A Last Happy Holidays for 2014 and How the Bond Stole Christmas...
Felix the Leitercat
Posts: 52MI6 Agent
Hello ajb board members--Have not been around here in months, thought I would pass along a big season's greetings to my fellow Bond fans.
A final holiday story before it's 2015. Was mulling over issues of life, death and James Bond recently. I recalled a 007 Christmas story from the book, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, when Bond escapes Blofeld's Swiss mountain lair to warn England our favorite evil genius is going to spread viruses among the livestock and the crops of the UK.
There are some very interesting scenes in the book with a Christmas Day theme--Bond has cigars and drinks with M as he debriefs M on the situation--M has spent the holiday painting watercolors, his hobby--Mary Goodnight, 007 secretary, has to put in overtime, as do a host of other intell ops, pulled together by M, on Christmas to stop the evil Blofeld.
It's all very British still upper lip, doing your duty, standing against adversity and crisis, while the rest of the world celebrates the holiday.
So here's to the British Secret Service/Mi6 saving the world again, working hard on that holiday long ago in the pages of Ian Fleming. Especially to this board's UK oriented members, I will quote your famous Lord Nelson, the great admiral who beat Napoleon's navy and died in battle for it. ((with a few embellishments))
"When supercriminals threaten UK and other nations of the world, they will be defeated because England expects every man and woman to do their duty and be quick about it."
Happy remainder of the yuletide and Christmas, New Year's, to all ajb'ers whatever flag you fly under. Hope to be around more often in 2015.
Regards, Felix the Leitercat B-) -{
A final holiday story before it's 2015. Was mulling over issues of life, death and James Bond recently. I recalled a 007 Christmas story from the book, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, when Bond escapes Blofeld's Swiss mountain lair to warn England our favorite evil genius is going to spread viruses among the livestock and the crops of the UK.
There are some very interesting scenes in the book with a Christmas Day theme--Bond has cigars and drinks with M as he debriefs M on the situation--M has spent the holiday painting watercolors, his hobby--Mary Goodnight, 007 secretary, has to put in overtime, as do a host of other intell ops, pulled together by M, on Christmas to stop the evil Blofeld.
It's all very British still upper lip, doing your duty, standing against adversity and crisis, while the rest of the world celebrates the holiday.
So here's to the British Secret Service/Mi6 saving the world again, working hard on that holiday long ago in the pages of Ian Fleming. Especially to this board's UK oriented members, I will quote your famous Lord Nelson, the great admiral who beat Napoleon's navy and died in battle for it. ((with a few embellishments))
"When supercriminals threaten UK and other nations of the world, they will be defeated because England expects every man and woman to do their duty and be quick about it."
Happy remainder of the yuletide and Christmas, New Year's, to all ajb'ers whatever flag you fly under. Hope to be around more often in 2015.
Regards, Felix the Leitercat B-) -{
Comments
Happy New Year! {[]
Hello AOS--OHMSS has a weird soundtrack, the totally instrumental title track, which is actually quite good, and Louis Armstrong, We Have All The Time In The World, very non 007 sounding, but a cool song by the maestro just the same, and then by Nina (who, musta been some one hit wonder), Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown? which I still hear in the mall sometimes during Xmas shopping.
I think that tune plays when Bond escapes down the mountainside, skiiing into a winter carnival, and is picked up in a car by Tracy/Diana Rigg, and they drive away from Blofeld's pursuing assasins. It's the weakest tune of the 3, IMHO, but it works with the sequence the filmmakers are presenting.
Happy Holidays again, as the clock ticks down on 2014....
Felix The Leitercat B-) -{
Hello Thunderpussy, good to hear from you, long time no chat. I have DVD with fascinating documentary on how Lazenby got recruited and cast. I was very young school kid back then when film came out, and because I was "going backward" with Bond, seeing current movie, then catching the previous ones on the re release into theaters--no home vid market--I did not get all hung up on loss of Sean the Great until way later. As a kid I thought OK, it was Sean once, but now it's this Lazenby guy, maybe it will be good anyway. On TV shows then and now, big characters got written out or were replaced, etc.
For the record, I think Lazenby was acceptable, neither great, nor terrible. He might have really grown into the role, given the chance, DVD doc suggest his agent got real pushy, wanted more money for Lazenby (and himself no doubt), the 007 producers uncles Harry and Cubby thought about it, told him to hit the road and got Sean back, which makes me think that Lazenby had one dumb agent.
Happy Holidays to you, best wishes for 2015
Felix the Leitercat B-) -{
Gonna stay the heck out of the Black Actor as 007 thread, skimmed some of it, but I will say here one fan to another that I am a Centrist in many of my views so I sometimes weigh and see both sides.
You, others, are correct in pointing out that Bond is indeed a white Scottish and British guy as conceived by Fleming and sustained by the producers, actors all these years.
But is there a rule that he always has to be? How far away are we in the conception that his parents were Scots killed in climbing accident, as stated by Fleming?? The first Daniel Craig movie, Casino Royale, alluded to this in Craig's mind games with Eva Green on the train, the psychology of orphans, Skyfall shows us big house he lived in, some fragments of his early life, but how much does backstory make or break him? In fact our Bonds pretty much just appear before us, doing what the previous guy did and we accept them cause of how they look, what they do, how they do it, what style they do it in, as if there is something called "The Eternal Bond Essence" that they somehow live up to.
So I would say a black actor could pull this off, depends on who he is, how talented, how well he researches role, consults with producers, other Bond actors, etc. but Bond producers don't hire hacks, even Lazenby had his merits, and I am certain they could find one. My only adamant, gotta have it, manlaw is that he has to be British!! Other than that, hmmmm???? possibles abound.
One guy who might have pulled it off in 60s, 70s, Sidney Poitier, who was a detective, Virgil Tibbs, In The Heat of the Night, several others. And he spoke with a Caribbean, sort of Brit accent. Certainly got the looks, handsomeness role requires, can do action. Poitier might have had drawback that he was not a coldblooded killer type, cuz he made a generation of schoolkids in 60s-70s wish he was their teacher in To Sir With Love. But I am sure he would have immersed himself in the method acting world and pulled it off. So I will leave it the open question for now in my mind. Happy holidays again,
Felix The Leitercat, regards B-) -{
Thunderbird Too!
TBird and Tpussy--cousins?? Are Tpussy and the chix flying around in that spaceship?? I think I read somewhere Lazenby was credited with being very sincere, open, honest in his characterization, had practically no experience, but did pull off a decent performance. Hard one too, he is 007 and also Sir Bray the geneology expert, the role within the role, hard to do even for a really veteran actor. I do kinda like Lazenby after all these years. And Diana Rigg, all that cascading brown hair, swinger girl outfits, va-voom, another story entirely.
Felix The Leitercat, regards, B-) -{
Greetings Felix. Great post. Thoughtful, well-reasoned and civil. And although I have said in the past that I would have a bit of difficulty accepting a Black actor as Bond, it's primarily because I've been a fan of the cinematic Bond from the beginning (over 50 years now), and I have become so accustomed to seeing him as white. But that could change, not just for me, but for a whole new generation of Bond movie fans. The right actor, great stories and a director who knows what he or she is doing - who knows?
Good to have you back, my friend. Enjoy your holiday! {[]
Thank you Felix -{
It's on ITV this Sunday -{