Controversial opinions about Bond films

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  • Posts: 14,800
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 23,449
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    Part of the torture was eating frozen yoghurt snacks. ;-)
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited February 2021 Posts: 7,518
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    Can’t say this is something I’ve ever thought about. But I suppose you’re right.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited February 2021 Posts: 17,729
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    Bear in mind that this was Brosnan's fourth (and ultimately final) Bond film. With his wages I'm sure he was well fed (and watered) and good luck to him!

    Seriously though, surely a certain amount of creative licence has to be allowed to the filmmakers? The Bond films have never exactly been about method acting. That was a point I already made above.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    Bond looked pretty healthy and fit for an alcoholic and pill popper with bullet fragments in his chest living on a secluded beach for over a year in Skyfall.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,518
    Murdock wrote: »
    Bond looked pretty healthy and fit for an alcoholic and pill popper with bullet fragments in his chest living on a secluded beach for over a year in Skyfall.

    How do we know it was over a year?
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    Murdock wrote: »
    Bond looked pretty healthy and fit for an alcoholic and pill popper with bullet fragments in his chest living on a secluded beach for over a year in Skyfall.

    How do we know it was over a year?

    Educated guess.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,053
    Murdock wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Bond looked pretty healthy and fit for an alcoholic and pill popper with bullet fragments in his chest living on a secluded beach for over a year in Skyfall.

    How do we know it was over a year?

    Educated guess.

    I thought it was three to six months.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    My point exactly.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    edited February 2021 Posts: 8,009
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    On the flipside, if he had actually looked like what someone who had been tortured and imprisoned for 18 months, there would be no film as Bond wouldn't be able to walk due to basic muscle function loss and malnutrition. Even if Brosnan starved himself for months before filming, he still wouldn't be accurate in appearance.
    suavejmf wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    My point exactly.

    Far better made, in this case.
  • Posts: 7,500
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Bond looked pretty healthy and fit for an alcoholic and pill popper with bullet fragments in his chest living on a secluded beach for over a year in Skyfall.

    How do we know it was over a year?

    Educated guess.

    I thought it was three to six months.

    I thought it was one month or two months maximum...
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited February 2021 Posts: 7,518
    Murdock wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Bond looked pretty healthy and fit for an alcoholic and pill popper with bullet fragments in his chest living on a secluded beach for over a year in Skyfall.

    How do we know it was over a year?

    Educated guess.

    I'm with @MaxCasino and @jobo. I'd like to know what went into educating this guess.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,009
    It's three months between Bond being shot off the bridge and M meeting Mallory. He references it in dialogue.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    No matter how long it's been he still look pretty good for someone who survived a massive fall and has bullet fragments lodged in his chest. It's a Bond movie. He's going to look good no matter if he was a POW for over a year or survived a fall that would have killed him. Realism and Bond films don't really go hand in hand.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Controversial opinion:

    I actually prefer Brosnan's extra bulk in DAD to his leaner frame in GOLDENEYE. There are a few shots in his first outing where I feel he looks a little too thin. I think he looked his best in TND.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    Controversial opinion:

    I actually prefer Brosnan's extra bulk in DAD to his leaner frame in GOLDENEYE. There are a few shots in his first outing where I feel he looks a little too thin. I think he looked his best in TND.
    I think you are right.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    Controversial opinion:

    I actually prefer Brosnan's extra bulk in DAD to his leaner frame in GOLDENEYE. There are a few shots in his first outing where I feel he looks a little too thin. I think he looked his best in TND.

    True. Looks wise as Bond definitely. But his performance and the tone of GE is good. His other films were pastiche, making his Bond such, taking away from him ‘looking like a great Bond’.
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    Am I being to fanboyish when I say that seeing what Craig Bond looks like and is capable off at his worst in Skyfall unly underlines how great he is?
    Of course it's all movie bullshit but still. He is really rocking that beach outfit and the sweatsuit...
  • Posts: 14,800
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    Bear in mind that this was Brosnan's fourth (and ultimately final) Bond film. With his wages I'm sure he was well fed (and watered) and good luck to him!

    Seriously though, surely a certain amount of creative licence has to be allowed to the filmmakers? The Bond films have never exactly been about method acting. That was a point I already made above.

    True, but it kind of defeats the point of having been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months. Looking at him, it seems that all they did was keep him away from razors and cissors.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,418
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I’ve watched DAD many times and the thought that Bond at any point in the film is “chubby” never even began to enter my mind. Completely insane.

    He does look well fed for a man who's been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months.

