Bond, James Bond - The History and Appeal
July 24, 2004
By:
Sean left the sets of 007 for the second time and yet again, a new Bond had to be found. The producers knew they were not going to choose an unknown actor, like they had previously done with Lazenby, so it came down to two men: Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton.Ultimately Roger Moore was chosen to play Bond for the next seven movies: "Live andLet Die" (1973 UK & US), "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974 UK & US), "The Sky Who Loved Me" (1977 UK & US), "Moonraker" (1979 UK & US), "For Your Eyes Only" (1981 US & UK), "Octopussy" (1983 UK & US), and "A View to a Kill" ( 1985 UK & US).
During the years of Roger Moore the screenwriters moved so much away from the sophisticated, ruthless James Bond, and turned him more into a comedian. Bond was placed in ridiculous settings which often didn't make sense and story lines were weak. Moonraker fit both of these, where James Bond actually becomes an astronaut and completes his mission in space with plenty of one line standup comedy jokes. With high criticisms that James Bond has gone too far from the 007 formula, Broccoli set out to make For Your Eyes Only, a more realistic movie. Bond goes back to battling the enemy with his wits and rather by the use of the gadgets.
Bond's next movie, "Octopussy" is considered one of the best Roger Moorefilms due to the great screenplay and the exotic characters played withinthe movie. Here again, Bond is using his wit to save the world and keeps all the silly humor at a low. Moore made one more movie, "A View to a Kill", which was a mistake as this truly brought down his career as Bond. Badscreenplay and ridiculous villains turned this into an awful James Bond movie.
A search for the fourth James Bond was undergo shortly after Moore's last disappointment. There were many candidates for the job, but it seemedalmost certain Pierce Brosnan was going to take the role as he had experienceof playing a detective in the TV series Remington Steele. Unfortunately,NBC brought the show back to life and Brosnan had no choice due to his contractbut to cancel on Broccoli and go back to the series. Therefore the nextcandidate, Timothy Dalton, took the place of 007 in Bond's 15th installment.
Dalton was a serious actor and Broccoli knew he would shift the Bondmovies from the genre of comedy back to the "genre of serious thrillers" .Dalton read Fleming's novels before entering the production sets whichgave him the ability to give 007 his dangerous edge back. On screen,Dalton plays Bond to his original intent by Fleming; sophisticated, dangerous,and ruthless.
This shift of genres was long overdue and the serious 007 was back! Dalton was able to make two Bond movies: "The Living Daylights" (1987 UK & US), and "Licence to Kill" (1989 UK & US). "Licence to Kill" is considered by some, one of the greatest Bond movies ever made, and others believe "it simply wasn't 'Bondian'". Dalton plays 007 in the most ruthlessand violent ever seen on screen. Bond is revengeful, merciless, and of course, fearless - what every Bond should be. Dalton plays Bond's charactertrue to that of Fleming's James Bond. What makes "Licence to Kill" even more true to reality, is the villain Bond is chasing. He is not a "power-crazed megalomaniac" as in most Bond movies, but simply a very powerful drug barren, who ultimately has brutally murdered two of Bond's closest friends. As usual Bond outwits the drug barren with minimal use of gadgets supplied by Q (Q stands for "Quartermaster", a technology/gadget advisor), who has a more leading role within this particular movie, and avenges his friends.
The Bond movies were back with their great screenplays, decent use of gadgetsand the realistic spy scenarios. However it was another six years untilthe next Bond movie was released. Unfortunately Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)and United Artists were undergoing huge structural problems and a lawsuitwith Sony Pictures also stopped production of 007.
The lawsuit was filed by MGM to stop Sony Pictures from producing a JamesBond movie. Sony Pictures said McClory, a collaborator to Thunderball,had rights to James Bond and had brought those rights for $2 million andtherefore could make their own Bond Movie. This lawsuit was fought in the courtsfor years with ultimately MGM winning the case.
By this time, Dalton's contract was over and he had gone to work on other movies. This is a shame to the Bond industry as Dalton had played Bond so perfectly. Nevertheless, the producers were out looking for the next, and fifth James Bond. A familiar name was mentioned to Broccoli, and after some negations, Pierce Brosnon was chosen to play Bond.
Brosnon who had originally been picked for "The Living Daylights" was now able and wanted to be the James Bond. Therefore he only took $1.2 million for the role whereas, other contenders for the role, such as Mel Gibson, were offered $15 million. Ultimately this gave more money to put intothe actual production of the movie. Brosnon had a passion for Bond for a few reasons: His first wife, the late Cassandra Harris, was a Bond girl inthe movie "For Your Eyes Only" and secondly, when Brosnon was young he lived in Ireland with his family and grew up without television and movies.When his family moved to London when he was 10 years old, he saw his first ever movie, Sean Connery's, Goldfinger. With his first introduction tothe big screen being a James Bond movie, Brosnon felt it was apart of him to actually be Bond himself.
