The James Bond Questions Thread

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  • BennyBenny In the shadowsAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 14,811
    fjdinardo wrote: »
    Why did Nick Nack try to kill Bond at Hi Fats estate when he knows dam well Scarmanag has wanted to kill Bond himself for the longest time? Surely Scaramanga wouldn't be too happy if Nick Nack killed Bond.

    Good question @fjdinardo I've never actually thought about that before. It also leads in to a follow up question of why actually is Bond taken to Hai-Fat's karate school. (Obviously to get some kung foo into the film as it was popular at the time) But within the context of the story, are they intending to kill Bond at the karate school? Or just rough him up a bit? If the intent is too kill 007, then again it leads back to the question of whether Scaramanga would approve.
  • Posts: 1,964
    Benny wrote: »
    fjdinardo wrote: »
    Why did Nick Nack try to kill Bond at Hi Fats estate when he knows dam well Scarmanag has wanted to kill Bond himself for the longest time? Surely Scaramanga wouldn't be too happy if Nick Nack killed Bond.

    Good question @fjdinardo I've never actually thought about that before. It also leads in to a follow up question of why actually is Bond taken to Hai-Fat's karate school. (Obviously to get some kung foo into the film as it was popular at the time) But within the context of the story, are they intending to kill Bond at the karate school? Or just rough him up a bit? If the intent is too kill 007, then again it leads back to the question of whether Scaramanga would approve.

    My answer would be it was to rough him up a bit, and then take him to Scaramangas island where Bond would be weaker in Scaramangas fun house. BUT this theory tho might get canceled out if you take into the fact that Scaramanga wanted Bond 100% for the fun house fight because he saw Bond as is equal and wants to prove he can kill Bond when Bond is at his best.
  • Posts: 19,339
    Lets just say that Scaramanga/Hai Fat/Nick Nack had crossed wires.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,904
    To me there was a tension or love/hate thing going on between Nick Nack and Scaramenga. I think Lee and Herve played off each other well.

    The fact that Nick Nack would inherit everything if Scaramenga died probably added to this tension.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,904
    In TSWLM Stromberg shows Bond an underwater city. Bond says something about it being a dream and Stromberg replies not a dream! We never see if he actually built the city. So my question is do we think Stromberg had built his city somewhere? If the world experienced nuclear war who was exactly going to live in this city? Where do we think Stromberg would build it?
  • Posts: 1,964
    thedove wrote: »
    In TSWLM Stromberg shows Bond an underwater city. Bond says something about it being a dream and Stromberg replies not a dream! We never see if he actually built the city. So my question is do we think Stromberg had built his city somewhere? If the world experienced nuclear war who was exactly going to live in this city? Where do we think Stromberg would build it?

    I thought Atlantis was the city
  • Posts: 19,339
    fjdinardo wrote: »
    thedove wrote: »
    In TSWLM Stromberg shows Bond an underwater city. Bond says something about it being a dream and Stromberg replies not a dream! We never see if he actually built the city. So my question is do we think Stromberg had built his city somewhere? If the world experienced nuclear war who was exactly going to live in this city? Where do we think Stromberg would build it?

    I thought Atlantis was the city


    Yep,it was.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,904
    Really? Didn't look large enough to me to house the city. I thought the model showed Atlantis and it was surrounded by other "buildings".
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,378
    Why does Bond say “I love you too M“ when he is sitting in the new Aston for the first time in CR (after he arrived at the Casino with Vasper)? Is something written in the envelope like “please bring the car back in one piece“?
  • ThunderballThunderball playing Chemin de Fer in a casino, downing Vespers
    Posts: 776
    Yeah, essentially. More along the lines of “don’t screw up” and the like is what M’s letter said.
  • edited October 2019 Posts: 12,837
    Have Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig ever picked a favourite of their own Bond films in interviews?

    I know they've all talked about their favourites starring other Bond's before. Connery I think has said FRWL is the best of his run, and Brosnan said in the EON doc that GE is his favourite of his. But have any of the others picked a favourite from their own era?

    Craig I'm especially curious about. I'm assuming it's CR or SF but they're such different films that I'm interested to know which he prefers, if he does have a preference.
  • BennyBenny In the shadowsAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 14,811
    Sir Rog always said he felt that TSWLM was his best Bond film. As to Dalton and Craig, I'm not sure.
  • Posts: 12,242
    Yup I was pretty sure Connery’s favorite was FRWL, Moore’s was TSWLM, and Brosnan’s was GE. Craig would probably be more open about this one when he’s officially retired from the role, but I have a good feeling he would pick CR. Dalton I have no idea. I know Glen liked LTK best of his directed films.
  • BennyBenny In the shadowsAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 14,811
    I know George Lazenby's is OHMSS ;)
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,368
    I know it's been discussed before but can't recall what the answer was, if any: what happens to Bond's hat in MP's office in TB? It seems a simple continuity error but Bond himself comments on it.
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    edited October 2019 Posts: 4,378
    If we have a thread for this, I would be very interested in reading it:

    I still have the Bond DVDs and checked the PG Rating. In Switzerland it is called FSK. All Bond Movies are either FSK 12 or FSK 16. Most are FSK 12.

