Oh, come on. Don't give me that. I challenge you to put yourself in an actor's shoes. I challenge you to try and imagine what it's like to be on a film set. . . . yadda yadda yadda
Does working in post-production for nearly 14 years count? I've seen lots of actors have stupid tantrums which have been caught on camera, and I don't care if they're suffering for their art. Bale was being a **** and that's all there is to it.
BTW, one of the actor tantrums I've been witness to involved Tom Hardy. He has a bad reputation within the UK film and TV industry because of his crybaby antics and that's the reason why he'll never be James Bond, either.
Would Christian Bale fit in a future James Bond film? He would be a good fit as a villain. I can see him bringing the same kind of intensity to the role that Robert Shaw brought to Red Grant.
As for Christian Bale himself? He may in reality be a complete jerkoff but I am not going to judge him on that infamous rant alone. We have all said and done things in the heat of the moment that we should not have. It's just that in our case it hasn't gone public. Bale apologised and admitted he was out of order. Critics will say he had no choice but to apologise, he did so all the same and I have no reason so far to doubt his sincerity.
Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
Does working in post-production for nearly 14 years count? I've seen lots of actors have stupid tantrums which have been caught on camera, and I don't care if they're suffering for their art. Bale was being a **** and that's all there is to it.
Does it really matter if somebody was being an ass on a production set or not? Because actors and actresses get paid to act. They don't get paid to be your best friend for the next seven months or so, cause most of them are just there to do their jobs and get out. You may think that Christian Bale is a horrible excuse for human being, but does your opinion really matter to him? Probably not. Anyway most of you guys are actually being as dumb as the director of photography on Terminator Salvation, right now. Because you're completely misinterpreting the question.
I know most of you hate Christian Bale and would never ever want to see him on a Bond set, but aren't you supposed to hate the bad guy? Aren't you supposed to hate the main Bond villain of the piece? The guy who is secretly running everything? Because I'll tell you something right now, I didn't hate Mathieu Amalric in Quantum of Solace, or Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale, or even Toby Stephens in Die Another Day. But if Christian Bale was the main bad guy in Bond 24 or Bond 25, who was the head of Quantum or the head of some other terrorist organization, then you guys would probably hate him. And you would hate Christian Bale even more if Bale was basically channeling Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, and whenever Bale goes on a murderous, rampaging, psychotic, anarchistic, terroristic, killing spree, then you'll simply be begging for James Bond to kill this bastard.
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
While I like Christian Bale, I always thought his casting as Bruce Wayne was odd -- his features are much more like the Joker, with his long face, wide mouth, and rather smallish eyes. Heath Ledger, except for the pale skin and hair, looked more like Bruce Wayne in the comic books than Bale does.
While I like Christian Bale, I always thought his casting as Bruce Wayne was odd -- his features are much more like the Joker, with his long face, wide mouth, and rather smallish eyes. Heath Ledger, except for the pale skin and hair, looked more like Bruce Wayne in the comic books than Bale does.
Yeah but that was a comic book and Chris Nolan was making a movie. It was the same thing with Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman films. Burton didn't care if Keaton never had a square jawline, or if Keaton was too short to be Batman because Burton was a making movie.
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
We get it, JohnMasterson, you're a Bale fan... Judging by the reactions, most of us are not. I like him as Batman (the best one so far), but he should have walked away from the disaster called Terminator Salvation.
While I like Christian Bale, I always thought his casting as Bruce Wayne was odd -- his features are much more like the Joker, with his long face, wide mouth, and rather smallish eyes. Heath Ledger, except for the pale skin and hair, looked more like Bruce Wayne in the comic books than Bale does.
Yeah but that was a comic book and Chris Nolan was making a movie. It was the same thing with Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman films. Burton didn't care if Keaton never had a square jawline, or if Keaton was too short to be Batman because Burton was a making movie.
I'll be honest, I'm not a massive comic book fan. But isn't the idea if making a film version of a comic to get it how the comic book fan would imagine it to be? I think if batman turned up in a bright pink caddie there might be some complaints.
Ps, you'll not win any discussion or debate by calling people dumb.
