It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I always have to think back to one film podcast talking about Skyfall. In their "nitpicking" section, they mention how in 2012 that 100% would have ended up on YouTube. "Sick scorpion trick on Turkish Beach!" Maybe keep a lower profile, if you want the SIS to think you're dead? On the other hand, the point of the scene is that Bond can't stand doing nothing. So he does that...
Do love the scene though. To me - if that makes sense - it's utterly Bond and yet something only Craig's version would have done.
Rather than shy away from Bond’s snobbery, writer’s should offer counterpoints within the narrative. Bond’s sexism has been brilliantly commented upon and woven into his interactions with other characters. The same could be done for his snobbery. Or writer’s could do a better job at making Bond more Bourdain than Edwardian in his approach.
To be fair, if that interpretation is correct, it’s not reflected in how the line is structured or delivered.
I think in general, yes that's a good way of leaning into Bond's traits without completely sanitising him. But I also think there's always consideration for Bond's sexism and snobbery. CR was never going to have Craig's Bond angrily claiming women have no place in the field and should stay in the kitchen (even Fleming downplayed this aspect of Bond by MR, and I suspect even in the 60s that line wouldn't fly). Movie Bond can be a bit of an arrogant womanising b*stard, but he can't have that outright dislike of women. Same for Bond's snobbishness. Go too far, even with a counterpoint, and the audience turn against Bond.
No, and even if that were the 'joke' it'd still mean Bond is being dismissive of The Beatles. It's a weird line in the sense that it's aged horribly and doesn't make Bond look good. It's a line more suited to something like Mad Men in just how ironic and out of touch it is with that hindsight.
I completely agree. It’s clear that giving Bond a backstory for his distrust of women in CR made some un-modern or anachronistic aspects of his personality more palatable for audiences. Context matters. Characterization matters. Audiences will pick up on these things but they have to exist within the narrative.
Ha! That's a better way of phrasing it than anything I could think of :)
Older people didn't like the Beatles. That's all.
To be honest, I can't imagine Bond liking hippies either, so I don't think the line has aged.
I don't want to hear the next Bond talk about how much he loves Chappell Roan.
I just can't imagine Bond giving attention to popular culture, it's almost like breaking a fourth wall to me that they're making Bond saying those things just to show that the world he's living in seemed real (like "hey I'm updated to these things because I'm living in the same world as all of you" an ode to the audience), and just felt forced and yes, out of character.
I do think he really is, like you have the literary Bond being attached to Echoes of Paris' La Vie En Rose by George Feyer in 1956 (Diamonds Are Forever novel), granted, the song have personal connection to him via Vesper Lynd, but what if Tiffany Case played an Elvis Presley on her Turntable, instead of that song? I can't help but to think of what would be the reaction of the literary Bond? 😁
I doubt if Bond would have said the same in 1970.
It's never bothered me, and I think it very likely that James Bond, in 1964, would think the Beatles were a bit of a racket.
At the time, they weren't the audiophile experience they are today, GF is 1964, so only 3 albums were out in the UK by the time GF came out, about the same in the US, and the Beatlemania phenomenon was in full swing, with Hard Day's Night out in the theaters about a month after GF.
I'd say it was a meta wink from the writers at the film competition, and the line got a lots of laughs back then. Bond is not dismissive, he's just saying to enjoy them, you need some chillin', just like when enjoying Champagne.