Controversial opinions about Bond films

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  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited October 2020 Posts: 5,921
    Well, they should have killed off Tanner as planned in SP. At least that would have given it some stakes.

    So for NTTD, I say Tanner, again.
  • Posts: 631
    echo wrote: »
    Well, they should have killed off Tanner as planned in SP. At least that would have given it some stakes.

    So for NTTD, I say Tanner, again.

    I’m not convinced that the general cinematic public will remember Tanner from the previous films anyway, in which case his death would simply prompt a general ‘meh’ from the audience.

    Killing off either Moneypenny or Q, however, would have a definite impact.
  • cwl007cwl007 England
    Posts: 611
    Killing Q would work well. It would have stakes but as Q is the Quartermaster rather than an individual he/she is easy to replace and reboot.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 12,916
    I’m not convinced that the general cinematic public will remember Tanner from the previous films anyway, in which case his death would simply prompt a general ‘meh’ from the audience.
    Or based on comments here, audiences might be confused by scattered cheers in their theaters.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,657
    echo wrote: »
    Well, they should have killed off Tanner as planned in SP. At least that would have given it some stakes.

    So for NTTD, I say Tanner, again.

    I’m not convinced that the general cinematic public will remember Tanner from the previous films anyway, in which case his death would simply prompt a general ‘meh’ from the audience.

    Killing off either Moneypenny or Q, however, would have a definite impact.

    I agree. I never really registered Tanner as a figure worth mentioning, no matter who played him. Minor character, disposable without further explanation.
  • Posts: 631
    I’m not convinced that the general cinematic public will remember Tanner from the previous films anyway, in which case his death would simply prompt a general ‘meh’ from the audience.
    Or based on comments here, audiences might be confused by scattered cheers in their theaters.

    :))
  • edited October 2020 Posts: 1,394
    Heres one...

    Even a movie as relatively recent as Casino Royale would be quite different if filmed today in this crazy PC world we are currently in ( Even without Covid ).Specifically im talking about the free running sequence near the begining where Bond is chasing a black guy,storms an embassy full of black people and proceeds to wreck the place,and shoots an unarmed black guy in cold blood.

    This would be seen as '' problematic '' in todays world and the filmakers would never get away with it.Especially since Bond later kills two black people during the stairwell fight.

    Bear in mind im not saying i would agree with this,im just saying that in 2020,the whole BLM movement would go nuts if these sequences were filmed today.Even if the black characters in the movie are considered '' evil '' which in itself would be considered '' problematic ''.
  • FatherValentineFatherValentine England
    Posts: 737
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Heres one...

    Even a movie as relatively recent as Casino Royale would be quite different if filmed today in this crazy PC world we are currently in ( Even without Covid ).Specifically im talking about the free running sequence near the begining where Bond is chasing a black guy,storms an embassy full of black people and proceeds to wreck the place,and shoots an unarmed black guy in cold blood.

    This would be seen as '' problematic '' in todays world and the filmakers would never get away with it.Especially since Bond later kills two black people during the stairwell fight.

    Bear in mind im not saying i would agree with this,im just saying that in 2020,the whole BLM movement would go nuts if these sequences were filmed today.Even if the black characters in the movie are considered '' evil '' which in itself would be considered '' problematic ''.

    Very true, and it was even raised as a problem at the time. I remember reading that exact criticism. Not sure where now. But it struck me as nonsensical. As was the scene where the young boys run after Solange on the beach. Goodness knows why, it seems a real reach to call it racist, but there you go.

  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,985
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Heres one...

    Even a movie as relatively recent as Casino Royale would be quite different if filmed today in this crazy PC world we are currently in ( Even without Covid ).Specifically im talking about the free running sequence near the begining where Bond is chasing a black guy,storms an embassy full of black people and proceeds to wreck the place,and shoots an unarmed black guy in cold blood.

    This would be seen as '' problematic '' in todays world and the filmakers would never get away with it.Especially since Bond later kills two black people during the stairwell fight.

    Bear in mind im not saying i would agree with this,im just saying that in 2020,the whole BLM movement would go nuts if these sequences were filmed today.Even if the black characters in the movie are considered '' evil '' which in itself would be considered '' problematic ''.

    you're unfortunately probably right. I thought the exact same thing when i watched CR a few weeks ago.

    Depressing times we are living in.
  • SeanCraigSeanCraig Germany
    Posts: 732
    It‘s sad because I don‘t think I ever read it this way. The bad guys could have had any skin color ... it makes no sense to me to read racism into this. What if the bad guys would be underground german Nazis? Would that be „OK“ politically? Being from Germany I say: I don‘t care because the bad guys just need motivation for what they do and as long as it‘s sound that‘s good for the narrative and that‘s all.

