No More Death and Killing in Titles
Dovy
Posts: 206MI6 Agent
If I could give a recommendation to the producers for the future who want to overhaul the Bond franchise, let it be that the titles be more positive than including words about death or dying!
So let's not see titles like Live and Let Die, No Time to Die, Die Another Day, Tomorrow Never Dies, License to Kill, View to Kill.
Comments
Live And Let Die and (From) A View To A Kill came from Fleming, so those might be an exception.
But yes, the others felt like pretentious, trying hard to sound like Fleming but ended up being a title for a Generic Action Film.
The thing was some of the Bond titles that Fleming wrote had an inspiration or a history, it's purely natural, but EON seemed to forget those essence and start following it by imitating Fleming but failed because there's no inspiration, it's not an inspired titles, it didn't even felt that it came from inner emotions, like Fleming also did.
I guarantee you that the prevalence of titles with "death," "die," and "kill" come from market research and box office receipts showing that they sell. (You might have noticed a similar phenomenon with the recent popularity of "rise".) Titles are not artistic choices but promotional slogans. Personal preferences are immaterial for works aimed at worldwide audiences.
<Sigh> What's left to be said then???!!
I don't think one should say absolutely no to all titles with the word "death" in it for all eternity. If a good title fits the story well it should be used even if death is mentioned. I like "Death leaves an echo". But I think the word is best avoided for Bond26 because it makes people think of the ending of NTTD.
By my count, four titles are named after, or reference, characters central to the story: DR. NO, GOLDFINGER, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, and OCTOPUSSY. These are all Fleming-based titles. Perhaps we should go back to using names instead of this constant death/killing fixation we're mired in currently. But, to be fair, that is Bond's life--he distracts himself with worldly pleasures so he won't be forced to stare into the Abyss; death lurks around every corner.
I was hoping Bond 25 would be dubbed 'Shatterhand,' but it was not to be. I am afraid Chevarian is correct, that market research shows the morbid titles are effective.
Does anyone think the problem could be the translation of titles into other languages? A study of the titles over time shows that, from the very first film, something that should translate easily like 'Dr. No' is, instead, scrapped. That first film's title, in Italy, was (translated to English), "License To Kill"; in Japan, it was "007 Is The Killing Number: Dr. No."
Other interesting titles: OHMSS was "The Queen's 007" in Japan; FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was "Agent 007: Strict Confidence" in Denmark.
(alternate titles courtesy of "The Incredible World of 007" by Pfeiffer and Lisa)
Names should translate well in all languages. (On second thought, I guess 'Octopussy' is the exception to that rule.) But death is a universal fixation. And what sounds exotic or cool (like "Goldeneye" or "Thunderball") in our language may be nothing special in another, or it could make no sense at all.
antiamadeus said:
That first film's title, in Italy, was (translated to English), "License To Kill"; in Japan, it was "007 Is The Killing Number: Dr. No."
Other interesting titles: OHMSS was "The Queen's 007" in Japan; FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was "Agent 007: Strict Confidence" in Denmark.
(alternate titles courtesy of "The Incredible World of 007" by Pfeiffer and Lisa)
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I'd like to see more of these alternate titles! anybody got other examples?
„Thunderball“ is translated to „Feuerball“ (=Fireball).
“For Your Eyes Only“ is „on deathly assignment“ (= in tödlicher Mission).
“The Living Daylights“ is „the whiff of death“ (= der Hauch des Todes).
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note two out of three examples substituted the marketable word "Death" in place of something Fleming came up with
thinking about it an extra second, both For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights are idiomatic phrases that might not have meaningful direct translations