Emilio Largo the best villain?
Georgiboy
Posts: 632MI6 Agent
Does anybody else agree that Largo on Thunderball is the best villain of the whole series? He's evil, sinister, is number 2, has a pool of sharks, and he doesn't give his men orders then sit back and relax he goes with them and makes sure everything goes smoothly.
I didn't like how they portrayed him in NSNA, he was too smug and not very sinister.
I didn't like how they portrayed him in NSNA, he was too smug and not very sinister.
Comments
Dr No is a great character, but his screen time is limited.
Rosa Klebb is certainly evil and sinister enough to be on a "Best Baddie" list.
Blofeld has never been portrayed 100% correctly.
Dr Kananga's very well done, although the death scene lets the character down.
Scaramanga is played by a great actor in the wrong movie. He's impressive but wasted.
Stromberg's a bore.
Drax is sleek and exudes evil; definitely on the list.
Kristatos is (in keeping with the FYEO tone) low key and undramatic.
Kamal Khan is one of the best, a memorable performance and character.
Zorin has the great advantage of being played by Christopher Walken, although the character is a shade underwritten.
Koskov is slimy but lacks stature (and I'm not referring to his height).
Sanchez is a rounded and well played baddie.
006 is underdeveloped and underwritten.
Carver is a walking cliche.
Elektra has the advantages of (relative) surprise, an emotional relationship with Bond and being played by a capable (and very attractive, not of course that that has anything to do with things
Graves/Moon: Don't make me laugh.
Le Chiffre goes on the "Best" list too- again a more rounded character and a very believable one.
However... one figure rises above all. To give a few reasons:
(1) His character is built up superbly, foreshadowed by the unbeatable song describing him. We find out about him along with 007, our respect for him growing along with Bonds.
(2) Very little tinkering has been done with Fleming's conception.
(3) The casting (both actor and voice actor) couldn't have been better.
(4) The customary jousting over games, sometimes perfunctory in later films (eg OP), is here deliciously extended allowing the actors to have great fun while we absorb the clever little details.
(5) He gets to say perhaps the the best line (well, maybe "My names's Bond... James Bond" runs it close for that title) of the entire series; he's introduced well and dies even more memorably.
(6) He's the man, the man with the Midas Touch.
You know, I honestly can't understand that. I have always considered Stromberg to be among the finest villains as IMO he was a brilliantly acted example of a big plan villain. Drax, whilst great, was IMO a replicate of Stromberg and so IMO if one likes Drax, then one should love Stromberg.
I'm not sure about Alec. I consider him to be one of the Brosnan era's two best villains (along with Electra) but I hate some of the dialoge he was forcd to say.
I'm still divided about Le Chiffre. Om one hand I like him because he is truly menacing, and Mickelson acted quite well, but on the other hand, I found him to be too ordinary. I don't think he's one of the best villains of the series but he is a good villain.
Er... that's what I did.
I do think that Curd Jurgens is a good actor, but he plays Stromberg in a lazy manner. And the whole "006 is 007's evil reflection" thing I didn't think came off as well as it could- eg, was his apparent death in the PTS pre-planned and he'd already set up his Janus identity? Had he therefore foreseen the fall of the USSR and was in cahoots with Ourumov? If not, how did things happen in the way they did? If so, why's he there killing men and blowing things up instead of just shooting Bond in the back once they've teamed up?
Well, he's definitely the best since he's the only one!
"You advised my father not to pay the ransom... And I thought you were like family, M. You were more interested in catching your terrorist than freeing me... I was terribly upset when the money bomb didn't kill both of you." From the novelisation by Raymond Benson.
It's true that the TWINE script could have been a little clearer as to motivations. Many hands tinkered with it, credited and uncrdited, as is increasingly the case- and not only with Bond.
I don't agree but fair enough. At least you love Auric Goldfinger.
Oh, Barbel, do you have to read so much into it?
Without a doubt, although it would be a reasonable decision for a film's producer to bump up the screentime for a name star who's just won an Oscar. (Hence Halle Berry's Jinx being prominent in the DAD posters, etc.)
I'm simply expanding on what I meant by undeveloped, citing some instances to back that up. And, yes, most if not all of the Bond plots fall apart if nitpicked too thoroughly. Even GF!
I very much doubt that Dame Judi demanded more screentime; she has won every acting award there is, sometimes a dozen times over (it's also been reported that she is embarrassed by her Oscar, as she feels it was not an award worthy performance, but simply a favour for a friend). Far more likely is that the producers ramped up her part because they realised the cache of having a performer of her calibre on set. As for M being kidnapped being idiotic, well, have a word with Sir Kingsley Amis...
To return to the topic in hand, I think Largo was very good, but not in the first division of villainy. I think it's the eyepatch. It's easy to give a villain an eyepatch, or a limp, or a withered hand, and that marks him as a baddie; far better to have someone like Gert Frobe or Michel Lonsdale who could physically be your uncle but is just too... creepy. Adolfo Celi gave a fine performance, but he never quite trips over into SuperEvil for me; he's a cleansing sorbet before the main meal of Blofeld. Maximilian Largo on the other hand was genuinely insane; the "Then I cut your throat" moment is chilling, and there are a few little giggles and smirks that mark him out as a true psycho (it's interesting to note that Max Zorin, two years later, has similar traits). Klaus Maria Brandauer is one of the few things that NSNA got right, and it's a shame that he pretty much vanishes from the last twenty minutes of the film because of all that damned underwater photography. A man in a scuba suit could be anyone.
@merseytart
I am befuddled by the seemingly unanimous love of Elektra King. She, like her movie, is boring and unintersting, in my opinion. I just don't get it.
The problem I have with Largo is that because the scheme is SO big in Thunderball, he is given less screen time. For example, Grant is a very threatening screen presence. Largo just seems not to be as threatening.
Its also funny about 006. I know several people who dislike him. They all say the same thing - something about him being introduced too late into the story, others because he doesnt have enough time with Bond as friends. Of course, it could be that his scheme is never explained till the last minute. Or that his lines seem so ...grandiouse, whilst he is not. And of course he is overshadowed by Xenia.
Back onto topic; to me Largo is a representation of just how good the 60's Connery villains were. I love Largo but I think that Dr. No, Klebb and Goldfinger were alot better.