Best Bond?

[Carmine Falcone]

Eager, the reason there has been a Bond resurgence is because Craig is essentially Connery reincarnated. Of course, he's not a carbon copy of Connery because he's rather humorless, rarely smiles and not too big on the womanizing. Toning down the womanizing might be a gambit to keep up with the times that's not necessarily unique to Craig because in the nineties--the height of political correctness--Dalton didn't bed a ton of women either.

As Meta put it, Craig is essentially a thug. After all the kitsch and camp of Roger Moore that spilled onto Brosnan, the only way to reinvigorate the character was to make him gritty. Plus you have to remember Craig came into the Bond role when quasi-Bond characters like Jason Bourne were the cinematic rage and Bourne was also dour, gritty and humorless too.

The thing with the Bond movies is they work with the individual strengths of the actor playing him. Connery was obviously tough but a bit rough around the edges. So he balanced the physicality along with the sauve. But Roger Moore was more smooth than tough so his movies were far more lighthearted and didn't take themselves seriously. The fact that Craig is all brute is just playing to that strength too.

 

[No_Church_InThe_Wild]

I was about to comment on EB’s dislike and disapproval of Craig as Bond and on Meta’s cultivated thug characterization which I think was pretty spot on . For me Sean Connery is James Bond . Daniel Craig comes in second however dark he might be . They both embody similar characteristics of being believable as brute enforcers aswell as thinking men . I was gonna elaborate on how all the actors that played Bond where allowed to play to there strengths . But Carmine Falcone pretty much nailed it . I think post 62 beautifully sums up this thread .

 

[EagerBeaver]

Also no one has mentioned my favorite James Bond movie - Casino Royale (1967 version). Features David Niven as retired James Bond (and he had already won an academy award.)
Also features Ursula Andress in her second Bond movie as Vesper Lynd (also as James Bond, but that's another story.)
And it features two great songs - "The Look Of Love" and "Casino Royale".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_kMtut25M

Casino Royale 1967 isn’t considered a serious James Bond movie and doesn’t count. It was written by Woody Allen and Peter Sellers and is considered spoof/comedy, which is why they had to remake that shit in 2006. They wanted Fleming to turn back over in his grave because I believe Fleming thought it was his best book and was shocked and disgusted by the treatment of it in his grave.

The remake in 2006 is my favorite of the Craig films. I think it also ranks fairly high on the historical list of Bomd films. It is likely the best Bomd film done after The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977.

 

[Presidents Choice Coffee]

I like the classics with Connery, George Lazenby was a joke.

 

[Jimmy Olsen]

I think Pierce Brosnan was the best to portray the character. Daniel Craig is the best action/adventure Bond.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Craig is getting way more love in this thread than what he deserves. Although he did something that hadn’t been done before in attempting to portray Bond as written by Ian Fleming, he also managed to bastardize a character who had been developed through a very rich film tradition started by Connery. Had Craig been around in the early 1960s and turned in these performances, the franchise never would have lasted. In my opinion he has been carried by the franchise and what he is paid for is to carry it forward. He should have been fired or bought out after the last film, in which he was objectively terrible. What is needed is a more Connery like interpretation by an actor who can handle that load while also being able to pull off all other essentials of the character including resourcefulness, vigor and looking the part. Craig was given too many movies, he should have been 3 at most. Hopefully the next film isn’t as big a setback as the last one was and the series will still matter afterwards. Not expecting much on Bond 25. Really looking forward to the next one after that because it will be the most important test in the history of the series. Someone will have to resurrect the real Bond and it will not be easy.

 

[TheJames101]

haha you really don't like him do you!
Just so you know, it seem the general opinion on him as Bond isn't the one you have and while Spectre wasn't the best film by any stretch, Craig's performance was fine in my opinion (at any rate it wasn't "objectively terrible" lol). Personally I find him to be the second best Bond, probably behind Connery... just on acting and characterization. I enjoy Roger Moore the best, but that was a different kind of cat.

 

[Bbw hunter]

I agree with Eager. Craig is too dark brooding and angry to make a great Bond. Yet to be fair the series has a darker tone now so i guess he fits in and SKYFALL was a good film. Call me crazy but I actually rank Lazenby higher than Craig Dalton or Brosnan. He had great physical agility in action scenes and possessed a certain macho Aussie charm that suited the role. Plus the one film he made (OHMSS) is one of the best in the series.