I'm not sure Bale has that much range, but to be fair I haven't seen him in his Oscar role. Thing is, it's kind of irrelevent, we're just day dreaming. Bale would have been little better in a movie like QoS, it's the script. We're imagining - or you are JM - that Bale would get a good script to work with, that he'd be doing the American Psycho thing again and it would be brill, fine, but without a decent script it doesn't matter anyway.
But yeah, if one hated Bale because of his blow up on set, then he might have been more dislikeable on QoS.
If you look far enough back in the archives of AJB, you'll see that Bale has long been a favourite of mine for the role. That has diminished over the years, but has nothing to do with *that* spat on Terminator, rather he's now solidly within the A list bracket. I'm not saying that an A lister couldn't come in and do a job, but the baggage that comes with his Batman role makes it harder for him to be as easily placed in the 007 role.
Regarding the Terminator film, from everything I've read about it, it was a nightmare for everyone involved ... Bale is known as being a bit fiery so I'm not surprised really. So let's have a bit of perspective and try to keep the discussions here considerably more cordial than the arguments on the Terminator set ...
My claim to fame - I went to Bournemouth School for Boys and was in Christian Bale's year - he owes me a quid so he doesn't get my vote. Unless he pays me back of course. I bumped into him a few years ago at Tower Park - we had a two minute chat which was nice and I said to him at the end "You still owe me a quid"... he laughed and walked on - I was seething - he can afford it.
Things I hate:
1. People who hate things.
2. Irony.
3. Lists.
Does it really matter if somebody was being an ass on a production set or not? Because actors and actresses get paid to act. They don't get paid to be your best friend for the next seven months or so
Does it really matter if somebody is an ass at the place where you work? You don't go to work to make friends, but you do go there to be professional and not throw childish tantrums. The rules are the same whether you're a superstar on a film set or you're behind the counter at McDonalds.
It's not the point of this particular dicussion anyway. I don't want Bale to be James Bond because he lacks the warmth and charm needed for the role.
It's not the point of this particular dicussion anyway. I don't want Bale to be James Bond because he lacks the warmth and charm needed for the role.
I wasn't talking about Christian Bale playing James Bond, you idiot. I was talking about Christian Bale being a James Bond VILLAIN and a James Bond villain is a man that you're supposed to hate and fear, and the last Bond villain who made me feel like that was Robert Davi in Licence to Kill. Most of the Bond villains who came after Davi were not a force to be reckoning with. I neither hated nor feared them. In fact, I pitied most of them accept for Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale, whom I never nothing but indifference for.
IF Christian Bale were cast as a James Bond VILLAIN (the main villain in the piece in fact) and if Bale was channeling Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, but was basically putting somewhat of a different spin on it, and if Bale did such a good job at making you hate him, then it would be all the more satisfying watching James Bond ruthlessly kill him. Because that's the job of every good villain; you love to hate him and then you jump up and cheer when the hero finally murders him in the end. And I haven't felt that way since Licence to Kill, although Joe Don Baker and Charles Gray were horrible villains and I felt indifferent when I saw them die.
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
John and Jasper, this conversation is getting WAY too heated. Dial it down and stop the name-calling, or one or both of you may be shown the door. This is a theoretical discussion on Christian Bale, not politics or religion.
Well the sheer hateability of villains is a moot point. I mean, I'm not sure we were meant to really hate the classic villains, such as Dr No, Klebb, GF et al. Be intrigued, unnerved by them maybe, but not those kind of raw emotions. Scaramanga would have been better if we'd really hated him, but nah, Lee was too urbane.
That said, Craig does need a hateable villain to validate him, I feel.
While I like Christian Bale, I always thought his casting as Bruce Wayne was odd -- his features are much more like the Joker, with his long face, wide mouth, and rather smallish eyes. Heath Ledger, except for the pale skin and hair, looked more like Bruce Wayne in the comic books than Bale does.
Yeah but that was a comic book and Chris Nolan was making a movie. It was the same thing with Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman films. Burton didn't care if Keaton never had a square jawline, or if Keaton was too short to be Batman because Burton was a making movie.
