Quiet Day, So I'm Wittering About James Bond

[poliphilo]

Bond works for the government. As an assassin. He's an establishment man- sexist, materialist, brutal.  No, I've never liked him.

I keep thinking I should maybe read one of the original books and then I think, no, I don't believe I can be bothered.

The films aren't nearly as good as we're supposed to think they are. Early Bond is to the thriller what the Carry On films are to comedy. Middle period Bond is vaudeville.  In the recent films he becomes a superhero.

I find his continued popularity faintly depressing.

Rush Limbaugh says it's inconceivable the character should be played by a black man. Oh, for fuck's sake, Bond is fiction. And he keeps being rebooted and updated. If it were incumbent on the film-makers to stay entirely true to Fleming's original conception Bond, who first appeared in 1953, would have to be played by a man in his nineties.

Besides, Idris Elba is just about the sexiest, most charismatic male actor around. He'd be perfect for the role.

If you like that kind of thing...

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

If I might, I'd recommend GoldenEye - it's more in the spirit of Moore's time, admittedly, but then again, I've always had a fondness for the ones that don't take themselves completely seriously, as the recent ones have tended to do.

Rush Limbaugh is an idiot.

Goes without saying. ^_^ (Sadly, an incredibly well paid idiot. The world is a strange place sometimes)

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

There are two people, here, who totally make me cringe. I was listening to the CBC one night (we do get As It Happens) and Pat Buchanan went on and on about Canadian politics and how backward they were, to say nothing about the city of Toronto. I was so embarrassed I wrote As It Happens to apologize for the ugly American.

The other is Rush Limbaugh, for obvious reasons.

Don't care for Roger Moore, never have except when he was the Saint. You are probably not old enough to remember that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember The Saint. I remember him in an even earlier incarnation when he was gadding about in chainmail as Ivanhoe.

Aren't you and I more or less the same age?

Moore doesn't take himself too seriously. It's an attractive characteristic. I was watching him the other night sending up his James Bond persona on Victoria Wood's Christmas show.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

We are the same age. Roger Moore first came to attention in this country as Beau Maverick, youngest brother of Brett and Bart Maverick. My mother was a Maverick fan.

It's good to be able to laugh at yourself. Sir Patrick Stewart was on a great NPR program the other day, and he was doing a pretty good job of it. I always appreciate that. So many people start to believe their own Press Releases as they age in their roles.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz was saying earlier today that Moore turned aside from a Hollywood career because he has a disabled child he didn't want to leave behind.

He's good at what he does. You cast him in anything and you'll get what you bargained for. He was pretty good in The Persuaders with Tony Curtis- the archetypal fast talking American and the archetypal laid-back English toff; it was a good pairing.

Of course I'm a great admirer of Patrick Stewart. He's a terrific actor.