Brosnon the current James Bond, started his 007 career in 1995 with Goldeneye. Originally he was thought to be " a mistake--Brosnan's star has set. And I question whether there's much life left in Bond after the Cold War", an opinion from a Box office analyst. However, Brosnon proves him wrong. Bond is played so elegantly by Brosnon that Bond has all the action, seriousness and relative ruthlessness, but still manages to carry the charm and sophistication and, can also beautifully pull off the comical one-liners without soundingfoolish.
The hit Goldeneye saw many changes to the Bond presence. The times hadchanged: the cold war was now over; no longer could overly sexy womenbe part of the main glamour - feminists would attack; and Bond had to be politically correct. Another significant change was MI6's 'M', now played by Dame Judy Dench. It was a shock and many Bond fans thought, How could Bond take orders from a women? But clearly and perfectly scripted lines, M putsBond in his place by calling him "a sexist, misogynist dinosaur - a relic of the Cold War". Brosnon saw his fair share of gadgets but were not too overplayed.
Bond returned with the 18th installment in "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997 UK & US), which started production even before Goldeneye was released. Unfortunately "Tomorrow Never Dies" saw a change in production crew. Albert "Cubby" Broccoli left the production of James Bond when he sadly passed away in 1996 from ill-health. This Bond movie was the first movie Broccoli was not apart of, however the movie had a dedication to him in the credits.
Brosnon continues to bring out character with his excellent portrayal of Bond, in his latest movie, "The World is Not Enough". Again the Bond wit, charm, sophistication and ruthlessness brings out the best of Bond. Brosnon is truly one of the greatest Bond actors.
The 20th installment, "Die Another Day" was released and was definitelyan interesting movie. It started off well with an excellent opening anda surprising twist when Bond is actually caught and tortured. This gaveanother side of the spy story of entails when you are caught andshowed that James Bond is like any other spy and might not make it outof every mission.
Of course that realism changed when Q delivers Bond an invisible Aston Martin. The movie then just started to lose grip with reality. Bond is still a cold, collected spy but the realism within the movie disappeared and was topped off when Bond uses the ejector seat to flip the car from its roof and onto its wheels.
The other major change within "Die Another Day" was Halle Berry as Bond's ally. For the first time Bond's ally was another hollywood star as compared to the normal not-so-famous actress and this took away from Bond's main presence within the movie. With the addition of computer animated stunts, unrealistic situations and loaded with famous hollywood stars the 20th installment of Bond brought it closer to the typical mainstream Hollywood movie.
During the years of Roger Moore the screenwriters moved so much away from the sophisticated, ruthless James Bond, and turned him more into a comedian. Bond was placed in ridiculous settings which often didn't make sense and story lines were weak. Moonraker fit both of these, where James Bond actually becomes an astronaut and completes his mission in space with plenty of one line standup comedy jokes. With high criticisms that James Bond has gone too far from the 007 formula, Broccoli set out to make For Your Eyes Only, a more realistic movie. Bond goes back to battling the enemy with his wits and rather by the use of the gadgets.
Bond's next movie, "Octopussy" is considered one of the best Roger Moorefilms due to the great screenplay and the exotic characters played withinthe movie. Here again, Bond is using his wit to save the world and keeps all the silly humor at a low. Moore made one more movie, "A View to a Kill", which was a mistake as this truly brought down his career as Bond. Badscreenplay and ridiculous villains turned this into an awful James Bond movie.
A search for the fourth James Bond was undergo shortly after Moore's last disappointment. There were many candidates for the job, but it seemedalmost certain Pierce Brosnan was going to take the role as he had experienceof playing a detective in the TV series Remington Steele. Unfortunately,NBC brought the show back to life and Brosnan had no choice due to his contractbut to cancel on Broccoli and go back to the series. Therefore the nextcandidate, Timothy Dalton, took the place of 007 in Bond's 15th installment.
Dalton was a serious actor and Broccoli knew he would shift the Bondmovies from the genre of comedy back to the "genre of serious thrillers" .Dalton read Fleming's novels before entering the production sets whichgave him the ability to give 007 his dangerous edge back. On screen,Dalton plays Bond to his original intent by Fleming; sophisticated, dangerous,and ruthless.