    I totally agree with what you said here that these scenes would be seen „problematic“ these days an I am strongly against racism in any form - but this, to me, has nothing to do with it.

    I do not intend to offend anybody - I just think and agree to what has been said before: It‘s sad *everything* nowadays seems to serve as racism - even just a thrilling, exciting scene like the parcour chase in this fabulous Bond film which I am sure 99.99% of all Bond fans regardless of their ethnic group simply enjoyed. And THAT is how it was intended.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 6,761
    I always thought that the bomb maker just got shelter in that embassy because he had that nationality. Giving him protection from an outsider who comes in guns blazing seems like a perfectly normal thing to do. Doesn't mean they are part of his entourage.

    Anyway, if you have to exclude every potentially offendable nationality from the villain list I suppose you can exclude about 90% of the world's countries.
  • FatherValentineFatherValentine England
    Posts: 737
    SeanCraig wrote: »
    It‘s sad because I don‘t think I ever read it this way. The bad guys could have had any skin color ... it makes no sense to me to read racism into this. What if the bad guys would be underground german Nazis? Would that be „OK“ politically? Being from Germany I say: I don‘t care because the bad guys just need motivation for what they do and as long as it‘s sound that‘s good for the narrative and that‘s all.

    I totally agree with what you said here that these scenes would be seen „problematic“ these days an I am strongly against racism in any form - but this, to me, has nothing to do with it.

    I do not intend to offend anybody - I just think and agree to what has been said before: It‘s sad *everything* nowadays seems to serve as racism - even just a thrilling, exciting scene like the parcour chase in this fabulous Bond film which I am sure 99.99% of all Bond fans regardless of their ethnic group simply enjoyed. And THAT is how it was intended.

    That's how most people will see it. It is clearly not racist.
  • Posts: 14,800
    SeanCraig wrote: »
    It‘s sad because I don‘t think I ever read it this way. The bad guys could have had any skin color ... it makes no sense to me to read racism into this. What if the bad guys would be underground german Nazis? Would that be „OK“ politically? Being from Germany I say: I don‘t care because the bad guys just need motivation for what they do and as long as it‘s sound that‘s good for the narrative and that‘s all.

    I totally agree with what you said here that these scenes would be seen „problematic“ these days an I am strongly against racism in any form - but this, to me, has nothing to do with it.

    I do not intend to offend anybody - I just think and agree to what has been said before: It‘s sad *everything* nowadays seems to serve as racism - even just a thrilling, exciting scene like the parcour chase in this fabulous Bond film which I am sure 99.99% of all Bond fans regardless of their ethnic group simply enjoyed. And THAT is how it was intended.

    No, it would not work either to have Nazi as villains as it would offend some Germans. Unless of course you cast Black men as Nazis. Because there never was a Black Nazi, it would offend nobody.

    For the record I'm joking.
  • Posts: 15,785
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Heres one...

    Even a movie as relatively recent as Casino Royale would be quite different if filmed today in this crazy PC world we are currently in ( Even without Covid ).Specifically im talking about the free running sequence near the begining where Bond is chasing a black guy,storms an embassy full of black people and proceeds to wreck the place,and shoots an unarmed black guy in cold blood.

    This would be seen as '' problematic '' in todays world and the filmakers would never get away with it.Especially since Bond later kills two black people during the stairwell fight.

    Bear in mind im not saying i would agree with this,im just saying that in 2020,the whole BLM movement would go nuts if these sequences were filmed today.Even if the black characters in the movie are considered '' evil '' which in itself would be considered '' problematic ''.

    Before we know it CR '06 will be banned from all television broadcasts, and the film will cease to exist on Blu-ray/4K and DVD.

    This bit of Bond history will be permanently erased.

    At the very least they can add a disclaimer stating that

    Although this James Bond film has been edited for television this movie was made in 2006, before today's sensibilities and could cause offense to some. Viewer discretion is advised.
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,985
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Heres one...

    Even a movie as relatively recent as Casino Royale would be quite different if filmed today in this crazy PC world we are currently in ( Even without Covid ).Specifically im talking about the free running sequence near the begining where Bond is chasing a black guy,storms an embassy full of black people and proceeds to wreck the place,and shoots an unarmed black guy in cold blood.

    This would be seen as '' problematic '' in todays world and the filmakers would never get away with it.Especially since Bond later kills two black people during the stairwell fight.

    Bear in mind im not saying i would agree with this,im just saying that in 2020,the whole BLM movement would go nuts if these sequences were filmed today.Even if the black characters in the movie are considered '' evil '' which in itself would be considered '' problematic ''.