    Those are the ones with FSK 16:
    DN, FRWL, GF
    OHMSS, DAF
    LALD, TMWTGG
    LTK, GE, TND


    Is it the same group with a higher rating in your country?

    Would you say these are the right ones to deserve a higher FSK/PG? Why?
    LTK is obvious. LALD could be because of the voodoo stuff and Kanangas death. TMWTGG shows more skin (?) and Bond is more violent against women.
    I'm surprised that FYEO is FSK 12 compared to the two first Roger movies.
    DAF? Because of the burning asian soldier?

    Does it make sense that the Craig films belong all to the lower rating? They are definitely more serious...
    Which movie did you felt to be violent as a kid/teenager?
  • Max_The_ParrotMax_The_Parrot ATAC to St Cyril’s
    edited October 2019 Posts: 2,426
    @goldenswissroyale The UK BBFC classifications on the blu-ray box set are

    Rated PG: DN, FRWL, GF, TB, YOLT, OHMSS, LALD, TMWTGG, TSWLM, MR, FYEO, OP, AVTAK

    Rated 12: DAF, TLD, TND, TWINE, DAD, QOS, SF, SP

    Rated 15: LTK, GE, CR

    However, the rating for the disc is the overall highest rating of any content on the disc (so for instance, in the case of DAF, the feature film is rated PG but the audio commentary has been rated 12, hence the disc bears a 12 logo).

    I don’t know about the FSK ratings, but I suspect it’s probably similar, where some of those films rated FSK16 should really be lower, but other content on the disc is bumping up the overall rating.

    I remember when I was at school watching Bond films on TV, around mid 80s they suddenly started cutting the scene from LALD where Bond kills the snake by igniting an aerosol canister (presumably for fear of all us teenagers going round burning people’s hair off with hairspray tins) - I knew that scene well from watching previous versions, so was surprised when it suddenly disappeared (and made no sense then of Rosie discovering the snake afterwards).
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,655
    It seems that Switzerland either adopts or is part of the German "FSK" system. FSK stands for "Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft" (Voluntary Self-Control of the Motion Picture Industry, cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiwillige_Selbstkontrolle_der_Filmwirtschaft) that rates the movies so the government doesn't have to. A "12" rating, by the way, is basically PG these days: Children between six and 12 may watch the movie if they are accompanied by a parent. Typically, the German association are wary of certain instances of excess violence. A headbutt, for instance, will most likely induce them to rate the movie "18", unless that scene is deleted or watered down somehow.

    They have become more lenient over the decades, though. Quite a few zombie and horror movies that remained unrated for violence initially (meaning they could not be sold over the counter and could not be mail-ordered, nor imported into Germany) were re-rated 18 or even 16 in the meantime, without cuts. While actual porn is likely to remain at least at 18, nudity is no longer an issue at all. A movie can still show full frontal nudity and still be rated 12 or even 6.

    Unless one thinks that the Bond films have actually become more harmless, one can see that in the franchise. No Bond film after TND has been rated any higher than "12" while seven of the first ten were rated "16". For what it's worth.
  • Posts: 5,772
    Not rated in France, AFAIK. In Germany, they were rated "Ab 12", meaning that kids under 12 couldn't see them.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    The blu-rays are all rated 15 in Norway.
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,378
    Thanks for your answers. @Max_The_Parrot : It seems that CR is more violent for UK eyes than german/swiss eyes?
    I never thought about the possible fact that the rating could be higher because of the extras... I really doubt that this is the case on my DVDs. But it is definitely surprising that TMWTGG is much higher rated on my DVD than in the UK.
    @j_w_pepper isn't Germany generally stricter compared to Switzerland when it comes to violence? I suppose the samr DVDs were made for Germany and Switzerland, though.
    @Gerard no rating? Never heard this before. But wouldn't there be at least a recommendation for parents?
    @Thunderfinger they made it a bit easy to rate them all the same. Rate LTK the same as, let's say YOLT, is a bit strange imo.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Thanks for your answers. @Max_The_Parrot : It seems that CR is more violent for UK eyes than german/swiss eyes?
    I never thought about the possible fact that the rating could be higher because of the extras... I really doubt that this is the case on my DVDs. But it is definitely surprising that TMWTGG is much higher rated on my DVD than in the UK.
    @j_w_pepper isn't Germany generally stricter compared to Switzerland when it comes to violence? I suppose the samr DVDs were made for Germany and Switzerland, though.
    @Gerard no rating? Never heard this before. But wouldn't there be at least a recommendation for parents?
    @Thunderfinger they made it a bit easy to rate them all the same. Rate LTK the same as, let's say YOLT, is a bit strange imo.