 

[Meta not Meta]

Lots of discussion on Twitter about a press conference happening soon for the new one, which will announce the title and introduce the cast.

Connery is absolutely the iconic Bond, and my favourite, but he wasn’t much of an actor—at least not in the traditional sense; rather, he was a “movie star,” who like Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and Cary Grant, mostly did riffs on an established persona. I recently saw Hitchcock’s “Marnie” for the nth time. Like Goldfinger it came out in 1964, and while the films are of course very different, Connery's performance in each is basically a narrow variation on his then perfectly besuited alpha male who speaks in the same cadence and with a cheeky sense of humour. This isn’t to say that Connery didn’t stretch himself later in his post-Bond career as an actor, “The Russia House” is a good example, but he was almost always "Sean Connery" first and the character he was playing second. What I like about Craig is that his Bond is by far the most recognizably human, with flaws, and not just the traits of the traditional hero figure—and that requires an actor of considerable merit to pull-off. Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) was a big influence on the Craig Bond years, also Bourne, especially in Quantum of Solace, as noted above.

The recent documentary, Becoming Bond, about Lazenby’s stranger-than-fiction tenure in the role, is completely engrossing. Turns out he’s a skillful, funny and charming storyteller. Guaranteed.

https://youtu.be/xhusQNHU400

Corrine Clery, yes, I’d definitely go along with that, and another French actress as a Bond girl. I think she did a pictorial for Playboy back in the day, if memory serves. She’s the sacrificial lamb in Moonraker, who gets one of the most gruesome death scenes in the series, which is wonderfully staged, and beautifully scored, but oddly out of step with the lightheartedness of the rest of the film:

https://youtu.be/PasdxEYHhMo

I like the point about Terence Young’s contribution to shaping Connery’s Bond persona. He directed three of the first four films, and Connery himself had always been quick to credit Young. The Canadian actress, Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny from ’62 to ’85 said this: "Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, to his tailor, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat."

The comment about a Bond reunion, yes, I heard that, too, something to do with a retirement home for former ‘00s, I think. More concretely, Sam Mendes, who directed both Skyfall and Spectre said that they considered asking Connery to play the gameskeeper, Kincaid, in Skyfall, but thought it would just be too distracting, and so asked Albert Finney instead.

And Woody Allen played “Jimmy Bond” in the ’67 Casino Royale, and he’s actually the best thing about it, well, except for the music, which is outstanding. When producer Charles Feldman couldn’t get Connery, who was probably the biggest movie star in the world at that time, he decided to turn it into a spoof, most of which is pretty dreadful. For decades, Casino Royale would be the one Fleming title the official series, Eon Productions, did not have the rights to make.

 

[TheJames101]

Excellent summary, Meta. You seem to know your Bond!

 

[EagerBeaver]

Call me crazy but I actually rank Lazenby higher than Craig Dalton or Brosnan. He had great physical agility in action scenes and possessed a certain macho Aussie charm that suited the role. Plus the one film he made (OHMSS) is one of the best in the series.

I absolutely agree with you that Lazenby, if he had one positive attribute above all other Bonds, it was his physical attributes and machismo in action scenes. I also agree that OHMSS is a highly underrated Bond film, which would easily place in the top 5 or so. I would actually put OHMSS and Casino Royale in my top 5 with Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me and Dr. No. And OHMSS gets in because despite the weak performance by Lazenby as actor, (1) strong script, (2) exceptional action scenes, and (3) very strong performances by Diana Rigg (best Bond girl acting performance of all time) and Telly Savalas as Blofeld- who at that time was viewed as the classic Bond villain. Lazenby’s main contribution was pulling off the action scenes with resounding credibility. His romantic scenes with Rigg were awkward at best, and Connery or Moore would have done better in them. Casino Royale somehow worked well despite the annoying presence of Craig. I am not sure why but I liked that film a lot and was able to tolerate Craig for the duration of it, sort of like dealing with acid reflux after eating a wonderful pasta dish. That’s how I would compare it. It may have been the most impressive Bond film visually. I think that is what most impressed me.

 

[Bbw hunter]

Another great post Meta. Yes MARNIE is a good film and you are right Connery is not that different in it than when he was playing Bond. This is a bit ironic since Connery complained at the time that he was typecast by Bond. Yet i have to disagree about the merits of the original CASINO ROYALE. OF course it does not stand up as an actual Bond film. Yet if you accept it as a 60s romp with irreverent humor along the lines of WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? then it holds up well as funny and entertaining. The cast and score are terrific.