    Before we know it CR '06 will be banned from all television broadcasts, and the film will cease to exist on Blu-ray/4K and DVD.

    This bit of Bond history will be permanently erased.

    At the very least they can add a disclaimer stating that

    Although this James Bond film has been edited for television this movie was made in 2006, before today's sensibilities and could cause offense to some. Viewer discretion is advised.

    All too plausible in the current climate, i'm afraid.
  • Posts: 631
    No it won’t be banned, because it’s not racist, and it’s not offending anybody.

    Why are people posting nonsense today?
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    edited October 2020 Posts: 3,985
    No it won’t be banned, because it’s not racist, and it’s not offending anybody.

    Why are people posting nonsense today?

    I don't think it's nonsense to suggest CR would not have been made the same way today.

    As for it being 'banned and permanently erased,' this is just a humorous sarcastic comment in relation to how 'problematic' content today is being withdrawn or given a disclaimer in case any offence is caused.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Ludovico wrote: »
    SeanCraig wrote: »
    It‘s sad because I don‘t think I ever read it this way. The bad guys could have had any skin color ... it makes no sense to me to read racism into this. What if the bad guys would be underground german Nazis? Would that be „OK“ politically? Being from Germany I say: I don‘t care because the bad guys just need motivation for what they do and as long as it‘s sound that‘s good for the narrative and that‘s all.

    I totally agree with what you said here that these scenes would be seen „problematic“ these days an I am strongly against racism in any form - but this, to me, has nothing to do with it.

    I do not intend to offend anybody - I just think and agree to what has been said before: It‘s sad *everything* nowadays seems to serve as racism - even just a thrilling, exciting scene like the parcour chase in this fabulous Bond film which I am sure 99.99% of all Bond fans regardless of their ethnic group simply enjoyed. And THAT is how it was intended.

    No, it would not work either to have Nazi as villains as it would offend some Germans. Unless of course you cast Black men as Nazis. Because there never was a Black Nazi, it would offend nobody.

    For the record I'm joking.

    724.JPG
  • Posts: 15,785
    No it won’t be banned, because it’s not racist, and it’s not offending anybody.

    Why are people posting nonsense today?

    I don't think it's nonsense to suggest CR would not have been made the same way today.

    As for it being 'banned and permanently erased,' this is just a humorous sarcastic comment in relation to how 'problematic' content today is being withdrawn or given a disclaimer in case any offence is caused.

    Precisely. Of course it won't be banned, but I think the overall situation is a bit too extreme in terms of sensitivity in this day and age. I recently saw an airing of one of the RUSH HOUR comedies that had a disclaimer emphasizing how dated and offensive the film could seem to modern viewers. I believe it was the third film which isn't even as old as CR.
  • Posts: 1,394
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    I always thought that the bomb maker just got shelter in that embassy because he had that nationality. Giving him protection from an outsider who comes in guns blazing seems like a perfectly normal thing to do. Doesn't mean they are part of his entourage.

    Anyway, if you have to exclude every potentially offendable nationality from the villain list I suppose you can exclude about 90% of the world's countries.

    Those who are outraged fail to notice that Bond does not actually kill anyone at the embassy besides the bombmaker.He shoots a fire extinguisher to stun the guards,beats them up,and blows up a petrol tank but its clearly shown that everyone else survives.

    While he did want the bombmaker alive to question,it was clear at that point he was not going to escape with him so made the judgment call to kill him as '' One less bombmaker in the world would be a good thing ''.

    It didnt matter what skin colour the guy had.

  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,009
    I have never heard anyone complain about that sequence. Is there some discourse about it online that I have missed or are we speaking strictly hypothetically i.e. as if the film were released exactly as is, today?
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,985
    I have never heard anyone complain about that sequence. Is there some discourse about it online that I have missed or are we speaking strictly hypothetically i.e. as if the film were released exactly as is, today?

    Aston Lotus was speaking hypothetically, if you read the original comment on page 632.

    He wondered if CR would be made today with the Embassy sequence the same. Which i thought was a very good question.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,009
    I have never heard anyone complain about that sequence. Is there some discourse about it online that I have missed or are we speaking strictly hypothetically i.e. as if the film were released exactly as is, today?

    Aston Lotus was speaking hypothetically, if you read the original comment on page 632.

    He wondered if CR would be made today with the Embassy sequence the same. Which i thought was a very good question.

    Gotcha.

    To answer that, then: yes, probably. Most outrage about these things stems from blanket characterisations i.e. all Mexicans are rapists, all Russians are evil, all black people are criminals and so on.

