Honorable alternative for Smythe?

Firemass

Seeing as Bond was personal friends with Oberhauser I'm actually kind of surprised he simply walked away from Major Dexter Smythe. Why give him an honorable alternative of committing suicide? Because he was part of the British secret service and a public trial would look bad?

Bond seemed rather nonchalant about the whole affair. If Dalton was there he would have interrogated Smythe at gunpoint, slammed his head against the table and then lit him on fire with Oberhauser's lighter. )

It was very interesting to hear this tale summarized in the film Octopussy.


PS- No relation to James St. John Smythe...or is there?

Silhouette Man

I guess he left it open to Smythe - he gave him enough time to commit suicide and he expected him to do "the honourable thing" and top himself. I think it shows the rarely seen yet existing compassionate and expansive side of James Bond - perhaps best seen on film at the end of QoS. This is a very different James Bond to the vengeful Bond of the novels LALD and YOLT. I think Fleming used the short stories as a means of exploring the many shades of grey that make up the James Bond character construct. It's the same thing in 'The Living Daylights' where Bond spares 'Trigger' as she was the beautiful cellist he saw some nights before, against orders of course.

I'm going to write an article on the hidden qualities of the offbeat short story - I and others before me see it as Fleming's suicide note to the world. There's a lot more there than meets the eye. To say any more would spoil things so I won't.