 

[TheJames101]

Casino Royale somehow worked well despite the annoying presence of Craig... It may have been the most impressive Bond film visually. I think that is what most impressed me.

More visually impressive than Skyfall? I'm not sure there's another film that has better cinematography than that film. If nothing else, the Craig era has provided some very nice looking cinematic moments.

 

[EagerBeaver]

More visually impressive than Skyfall? I'm not sure there's another film that has better cinematography than that film

I am going to post the final scene of Casino Royale and allow it to speak for itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKysEIVJfBs

Case closed. I agree with you that the Craig era produced the best cinematography era of Bond films, but Craig was on the other side of the camera and had nothing to do with that. As I said earlier, apart from Casino Royale, Craig was a coattail rider, like Lazneby in OHMSS. And a wonderfully profitable ride it was for him.

 

[Meta not Meta]

I'd agree with EB about OHMSS, but give Lazenby a little more credit in his scenes with Diana Rigg, especially the ones in the barn, during the car chase, and at the very end. But over all it's a mixed bag.

However, everything else in the film is top-notch Bond: Rigg; the screenplay, which is close to the novel, and even improves on it; Savalas, who is the series' best Blofeld, by far; the action scenes; Blofeld's lair, the real-life location of Piz Gloria; the cinematography; Barry's score ....

It's like everybody had to bring their A-game because it was the first time without Connery, so identified was he with the series. Indeed, the tag line in the ad campaign for the previous film, You Only Live Twice, had been, "Sean Connery IS James Bond."

 

[Valcazar]

I think OHMSS was solid all around and I think Lazenby was an excellent Bond. People just weren't willing to accept the change first time out.
I agree with others who day Dalton (screwed by weak scripts in a rebuilding era) and Craid are both closer to book Bond than the others.

In terms of pure "I had the most fun with them as Bond" I give it to Connery.

 

[EagerBeaver]

One thing not mentioned about Sean Connery very much is some of his non-verbal acting and his ability to project both fear, and bravery in the face of fear, simultaneously. There is no better example of this than the spider scene in Dr. No. It's one of the more unforgettable scenes in Bond film history, on many levels. The most visceral level is the ability of the scene, as Connery played it, to make your flesh crawl. Who among us, with a big ass spider crawling on his bare chest, wouldn't jump two feet out of bed and get bit in the process? Not a single one of us can claim we wouldn't. But Sean Connery, although clearly petrified with fear of being bitten, calmly remains still until the big ass spider exits his body habitus and he is able to safely kill it. Watch, I post the scene below. Connery perfectly executes the scene without speaking a word, and in doing so he sets the tone for who James Bond is a character:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h32m969zQCE

 

[EagerBeaver]

By the way on the best Bond Villain list, as honorable mention after Jaws in Spy Who Loved Me and Blofeld in OHMSS, I nominate Oddjob in Goldfinger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeDg8n8tVZc

 

[TheJames101]

Case closed. I agree with you that the Craig era produced the best cinematography era of Bond films, but Craig was on the other side of the camera and had nothing to do with that. As I said earlier, apart from Casino Royale, Craig was a coattail rider, like Lazneby in OHMSS. And a wonderfully profitable ride it was for him.

"Case Closed".

My my, you speak with such an authoritative flair haha! Imo, there's a number of scenes in Skyfall that can take on that scene in CR. You don't get someone the caliber of Roger Deakins working on a Bond film everyday, and it shows.

Hell I'd put the opening (albeit fake) tracking shot from the opening of Spectre right up there too. Best scene in the movie.

 

[charmer_]

As I said earlier, apart from Casino Royale, Craig was a coattail rider, like Lazneby in OHMSS. And a wonderfully profitable ride it was for him.

Unlike Lazenby, Daniel Craig is a very accomplished actor who has brought credibility (and even a bit of vulnerability) to the role of James Bond. He was also amazing in Skyfall (which is my favorite Bond movie of all time). And he has had some very good roles/movies outside of the Bond franchise as well. Daniel Craig is easily the best actor to play Bond since Sean Connery.

If you want to say Connery is the best Bond, fine. At least that's a legitimate argument. But putting Daniel Craig in the same category as Lazenby is absolutely ridiculous, imho