This shift of genres was long overdue and the serious 007 was back! Dalton was able to make two Bond movies: "The Living Daylights" (1987 UK & US), and "Licence to Kill" (1989 UK & US). "Licence to Kill" is considered by some, one of the greatest Bond movies ever made, and others believe "it simply wasn't 'Bondian'". Dalton plays 007 in the most ruthlessand violent ever seen on screen. Bond is revengeful, merciless, and of course, fearless - what every Bond should be. Dalton plays Bond's charactertrue to that of Fleming's James Bond. What makes "Licence to Kill" even more true to reality, is the villain Bond is chasing. He is not a "power-crazed megalomaniac" as in most Bond movies, but simply a very powerful drug barren, who ultimately has brutally murdered two of Bond's closest friends. As usual Bond outwits the drug barren with minimal use of gadgets supplied by Q (Q stands for "Quartermaster", a technology/gadget advisor), who has a more leading role within this particular movie, and avenges his friends.
The Bond movies were back with their great screenplays, decent use of gadgetsand the realistic spy scenarios. However it was another six years untilthe next Bond movie was released. Unfortunately Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)and United Artists were undergoing huge structural problems and a lawsuitwith Sony Pictures also stopped production of 007.
The lawsuit was filed by MGM to stop Sony Pictures from producing a JamesBond movie. Sony Pictures said McClory, a collaborator to Thunderball,had rights to James Bond and had brought those rights for $2 million andtherefore could make their own Bond Movie. This lawsuit was fought in the courtsfor years with ultimately MGM winning the case.
By this time, Dalton's contract was over and he had gone to work on other movies. This is a shame to the Bond industry as Dalton had played Bond so perfectly. Nevertheless, the producers were out looking for the next, and fifth James Bond. A familiar name was mentioned to Broccoli, and after some negations, Pierce Brosnon was chosen to play Bond.
Brosnon who had originally been picked for "The Living Daylights" was now able and wanted to be the James Bond. Therefore he only took $1.2 million for the role whereas, other contenders for the role, such as Mel Gibson, were offered $15 million. Ultimately this gave more money to put intothe actual production of the movie. Brosnon had a passion for Bond for a few reasons: His first wife, the late Cassandra Harris, was a Bond girl inthe movie "For Your Eyes Only" and secondly, when Brosnon was young he lived in Ireland with his family and grew up without television and movies.When his family moved to London when he was 10 years old, he saw his first ever movie, Sean Connery's, Goldfinger. With his first introduction tothe big screen being a James Bond movie, Brosnon felt it was apart of him to actually be Bond himself.
Brosnon the current James Bond, started his 007 career in 1995 with Goldeneye. Originally he was thought to be " a mistake--Brosnan's star has set. And I question whether there's much life left in Bond after the Cold War", an opinion from a Box office analyst. However, Brosnon proves him wrong. Bond is played so elegantly by Brosnon that Bond has all the action, seriousness and relative ruthlessness, but still manages to carry the charm and sophistication and, can also beautifully pull off the comical one-liners without soundingfoolish.
The hit Goldeneye saw many changes to the Bond presence. The times hadchanged: the cold war was now over; no longer could overly sexy womenbe part of the main glamour - feminists would attack; and Bond had to be politically correct. Another significant change was MI6's 'M', now played by Dame Judy Dench. It was a shock and many Bond fans thought, How could Bond take orders from a women? But clearly and perfectly scripted lines, M putsBond in his place by calling him "a sexist, misogynist dinosaur - a relic of the Cold War". Brosnon saw his fair share of gadgets but were not too overplayed.
Bond returned with the 18th installment in "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997 UK & US), which started production even before Goldeneye was released. Unfortunately "Tomorrow Never Dies" saw a change in production crew. Albert "Cubby" Broccoli left the production of James Bond when he sadly passed away in 1996 from ill-health. This Bond movie was the first movie Broccoli was not apart of, however the movie had a dedication to him in the credits.
Brosnon continues to bring out character with his excellent portrayal of Bond, in his latest movie, "The World is Not Enough". Again the Bond wit, charm, sophistication and ruthlessness brings out the best of Bond. Brosnon is truly one of the greatest Bond actors.
The 20th installment, "Die Another Day" was released and was definitelyan interesting movie. It started off well with an excellent opening anda surprising twist when Bond is actually caught and tortured. This gaveanother side of the spy story of entails when you are caught andshowed that James Bond is like any other spy and might not make it outof every mission.
Of course that realism changed when Q delivers Bond an invisible Aston Martin. The movie then just started to lose grip with reality. Bond is still a cold, collected spy but the realism within the movie disappeared and was topped off when Bond uses the ejector seat to flip the car from its roof and onto its wheels.
The other major change within "Die Another Day" was Halle Berry as Bond's ally. For the first time Bond's ally was another hollywood star as compared to the normal not-so-famous actress and this took away from Bond's main presence within the movie. With the addition of computer animated stunts, unrealistic situations and loaded with famous hollywood stars the 20th installment of Bond brought it closer to the typical mainstream Hollywood movie.
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