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#1 Use the plot of the novel, but with space shuttles (instead of simply remaking TSWLM).
#2 End the PTS earlier. It's one of the best, if not THE best (promised since LALD)...but with one of the worst endings.
#3 Have fewer and less confusing locations. Why is France masquerading as the US? Why Venice at all? Keep Rio and the rain forest.
#4 Get rid of Jaws and Dolly. Chang could have been the main henchman.
#5 Don't send Bond into space, ultimately. YOLT understood this.
#6 Cut the blatant ads. Fewer locations would have helped in this regard.
#7 Give Lonsdale more to do. Or make him a SPECTRE agent. He does have one of the best execution scenes in the series.
#8 Recast and rethink Holly Goodhead. The character and performance are not memorable.
It's a ticking time bomb thriller-- and better than anything the film had to offer.
(and Lee then cocks it up with DAD).
Specifically at IU's Lilly Library.
https://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/a-visit-with-ian-fleming/
You can only look at the manuscripts under controlled conditions. You have to put your belongings in a locker. You can't take a pen in the room where you can view the manuscripts. Only a pencil and paper. The university tries to avoid have people steal them.
I can get behind this.
.Don't have Jaws fall in love or become a good guy.
It was what the kids wanted.
The Pussy couldn’t agree more.
Why Fleming’s masterpiece was vilified in this way has him scratching his well coiffured head.
The recent radio production was fabulous and served as a reminder of what an amazing movie this could have been instead of this space suit bunkum.
What would PussyNoMore change - everything !
Back to the book folks.
Get rid of the goofball humour. That means out goes Q branch's ridiculous gondola, plus Jaws and Dolly. DON'T set it in space. DON'T follow the same plot as TSWLM again. DON'T tell your audience that your movie isn't science fiction but science fact, thank you very much Cubby. Let it be Moore's last Bond movie and let him go out in style with a solid Bond story that follows but updates on Fleming's novel.
Yes we'd all love to see a faithful adaptation of all the books (even 007 in NY I suppose) but there's not much point in whining on and on about it.
My interpretation of the spirit of this thread is how could this film be improved by making some minor changes rather than starting with a blank canvas? Otherwise it's a futile exercise as when we get to the films that aren't based on books you might as well just say write a better script that is the best Bond film of all time.
So in that spirit with a few tweaks you could improve MR into being a solid midtable entry:
- Cut Jaws from the PTS (Christopher Wood does this in the novelisation and we all know that Jaws was stuck in there at the last minute thanks to some kid's opinion. Better still have him die in TSWLM and then problem solved).
- Give John Barry an injection of adrenaline to the heart to come up with a decent title song. It works OK as an instrumental in the score but lacks the bombast to be a Bond title track.
- Have Holly played by someone with even just a passing familiarity with the concept of charisma.
- Can live with the Bondola chase I suppose (this is the zenith of 70s Rog excess for Christ's sake) but end it with a decent stunt and bin the whole hovercraft scene (but keep Victor Tourjansky obviously. And possibly DTP for nostalgia's sake).
- With no Jaws then we lose Dolly and that's no hardship at all.
- Dial down the blatantness of the product placement.
- Yes space is an issue. The alternative though is just a rehash of YOLT and TSWLM climaxes with a fight at the base. Given Cubby was operating in an era of Star Wars and Close Encounters I guess to compete they really had no choice but to go for it. Could just tone it down a bit though. I'd be more than happy for Bond to just save the day inside the space station rather than the yanks sending up an army at 5 mins notice. You still get some laser action with Bond shooting down the globes but that's sufficient.
Of course the more obvious solution would be not to even attempt to take Star Wars on and just forge your own path rather than being influenced. And filming the book would have been the answer to that. But once they changed from following TSWLM with FYEO to MR they had very clearly set their stall out and painted themselves into a corner somewhat by having to deliver some sort of space action.
I like what @TheWizardOfIce has suggested, but I still think it would have been a lesser entry…or should that be RE-entry fnar fnar!
FYEO - Just film the book instead of this Roger nonsense.
OP - Just film the book instead of this Roger nonsense.
