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Comments
Do we know for sure Bond 24 and 25 will be connected?
I thought this had been confirmed as a 'no'.
Trust no one! B-)
I do think EON and the powers that be could easily change Blofeld to be none of those things. There is nothing making them go by the Fleming template. They may want to just do their own twist on it and surprise us. And the bald man with the cat has been blown to never-never parody land by Austin Powers.
At this time, I cannot think of an actor who would fit Blofeld very well. Though I would sitll lean towards Gary Oldman (just because he is such a good actor and can play good or evil).
Which is why they should just leave Blofeld be and opt for New and original villains.
This is completely non sequitur. Blofeld being originally a very different character than what he became in the movies means you can actually finally use him by making him more akin to the novels'.
The novel Dracula was never faithfully adapted. It spawned a few interesting movies, some great ones even, but none truly captured its scope and complexity. Yes, you can always create new vampires. But that does not make the novel Dracula irrelevant in our day and age.
So are you suggesting they make Blofeld movies every decade?
He had a place, long ago. Not all of Flemings villains were done to an exact T.
We have never seen Fleming's Hugo Drax on the screen. I would much rather see that character (albeit with a different name if needs be) than Blofeld return.
Gustav Graves would somewhat fit that bill. As badly written as he was.
But Blofeld, on the other hand, was barely developed, if you think about it. He was only properly developed in OHMSS, and that was it.
Except Fleming's Drax is a far better villain than Fleming's Blofeld. At the risk of getting slapped down here I find Blofeld overrated in both book and film.
In TB he has basically one (albeit good) scene, in OHMSS he has a couple of scenes (the one with Campbell is superb although more because Bond is sweating rather than anything Blofeld does) but doesnt do a lot except kill Tracy. YOLT is his best appearance and even here he only gets a couple of chapters.
Drax on the other hand features in virtually every chapter. I'd be willing wager that Fleming wrote more about Drax than he did Blofeld but I cant be arsed to do a word count.
In the films he is better but I would contend that his best appearances are in FRWL and TB rather than any of the films in which he has a proper role. Telly is pretty good but Pleasance and Gray are Bond villain caricatures that spawned Dr Evil.
It seems to me that Blofeld is only rated as Bond's Moriarty more for the symbolic act of killing Tracy than anything else.
Good villains IMO don't need to have as much screen-/novel-time as Bond. A good villain twists and bends your own ideas about how that villain could or will act or look like. I don't want to have a villain that basically throws his presence from start to end in your face. Wrong.
It's one of the reasons that I didn't understand why certain fans disliked the lack of Silva's screentime. That very lack of screentime created so much more sinister scenes and events in the first half of the movie.....eventually leading to a grand Dr.No-esque entrance. Yes indeed, the viewer is tested with Sherlock Holmes-esque "who-dunnit?" and "who-is-it?" questions. I love that, ever since "Dr. No".
Drax from the novel didn't had that for me. Also, I just don't understand why people deliberately wanna shelve Blofeld. Man, be a bit more proud of Blofeld's legacy over a course of 6 movies (3 uncredited). Also, I really want Bond 24 to be at least as big as Skyfall. Drax is great for you as a fan, but also think of the less nerdy cinema visitors. For ordinary people the name Blofeld has more resonance. Look to Austin Powers....lately even one member of UKIP (not that I want Blofeld to be like them, but he is certainly more well-known)!
Then the next step is very simple. Re-introduce Blofeld slowly, in a different and slower pace that does justice to the more realistic approach of the Craig-era. I firmly believe that that's the recipe for something marvellous.
No @TheWizardOfIce, I disagree with you. In a respectful way though. but still I'd love to see Blofeld back. McCrory is dead, finished! Not Blofeld.
For instance, I think for today's movie standards it would be a very good idea if Jaws actually violently threw Goodhead of that cable car! That we actually see Goodhead falling to her death for 30 secs. Jaws survives in a more realistic way, violently drags Bond in the ambulance towards the Amazon pyramids.
Less screentime for the Bond girl yes, but already so much more interesting movie-wise, creative-wise. I prefer such an approach mentioned by me.
Oowh wait, Baby & Michael want to have an iconic henchman again for Bond 24. Here you go :-). Something similar can be done with a long-term approach (3 films?) for Blofeld. :\">
Just that personally Drax has more personality as a character and I never seem able to really get a handle on Blofeld. You are saying that his inhabiting of the shadows is what makes him more sinister and I can see where you're coming from and it's all a matter of personal taste but personally I find Drax a more convincing piece of writing by Fleming.
And given that Dr No only has two chapters of 'book time' (is that the literary equivalent of screen time?) I agree that its ot all about exposure but Dr No comes across as far more vivid and menacing in such a very short time whereas I always find Blofeld to be somewhat flat by comparison to Fleming's big 3 (IMO) - Drax, Dr No and Goldfinger. I would also probably rate Grant up there too.
I would pull you up on one thing however; namely that one should be proud of Blofeld's cinematic legacy. OHMSS aside what is that legacy exactly? A character that became such a parody of itself that it spawned a whole series of comedy films? You are correct to say Blofeld as a character, or, to be accurate, as a cliche, is widely recognised by the general public but I wouldn't say in a good way. The Blofeld of YOLT and DAF is indistinguishable to the general public from Dr Evil so any reboot needs to be done extremely carefully with excellent writing and a charismatic actor who can make the whole thing completely fresh.
Sadly, for you it's better to shelve Blofeld, because of its cheesy brand image. That's IMO choosing for the easy option. Then again, let's agree to disagree. We will never fully agree on this point :-).
Are you Twan Arts in disguise or something?
This is just a back-of-a-cereal-box potted history of SPECTRE and Blofeld that any number of us on here could knock out equally competently in 15 minutes.
I don't really see why you feel the need to draw our attention to it as it offers no insight or analysis in the slightest just stuff the average Bond fan already knows.
I'd much rather see MI6 supporting writers such as Dragonpol. The articles he posts on his blog come at you from left field and give you food for thought rather than lightweight fluff such as this that doesnt add to the sum of anyone's knowledge or raise any sort of discussion points.
Ooowh my. Someone gets irritated. Can I also LIKE a short piece of rewritten history and feature it in a topic that is related to that? I KNOW that it doesn't give new insight. But we're still talking about our MI6-HQ website ok?
For your information, I like more complex articles too. But not all MI6-HQ visitors or MI6COMMUNITY poster are like you. There are also newbies around these places you know?
Brian Cox is way too young. He's brilliant at physics though! lol! (for all Americans out there are 2 Brian Coxes in the UK- one being a Television astro physicist!)