31 replies to this topic

[Righty007]

I finally understand why Bond used that line in Licence To Kill. The other day in English class I saw A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway on a shelf. I never knew that book existed. Did you all get Bond's "joke" when watching Licence To Kill?

[Qwerty]

Got it myself the first or so time watching the movie, I just knew about Hemmingway earlier.

[[dark]]

Yep. In fact, that house, where Bond is taken to M, was Ernest Hemmingway's house.

[007Travis]

Yep.  In fact, that house, where Bond is taken to M, was Ernest Hemmingway's house.

It sure is. One Bond location I can say I've been to. It's a neat place.

[Bondian]

I finally understand why Bond used that line in Licence To Kill. The other day in English class I saw A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway on a shelf. I never knew that book existed. Did you all get Bond's "joke" when watching Licence To Kill?

Great topic Righty my friend!.

I watched a film the other day, and that same balcony appeared, but I cannot for the life of me remember the movie.

It was a great scene, but if you consider how high it is, Bond would of broken his legs jumping at that height.

But Bond films are like that, and keeping your intellect can only a good thing amongst absurdity.

Cheers Mate,


Ian

[Righty007]

,20 October 2004 - 20:29]
Yep.  In fact, that house, where Bond is taken to M, was Ernest Hemmingway's house.

I knew that. That is why the joke makes sense once I found out that Hemingway wrote a book called A Farewell To Arms.

[Blofeld's Cat]

This has been covered before in these forums, but it's always interesting to bring up again.

Would Connery's Bond - or any of the others for that matter - have made that comment?

[[dark]]

Good question, BC.

Frankly, I can't imagine any of the other Bonds in the whole scene, let alone uttering that single line.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Well, it's not all that far from Bond's resignation in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service really, except Lazenby's Bond would've called M a "monument" to his face this time round.

[Qwerty]

I thought you could actually see a plate saying Hemmingway House on the screen as well, but I would have to check.

[[dark]]

Pardon me.

I'd forgotten all about poor Laz. General-movie-going-public syndrome.

Yeah, I could see him there. Can't imagine Connery, Moore or Brosnan, though.

[Bond111]

I thought you could actually see a plate saying Hemmingway House on the screen as well, but I would have to check.

I'm pretty sure too.

I can't say I really paid much attention to the line the first few times I saw the movie, but I've been aware of the book's existance for a while.

[Blofeld's Cat]

I'll need to check again, but I'm sure there's a sign out front, and the "goons" lead Bond past it to go through the gate leading into the grounds of the house.

[Mister Asterix]

[mra]The polydactyl cats were what clued me in that it was Hemingways

[Turn]

I got it immediately when I saw the film. I remember thinking few others would get it, and it kind of struck me as yet another thing people would hold against the Dalton Bond as being too much of an inside joke. Not a great line, but I appreciate it because some thought went into it. I think some of the other Bonds would have made an easy wisecrack about the cats or something.

[Lady Rose]

I got it immediately when I saw the film. I remember thinking few others would get it, and it kind of struck me as yet another thing people would hold against the Dalton Bond as being too much of an inside joke. Not a great line, but I appreciate it because some thought went into it. I think some of the other Bonds would have made an easy wisecrack about the cats or something.

Like wise here.I recognised it as soon as I saw the house and cats and when TD said those lines I knew what the reference was.I remember thinking not everyone would get it,though it was a more appropriate line for Dalton than a jokey one.

[Righty007]

There is a plaque outside the gate of Hemingway's house. I think it says:

Historical Monument
Hemingway House

The "joke" wouldn't have made sense if they didn't let the audience know it was Hemingway's house. I knew it was Heminggway's house but I didn't know about his book and thats why I didn't get the joke at first.

[Blofeld's Cat]

I thought there had been press reports at the time that the Hemingway House was to be used in the movie.

[Johnboy007]

I had always seen the plaque, and had heard of "Farewell to Arms", and figured Hemingway had probably wrote it.

One of the deeper bits of Bond humour.

[Righty007]

You have to have a degree in English to get that "joke." James Bond is so sophisticated! Only a sophisticated person could make a cool "joke" like that.

[Bondian]

Let's face it fellas, that line was a quote from Hemingway, but who the hell would of known it was spoken on his very own property?.

For those who knew it was Hemingway's property, well done, but how did you know?, and would you of known who that quote was made by anyway?.

Cheers,


Ian

[Qwerty]

Do they speak about it on the documentary?

[Bondian]

Do they speak about it on the documentary?

Yes, they do if I remember correctly Qwerty!.

[Jim]

Let's face it fellas, that line was a quote from Hemingway, but who the hell would of known it was spoken on his very own property?.

For those who knew it was Hemingway's property, well done, but how did you know?, and would you of known who that quote was made by anyway?.

Cheers,


Ian

I don't understand the confusion here. There is a big sign in the film identifying it as the Hemingway House and far from needing to have read huge amounts, or anything for that matter, one only needs to know that a book with that title exists, written by Ernest Hemingway, which is just general knowledge.

It's not that good a joke, although it probably is marginally more sophisticated than a double-taking camel.

[Mister Asterix]

There are just some things that everyone should know about Hemingway.

1. He had a house in the Keys with polydactyl cats.
2. He had books called Farewell To Arms and Old Man And The Sea.
3. He committed suicide.
4. His granddaughter had breast implants done for the movie Star 80.

All basic information.

[Turn]

That was the way I knew about Hemingway -- studying him in my high school English class, with A Farewell To Arms being one of the titles.

There's a nice picture in the Making of Licence To Kill book showing Dalton reading The Old Man and the Sea surrounded by cats while on a break on during filming at the Hemingway house.

[Adrian Carlisle]

I knew it immediately because I had done a research paper on Hemingway in high school.

[Adrian Carlisle]

For those who knew it was Hemingway's property, well done, but how did you know?, and would you of known who that quote was made by anyway?

The sign, the cats they showed (the descendant's of Hemingway's cats roam the place today, and have five toes on their paws or something), and the joke sealed it.

I was just fortunate to have that knowledge though.

[RevolveR]

It's a great line. The book is good too if you haven't read it.

[Bill Tanner]

Would Connery's Bond - or any of the others for that matter - have made that comment?

There is a history of using quotations throughout the series, many of which are more obscure than the Hemingway. You don't need an English degree for these, they're all fairly well-known reworkings of famous quotations. We pooled our knowledge and collected a few over at AJB:

In Moonraker - Drax: "To lose one parent ... may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." a slight reworking of a quote from The Importance of being Earnest

In FRWL, Bond says, "Once more into the breach," which is from Henry V. Also, Blofeld quotes La Rochefocault (sp?) in DAF: "Humility is the worst form of conceit."

There's Roger Moore's reworking of 'Speak now or forever hold your peace' in TMWTGG, from the Christian marriage vows.

From GE: 'The pen is mightier than the sword' - 'Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword' Edward Butler-Lytton.[/i]

And of course there's the infamous: Die Another Day which Bond reworks and partially quotes to Graves. The original quote comes from "The Day of Battle," Poem 56 in A Shropshire Lad.

"For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day,
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again."