Tag Archives: Roger Moore

Movies

The next James Bond…?

Over at the Daily Mail, Sebastian Shakespeare (what a name!) offers an article and a Q&A to Barbara Broccoli, producer of the James Bond films, concerning who might be in line for the role after Daniel Craig…

Next James Bond Could Be Black Or A Woman, Says 007 Producer

Nowadays, the idea of changing the gender, race, age, etc. etc. on long established characters (film or novel/story) is at least somewhat in vogue.

One of the earlier attempts at doing so was the film version of The Wild Wild West, a TV series which featured Robert Conrad in the titular role as secret agent James West…

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…and the film version featured Will Smith in the role…

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In the case of the movie, it was bad no matter who played the title role, but in this case, the changing of the character’s race was even more troublesome given the time frame the TV show/film exists in (ie post Civil War America).  To be very blunt: It was difficult to accept the idea of a black man, dressed to the hilt and obvious to anyone who looks his way, could somehow walk around post Civil War America and function successfully as a secret agent.

Nonetheless, I’m not against the idea of changing long established characters, so long as the end result is positive.

We are dealing with entertainment after all and the ultimate judge of success in a movie, book, or story is how audiences react to it.

In the case of James Bond, I feel the article is a little… misleading.  This is the important stuff from the article:

(Barbara Broccoli) was asked if we could expect to see a female Bond or a black 007.

‘These films tend to reflect the times so we always try to push the envelope a little bit,’ she replied. ‘Anything is possible.

‘Right now it’s Daniel Craig, and I’m very happy with Daniel Craig, but who knows what the future will bring?’

So, basically, she gives a non-answer here.  Sure, in the future, there might be a (insert pertinent race/sex/gender here) James Bond but right now we’re focused on Daniel Craig.

So there’s less to the article than appears… except for one thing.  Toward the end of the article we get this quote from Roger Moore concerning who should play the character:

Sir Roger, who died in May at the age of 89, told this newspaper in 2015: ‘I have heard people talk about how there should be a lady Bond or a gay Bond.

‘But they wouldn’t be Bond for the simple reason that wasn’t what Ian Fleming wrote.

‘It is not about being homophobic or, for that matter, racist — it is simply about being true to the character.’

He does make one very salient point regarding the idea of changing a well-established character’s sex/race/age:  Should we be so quick to do these changes with characters that were never written by their creators in this manner?

One should, at some point, respect the original author’s vision.

Perhaps a better option would be to create a new character?

Books/Literature, Movies

On Writing… and a few more thoughts on Roger Moore

While looking around the internet following reading the news of Mr. Moore’s passing, I found the following article by Maxwell Strachan and presented on Huffington Post:

Roger Moore Came to hate the way society glorifies men with guns

The article is pretty much self-descriptive, though it seems Mr. Moore had a lifelong animus regarding guns that first developed when he was a very young man.

There will certainly be those who point out Mr. Moore was a hypocrite.  After all, the most famous character he portrayed, James Bond, often was presented like this…

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Or…

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…or…

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I believe you get the point, no?

Among many other things, James Bond is known for the weapon he carries, a Walther PPK.  Along with romancing beautiful women, high wire escapes, a Martini “shaken and not stirred”, and sophisticated gadgets, the Walther PPK is one of James Bond’s trademarks, the gun the fictional secret agent carries.

I find it fascinating that Mr. Moore, while certainly not slamming the James Bond role that made him a world-wide superstar, nonetheless was quoted as stating:

I regret that sadly heroes in general are depicted with guns in their hands.

Now, as the headline above indicates, this is about “writing”, so how does this relate to my writing?

Because I had something of a same experience with regard to the first novel in my Corrosive Knights series, Mechanic.

When I first envisioned the story, we were just coming off a decade of some very macho -and heavily armed- heroes.  You had Rambo.  You had The Terminator.  You had all the other action roles played by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenneger.

These were next level action heroes who, it appeared, were influenced by Clint Eastwood’s action heroes of the 1970’s, particularly the Magnum brandishing Dirty Harry Callahan.

