How the ending of the new film set with you?
Spoilers....JAMES BOND
by peacefulpete 3 Replies latest social entertainment
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peacefulpete
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Terry
I sat in a movie theater with my best (JW) friend who had dragged me to watch a movie called Dr. No about a 'secret agent with a license to kill' back in 1962
and did so reluctantly. Why? I thought the idea of such a license was silly.
However, I relaxed, settled in, and decided to make the best of it.
The movie grabbed me!
This guy - this actor Sean Connery was terrific ...and that guitar theme, down low on the bottom string ...Wow!
I stayed with the series over the following years and decades as a loyal fan. I collected the soundtrack records (by John Barry) and eagerly looked forward to each iteration of the British civil servant working for His Majesty's commonwealth.
Oh, the changes!
Connery departed, Lazenby arrived. Lazenby departed, Connery returned.
The Saint, Roger Moore, changed his identity and became a permanent resident
and the films grew into extravagant slapstick adventure comedy as the seasons passed.
The stories were thin and thinner. But - at least they were a lot of fun.
Each new James Bond was shaped like a heap of soft clay by the hands of
Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson.
Political changes, upheavals in "culture" and a sensibility about sexism and race, and all the real world hooey crept in and Ian Fleming's Cold War hero became as much of a liability as an asset in an age of political correctness.
My "thrill" ride was over and the fun evaporated as a fan.
By the time Daniel Craig arrived - as far as I was concerned - these were simply Jason Bourne films with a British aftertaste. Solid, impactful, and extremely well done - but not MY James Bond of old.
Everything must change, right? That's what growing old teaches all of us.
The new James Bond film was probably ill-fated from the get-go for social and political reasons (as well as pandemic) and Daniel Craig was ready to move on.
Here was how the ENDING of the movie was received by me...
Here is my 'movie philosophy' 101:
I want to be entertained and I will willingly suspend disbelief and go along with the movie I'm given and leave whinging to the professional critics.
NO TIME TO DIE was professionally made, acted, and scripted and it worked.
I felt very sad and that's the idea, no? No point in beating a dead horse, they say.
All my emotional nostalgia baggage made it difficult to witness the obliteration of James Bond. It was like seeing Tarzan eaten by a crocodile or The Lone Ranger scalped by a Cherokee or Sherlock Holmes struck by a lorry.
Astonishing hubris on the part of the movie franchise owners. Simply astonishing!
It was Daniel Craig's desire to puncture the mythos and go out the sacrificial victim and he got what he asked for. But - the audience of fans who have remained loyal over the years? We got an ice-water enema.
I'm now 74 years old. When I saw my first Bond film I was 15 years old. My opinion doesn't matter to anybody. The world I grew up in is gone. The rules, the ethos of my Boomer generation are seen as a crappy joke. So be it.
Life is what happens while you're making other plans.
Statues of heroes are toppled now. Justice is its own pandemic.
Movies are forced to be politically feasible and nobody rings my phone to ask for my vote on the matter.
I won't pout and stick out my lower lip. No, Sir. I go with the flow. Resistance is futile.
("All your base are belong to us.") sic.
My Bond died before Craig's Bond succumbed. His name was Sean Connery.
My composer, John Barry, passed along the way as well.
The Bond of the last few decades has - at best - been a superb Elvis imitator in an extravagant Las Vegas Revue setting.
A diversion.
Don't forget to tip your waiter.
Now, where's my Taxi? -
Iown Mylife
Terry, I'm grateful for the heads up because i don't do well with sad movie endings these days! I won't watch the movie.
I like the NYPD Blue TV series more than the current movies available.
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Simon
It's all fantasy, and of course the plots really make no sense whatsoever. It's about incredible looking stunts and the hero story.
These show how idiotic they really are, but I still think they are great movies: