A break with tradition?

Percy Sugden

Traditionally all the Main villians in the Bond films are the baddie who dies at the end of the film (the exceptions being YOLT, OHMSS, DAF), yet with the exception of Rosa Klebb in FRWL the villians have been male. Now before everyone starts writing that Red Grant was the main villian in FRWL, i want to make it clear, that i do not consider him to be the main villian, since he is killed off sometime before the film ends. Of course Blofelds presence is seen and heard in FRWL, but his appearances are too brief to qualify him, in my opion, as the main villian in the film. Anyway i'm digressing from my point now, which is basically i consider it time for the main villian to be a female. I reckon Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close or Michell Pfeiffer would make a great villian. Does anyone else agree with me that it is time to break with tradition, and have an actress play the main baddie?.

Hardyboy

Couldn't you argue that Elektra King from TWINE is the main villain?

Timothy Dolphin

Elektra is one third of a villain. Renard is the other two thirds. Neither is a proper villain. Poor Broz was never given much to work with.

JADE66

Elektra is certainly the main villain in TWINE as she had Renard wrapped around her little finger. Bond as well. You do make an interesting point however. Throughout the film series, and in the novels Bond is up against primarily male adversaries. I believe this is primarily due to the violent content of these films and the often climactic struggles Bond has to face. Whenever Bond has had to fight a woman or cause a female baddie to get killed in the films, it is almost never directly. Rosa is killed by Tatiana while Bond holds her at bay. In Thunderball Bond turns Fiona into the path of the bullet meant for him. Helga Brandt in YOLT fails to kill Bond and is fed to Blofeld's pirannhas. Only in TWINE and Goldeneye does Bond kill a female adversary. Of course in TWINE he shoots Elektra point blank. It's a shocking moment but one that works. In Goldeneye Bond does not shoot Xenia but the pilot of the helicopter to which her support cable is attached. As the chopper goes down she is killed when slammed against a tree. Bond often has to fight the Main Villain directly. This can be done with a Xenia or another modern female villain but it would probably look pretty silly( not to mention brutal) on film to have Daniel Craig duke it out with Le Chiffre's blonde mistress, or to see Sean Connery punch Fiona in the face and then strangle her with a fireplace poker.

It is one thing to have Bond go hand to hand against Dr. No, Goldfinger, Largo, Mr.Big/Kananga, Franz Sanchez, Alec, Dominic Greene etc..
It is quite another to see him beat up a woman. I realize the fights have happened(Xenia, Rosa, the silly swimming pool fight with Bambi and
Thumper in DAF). I'm not saying it couldn't be done again. But if there is to be a main female villain in the series AND if Bond is going to have to destroy her in order to destroy her evil organization then the writers are going to have to come up with something really unique.
I honestly can't see Daniel Craig punching out Rachel Weisz and then shooting her in the head. And the old Exploding Headquarters bit is getting a little old. I'm all for a female head of Quantum. It would be great with a title like Property of a Lady. But they better do it right.

-{

Percy Sugden

Electra King is undeniably a villian, however she (like Red Grant in FRWL) meets her death in TWINE, some time before the end of the film, so she doesn't qualify as the Main Villian in my eyes, that honour goes to Renard.
However although Electra is a baddie, i do think of her as the leading Bond girl in TWINE, like wise i consider Aki in YOLT and Fatima Blush (another villian) in NSNA as the main Bond girls in their respective films, since Sophie Marceau, Akiko Wakabayshi and Barbara Carrera's names appear first in the opening titles. However although Lotte Lenya's name appears before Daniela Bianchi in FRWL, i do not consider Lotte Lenya the main Bond Girl, since Rosa Klebb has no intimate contact with 007, unlike Tatiana Romanova; as i've written before, i consider Rosa Klebb the main villian in FRWL.

Thunderpussy

As far as Female villains go .I'd like to see a few More Ugly psychopathic Women Like, Rosa Klebb or Fraulein Bunt giving Bond a Hard time. )

Percy Sugden

Good points JADE66, we must also remember that Bond kills Naomi in TSWLM, and Fatima Blush in NSNA, he also slaps Andrea Anders about, in TMWTGG. But i can see the issue here regarding Bond often having to embark in fisticuffs with the main Villian. although there are exceptions, i can not recall 007 physically hitting either Hugo Drax or Stromberg, and i'm sure a couple of henchmen could do the fighting behalf of the female villian . It would be great to discover the head of Quantum is a woman, i'm sure the producers could pull it off, i honestly could not see the fact that the main villian is female effecting the takings at the box office. I am not saying that the Main villian should be a woman in all future Bond films, but i believe it would add a different dimension to the series, and now seems to be the right time, as the last two Bond films appear to be breaking away somewhat from the predictability of earlier films. The villians exploding headquers seem to have been dropped from the end of the film, and even the liitle 'love in', between Bond and his female accomplice in the final sequence, appear to have been laid to rest (at least for now).
I couldn't agree with Thunderpussy more, just because the main villian is female she does not have to be glamourous, both Rosa Klebb and Irma Bunt were great baddies, yet neither can be described as glamourous.

Thunderpussy

Daniel Craig has "Dragged up" before so it would be possible for Daniel Craig to Play Both Bond and his Glamorous Villain, This I'm sure would not be Beyond the Great Actors Range. -{

JADE66

Percy Sugden wrote:

Good points JADE66, we must also remember that Bond kills Naomi in TSWLM, and Fatima Blush in NSNA, he also slaps Andrea Anders about, in TMWTGG. But i can see the issue here regarding Bond often having to embark in fisticuffs with the main Villian. although there are exceptions, i can not recall 007 physically hitting either Hugo Drax or Stromberg, and i'm sure a couple of henchmen could do the fighting behalf of the female villian . It would be great to discover the head of Quantum is a woman, i'm sure the producers could pull it off, i honestly could not see the fact that the main villian is female effecting the takings at the box office. I am not saying that the Main villian should be a woman in all future Bond films, but i believe it would add a different dimension to the series, and now seems to be the right time, as the last two Bond films appear to be breaking away somewhat from the predictability of earlier films. The villians exploding headquers seem to have been dropped from the end of the film, and even the liitle 'love in', between Bond and his female accomplice in the final sequence, appear to have been laid to rest (at least for now).
I couldn't agree with Thunderpussy more, just because the main villian is female she does not have to be glamourous, both Rosa Klebb and Irma Bunt were great baddies, yet neither can be described as glamourous.

You're right. I forgot about Naomi and Fatima. Fatima's death however was somewhat... comical for lack of a better word. The exploding fountain pen bit just made me roll my eyes. There was no real tension in that scene. As for chopper pilot Naomi Bond didn't have to look her in the eye when he killed her, he just pushed a button.
If the head of the Quantum Organization is to be a woman(I have no problem with that) and if Daniel Craig as Bond is going to have to destroy her to put an end to Quantum and if there is to be a tension filled, climactic fight at the end (a lot of ifs, I know) then the writers are going to have to come up with something really unique. Perhaps a shootout in a server room or library with Bond and his quarry stalking each other around the stacks, never sure what's around the next corner. Whatever they coose will have to be dangerous for Bond and his physicality cannot be an advantage. It will be interesting to see how/if they work it out.

Thunderpussy

I think if they cast Satsuki Mitchell as the head of QUANTUM, There would bw one hell of an explosive finish )