I'll be honest, I'm not a massive comic book fan. But isn't the idea if making a film version of a comic to get it how the comic book fan would imagine it to be? I think if batman turned up in a bright pink caddie there might be some complaints.
Ps, you'll not win any discussion or debate by calling people dumb.
That's kind of where I was coming from -- I don't mind Bale as Batman at all but I don't think he really looks the part. I didn't have as much trouble with Keaton because Burton's films, though celebrated at the time, were still relatively campy despite their "darkness," and Keaton's size actually was much closer to how Batman was depicted in the earliest comics than in the later ones.
I'll be honest, I'm not a massive comic book fan. But isn't the idea if making a film version of a comic to get it how the comic book fan would imagine it to be? I think if batman turned up in a bright pink caddie there might be some complaints.
You don't look into somebody's eyes whenever you're talking to someone face to face, do you? If you ever saw one of the documentaries of Batman Begins on the special edition DVD, you'd know that Christopher Nolan chose Christian Bale to be Batman based on some very superficial, subjective, thing, that he saw in Christian Bale's eyes. To paraphrase;
"Christian was the first actor I met with, actually. And it was clear to me, looking into his eyes, that this is somebody who can make you believe in the possibility of someone with devotion in their life to something this extreme." - Christopher Nolan.
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
I'll be honest, I'm not a massive comic book fan. But isn't the idea if making a film version of a comic to get it how the comic book fan would imagine it to be? I think if batman turned up in a bright pink caddie there might be some complaints.
You don't look into somebody's eyes whenever you're talking to someone face to face, do you?
so you're blind as well as arrogant, ignorant and angry?
you're quoting gassy man using my words 8-)
also, if we're playing psychologist, i'm willing to bet you open mouth before engaging brain. if you look carefully you'll see that i said i'm not really into comic books etc, so the chances of me buying a batman SE film and then watching the docs with tissue at the ready would be pretty slim.
seems to me that anyone who disagrees gets a daft insult and then a tirade of crap to back it up.
to quote bart simpson, with regards to your attitude;
"i didnt think it was physically possible, but this sucks and blows at the same time"
I actually think Bale is a good actor...he was fantastic in "The Fighter". In some ways I think he's trying to be like DeNiro: losing tons of weight for a role, muscling up for another, etc, etc. I actually think the "Patrick Bateman" charactor from "American Psycho" is great model for a Bond villain.
John and Jasper, this conversation is getting WAY too heated. Dial it down and stop the name-calling, or one or both of you may be shown the door. This is a theoretical discussion on Christian Bale, not politics or religion.
Hardyboy, I believe I have behaved appropriately in this thread and am disappointed in you for mentioning me in your post quoted above and threatening my expulsion. I have not called anyone names and have certainly not mentioned politics or religion. Are you sure you're not confusing me with somebody else?
From my point of view, most of the unpleasantness in this thread seems to be emanating from this "John Masterson" fellow. May I respectfully suggest to the moderators that he is the only person who should be told to "dial it down"and not those he is picking fights with?
Bale as a villain might be an interesting prospect, but merely due to his physical presence. I've always thought Bond villains should be rather fun with a sense of the pantomime about them. Bale isn't the most humourous of personalities. In fact, he doesn't seem to have much of a screen persona at all beyond being troubled. Bond villains aren't usually troubled, they're just evil.
John and Jasper, this conversation is getting WAY too heated. Dial it down and stop the name-calling, or one or both of you may be shown the door. This is a theoretical discussion on Christian Bale, not politics or religion.
Hardyboy, I believe I have behaved appropriately in this thread and am disappointed in you for mentioning me in your post quoted above and threatening my expulsion. I have not called anyone names and have certainly not mentioned politics or religion. Are you sure you're not confusing me with somebody else?
No, Jasper--I called you out because you and John were getting very heated. You may indeed be more sinned against than sinning, but you're also adding fuel to the fire (pardon the mixed metaphor). I think it might be best if you just say, "I've made my point" and walk away. As for politics and religion, I'm drawing a comparison. This is a "what if--?" discussion, involving the possibility of an actor playing Bond. It's trivial, it's all in fun--it's not like politics or religion, subjects that really do get the blood pumping. Everyone: there's nothing at stake here. Calm the hell down!
