Connery's Bond getting older in YOLT question

Doctor Who

I remember reading a post here which stated that in YOLT, there was an intentional acknowledgment that Bond was getting older in YOLT by having his fights with the Driver and Hans not be so easily won as previous ones had been; That Bond was getting a little older and wasn't as fit as he used to be. I was wondering, for those who know more in-depth than I, if that is true? If there was really an intent to show Bond was getting a bit older and wasn't as invincible as he used to be, at least in YOLT?

Doctor Who

This is the post I'm talking about:

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Well, I don't buy into Connery sleepwalking thru the role, as some say. The emphasis is on humour, and his delivery is impeccable here. The fight scenes have clout and commitment. He does have, as the writer put it, an 'old pro's grace' about him which comes from being older. Also, the ageing thing came in with YOLT, Connery talked about how they played up the ageing and that the fights were becoming difficult, which we see in the fight with the sumo wrestler. You see it again with the lift fight, though that is maybe ripped off Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, the idea that you think you can just kill someone, but it's not so easy.

I can't take the other stuff too seriously, but it's true generally that by the time you get to 1971 it's not so much Bond can't take this for real, but the audience certainly can't, hence the style of the movie. Things can't just stay the same, at the same level of intensity.

Barbel

Connery certainly said that re DAF. I can't recall him saying the same re YOLT, though it's possible.

Gassy Man

YOLT seems a bit early to be doing that. Connery was only 36 or so, which is those days would have been seen clearly as middle aged but certainly not decrepit. I always got the impression it had more to do with trying to outdo what had been done before -- the fights getting longer and more complicated, the chase scenes being more intense, the explosions getting bigger and bigger, the numbers of female conquests increasing, etc.

chrisisall

Gassy Man wrote:

YOLT seems a bit early to be doing that. Connery was only 36 or so, which is those days would have been seen clearly as middle aged but certainly not decrepit.

At 36 I was still a kid, basically. At 46 I was better than ever. At 57 (now) I'm slower but smarter. It's all a trade off. Bond would be great at any age. Well, not at 15 or 70.... :v

Gassy Man

I'll be 50 in a few months. I've gotten my second wind, getting back into top shape and, like you said, slower but smarter. I'd rather have watched a 70-year-old Bond played by Connery than a 40-year-old one played by Brosnan, haha.