    I don't think the CR sequence demonises anyone so I can't see why it would be any different if it were made now. Though they did admittedly use a fictional country name to cover themselves, which was probably a smart thing to do.
  • Posts: 631
    I have never heard anyone complain about that sequence. Is there some discourse about it online that I have missed or are we speaking strictly hypothetically i.e. as if the film were released exactly as is, today?

    Aston Lotus was speaking hypothetically, if you read the original comment on page 632.

    He wondered if CR would be made today with the Embassy sequence the same. Which i thought was a very good question.

    I don't think the CR sequence demonises anyone so I can't see why it would be any different if it were made now. Though they did admittedly use a fictional country name to cover themselves, which was probably a smart thing to do.

    I agree. The sequence is not racist, not by the standards of the time it was made, and not by today’s standards either. I’m not aware of anyone, at all, being offended by it. The film makers could easily make the same sequence today.

    The original comment was a hypothetical. So I’ll state a hypothetical too: if CR was made today, they’d make that sequence the exact same way, and no one would bat an eyelid.
  • Still, fun to be all aggrieved about hypothetical situations that never actually happened, isn't it?
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,000
    I seriously doubt there would be much outrage over CR. BLM is about protesting police brutality, specifically against African American citizens. What's depicted in CR isn't even in the same ballpark.

    If you wanna discuss a film that would ruffle a lot of feathers, LALD would certainly today would undoubtedly do. I'm not just talking about the Black Peril tropes, such as Bond rescuing the innocent white woman from the clutches of the black menace. I'm thinking of how the Blue Lives Matters folks would condemn this film as containing a lot of "anti-police" content like featuring the Louisiana police as a bunch of buffoonish, racist, ineffectual authority figures that both Bond and Kananga's men are able to evade. In fact, Mankiewicz was pretty open about how he put all that in in order to offset the accusations of the film being problematic towards black people.
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,985
    octofinger wrote: »
    Still, fun to be all aggrieved about hypothetical situations that never actually happened, isn't it?

    No one's getting 'aggrieved' from what I can tell.

    A hypothetical question about if a 14 year old film would feature a certain scene in today's 'climate' is potentially an interesting debate.

    I thought it was a really good question in the spirit of the 'controversial' thread...

  • Posts: 1,394
    octofinger wrote: »
    Still, fun to be all aggrieved about hypothetical situations that never actually happened, isn't it?

    No one's getting 'aggrieved' from what I can tell.

    A hypothetical question about if a 14 year old film would feature a certain scene in today's 'climate' is potentially an interesting debate.

    I thought it was a really good question in the spirit of the 'controversial' thread...

    Thank you LeonardPine.I just thought it would be an interesting topic of discussion given the current political climate.Even though its a hypothetical question, someone earlier in the thread mentioned that it actually came up in discussion back in the day ( Was it you? ).I find it ridiculous that somebody found the scene where the black kids are chasing Solange while shes riding her horse on the beach.I mean seriously! How is that racist!

    Igotabrudder mentioned that the film is not racist and i agree but i can guarandamntee you that there are some who do and that is their problem.But i do think some of the films content would be quite different today.Of course those who do find it offensive probably never consider that the film gave a bunch of black actors,extras,and stuntmen paid work.
  • Agent_Zero_OneAgent_Zero_One Ireland
    Posts: 554
    You don't need to construct an impassioned response to an argument that doesn't exist, @AstonLotus. Anyone with half a brain cell knew this in 2006, and they would know it still in 2020. Any opposition is easily disputed.
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,985
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    octofinger wrote: »
    Still, fun to be all aggrieved about hypothetical situations that never actually happened, isn't it?

    No one's getting 'aggrieved' from what I can tell.

    A hypothetical question about if a 14 year old film would feature a certain scene in today's 'climate' is potentially an interesting debate.

    I thought it was a really good question in the spirit of the 'controversial' thread...

    Thank you LeonardPine.I just thought it would be an interesting topic of discussion given the current political climate.Even though its a hypothetical question, someone earlier in the thread mentioned that it actually came up in discussion back in the day ( Was it you? ).I find it ridiculous that somebody found the scene where the black kids are chasing Solange while shes riding her horse on the beach.I mean seriously! How is that racist!

    Igotabrudder mentioned that the film is not racist and i agree but i can guarandamntee you that there are some who do and that is their problem.But i do think some of the films content would be quite different today.Of course those who do find it offensive probably never consider that the film gave a bunch of black actors,extras,and stuntmen paid work.

    Thanks @AstonLotus

    I think the kids running after Solange on horseback is a wonderful moment. It says to me she is popular among local folk and their children.

    When watching the embassy scene recently I did think to myself if this would have made it into a current film. Which is why I found your question so interesting and relevant.
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