I had never set out to actually step on anybody's toes but I couldn't help myself, because I was getting a little frustrated here. Everybody kept ignoring my question about Christian Bale possibly being a James Bond villain and kept bringing up the fact that they didn't want Bale to be James Bond, himself. And I understand that, I understand that entirely. But what makes me angry is the selective reading that you guys do, you'll only read so much before you stop and write whatever half-assed opinion that you have, because you didn't bother to read through everything.
Anyway I know you guys have a certain idea about what a James Bond villain is supposed to be, but aren't you forgetting something? Isn't a villain by it's very definition; supposed to be someone that you HATE and FEAR all at the same time. Aren't you supposed to be so hateful and so fearful toward this villain that you're actually kind of happy when Bond kills that person in the end?
If Christian Bale was a Bond villain wouldn't you feel that way? If you hated and feared him so much in Bond 24 or 25, wouldn't you feel vindicated if Daniel Craig were to ruthlessly murder him in either film? Because isn't a despicable villain supposed to define the hero? Isn't it, the greater the threat, the greater the hero? Because I really think that Daniel Craig's Bond needs an adversary who can make you hate him and fear him simultaneously, but at the same time this guy has got to be able to cause the same kind of anarchy and chaos, that Heath Ledger's Joker did in The Dark Knight, so at the end of the film, when this villain's reign of terror comes to an end, and James Bond kills him in cold-blood, you can be saying to yourself, "You know what? You got exactly what you deserved, you son of a bitch! I'm glad you're dead. Good riddance to bad rubbish!!!!"
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
While I can see where you're coming from, I don't think a villain is simply someone you actually want to see killed. A villain can be many things, like someone you empathise with, a villain can have a change of heart for instance and realise they've done wrong like mayday did, or out of the bond world, dyson in terminator. It's not all simply kill kill kill.
I don't like Christian bale, I think that's clear and it looks like others have similar views, but I think he's not good enough for the villain role not because he's a dick in real life, but because I don't think he's the right actor for it. A bond villain is meant to be a fun role, with a dark twist to stop it going all dr evil. Bale, IMO is too serious to be able to do the fun side of the role.
While I can see where you're coming from, I don't think a villain is simply someone you actually want to see killed. A villain can be many things, like someone you empathise with, a villain can have a change of heart for instance and realise they've done wrong like mayday did, or out of the bond world, dyson in terminator. It's not all simply kill kill kill.
I don't like Christian bale, I think that's clear and it looks like others have similar views, but I think he's not good enough for the villain role not because he's a dick in real life, but because I don't think he's the right actor for it. A bond villain is meant to be a fun role, with a dark twist to stop it going all dr evil. Bale, IMO is too serious to be able to do the fun side of the role.
Well, the kind of villain, I like, is a villain who is unlikeable. He or she is causing untold amounts of anarchy, chaos, death, and destruction, to the point where you think, "Wow! This person is actually a force to be reckoned with, and is a serious threat to the world at large. Somebody has to kill this person. I don't care who does it, but somebody has to kill this person. He or she is a rabid dog that has to be put down because it's too dangerous to keep him or her, alive."
Now, I know not all villains are like that but when you see a villain like Le Chiffre or Dominic Greene dying in the Daniel Craig films it's sort of hard to be extremely happy about their deaths because they weren't necessarily doing what The Joker was doing in The Dark Knight. Because in The Dark Knight, basically The Joker was a one man hurricane of death, violence, destruction, anarchy, and chaos just blowing right through the streets of Gotham City until he was apprehended for good at the end of the film.
Now...I know it's hard for you Christian Bale haters to actually dig down deep into the depths of your mind, and imagine this; but if there was a very despicable James Bond version of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, who was causing the same random wave of death, anarchy, chaos, and destruction that Heath Ledger's Joker was causing but again, he was causing it in a James Bond film and if he had more clear goals than The Joker did, you would probably hate that villain enough to want to see James Bond kill him. And then you'd probably be happy about it.
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
God you really don't like people having different opinions do ya?