AVTAK - Just film the book instead of this Roger nonsense.
TLD - Just film the book instead of this Timothy nonsense.
The fact that Cubby is running a business and three films about a girl going to shoot a bloke for the killing of her parents while Bond sits there watching from behind a tree, a man committing a murder to conceal his theft of a cache of gold while Bond just sits there listening and a Russian observation post uncovered while Bond sits there watching from behind a tree would have ended the series before we even got to Tim is utterly irrelevant.
Less 'nonsense' and more adapting of the books letter by letter is the direction EON were foolish not to take. It's a real shame as I feel I've missed out on watching the thrills of QOS in IMAX as Bond changes armchairs because the governor is boring him and the fact that we have been denied the Bond theme playing at full blast during the epic set piece 'Bond gives the recipe for scrambled eggs' from a word for word adaptation of 007 in NY is a human tragedy on a par with Guernica.
Best post I've read in quite some time!
I suppose I would have liked to have seen a faithful adaptation of the MR novel as much as the next person, but somehow, there's very little of this film I'd change.
I can accept the silliness as Jaws flaps his arms, the gondola, and even Dolly. MR makes no apologies for being an over the top Roger romp and for that I applaud it.
Still, I am quite grateful things would be toned down for the next entry and we'd get to see a different style for Roger.
Most of the Bond films I love as they are. However once we get to later entries that pooh all over the gunbarrel, give us poor CGI para-surfing and introduce foster brothers--- there will plenty to b**ch about.
Not sorry.
As for more closely adapting the book, this would still involve some rethinking, since a straight adaptation in 1979 would have underwhelmed audiences, especially after TSWLM.
The bridge scene would have to go, though another game of chance could be substituted to keep "spend the money quickly Mr. Bond."
The book's climax would also have to be replaced by something more visual and exciting. A post-Star Wars audience would expect a Bond film called Moonraker to send Bond into space. The trick would be to do so in a grittier, slightly less implausible way.
Anyway, my apologies for the next several paragraphs of hastily-devised suggestions...
The film's skydiving teaser could be retained, but with Jaws and the shuttle hijack excised. Cue the title song--preferably a different and livelier one than what John Barry actually gave us. Barry's entire soundtrack for the film was rather sedate, which gave the space scenes badly-needed seriousness but dampened the rest of the film. The director would need to give John a pep talk and tell him to recapture the pizazz from his Game of Death score.
After the song, we learn Hugo Drax, the celebrated and disfigured WWII veteran and industrialist--is in charge of Great Britain's space shuttle program. Unfortunately, as M tells Bond, he also cheats at cards. Cue Bond outcheating him at Blades.
Afterward Bond is sent to Drax's aeronautical base in the British Virgin Islands--or some other British-owned exotic place, since a 70s Bond film can't take place entirely in England--to investigate the semi-suspicious death of government liaison. He meets one of Drax's best scientists, the lovely but standoffish Gala Brand, along with several shady Wernher von Braun-types, and Drax's creepy henchman Krebs. Cue scenes of Bond surviving a few "accidents," such as the centrifuge chamber from the film and/or the landslide from the book. Since this is a 70s Bond film, our hero will need an additional love interest, so we might as well include a Corinne Dufour-type character.
Bond receives some mysterious tips indicating that the flight plans for Drax's upcoming shuttle launch--on the coast of Britain--differ from the British government's own figures. He enlists Corrinne's help in getting off the island to warn London, since his line of communications has been cut. Several chase scenes ensue as Bond and the girl make their way to Britain (making room for some boat or plane action scenes). Before Bond can reach the Ministry of Defence he's captured by Drax and company and Corinne is killed. Bond is taken to a chamber beneath the Moonraker's engines.
Drax reveals himself as the Nazi Graf Hugo von der Drache, German commander of a Werwolf commando unit and infiltrator of British society (as in the book). Over the decades he has longed for revenge on the Allies, and now with the Moonraker he will attack London, Washington DC, and Moscow from space, using a squadron of missiles fired from a launcher in the shuttle's cargo bay that are filled with Zyklon B, the gas used in the concentration camps. After his dirty work is done, he will seek asylum in China or North Korea.
