The invincibility of Craig’s Bond
osris
Posts: 558MI6 Agent
It seems to me that Craig’s Bond is unique, in that he is the first Bond to appear invincible. The other Bonds seemed, at times, to display weaknesses, hesitancy and reservations before entering into dangerous activities. They did enter those activities and eventually triumphed but it never seemed easily won. One recalls moments of anxiety in certain of Roger Moore’s expressions when faced with danger, as was the case with Connery, Lazenby and Dalton (less so with Brosnan). Craig doesn’t seem to display these emotions.
Also, unlike the other Bonds, he is able to win fights quickly and effortlessly—almost casually. When one considers the famous long, tortuous and suspenseful Connery/Shaw train fight in FRWL, or the similar fight in the lift in DAF, one can appreciate how Craig’s Bond is far more effective in dispatching an assailant easily and expediently.
Also Craig’s Bond is capable of throwing himself of cranes, bridges and rooftops without a moment's hesitation, unlike Moore who in MR hesitated before the cable car jump; and Lazenby who also showed reservations when escaping from Blofeld’s lair via the cogwheels and cables of the cable car station. Both actors expressed real anxiety, if not fear. Like a character in a video game, Craig never does this. The nearest to Craig’s Bond in this respect was Brosnan. Though one sensed that he too was to some extent fearful at times.
The lack of emotion during action scenes and the easy nature of Craig's defeats removes all suspense from such scenes. Of course, we all expect Bond to triumph (as he should) but with Craig it all comes too easily and at little cost.
This is the directors and fight arrangers faults, no doubt. Craig is, therefore, free of blame.
Also, unlike the other Bonds, he is able to win fights quickly and effortlessly—almost casually. When one considers the famous long, tortuous and suspenseful Connery/Shaw train fight in FRWL, or the similar fight in the lift in DAF, one can appreciate how Craig’s Bond is far more effective in dispatching an assailant easily and expediently.
Also Craig’s Bond is capable of throwing himself of cranes, bridges and rooftops without a moment's hesitation, unlike Moore who in MR hesitated before the cable car jump; and Lazenby who also showed reservations when escaping from Blofeld’s lair via the cogwheels and cables of the cable car station. Both actors expressed real anxiety, if not fear. Like a character in a video game, Craig never does this. The nearest to Craig’s Bond in this respect was Brosnan. Though one sensed that he too was to some extent fearful at times.
The lack of emotion during action scenes and the easy nature of Craig's defeats removes all suspense from such scenes. Of course, we all expect Bond to triumph (as he should) but with Craig it all comes too easily and at little cost.
This is the directors and fight arrangers faults, no doubt. Craig is, therefore, free of blame.
Comments
Moore’s fights were not all that good, apart from in a few instances, such as the train fight in LALD, but even there he looked as if the villain was going to choke him to death, and only at the last minute did he overcome the villan—the same in the FRWL train fight. I don’t recall anything like this last minute defeat happening with Craig. The stairwell fight in CR was pure cartoon, though gritty, as was the way he dispatched the four MI6 agents (who were physically lager than him) in the hotel lift in QOS in about 15 seconds.
Again, I’m not blaming Craig. It’s a fight arranger problem.
As far as 'invincibility' goes...that goes with the character, and IMO every Bond has pretty much had it. I sense hesitation in all of them before a great risk is taken; it's just that in Craig's arena he never has time to hesitate for more than a split-second
To me, Craig looked quite uneasy in SF, dangling from that elevator, unsure of his grip and whether he could hang on long enough.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
The fight in the Haiti apartment was skilfully arranged, yes, no argument there, but in a real fight, however well trained you are, reaction times are not as fast as in that fight. And even black belts in the martial arts always end up on the ground, wrestling each other until the referee breaks it up (just look at the martial arts contests on YouTube). So it’s unlikely that two trained SAS type men will do any better, and fight the way the Haiti fight is portrayed. A real fight would be much more awkward and messy. In fact it would look pretty boring to watch, with both participants in seemingly endless hugging movements of each other on the ground, until one could break away. So I’m not suggesting that Bond fights be realistic, but I think they should be less slick, and long enough for the audience to doubt whether Bond will survive or not—though of course we know he will.
Yes, Craig did look uneasy hanging on to the elevator. That was a rare moment though. Look at how he crashed his bike (in the same film) on the wall of the bridge crossing over the railway track and did a forward head leap over the wall onto the passing train underneath, without even looking first to see if it could be done or where he would land. Of course, it could be slightly possible someone could very well do this and survive, but the point is that Craig’s Bond, unlike the others, did this without thinking, almost as a conditioned response—like the Terminator would have done. You could argue that that’s a good thing for an agent. But would Bond in the books and in the earlier films have done it. I don’t think so, and Craig is after all playing Bond and not a character out of a video game.
Drop down on it.
