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Brad Whitaker


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#61 Turn

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Posted 12 February 2009 - 01:40 AM

So Whitaker shooting a few machine guns at the end makes him a more menacing villain and makes up for his overall lameness and lack of presence? He was a mercenary, I would hope he would know how to shoot.

Having him do less earlier on didn't help, no, but those final scenes didn't do much either to enhance him as any more of a bad man in the overall picture in my view.

Compare him to the Blofeld of FRWL and TB. Here was a guy who never even got out of his chair and stroked a cat, but had some of his underlings shaking with fear.

Whitaker is established as a liar, cheat and fraud. He barks out orders while chewing his food and more or less lets Koskov persuade his decisions rather than being the dominant force. He's a despicable drug-dealing arms dealer rather than a villain worthy of Bond.

#62 Judo chop

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Posted 12 February 2009 - 04:21 PM

Whittaker is obnoxious, cartoonish, cliché, and all shades of lame.

A decent part, but a horribly offensive performance.

#63 Daddy Bond

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Posted 12 February 2009 - 04:29 PM

Whittaker is obnoxious, cartoonish, cliché, and all shades of lame.

A decent part, but a horribly offensive performance.


Agreed. What's wierd is that there are no menacing villains, but there are some pretty manacing things that go on...

1. A 00 agent falls to his death after having his rope cut.
2. Another agent gets crushed by a door.
3. Other agents getting strangled, burned, blown up...

All this without any really menacing villains - only one somewhat menacing henchman.

Still, TLD is one of my favorites.

#64 Safari Suit

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Posted 12 February 2009 - 09:17 PM

Whittaker is obnoxious, cartoonish, cliché, and all shades of lame.

A decent part, but a horribly offensive performance.


Offensive? Do you feel the performance is insensitive to the feelings of real life obnoxious, cartoonish, clichéd, and lame Generals?

#65 Judo chop

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Posted 13 February 2009 - 12:54 AM

Whittaker is obnoxious, cartoonish, cliché, and all shades of lame.

A decent part, but a horribly offensive performance.


Offensive? Do you feel the performance is insensitive to the feelings of real life obnoxious, cartoonish, clichéd, and lame Generals?

It's offensive to Bond.

#66 Double-Oh Agent

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Posted 13 February 2009 - 08:36 AM

All this without any really menacing villains - only one somewhat menacing henchman.

You think Necros is only "somewhat menacing"? He's a great henchman. One of the best of the series. There's an undercurrent of danger whenever he's around.

#67 staveoffzombies

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Posted 13 February 2009 - 05:55 PM

All this without any really menacing villains - only one somewhat menacing henchman.

You think Necros is only "somewhat menacing"? He's a great henchman. One of the best of the series. There's an undercurrent of danger whenever he's around.



Agreed. Necros is probably the most underrated henchman in the films.

#68 Daddy Bond

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Posted 13 February 2009 - 07:43 PM

All this without any really menacing villains - only one somewhat menacing henchman.

You think Necros is only "somewhat menacing"? He's a great henchman. One of the best of the series. There's an undercurrent of danger whenever he's around.



Agreed. Necros is probably the most underrated henchman in the films.


In the Bond series, yes, I agree. However, I don't really find Bond villains to be very manacing in general - in comparison to some other movie villains.

#69 Lektor

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Posted 21 December 2014 - 10:06 PM

I strangely like Brad Whitaker. Would've love to see him get more screentime...
He even got the best scene of the movie (the meeting with Koskov) according to me.

 

My question is if he is based or inspired by a person in the real world? 



#70 Guy Haines

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Posted 22 December 2014 - 07:14 AM

To try and answer Lektor's question, I believe Brad Whitaker is loosely based on a real life renegade arms dealer named Edwin P. Wilson. A reviewer of TLD, Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine, said that the film's plot was reminiscent of the "Iran-Contra" scandal of the mid 1980s, and that the villains included an arms dealer who would remind the audience of Wilson.

