What if Quentin Tarantino did direct Casino Royale?
MilleniumForce
LondonPosts: 1,214MI6 Agent
Would it be too violent? How would the serious continue? He wanted to do it in black and white, and have some narration. And, would Pierce Brosnan still be Bond now if he did do it?
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And no Pierce Brosnan would not be Bond now
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The guys a cinema genius, somehow I don't think he'd be right to direct
A Bond film.
I think a mess he would have made. His directorial input is just too different for the Bond cannon.
Lucky escape!
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On the web and in fanzines it really is given a kicking? “the worst one” “an embarassment”. But if my memory serves me correct it was pretty well received at the time. It was what we were used to with James Bond. Roger Moore gallivanting around the world raising his eyebrows at some bizarre villains. That had been the formula since 1973 and we knew what we were getting.Were we wrong? Is nostagia blinding me to its faults? Are the critics right abut it? Is it a bloated monstrosity with an embarassing leading man? I’ll try and address some of the criticisms and point out what I like about the film.
Pensioner Rog
I always thought there was something ageist about the criticism of Rog in AVTAK. Granted we were used to an octagenerian playing 007. He was 45 when he took the role on and one of the critics for Octopussy said the tagline should read “Roger Moore and his stuntmen in..” But with Rog you kept the suspense of disbelief. You knew he couldn’t dangle from the Golden Gate Bridge. You took that into account. Why do spies have to be young? Why do action heroes have to be young? The answer for some people is that it blows credibility. You cant believe it is James Bond dangling from the fire van when he is approaching sixty.
Does the collusion between the audience and Roger finally break down here? I can’t see it because pensioner Rog had always been there for me looking ridiculous trying to seduce young girls. He’d floated around the world getting by on charm and oneliners. Did he finally come unstuck in this one? And whats the problem with a spy being nearly sixty? Most of the really good spies in real life were over sixty. I can still enjoy and buy Rog as Bond in this one but the Goldeneye computer generation took one look and went “Phooey! What a dinosaur!”
Pedestrian Dull runaround
Perhaps if you are starting a Bond marathon for the first time this is the one to start with. Because the resemblance to Goldfinger is startling. Instead of gold bars its microchips the villain wants to corner the market for, instead of Oddjob its Mayday. There is a seam of unoriginality about this one. Its almost Bond by numbers. The humour is a little less then other efforts as well apart from the Beach Boys effort in the PTS which nearly sinks the film.
John Glen gets a lot of criticism of his direction as well. His third Bond I still think its OK and he does well with the actors but the middle does sag. The part with Stacy Sutton at her house does seem slow but it is where the audience catches its breathe before the climax. People don’t like the locations either. France is OK but San Francisco is boring for American audiences. Perhaps they don’t have that sense of exoticism that Thailand or India have but the city is used well.
Tanya Roberts is crap
Ms Roberts’ agent telephones her.
“We’ve had the Bond people on the phone. Do you want to good or bad news?”
“What’s the good news….?”
“You’ve got the part..”
“And the bad?”
“You’ve got to dangle from tall buildings and say “ Ooh James” a lot”
“I can do that. Where do I sign…”
And that’s all she does. She dangles from the Golden Gate Bridge, she dangles from the elevator shaft in City Hall and she dangles over mine shafts. The most oft repeated line in the film is “Stacey..Give me your hand.”. Actually it’s not that bad, the character of Stacey Sutton is OK, But the actress does play it shrilly. Certainly say Lois Chiles or Carey Lowell would have made the role work better. She’s one of the least liked Bond girls.
What I like about the Film
Grace Jones as Mayday is a very sinister. Grace Jones can put more menace in a single stare then most actors and her aggressive pose and muscled physique makes her a formidable presence. We believe she is more then a match for 007. She is Zorin’s girlfriend/bodyguard and they have a very close relationship. Broccoli commented that she was too androgynous for mainstream audiences. I’m not so sure - imagine how good it would have been if they’d really let Grace Jones go off the rails…
.The producers were proud to bag an Oscar winner to play a villain in their 14th Bond film. Originally Davie Bowie was envisaged to play the part of the unstable but brilliant Max Zorin and the original idea was to have him manipulate Haley’s comet into earth. Instead is a plot stolen nearly whole from the classic “Goldfinger” with microchips instead of gold bars. But Zorin is a good villain in the Fleming mould
The music is superb in this one and really helps the cinematography. The Duran Duran song is an eighties classic and opening synthesiser strings of this song are really striking. John Barry’s orchestral renditions in the film really open it up and the locations are beautiful. Its a beautifully shot film with still a little bit of that old Bond charm due to Roger Moore.
In other words....I love it..
Those are my thoughts as well. {[]
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