So did Blofeld die in DAF?
rennervision
Posts: 107MI6 Agent
I'm curious as to how other Bond fans reconcile the continuity of certain events involving Blofeld.
First of all, when DAF begins, it seems to pretend that OHMSS never happened. It starts with Bond still in Japan (where we last saw him in YOLT), searching for Blofeld with no mention of Tracy.
Then when FYEO begins, it acknowledges that OHMSS did occur with a shot of Tracy's grave indicating she died in 1969. Furthermore, Blofeld makes an appearance in this PTS. However, he appears to be the character as depicted in OHMSS - complete with injuries sustained from his last encounter with Bond. (This fits in perfectly with our last glimpse of Blofeld from OHMSS where he is wearing a neck brace.)
So, with FYEO, the series now seems to pretend that OHMSS is official and DAF never happened. Blofeld is alive and certainly not the flamboyant Charles Gray character that presumably died 10 years ago, but rather a bald Telly Savalas type.
If I were to try and make sense of this (and obviously there is no right answer), I would say that the Blofeld killed at the end of DAF was a decoy - kind of like the two plastic surgery look-alikes killed earlier in the same movie. Meanwhile, the real Blofeld (the "Telly Savalas" version), was now a parapalegic and waiting to have his revenge with a remote-controlled helicopter plan that he worked on through the seventies.
What does everyone else think?
First of all, when DAF begins, it seems to pretend that OHMSS never happened. It starts with Bond still in Japan (where we last saw him in YOLT), searching for Blofeld with no mention of Tracy.
Then when FYEO begins, it acknowledges that OHMSS did occur with a shot of Tracy's grave indicating she died in 1969. Furthermore, Blofeld makes an appearance in this PTS. However, he appears to be the character as depicted in OHMSS - complete with injuries sustained from his last encounter with Bond. (This fits in perfectly with our last glimpse of Blofeld from OHMSS where he is wearing a neck brace.)
So, with FYEO, the series now seems to pretend that OHMSS is official and DAF never happened. Blofeld is alive and certainly not the flamboyant Charles Gray character that presumably died 10 years ago, but rather a bald Telly Savalas type.
If I were to try and make sense of this (and obviously there is no right answer), I would say that the Blofeld killed at the end of DAF was a decoy - kind of like the two plastic surgery look-alikes killed earlier in the same movie. Meanwhile, the real Blofeld (the "Telly Savalas" version), was now a parapalegic and waiting to have his revenge with a remote-controlled helicopter plan that he worked on through the seventies.
What does everyone else think?
Comments
I BELIEVE DAF NEVER HAPPENED!
You heard me, it's a daft film and it screws up continuity (Unless you have a really long, complicated and un-realistic method)
So why bother having it, I have a copy on DVD but I barely ever watch it, (Blofeld in drag gives me nightmares)
I don't agree. Look at how angry Bond is. Yes, Tracey is not mentioned, but in the PTS, Bond is pursuing Blofeld and is clearly doing so for personal reasons; I suspect to get revenge for Tracey's death. The film makes the mistake of forgetting about Tracey and Bond's desire for revenge after the PTS, but I do not agree that DAF pretends that OHMSS never happened, not if one takes into account the PTS.
Similarly, I don't agree that post-FYEO, the series pretends that that DAF never happened. Assuming that the figure in FYEO's PTS is even Blofeld (which is debatable), then what is to say that Blofeld didn't get the injuries from being treated the way he was at the end of DAF? Yes, the Blofeld in FYEO was bald, but Bond has looked differently throughout the years as well.
I find the whole Blofeld story to be fascinating nd rather confusing. Blofeld and Bond meet in YOLT; Blofeld meets Bond seemingly for the 'first' time in OHMSS; an entirely different looking Blofeld appears in DAF; a Blofeld-type figure (who may not even be Blofeld) appears and seemingly dies in FYEO.
That all said, rennervision, I do like your decoy idea.
Blofeld has been cryogenically frozen after his accident in 1981 and reappeared in 1997 clearly for all who are able to see
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Up until I watched FYEO I too thought that Blofeld had died in DAF, though how any one could walk away from the beating that the Bathosub took, with out major burn scars and blunt force trauma injury's is beyond me.
It mite interest some of you to know that Cubby made this scene as a visual to Mccorly that Blofeld was not needed for the series to continue, with that in mind, I made up my mind that Blofeld died in DAF, and is lying at the bottom of the sea.
"No one ever dies in Science Fiction."
I don't doubt that Blofeld will return someday, somewhere.
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
I think that at the end of DAF some would be lead to assume that Blofeld had died but the end battle of that film was so weak that there's no telling if he did. After all, he did reappear in NSNA in an entirely different guise once again.
The truth is that DAF was given a breezy tone because of the mixed reception to OHMSS, coupled with the fact that there were better action heroes out there at the time, so the humour was brought in with DAF, not with Roger Moore's debut in LALD. Although looking back now the humour infill might have been the wrong way to go.
By the way...Gaaaah. That's a frightening thought.
I think it was the wrong way to go. Looking back, critics regard OHMSS as one the finest in the Bond series. The sillyness of the 70s films is cringe-worthy when one goes back to reading the original source material on which the films are supposed to be based.
Think of Connery in Dr No for example: "That's a Smith & Wesson and you've had your six" - Blam Blam. Brilliant.
Then think of him in DAF: "He certainly left with his tail between his legs." Camp, cheap one-liners.
The whole thing makes a mockery of the standard the early films set in my opinion.
DAF was an attempt to bring the series back to audiance expectations, Guy Hamilton from "Goldfinger" was to direct a sequel to that film with Gert Frobe as the villian AG's brother with a fetish for diamonds rather than the yellow stuff.
As things developed Blofeld was brought back, I think initially as a bridge to OHMSS. I believe that the lack of a definitive "end" to Blofeld was deliberate, that EON wanted to keep the door open for an eventual return. I am sure it was the prospect of litigation with McClory that messed up EB's return.
What I never understood was why Anthony Dawson was never allowed to play Blofeld? He was alive available and had played the part twice. If Charles Gray could do "Henderson" in YOLT, They surely could have brought in Dawson "Dent" in Dr. No to play Blofeld in either YOLT or DAF...
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
forever
forever !
Blofeld is forever
forever
forever !
....and ever !!!