 

Edwin P. Wilson was the subject of two books - "Manhunt" and "The Death Merchant", both of which I've read. He was a CIA contractor who went into business for himself in the Middle East, based in Libya in the days when Colonel Gaddifi was in charge there. It's believed he sold massive amounts of C4 plastic explosive to the Libyans, and was convicted of exporting weapons and conspiracy to murder, in the US in 1984. He served 20 years in jail, but successfully appealed his conviction on the basis that, contrary to what the CIA claimed, he was still working for them at the time he was dealing with the Libyans.

 

Wilson had a small group of mercenaries and others working for him in training camps in Libya, and was based in a villa in Tripoli. What he didn't do, I'm fairly sure, was strut around in a fake General's uniform or have statues of himself commissioned dressed as Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Hitler!



#71 iBond

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Posted 22 December 2014 - 10:14 PM

What is your opinion on Brad Whitaker, the main villain of TLD played by Joe Don Baker? I feel he is an underrated and overlooked villain. He may not be intimidating or menacing, and he does not have a megalomaniac plot, but actually that's what makes me like him more! Whitaker and Koskov's plan is complex and intriguing. Unfortunately, Koskov gets too much screen time while Whitaker is not shown much. He deserved more screen time as the main villain. I also like his swaggering Texan personality and obsession with war and weapons. And his death is also great. I love his line "you've had your eight, now I'll have my eighty."

 

That quote, "You've had your eight, now I'll have my eighty." Just made me realize the connection with that line Bond says in Dr. No. "That's a Smith and Wesson, and you've had your six." Haha! I know, there's no relation in the context in the two lines used, but they seem to go hand in hand in a way.

 

Moving onto Whitaker, I don't really feel like he was a main villain. I think that goes more to Koskov...which I know is strange to say since he is the one that Koskov reports to. In a way, I guess you could say Whitaker is the "Blofeld" of this movie in very much the same light as Blofeld was in FRWL, TB and NSNA. That is going a bit far, since Whitaker is self-employed and does not have a bunch of minions working for him, but that is how I personally saw it when watching the film. Koskov is the #2 of the movie like Largo was before him in Thunderball.


Edited by iBond, 22 December 2014 - 10:17 PM.


#72 Guy Haines

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Posted 22 December 2014 - 11:33 PM

I always thought that Whitaker was underused as a character. The potential was there for an interesting Bond villain - an arms dealer with delusions of military grandeur - and perhaps in a Bond adventure which was solely concerned with illegal arms sales he might have made a decent main villain. Instead he's at the centre of a complicated money-for-arms-for-drugs scheme - yet on the periphery of the actual story and doesn't have enough screen time to make much of an impact. Koskov is more of a rogue, willing to do anything and sell out anyone to save his own skin - even his former girlfriend, Kara. TLD's main flaw is its lack of an out and out opponent for 007, but I suppose the story didn't really call for one - rather it was down to Bond to work out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.



#73 dtuba

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 02:40 AM


 

Moving onto Whitaker, I don't really feel like he was a main villain. I think that goes more to Koskov...which I know is strange to say since he is the one that Koskov reports to. In a way, I guess you could say Whitaker is the "Blofeld" of this movie in very much the same light as Blofeld was in FRWL, TB and NSNA. That is going a bit far, since Whitaker is self-employed and does not have a bunch of minions working for him, but that is how I personally saw it when watching the film. Koskov is the #2 of the movie like Largo was before him in Thunderball.

 

I never got the feeling that Koskov reported to Whitaker...I don't think one had power over the other, rather they were both in cahoots to take the Soviet arms $$$ and spend it on the opium and make a huge profit. I like to think of Koskov as being the "main" villain, but maybe he and Whitaker are actually "co-main" villains. 

 

Anyway, who cares, I love TLD. Always a top 5 Bond film for me. 



#74 Mr_Wint

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 10:10 AM

He met his Waterloo.