A bond villain doesn't have to be all 'no guts, no glory' gung-ho with guns blazing and everything they touch exploding. They can, and have been quite a few times, more subtle than that and even have henchmen to do the dirty work. Carver had stamper, drax had jaws, zorin had mayday etc etc.
What I'm saying is it doesn't have to be all explosions and death to be scary. Flick back to dr no, where dent visits crab key in the daylight and speaks to the voice of no. Christ that's a scary scene, or the sinister way carver arranges a visit to the doctor for his wife, or the way graves gloats to zao about bond not realising who he was, or scaramanga calmly building his gun to off hai fatt. See, it's not all machine guns and bombs.
Sure, you love bale, but I just can't think if anything memorable he's done other than TDN, which I consider to be held together by ledger and oldman.
I just can't see bale being the calm subtle nasty type, nor the slightly twisted megalomaniac type.
A front man for a cavonia advert though, possibly.
What I'm saying is it doesn't have to be all explosions and death to be scary. Flick back to dr no, where dent visits crab key in the daylight and speaks to the voice of no. Christ that's a scary scene, or the sinister way carver arranges a visit to the doctor for his wife, or the way graves gloats to zao about bond not realising who he was, or scaramanga calmly building his gun to off hai fatt. See, it's not all machine guns and bombs.
An excellent summation. Its also why I love Michael Lonsdale's approach to Drax. In amongst the high tech whizz bang and awkward slapstick with Jaws, Drax is a concern due to his calm demeanour. "Look after Mr Bond. See some harm comes to him." Classic stuff.
This is Thunderbird 2, how can I be of assistance?
To be fair to JM, I'm not sure the suave villains of the 60s and 70s would be too great for Craig, cos there's a danger they'll be more conventionally charismatic than him. Those villains were great for Connery and Moore, who had a cheeky way about them, whereas Craig just seems churlish. A Bale nasty type would be a better fit and a physical contrast with Craig, yeah, not sure he'd just want to repeat himself with a Bateman type role however. It's all a bit hypothetical.
To be fair to JM, I'm not sure the suave villains of the 60s and 70s would be too great for Craig, cos there's a danger they'll be more conventionally charismatic than him. Those villains were great for Connery and Moore, who had a cheeky way about them, whereas Craig just seems churlish. A Bale nasty type would be a better fit and a physical contrast with Craig, yeah, not sure he'd just want to repeat himself with a Bateman type role however. It's all a bit hypothetical.
I don't know when this interview took place or what television channel it was on, but Christian Bale had said [in this particular interview] that he would go back to a role similar to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, if he was given the chance to do so, but I guess you should never ever take what somebody says at face value.
"Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you." Jor-El ~ Man of Steel (2013)
Comments
BTW, one of the actor tantrums I've been witness to involved Tom Hardy. He has a bad reputation within the UK film and TV industry because of his crybaby antics and that's the reason why he'll never be James Bond, either.
As for Christian Bale himself? He may in reality be a complete jerkoff but I am not going to judge him on that infamous rant alone. We have all said and done things in the heat of the moment that we should not have. It's just that in our case it hasn't gone public. Bale apologised and admitted he was out of order. Critics will say he had no choice but to apologise, he did so all the same and I have no reason so far to doubt his sincerity.
Does it really matter if somebody was being an ass on a production set or not? Because actors and actresses get paid to act. They don't get paid to be your best friend for the next seven months or so, cause most of them are just there to do their jobs and get out. You may think that Christian Bale is a horrible excuse for human being, but does your opinion really matter to him? Probably not. Anyway most of you guys are actually being as dumb as the director of photography on Terminator Salvation, right now. Because you're completely misinterpreting the question.
I know most of you hate Christian Bale and would never ever want to see him on a Bond set, but aren't you supposed to hate the bad guy? Aren't you supposed to hate the main Bond villain of the piece? The guy who is secretly running everything? Because I'll tell you something right now, I didn't hate Mathieu Amalric in Quantum of Solace, or Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale, or even Toby Stephens in Die Another Day. But if Christian Bale was the main bad guy in Bond 24 or Bond 25, who was the head of Quantum or the head of some other terrorist organization, then you guys would probably hate him. And you would hate Christian Bale even more if Bale was basically channeling Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, and whenever Bale goes on a murderous, rampaging, psychotic, anarchistic, terroristic, killing spree, then you'll simply be begging for James Bond to kill this bastard.
