Bond and Dads
FelixLeiter ♀
Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
Something that seems to crop up a lot in conversations about the films is watching them or being introduced to them by Dads.
The latter was certainly the case for me (less introduced, more "we're watching this!"
) ). Watching and talking about Bond with my dad is a very important and special thing for me. It was certainly one of the first things we really bonded over when I was younger and the first time he took me to see Bond at the cinema was a massive thing. Nowadays we've both seen every film and it's lovely to talk about our favourite bits from time to time.
I know I will always have a lot of memories that link my dad and the Bond films, including finding a swivel chair in IKEA aged 9 so I could twirl round unexpectedly and say to him 'I've been accepting you, Mr Bond.', and years later my dad presenting me with my first ever vodka martini, adding "shaken, not stirred" -{
I wondered what other people's experiences were with Bond and their dads, or perhaps they are dads and whether they share Bond with their kids
The latter was certainly the case for me (less introduced, more "we're watching this!"
) ). Watching and talking about Bond with my dad is a very important and special thing for me. It was certainly one of the first things we really bonded over when I was younger and the first time he took me to see Bond at the cinema was a massive thing. Nowadays we've both seen every film and it's lovely to talk about our favourite bits from time to time.I know I will always have a lot of memories that link my dad and the Bond films, including finding a swivel chair in IKEA aged 9 so I could twirl round unexpectedly and say to him 'I've been accepting you, Mr Bond.', and years later my dad presenting me with my first ever vodka martini, adding "shaken, not stirred" -{
I wondered what other people's experiences were with Bond and their dads, or perhaps they are dads and whether they share Bond with their kids
Relax darling, I'm on top of the situation -{
Comments
As for me as a father, I have positively brought my two sons up as Bond fans :007) My oldest son, Ian (coincidence? no), 16, and Alec, 14, know the films very well. SF comes out on Ian's 17th birthday here in the states; perfect!
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Now I'm sad.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
Being the only guy in my family, there's more DC admirers than bond fans in my clan. But I must admit, my wife is starting to know the characters and if they're 'goodies' or 'baddies'. What amazed me more was when watching ROTJ the other night, she even recognised the fett!
I intend on teaching the new arrival, but being a girl it's gonna be another uphill struggle.
MG -{
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
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Over the next couple of years we rented Bond movies one by one, mainly focusing on the Roger Moore films at first (because I enjoyed the comedy aspect at first), but then later getting around to Connery and Dalton. I remained a casual fan for a few years - strangely, I never even went to see TND or TWINE when they were in theatres. My first big screen Bond experience was DAD. By 2003/2004 I was becoming a serious Bond nut and my Dad was quite shocked at the monster he had created with that first viewing of Moonraker... And has you know, I still haven't regained my sanity...
We did see Casino Royale together at the cinema and he quite liked it, but generally he doesn't enjoy the modern style of filmmaking, such as shaky cam and fast cut editing.
My Dad is not interested in the Bond films either, nor my Stepmum. My love of Bond is squarely thanks to my Late Mum and Grandad. (Her Father.) I remember watching FRWL's climatic boat scene with my Mum when I was small and being horrified when Bond uses the flare gun to toast the baddies. I also was not impressed at first with Sir Sean - (I was one of those who grew up seeing Sir Roger's Bond first, in a reversal of the film's history. Ah, how perceptions change!
In my Grandad's case I recall one family holiday to Wales. We stubbornly decided to stay in - because Moonraker was on. Everyone else was taken aback. - "We are on holiday in a lovely part of Wales and you two want to stay in and watch a film?" - "Its James Bond!" we replied. Nuff said. Interestingly My Grandad had read the books, and was of Mr Fleming's generation. However he had no preference between any of the Bond actors, he enjoyed all of them. - A Bond film was a Bond film. Sadly he passed away in the desert period between LTK and GEYE.
I was reminded of this by everything I saw while at the Barbican in July. So its not a here an now family connection for me, but a family legacy nevertheless.
Mini G - Don't be so sure, Little Miss G might surprise you! I know for a fact that my own love of Sci Fi is Thanks to my Mum, not any of the men in my family. It was my Mum that insisted we went to see ET and all three of the classic Star Wars films when they were released the first time when I was a kid.
He likes OHMSS, but dislikes both Lazenby and (except for the pre-title sequence and Louis Armstrong's "got-it-in-one-take" song while he was literally dying) the musical score! He initially disliked CR not because of anything related to Craig, but (ready for it?) because "Bond is a baccarat player, not a poker player...have Felix Leiter play poker; he's from TX, anyway!" He managed to work around it, though, and praised the rest of the film. We do agree on QoS, though: its only saving grace was Craig.
Despite preferring Fleming's Bond (which he interprets as having been "best represented by Sean Connery and Daniel Craig"), he harbors reservations over Lazenby as an actor (although he did like OHMSS itself quite a lot) and extreme reservations over Timothy Dalton's Bond (Dad: "he just tried too hard"). He did like LTK, however, praising both Robert Davi and Benicio del Toro in particular. He also really thought highly of Carey Lowell.
Dad saw Dr. No shortly after it was released in the US on the advice of HIS father (my grandfather), who said it was "very different from most spy flicks". He rated it the best until FRWL was released...and nothing's ever displaced that for him. Dad's least favorite film...that is, enough to merit a "least favorite" status...was Moonraker due to its unevenness even before the space scenes (as per him), though this was displaced first by A View to a Kill and then by Die Another Day, which he told me was agonizing to sit through (as we sat in the theater watching it!).