But as these things go, the spectacle has to be bigger and bigger and therefore the action/violence in many of the films released in the 1980’s and into the 1990’s were bigger and bigger as well…to the point where they made the original Dirty Harry film look positively quaint.

Into that time I first came up with what eventually would become my Mechanic story and the hero of the piece, the tough as nails Nox.

When I first envisioned her, it was through the veil of those heroes and their big guns.

But a curious thing happened on the way to writing the novel itself.

Yes, Nox carries a gun on the cover of Mechanic.  She also carries a handgun on the cover of the fourth book in the series, Nox.  But the character uses a gun very little in either novel.

In fact, the conclusion of Mechanic (MILD SPOILERS!) has Nox taking down those who she’s fighting against without “blowing them away” via heavy gunplay (to be fair, she does shoot one person down with a single shot).

This was done very much on purpose.

The fact is that, like Mr. Moore, when I got down to the business of writing Mechanic I’d developed something of a distaste for the idea of heroes wielding massive arsenals of weapons and engaging in equally massive shootouts.

Though there remain some shootouts here and there, after writing as many books as I have it occurred to me that I’d rejected using this type of resolution.

First, because its been done so many times before and second because I’m just not that into guns and it seemed silly to go there when I can try to be a little more clever with how villains get their just rewards.

I’m not saying that those who love guns and/or are writers/filmmakers/what-have-you who love to do elaborate shoot-outs are somehow creating works I feel are “inferior”, only that my particular creative writing path has taken me elsewhere.

I suppose the bottom line is this: If you’re a writer, write what you feel works for you.  I’ve made many action/adventure novels and the temptation to have elaborate shootouts became, to me anyway, something I didn’t want to dwell on.

I feel the end result was something better, certainly in Mechanic and hopefully in other works as well.

Movies

Zach Snyder and Roger Moore

Sadly, it seems tragedies are the order of the day.

Yesterday it was revealed that director Zach Snyder, best known -and made the object of much internet loathing for his Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice film- announced he would be stepping away from completing the Justice League film because his 20 year old daughter had committed suicide and he felt he and his family needed to take the time off to deal with this tragedy (you can read a little more about this here).

As I’ve mentioned far too many times before, I very much liked BvS and, frankly, found myself at a loss as to why so many on the internet were so negative both about the film and, especially, Mr. Snyder.  The loathing, anger, and snipping he got were, in my opinion, way disproportionate to the film -whether you liked it or not- he delivered.

My deepest condolences and its a damn shame all that internet blather forced him to break his silence and announce the reason he was leaving the JL movie.  Unfortunately, had he simply walked away and dealt with this tragedy in private, there’s little doubt many of the more nasty people on the internet would have openly speculated he was fired from the JL film or worse because of course it has to be a disaster.

To them, I can only hope they get over themselves.

Even if BvS were the worst film -much less superhero film- ever released, Mr. Snyder didn’t deserve half the crap he got for it.

Again, my condolences.

Next up, the passing of Roger Moore…

The first Bond film I ever saw -I think!- happened to be the first Bond film featuring Sir Roger Moore.  Released in 1973, Live and Let Die is, to my eyes still, a fantastic piece of action escapism.

In time I got to see not only all of Mr. Moore’s Bond films, but also all the Sean Connery features.  Overall I felt Mr. Connery’s films were stronger, but Roger Moore’s works, though far more tongue in cheek, were nonetheless quite good as well.

To me the biggest problem with Mr. Moore’s Bonds versus Connery’s is that it seemed every really good Bond film was followed by a far… lesser… one.

In order, Mr. Moore appeared in these seven Bond films:

Live And Let Die

The Man With The Golden Gun

The Spy Who Loved Me

Moonraker

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

A View To A Kill

It’s interesting, to me, how I love Live and Let Die and disliked The Man With The Golden Gun.  I love The Spy Who Loved Me (many feel, and with good reason, that this is one of Mr. Moore’s all time best Bond films) and disliked Moonraker.  I love For Your Eyes Only (my own personal favorite Moore Bond film) and love Octopussy (hey, two in a row!) but found A View To A Kill a sad finale to his Bond role.

Of course, Mr. Moore didn’t just do James Bond films.  He was active in TV and movies and was equally well known for playing Simon Templar in the TV series The Saint.