Yeah but that was a comic book and Chris Nolan was making a movie. It was the same thing with Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman films. Burton didn't care if Keaton never had a square jawline, or if Keaton was too short to be Batman because Burton was a making movie.
I'll be honest, I'm not a massive comic book fan. But isn't the idea if making a film version of a comic to get it how the comic book fan would imagine it to be? I think if batman turned up in a bright pink caddie there might be some complaints.
Ps, you'll not win any discussion or debate by calling people dumb.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
But yeah, if one hated Bale because of his blow up on set, then he might have been more dislikeable on QoS.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Regarding the Terminator film, from everything I've read about it, it was a nightmare for everyone involved ... Bale is known as being a bit fiery so I'm not surprised really. So let's have a bit of perspective and try to keep the discussions here considerably more cordial than the arguments on the Terminator set ...
Going to say why?
1. People who hate things.
2. Irony.
3. Lists.
It's not the point of this particular dicussion anyway. I don't want Bale to be James Bond because he lacks the warmth and charm needed for the role.
I wasn't talking about Christian Bale playing James Bond, you idiot. I was talking about Christian Bale being a James Bond VILLAIN and a James Bond villain is a man that you're supposed to hate and fear, and the last Bond villain who made me feel like that was Robert Davi in Licence to Kill. Most of the Bond villains who came after Davi were not a force to be reckoning with. I neither hated nor feared them. In fact, I pitied most of them accept for Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale, whom I never nothing but indifference for.
IF Christian Bale were cast as a James Bond VILLAIN (the main villain in the piece in fact) and if Bale was channeling Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, but was basically putting somewhat of a different spin on it, and if Bale did such a good job at making you hate him, then it would be all the more satisfying watching James Bond ruthlessly kill him. Because that's the job of every good villain; you love to hate him and then you jump up and cheer when the hero finally murders him in the end. And I haven't felt that way since Licence to Kill, although Joe Don Baker and Charles Gray were horrible villains and I felt indifferent when I saw them die.
That said, Craig does need a hateable villain to validate him, I feel.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
You don't look into somebody's eyes whenever you're talking to someone face to face, do you? If you ever saw one of the documentaries of Batman Begins on the special edition DVD, you'd know that Christopher Nolan chose Christian Bale to be Batman based on some very superficial, subjective, thing, that he saw in Christian Bale's eyes. To paraphrase;
"Christian was the first actor I met with, actually. And it was clear to me, looking into his eyes, that this is somebody who can make you believe in the possibility of someone with devotion in their life to something this extreme." - Christopher Nolan.
so you're blind as well as arrogant, ignorant and angry?
you're quoting gassy man using my words 8-)
also, if we're playing psychologist, i'm willing to bet you open mouth before engaging brain. if you look carefully you'll see that i said i'm not really into comic books etc, so the chances of me buying a batman SE film and then watching the docs with tissue at the ready would be pretty slim.
seems to me that anyone who disagrees gets a daft insult and then a tirade of crap to back it up.
to quote bart simpson, with regards to your attitude;
"i didnt think it was physically possible, but this sucks and blows at the same time"
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Bale as a villain might be an interesting prospect, but merely due to his physical presence. I've always thought Bond villains should be rather fun with a sense of the pantomime about them. Bale isn't the most humourous of personalities. In fact, he doesn't seem to have much of a screen persona at all beyond being troubled. Bond villains aren't usually troubled, they're just evil.
No, Jasper--I called you out because you and John were getting very heated. You may indeed be more sinned against than sinning, but you're also adding fuel to the fire (pardon the mixed metaphor). I think it might be best if you just say, "I've made my point" and walk away. As for politics and religion, I'm drawing a comparison. This is a "what if--?" discussion, involving the possibility of an actor playing Bond. It's trivial, it's all in fun--it's not like politics or religion, subjects that really do get the blood pumping. Everyone: there's nothing at stake here. Calm the hell down!