Gala reveals herself as the person who seemingly betrayed Bond and Corinne to Drax, who she joins in the Moonraker 1. Bond escapes being incinerated by the departing shuttle's exhaust at the last minute, thanks to a key he finds in his pocket--dropped there by Gala? he wonders. He engages in a shootout at the landing site and prevents Moonraker 2 from immediately launching. Bond immediately alerts the authorities and shortly afterward takes off in Moonraker 2 with a commando team.
Drax's shuttle is opening its cargo doors to unleash the missile launcher when Moonraker 2 floats into view. Drax opens fire with a laser in the nose cone (as in the movie) and nicks Bond's shuttle. Bond orders his men to abandon ship and sets his shuttle on course to collide with the enemy. While Drax's shuttle frantically tries to fully destroy the oncoming wrecked craft, the allied commandos float toward the enemy, which sends its own force to intercept them. In the melee, Bond moves to Moonraker 1 and plants an explosive to blast open an exterior entrance (since the cargo bay is well protected). He moves inside, followed by the commandos, and halts the rocket launch with seconds to spare.
But Drax and his men regain the upper hand and restart the countdown. Gala Brand joins Bond and reveals herself as an MI5 agent (she had to betray Corinne and Bond in order to avoid being unmasked). She warns him and his men to flee the shuttle, because during the battle she reprogrammed the rockets to loop after launching and hit the Moonraker. There is another tense race against time to evacuate the shuttle. As they do, Drax leaves the battle-damaged shuttle and sets off in his escape pod. Gala tells Bond she has reprogrammed the trajectory of the escape pod to enter Earth's atmosphere at the wrong angle. We see Drax screaming as he bursts into flames upon reentry.
Along with the surviving commandos, Bond and Gala are marooned in space, knowing their air supply is almost out. At the last minute a Russian space shuttle, sent to investigate, floats into view. Back on earth, Bond and Gala are debriefed. They have obviously grown close during their ordeal and meet afterward on a rooftop garden in London. Bond asks her to join him on holiday, and she reveals she is engaged to a policeman. They part forever. Bond, in a melancholy mood, looks down into the city he's saved from destruction and takes in its sights and people...including some very pretty girls. He grins as the credits roll.
Disagreed. Not every Bond song needs to be like that, and this song actually ties very well into a sense of wonder the film tries to achieve in its early space scenes (set to Barry's Flight into Space, itself a musical companion to the title song).
You know, now that you bring it up, I must say I do love Drax's Amazon base. I wouldn't have minded losing the space part of the film if that entailed seeing more of that lair.
So you would have cast Chiles as Brand?
I agree that the score was way too sedate. Barry needed a jolt of energy for this one.
Other than that I wouldn't change a thing. Not space, not the Jaws/Dolly romance, not Jaws switching to Bond's side, not the Bondola, not the funny musical interludes, not even the double-taking pigeon. MR was the first big screen Bond film I saw on a theater screen as a child and I thoroughly loved it as it exists and it remains a fond sentimental memory for me.
I concur!
Me too.
If she could do an English accent;-)
In all seriousness though when I say "film the book" , and not to speak for anyone else but I'm sure I'm not alone, what I mean is take the basic plot of the book, stick to it as close as you can, when allowing for the fact that when you're adapting a book for cinema certain changes will need to take place.
If you look at the very first few Bond films they are very very close to the books and all the more successful for it. Of course there are changes, sometimes which makes the story better (having Spectre involved in FRWL, The slight change to Goldfinger's plan), sometimes it might make it not as good (filming OHMSS and YOLT out of order, having Spectre involved in DAF), but in general they are basically adapting Flemings stories. Even something like Live and Let Die sticks reasonably close to the Fleming while changing the pirate gold to the more modern drugs angle. That's absolutely fine.
But by the time you get to the Man with the Golden Gun, the titles are just being used but the plots bear absolutely no resemblance to the original books. If the plots that had been thought up were as good as, or better than, the original then that would be fine. But they were not. They completely changed the character of Bond during this period, so he was totally different to Flemings idea.