I also asked Dad to rank the films for me (note that these are HIS rankings, not mine, which are quite different) and he obliged by reeling off every official Bond film along with a few comments...
1. FRWL ("The best.")
2. DN ("The original, they were getting the hang of things, and they still put together a 'Fleming Bond' so to speak.")
3. TB ("I've never gotten the negativism surrounding Thunderball, or why it's so often surpassed by You Only Live Twice in terms of Connery Bonds. In my mind, you also have two of the best Bond girls in the series.")
4. GF ("I hate saying that Gert Frobe was overrated as a villain, but he was. On the other hand, everything made up for it. I do wish they'd limited some of the Aston-Martin DB5's gadgetry, and I'm sure I'll take heat for that, but things like the smokescreen were perfectly appropriate and the car itself was an excellent choice.")
5. CR ("The most underrated Bond film")
6. DAF ("Underrated, though I understand why since it doesn't seem to fit in continuity. I never understood why people said Connery was bored in this film, either. He was having fun at his own expense and it was very obvious.")
7. YOLT ("Even when Connery looked bored, he was great. I've also believed all the Bond girls in this one physically stunning. For the guys I hung around with that believed Karin Dor was inherently ugly, I found it quite humorous that most of them did not recognize her in Alfred Hitchcock's 1969 film Topaz, where their opinions were different.")
8. LALD ("I like Chevys. But really, I thought Moore wasn't as over the top as he would later be. I also found the supporting villains to be very good.")
9. GE ("Jack Wade's inconpicuous nature and Brosnan's getting into the role aside, we've been given Alec Trevelyan, Valentin Zukovsky, and yes, I did like the tank chase.")
10. TSWLM ("I'm surprised I rate this one so high, but it always just seemed to work for me.")
11. OHMSS ("I just couldn't get Lazenby, though I loved the rest of the film and the final direct confrontation with SPECTRE was needed sorely at that point.")
12. OP ("On the one hand, we have Orlov and Louis Jourdan. On the other hand, would an even partially-Indian Bond girl have been too much to ask for, given the locale?")
13. TMWTGG ("Only because of Christopher Lee, who played one of my favorite Bond villains.")
14. LTK ("Saved by everyone except Dalton, though Q was a little out of place. I would have loved to have seen a Daniel Craig or Sean Connery type take on Robert Davi's Franz Sanchez. I also liked that we got a character who was meant to annoy us without going over the top while doing so in Truman-Lodge.")
15. FYEO ("Very uneven and for the Moore Bonds, certainly in my mind the most overrated. The car chase and Moore kicking the S-Class off the cliff are very high points.")
16. QoS ("The most disappointing Bond film I ever saw. You had Daniel Craig working with what he could and no one else.")
17. TWINE ("Outside of Sophie Marceau and a fair performance by Brosnan, plus Robbie Coltrane's being wasted, it just went on too long, and I think we had big-time disappointments in Renard and what's-her-name playing a nuclear physicist.)
18. MR ("It was always uneven, it ruined Jaws, and even then, I still managed to like it. So I have to put this one in my top 20.")
19. TND ("One of the most underwhelming collections of villains and Bond girls, and the only reason it makes my top 20 is because I think it was probably Brosnan's best effort as Bond. But let's face it, he had nothing to work with.")
20. TLD ("As soon as it leaves Czechoslovakia, I just didn't get it. There were films like On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Octopussy, and of course Thunderball that's now one of my top three that have grown on me that I thought to be nothing special at first viewing. I've watched TLD over and over, and I just can't bring myself to like it at all.")
21. AVTAK ("I liked Christopher Walken and Patrick Macnee. That's about it. I think Roger Moore held on for one movie too many. To say nothing of Tanya Roberts practically breaking my eardrums every fifteen seconds.")
22. DAD ("I thought they might have something in the pre-title sequence, but then the whole movie just started coasting downward. Without question the worst Bond film that's officially licensed.")
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
the series, and we'd always watch them together. One christmas My mum wanted to watch the
sound of Music on BBC1 but we out voted her to watch DAF on ITV.
So I got into Bond myself with no Help from Dad, I may of converted him as He'd always watch
them when they'd be released on video or if I was watching a "Making of " special.
Sadly I have two Daughters with No interest In Bond, So I have to live in hope that their Husbands
of the future are into Bond films.
Of course I've already tod them not to take home any Craig fans.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
I do hold a much higher opinion of Timothy Dalton than Dad, and that is one of our primary sources of Bond debate. After all, we do see each other quite often. When Dad retired from the Manhattan DA's Office, we moved out to IN, I live close enough to Indiana University to just go drive there and back, and Dad just sorta split our house in two to give me some privacy. We had it partitioned off so that each half of the partition can function independently; alas, I don't have my own mailbox yet, but I don't have to pay rent, either. Dad also constructed the huge model train layout in my half of the house before we partitioned it off, so unless I'm busy with something, he's usually playing around with that.
In the train room, though, I bought a DVD player and flat screen TV. I have the 4-box DVD set of the first 20, plus the CR and QoS DVDs. Sometimes, Dad will just randomly pop in a Bond film while he's playing with or maintaining the layout and the model trains. And start commenting on it, too. Heh, I should put up my own top 22...come to think of it, I don't think I have, now, actually.
What a cheery time it is to visit the folks at Xmas.