Anyway I know you guys have a certain idea about what a James Bond villain is supposed to be, but aren't you forgetting something? Isn't a villain by it's very definition; supposed to be someone that you HATE and FEAR all at the same time. Aren't you supposed to be so hateful and so fearful toward this villain that you're actually kind of happy when Bond kills that person in the end?
If Christian Bale was a Bond villain wouldn't you feel that way? If you hated and feared him so much in Bond 24 or 25, wouldn't you feel vindicated if Daniel Craig were to ruthlessly murder him in either film? Because isn't a despicable villain supposed to define the hero? Isn't it, the greater the threat, the greater the hero? Because I really think that Daniel Craig's Bond needs an adversary who can make you hate him and fear him simultaneously, but at the same time this guy has got to be able to cause the same kind of anarchy and chaos, that Heath Ledger's Joker did in The Dark Knight, so at the end of the film, when this villain's reign of terror comes to an end, and James Bond kills him in cold-blood, you can be saying to yourself, "You know what? You got exactly what you deserved, you son of a bitch! I'm glad you're dead. Good riddance to bad rubbish!!!!"
I don't like Christian bale, I think that's clear and it looks like others have similar views, but I think he's not good enough for the villain role not because he's a dick in real life, but because I don't think he's the right actor for it. A bond villain is meant to be a fun role, with a dark twist to stop it going all dr evil. Bale, IMO is too serious to be able to do the fun side of the role.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Well, the kind of villain, I like, is a villain who is unlikeable. He or she is causing untold amounts of anarchy, chaos, death, and destruction, to the point where you think, "Wow! This person is actually a force to be reckoned with, and is a serious threat to the world at large. Somebody has to kill this person. I don't care who does it, but somebody has to kill this person. He or she is a rabid dog that has to be put down because it's too dangerous to keep him or her, alive."
Now, I know not all villains are like that but when you see a villain like Le Chiffre or Dominic Greene dying in the Daniel Craig films it's sort of hard to be extremely happy about their deaths because they weren't necessarily doing what The Joker was doing in The Dark Knight. Because in The Dark Knight, basically The Joker was a one man hurricane of death, violence, destruction, anarchy, and chaos just blowing right through the streets of Gotham City until he was apprehended for good at the end of the film.
Now...I know it's hard for you Christian Bale haters to actually dig down deep into the depths of your mind, and imagine this; but if there was a very despicable James Bond version of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, who was causing the same random wave of death, anarchy, chaos, and destruction that Heath Ledger's Joker was causing but again, he was causing it in a James Bond film and if he had more clear goals than The Joker did, you would probably hate that villain enough to want to see James Bond kill him. And then you'd probably be happy about it.
A bond villain doesn't have to be all 'no guts, no glory' gung-ho with guns blazing and everything they touch exploding. They can, and have been quite a few times, more subtle than that and even have henchmen to do the dirty work. Carver had stamper, drax had jaws, zorin had mayday etc etc.
What I'm saying is it doesn't have to be all explosions and death to be scary. Flick back to dr no, where dent visits crab key in the daylight and speaks to the voice of no. Christ that's a scary scene, or the sinister way carver arranges a visit to the doctor for his wife, or the way graves gloats to zao about bond not realising who he was, or scaramanga calmly building his gun to off hai fatt. See, it's not all machine guns and bombs.
Sure, you love bale, but I just can't think if anything memorable he's done other than TDN, which I consider to be held together by ledger and oldman.
I just can't see bale being the calm subtle nasty type, nor the slightly twisted megalomaniac type.
A front man for a cavonia advert though, possibly.
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An excellent summation. Its also why I love Michael Lonsdale's approach to Drax. In amongst the high tech whizz bang and awkward slapstick with Jaws, Drax is a concern due to his calm demeanour. "Look after Mr Bond. See some harm comes to him." Classic stuff.
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I don't know when this interview took place or what television channel it was on, but Christian Bale had said [in this particular interview] that he would go back to a role similar to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, if he was given the chance to do so, but I guess you should never ever take what somebody says at face value.