a fresh newborn 00 then he’s resigning, off-duty, out for revenge, dead, not dead, retired, not retired, fed up, burnt out, worn out, given up .... I just wanted one film where he was happy being a 00.”......... This take on Bond is very very Fleming. Daniel Craig gives us the 007 from Fleming's early novels, a blunt instrument filled with morose purpose and self-doubt.
In what way is Brosnan dark and brooding? Apart from GE he is anything but this? Can you expand?
Bond tried to kill M in the Man with the Golden Gun the novel? He also threatened to quit in YOLT the novel and M went mental? In Dr No the novel he sends a rude memo to M about a ‘Smith and Wesson being ineffective against a flame thrower’ and actually admitted this was a cheap dig as his boss. This is actually very rude, especially in the 50’s/ 60’s?
Fair point with Moore in LALD, but I still maintain that Dalton in LTK was a more faithful Fleming adaption. I will add that Moore May have been the best Bond if he had kept his performances ‘harder edged’ like LALD & TMWTGG.
Only from my point of view. I’m a Bond fan from a strictly cinematic perspective, I haven’t read Fleming so I don’t feel I can comment on what a Fleming Bond looks like, nor is my idea of an ideal Bond influenced by Fleming. As my formative Bond years were marked by Roger, he’s basically what I look for and enjoy most in a Bond figure. By extension I feel that Brosnan more closely resembles a ‘Roger-Bond’ than the other actors do.
By dark and brooding I’d agree Brosnan doesn’t often display this side - apart from GE I’d include things like TND hotel, TWINE Elektra death and DAD imprisonment and torture scenes. What I was trying to say is that Brosnan has (in my opinion) a ‘little’ of all thowe facets - a little bit of brooding (but not as much, or as well done as say Dalton), ‘some’ humour (but not as obvious or effortless as Moore), some ‘harder edged action’ (but not as blunt or well executed as say Connery or Craig). But this ‘amalgam’ of aspects in Brosnan is one I enjoy, and which puts him in my second place.
Craig
Moore
Brosnan
Lazenby
Dalton
All solid IMO. Even chubby Sean in DAF
2.Brosnan
3.Dalton
4.Craig
5.Moore
6.Lazenby
Yeah I'd go with this list. Laz might even pip Dalton to 3rd, but basically we are in agreement. The law of diminishing returns seems to apply.
2. Sean Connery
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. George Lazenby
5. Roger Moore
6. Daniel Craig
It's an ever-changing list really, only Tim stands safe at the top.
I’d say this is how I would rank their performances. Though places 2-5 are all interchangeable. My favourite has always been Tim. I would say I am a fan of Sean, George, Rog and Pierce as well.
Daniel, on the other hand, has been at the bottom for quite some time now. Even though I think he’s a good actor, I never warmed to the more brutish Bond he has been, with the exception of QOS.
2. Sean Connery; Duh!
3. Pierce Brosnan; Much maligned, but he pretty muched saved Bond in 1995, when a lot of people had declared it dead. I enjoyed his melding of the two actors above, and he kept his head admirably during the nonsense around him in his final two films. Good casting, bad writing.
4. Timothy Dalton; Excellent actor, I am glad that history has been kinder to him than contemporary audiences. Whilst neither of his films where classics, they where both good and a third entry for him probably would have pushed him higher up the list.
5. Daniel Craig; A very good actor, and his performance in CR was, along with the rest of the film, damn near perfect. I feel that the style of Bond he played should been over an done with in two films, though not dragged over 4 (likely 5) he was the right guy at the right time, but since CR I have struggled to take to him.
6. George Lazenby: Somebody has to be bottom, right? Nothing against George, OHMSS is one of the very best of the series, and he played his part in that. He wasn't a great actor, though and it's tough to really judge him from one film, no matter how good.
2. Dalton
3. Craig
4. Moore
5. Brosnan
6. Lazenby
1b. Craig
2. Dalton (this used to be Moore's spot, but, when it comes down to it, I'd much rather watch one of Tim's two films than all of Moore's films (with the exception of LALD-- kinda obsessed with this film at the moment)
3. Moore
4. Lazenby
5. Brosnan (I have said this time and again: I wished that I loved him more. I don't. He was a poseur. He posed for kissing. For punching. For pain. I feel he had so much more to give, but defaulted to posing for pain, posing for emotion... and he bored me, unlike the Bond's above him. I wish he was more).
Still the Bond I would've loved to have met the most out of all of them.
Moore
Craig
Dalton
Brosnan
Lazenby
Echoes my thoughts exactly regarding Brossa! It pains me to even include him in lists like this. I really believe he was miscast as Bond! I understand how it influenced a lot of people who probably came into the Bond world through his era, but putting him alongside the others, (and Yes, I include Lazenby in this!) Brossa just never made the grade!
2. Sean Connery: Pretty dang good Bond but got dealt a bunch of crap movies
3. Andrew Bicknell: Played Bond in the fantastic Bond game Agent Under Fire and he looked and sounded like Bond, he felt like a successor to Roger Moore which I always appreciate
4. Timothy Dalton: Does a great serious Bond but overacts at times and only got 1 amazing movie in LTK while his other movie was flawed as heck
5. David Niven: Sure he was in a Bond parody so to speak but he was classy as heck, sounded like a british gentlemen
6. George Lazenby: Newbie actor, wasn't great as Bond as he looks and sounds nothing like him but he tried and he does emotional scenes really well.
7. Barry Nelson: Really weird choice for a first on screen Bond but he wasn't that bad, he had life to him but the other bonds were definitely better
8. Jason Carter: Played James Bond in The Video Game GoldenEye Rouge Agent, he appears briefly but he looks and sounds like Bond and I wanted to see more of him
9. Daniel Craig: Absolute worst James Bond who makes the character look like a joke and a bad knockoff of Jason Bourne which was already terrible to begin with
Forget everything else you said-- but this, this is... "dealt a bunch of crap movies"??? Okay. Best of luck. And from here on in I keep my big mouth shut.
P
But I adamantly disagree about GF, TB, and; YOLT is a better film (from a script through to production) than DAF (although DAF is by far the funniest Bond film).
Since it's clear you have taste (DN, FRWL), with some questionable opinions (DAF> GF, TB and YOLT), I shrug and accept different strokes for different folks. Wish you weren't so alarmingly hard on some classic Connery films, and Craig as a Bond, but in the end, that's your opinion.
1. Timothy Dalton
2. George Lazenby
3. Sean Connery
4. Roger Moore
5. Pierce Brosnan
6. Daniel Craig
Numbers 1 and 6 are pretty fixed, all the others are interchangeable, depending on my mood really.
Boom, baby! We share the same top 3, although in a different order. I used to rank Dalton above Connery, but since rewatching a number of the films Sean has moved into second position behind George with Tim in third. I feel that Lazenby and Dalton were Flemning's Bond, whereas Connery was the definitive cinematic Bond. I'm just placing Connery in second place now as I really appreciate what he brought to the character, but that being said Dalton may reclaim his position soon. Good to see another fellow Lazenby fan on the forum!
Yep, I have always been a Laz defender!! ;)
I agree Dalton and Lazenby are closest to Fleming. Connery is also cinema tic Bond to perfection. People say he was bored in YOLT and DAF and that maybe true but the man is charismatic even when he doesn't try. What a difference with Craig in SP!