    Part of the torture was eating frozen yoghurt snacks. ;-)

    Were they cursed frozen yoghurt snacks?
  • ProfJoeButcherProfJoeButcher Bless your heart
    Posts: 1,664
    I can understand not liking DAD for a lot of reasons, but "Pierce should have done a De Niro and lost 50 pounds for an invisible car movie" is not one of them. Good grief!
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,009
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    Controversial opinion:

    I actually prefer Brosnan's extra bulk in DAD to his leaner frame in GOLDENEYE. There are a few shots in his first outing where I feel he looks a little too thin. I think he looked his best in TND.

    Agreed. Great hair in TND, too.
  • Posts: 14,800
    I can understand not liking DAD for a lot of reasons, but "Pierce should have done a De Niro and lost 50 pounds for an invisible car movie" is not one of them. Good grief!

    Well, maybe then they should also have done away with the invisible car. The sci-fi extravaganza of DAD is another problem but it does not take away from the unbelievable nature of Bond's early predicament. Two wrongs can't make one right.
  • ProfJoeButcherProfJoeButcher Bless your heart
    Posts: 1,664
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I can understand not liking DAD for a lot of reasons, but "Pierce should have done a De Niro and lost 50 pounds for an invisible car movie" is not one of them. Good grief!

    Well, maybe then they should also have done away with the invisible car. The sci-fi extravaganza of DAD is another problem but it does not take away from the unbelievable nature of Bond's early predicament. Two wrongs can't make one right.

    I may have miscommunicated! My point was, if you think ANY of these movies is the type of flick where an actor should emaciate himself to heighten the drama, you may not have a grip on the nature of these films.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,009
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I can understand not liking DAD for a lot of reasons, but "Pierce should have done a De Niro and lost 50 pounds for an invisible car movie" is not one of them. Good grief!

    Well, maybe then they should also have done away with the invisible car. The sci-fi extravaganza of DAD is another problem but it does not take away from the unbelievable nature of Bond's early predicament. Two wrongs can't make one right.

    What would make it right? The only way to fix it would be to have Bond just not be captured.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 12,916
    Same as the CGI glacial tsunami para-sailing--Brosnan's abdomen simply shouldn't have been presented on screen.

    He looked great everywhere else. Poor judgment on the part of the filmmakers.

  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,418
    Same as the CGI glacial tsunami para-sailing--Brosnan's abdomen simply shouldn't have been presented on screen.

    He looked great everywhere else. Poor judgment on the part of the filmmakers.

    Maybe they should have GGI'd his Guinness belly away?
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    I haven't seen the film in a while, but does the fact that he was in captivity for 14 months have any significance to the rest of the film? I guess it takes some time for Zao to get captured and an exchange negotiated. Other than that, once they realized that Brosnan wasn't going to do a Bale and starve himself half to death (or that they actually didn't really want him to) they easily could have written around that.

    But in the end, this is a prime "we have thought about this not very good movie way too much"-discussion...
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited February 2021 Posts: 17,729
    I haven't seen the film in a while, but does the fact that he was in captivity for 14 months have any significance to the rest of the film? I guess it takes some time for Zao to get captured and an exchange negotiated. Other than that, once they realized that Brosnan wasn't going to do a Bale and starve himself half to death (or that they actually didn't really want him to) they easily could have written around that.

    But in the end, this is a prime "we have thought about this not very good movie way too much"-discussion...

    I'm guessing the 14 months timeframe was designed to ensure the September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001 could be factored in as happening since Bond's capture, imprisonment and torture began. I think M says to Bond, "While you were away the world changed." This was the writers' way of acknowledging all that had happened in the real world since the last Bond film was released in late 1999. The War on Terror was in full flow and in a film series such Bond it had to be acknowledged in some way in a 2002 film.
  • Posts: 14,800
    Ludovico wrote: »
    I can understand not liking DAD for a lot of reasons, but "Pierce should have done a De Niro and lost 50 pounds for an invisible car movie" is not one of them. Good grief!

    Well, maybe then they should also have done away with the invisible car. The sci-fi extravaganza of DAD is another problem but it does not take away from the unbelievable nature of Bond's early predicament. Two wrongs can't make one right.

    What would make it right? The only way to fix it would be to have Bond just not be captured.

    Either make it a serious "edgy" Bond film, where he does get captured and suffered from it (no need to be super realistic and turn him into Winston Smith in the Ministry of Live, just show that it had a toll on him), or go fantasy TSWLM Bond (not my favourite approach by the way) and do away with the emprisonment and torture. In other words, choose what kind of Bond you want and commit to it.
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