    The latest Bond films have been rated 12 in the cinema.
  • edited October 2019 Posts: 5,772
    Well, during the 60s and 70s, the only ratings I've heard of were "Interdit aux moins de 13 ans" and "interdit au moins de 18 ans". So, in France, James Bond was considered as innocuous as a Disney movie. Note that in Germany, kids under 6 don't have the right to go to a movie theater (at least, that was the case in 1981). No such law in France. Right now, the various ratings are "Tous Publics" (everyone has the right to see the movie, regardless of age), "Intedit aux moins de 12 ans" (nobody under 12 admitted), "Interdit aux moins de 16 ans", "Interdit aux moins de 18 ans", and "Classé X" (nobody under 18 admitted, no advertising, and higher taxes, reserved for porn movies).
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    When I grew up in the 70s and 80s, the rating was 16. I saw my first at the age of 14, though.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,655
    When I grew up in the 70s and 80s, the rating was 16. I saw my first at the age of 14, though.

    Well, yes, @Thunderfinger, that's another story. I'm pretty sure I saw Goldfinger (rated 16) well before I was 16, and I also managed to "sneak" (with the tacit approval of the gatekeepers) into one of those soft-core pseudo-porn "Schulmädchen-Report" ("Schoolgirl Report") movies of ca. 1970 with my cousin when I was about 14 although it was rated 18.

    @Gerard: Unrated in Germany is not the same as everyone allowed, but the contrary. We now have a rating that says "Released for all age groups". That one typically applies for the likes of Disney cartoons (you're right it once was that no one under six was allowed in a theater, but they changed that a long time ago). Not rated over here means, as I said in one of my last postings, that the movie is not legal to be shown in any place where they let in people under 18, must not be publicly advertised and cannot be sold online, including from another country. I once ordered the first Terminator film "uncut" from what was then play.com in Jersey because I wanted to finally see what the fuss was about and didn't find it in German stores, including amazon.de. It didn't arrive because customs had checked the package (Jersey not being part of the EU) and confiscated the movie because it was "unrated" at the time (I only learned about that later...when I complained, play.com sent a replacement that made it here unscathed before the customs notice arrived). It is one of those examples I mentioned that is now in general release and rated 16 instead.

    @goldenswissroyale, I can't comment on whether Germany is stricter than Switzerland in terms of violence. But I wasn't aware (or at least never thought about it) that Switzerland is also using the FSK rating system. It sounds to me that it is the same system and not a separate one (which probably wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to have, considering separate discs would have to produced etc.), so I wouldn't expect the German rating to be stricter than the Swiss, but they are most likely the same.
  • Posts: 1,964
    In LTK Krest kept saying to Sanchez it wasn't his money in the safe and Sanchez said it was his. Why did Krest kept saying it wasn't his money? That wasn't helping the situation at all.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    fjdinardo wrote: »
    In LTK Krest kept saying to Sanchez it wasn't his money in the safe and Sanchez said it was his. Why did Krest kept saying it wasn't his money? That wasn't helping the situation at all.

    He was doomed regardless of what he said. It blew up in his face.
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,378
    @j_w_pepper what I have in mind is probably for censorship on TV...for example The Rock was always a cut version while they showed the complete movie on the swiss broadcast.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,655
    @j_w_pepper what I have in mind is probably for censorship on TV...for example The Rock was always a cut version while they showed the complete movie on the swiss broadcast.
    Yes, that's possible. TV is quite another issue. That being said, I haven't really watched TV, and especially not dubbed foreign movies, for at least the last 15 years since we thankfully got DVD (and later Blu-ray) with the original soundtracks.
  • Max_The_ParrotMax_The_Parrot ATAC to St Cyril’s
    Posts: 2,426
    This has probably been discussed before, in which case if anyone can direct me to the right place to look please do...

    At what point does Blofeld realise who Bond is in OHMSS? A kilt and a pair of glasses isn’t much of a disguise, so Blofeld ought to recognise him straight away, but I suppose we are expected to accept the ruse and go with it. Then again, quite a few of Blofeld’s comments do seem loaded, as if he’s ‘in the know’ and wanting Bond to know he knows. Does Campbell give the game away? Or is it really his Augsburg slip up?

    I’m assuming there isn’t a definitive answer, but anyone any theories?
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