I think Craig's Bond is the MOST convincing of all Bonds, and you can tell he's worked hard at his fight moves, to get it right. I think Loeff and Aspmm sum it up brilliantly. -{
"Greatness From Small Beginnings."
The Superman Bond era was Moore, Dalton and Brosnan.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
I disagree...Dalton's Bond is beaten up pretty badly in LTK.
This is a fairly contemporary trope. Rather than give the main character a full range of emotions, those emotions are limited to two or three, played out for the entirety of the film. This gives the illusion of greater emotion depth when in most ways, it's simply more one-note. In the Connery era, we could see Bond amused, frightened, angry, vengeful, sly, jokey, cruel, calm, insolent, cocky, and more. In the Craig era, Bond sometimes doesn't quite seem so human. He's more machine-like.
Craig's Bond seems to have three basic emotions: Angry, determined, and wounded. Not much else there. Thus, whether he's ordering a drink or getting into a nail gun fight, his Bond seems to have the same intensity much of the time. The violence has been stepped up, as has the editing, very much in the tradition of the Bourne films, so the combination makes him seem more invincible. After all, when there really isn't much else to reflect on, what there is gets more attention.
True, he bleeds and gets bruised, but I’m talking more about his almost Terminator approach to danger. In my view looking battered after a fight doesn’t make the fight suspenseful or a well arranged one.
I agree with all of this.
Yes, the Craig era is very much influenced by the Bourne films and video game genre. This is probably a commercial decision to take into account a younger audience demographic.
Craig is influenced by Craig. No one else.
Not even Steve McQueen?
Seems like a biased conclusion. The earlier movies enjoyed the status of setting trends that the producers achieved through innovation in almost every respect of the production process; cinematography, editing, stuntwork, screenplay, etc. But after Connery up to the present, nothing had been done in a vacuum and in a sense, everything the Bonds did/do had some sort of influence, whether from earlier productions or from outside, competing action movies. Even the reboot wasn't immune from that as it's been well documented how the Bourne movies influenced the Craig Bonds and there's nothing wrong with that.
As for Bond's invincibility, I think that started with Brosnan and since then, Bond has survived a many hail of bullets and in turn dished out his own. As it's been touched on in earlier posts, much of the influences are from the "high-octane" action movies that started in the 1980s (which in turn were influenced by Bond) that have since become standard, and of course, video games.
Agreed, and it went with the territory of the new dangerous edge Dalton added to Bond again.
I really enjoyed that aspect of LTK...Bond was clearly beginning to turn a corner. Of course, it's like bringing an aircraft carrier around to an opposite heading---it took a while
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
100% with Pierce.
Though Craig's stunts are faster and involve a lot of wire work (jumping bikes off bridges and running and jumping over rooftops, etc.) he always ends up looking like he actually suffered through these sequences, unlike the actors from before, though I recall Dalton looking worse for wear in some scenes (such as when he kills Sanchez at the end of LTK). His clothes are really mucked up and he gets cuts, abrasions and bleeds. Most of the others rarely got there hair mussed (though there were exceptions, such as Connery surviving Dr. No's tunnels).
I agree stunt work seem to follow trends and they try to feed the audiences with whatever they crave at any given period. As much as I enjoyed the telegraphed round house punches of the old days, they seem almost silly and dated now - especially when they used to go on forever (thank you Hollywood westerns). Mel Brooks sent that up pretty well in the third act of Blazing Saddles.
As far as Bond's invincibility, it went into Superman mode when GF came out. The first three more or less gave us the more human Bond from the novels since they followed them so closely (as they also did in OHMSS). The rest just kept increasing the complexity of the stunts and firepower which Bond kept escaping from or initiated and usually came out of without a scratch.
I'm glad with the reboot EON brought the films closer to the original three where Bond is more involved in personal combat or has to use his wits and stamina to get out of a battle rather than rely on a Q trick or machine guns that never empty. It's why I liked the end of SF - though it irked many that he ended up with little firepower to defend his home, I enjoyed the fact he used his ingenuity in using the Aston in a sneak attack and then demolishing his home to try and wipe out all the bad guys in one big punch. In the old films he would have had a lot of sci-fi Q tricks and did some death defying stunts and probably would not have even destroyed SF.
I agree that after a fight or action sequence Craig does look roughed up, but it’s the abandonment element you mention that ruins these scenes for me. It takes away any humanity from the character, and any potential for suspense. After all, if the character knows and displays his confidence that he is not in any danger, why should the audience be concerned for his safety--which they should be for good dramatic suspense. Despite the excesses with the later Connery films, one always felt that his Bond did display human emotions before confronting danger.
Yes, this is exactly what I mean by Craig’s “invincibility”. I don’t mean that he is invincible in that he never gets hurt of roughed up, but that he seems to behave like a robot going through pre-set movements.