He was also very capable of making fun of himself as evidenced from this scene from the film Cannonball Run.  Easily the film’s funniest scene, where Mr. Moore plays spoiled rich brat Seymour, a man who thinks he’s the super-suave Roger Moore…

Rest in Peace, Mr. Moore.  I can’t help but appreciate all the hours of great entertainment you’ve provided me.

Movies

Roger Moore…the Best James Bond?

3 Comments

Once again reaching into my bag of old posts, this one is from December of 2009.  I re-post it because very recently I also re-posted my thoughts on the Roger Moore Bond film Moonraker (read about that here) and decided to post my slightly more detailed opinions on all of Mr. Moore’s Bond films in light of an article from Entertainment Weekly.  Re-post begins in 3…2…1…

This article ran a couple of weeks ago in Entertainment Weekly and is available to be viewed online:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20244755,00.html

To many, Sean Connery IS James Bond, but I have to admit, I’m not as hostile as some are regarding Roger Moore’s take on the character. He was certainly different in the role, and if there is some criticism to point out about his take on the character, it is that at times he seemed a little too suave and/or fancy to be a killer secret agent.  But to me the Moore Bond film’s worst “sin” was that for each “good” one released it seemed to almost always follow that the next one would be mediocre or downright wretched.

For what it’s worth, my take on Mr. Moore’s Bond films.

The Best:  For Your Eyes Only – Granted, those watching it for the first time today may feel it is tame, but I loved the stripped down -and non-gadgetry filled- plot.  The stunt-work is also first rate.  Only real debit is that Roger Moore was beginning to look a little old for the role.  The Spy Who Loved Me – I suspect even those who don’t think much of Roger Moore’s Bond films like this one, a reworking/remake of You Only Live Twice (my least favorite Sean Connery Bond film).  Unlike YOLT, the plot here was presented, in my opinion, far better than in the Connery vehicle.  Jaws (Richard Kiel) makes for a truly memorable heavy.  Only real debit is that Barbara Bach (the spy who loved him) turns out to be more of a damsel in distress than the deadly Russian spy she’s advertised to be.  Certainly a sign of those times.  I suspect if the film were remade today, her character would be far more independent and lethal.  Live and Let Die – Moore’s first outing as Bond was one of the actor’s best. He appeared incredibly comfortable in the role, as if he had always been there.  The plot is rather nonsensical (and some today might even argue borderline racist), but the action sequences (especially an escape from a pond filled with alligators that has to be seen to be believed) make this an enjoyable romp.

The Good-But-Not-Great Moore Bond:  Octopussy – Roger Moore was looking very old by this point (this was his second to last outing as the super spy), but the film was nonetheless an enjoyable “let’s-hit-the-audience-with-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” tongue-in-cheek action extravaganza…at least to me.  On the other hand, I can’t argue too strenuously with those who view the film far less charitably.  Again, I think its a decent -if not great- film.

The Worst Roger Moore Bond films:  The Man With The Golden Gun – You would think that after the success of Live and Let Die the people behind and in front of the cameras would re-work their magic of the previous film, improve upon it, and give us an even better bang for our buck their second time out.  You’d be wrong.  TMWTGG is so lukewarm and forgettable that I’m still astonished the movie’s villain, Scaramanga, is played by the legendary Christopher Lee…and even he is not all that interesting.  Worse, the final encounter between Bond and Scaramanga, something the film was building up to during its entire run time, winds up being too brief and incredibly anticlimactic.  A major disappointment.  Moonraker – Roger Moore’s worst Bond feature, although if you hunt around some of my previous posts, you’ll find that upon seeing it again recently, I had to admit the first twenty to thirty minutes of the film was not all that bad.  The rest of it, alas, remains pretty dreadful.  A View To A Kill – Moore’s last swing at Bond proves a strikeout.  David Bowie (by now you must know how I feel about him) was at the time sought by the movie’s producers to play the villain, but when he backed out Christopher Walken (sporting a definite David Bowie “Let’s Dance”-era look) stepped in.  Mr. Walken and Duran Duran’s theme song may be the only good thing about this weak, weak film, which also features one of the most nonsensical plots.