18 replies to this topic

[Mister Asterix]

Some quick thoughts on Chapter 1

The opening scene with Bond training with

[Xenobia]

I was going to save my general comments until I finished the whole book, you are right, I do agree the VR scene and the training scene are quite close.

I also have noticed SEVERAL similarities between Drax and Graves. Is it possible that DAD is a more faithful adaption of Moonraker than the Moonraker was?

-- Xenobia

[SPECTRE ASSASSIN]

[quote name='Mister Asterix' date='17 May 2004 - 21:59'] Some quick thoughts on Chapter 1

The opening scene with Bond training with

[Qwerty]

I think Die Another Day definitely tried to take some of the elements from Moonraker.

This line struck me, as compared with a line in Die Another Day:

He suddenly decided to be ruthless. "I'm told that Five and Five is your limit. Let's play for that. -Moonraker, Chapter 6.

"Let's play for this. I picked it up in Cuba, I believe it's one of yours." -Die Another Day

[Qwerty]

Just a quick question, how old is Bond in Moonraker? He must have been an old OO-agent.

James Bond was 37 in Moonraker.

[Four Aces]

Bond does not always get the girl does he?

[Station Domino]

I agree Mr. Asterix,

I started reading Moonraker yesterday and the VR scene in Die Another Die (DAD) automatically came to mind. That was a great scence in DAD another day by the way.

So far Moonraker looks like a winner. Loved the historical background on the Blades Club and Hugo Drax's background which is very similar to Gustav Graves. In just reading the first few chapters I'm convinced the screen writers borrowed plot and charater ideas from Fleming's novel Moonraker for DAD.

[Qwerty]

Bond does not always get the girl does he?

Makes this novel one of the best.

[Brix Bond]

[quote name='Station Domino' date='18 May 2004 - 00:30'] In just reading the first

[SPECTRE ASSASSIN]

Bond does not always get the girl does he?

Yes, loved that plot device!

But why shouldn't it be in the next Bond film? It sure will make things realistic. Maybe there are some girls who aren't ammuned to the charm of 007.

[Qwerty]

But why shouldn't it be in the next Bond film?

Simple, because it would be a risk, and EON isn't always keen on taking them.

[Brix Bond]

True, Qwerty. They just sit and worry about disturbing the Bond 'formula' over a cigarette rolled from a $100 note and lit with a $50 note.

I hope they get bought out by someone who is willing to actually take the Bond films in a direction rather than have EON making them because they have to.

[Qwerty]

Personally, I think it's definitely time to see a Bond girl not end up with 007 in the end of the film. We don't always have to have the "happy" ending with Bond in bed with the girl.

What I think could be a rather classy finale would be something exactly along the lines of the Moonraker novel. The girl walks out of his life, and James Bond moves on.

But if it will ever happen is a question.

[Brix Bond]

Is that burning cash I can smell?

[Qwerty]

Yes, they probably would consider it too "dangerous" to possible profits for the film.

[Brix Bond]

*sniff*

[codenamel]

Well, it worked with Bogart in CASABLANCA, and Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler novels rarely ended up with the girl. Ending up alone at the end of the story emphasized the fact that these were lonely heroes with nothing to fall back on but their integrity and guts. During the 1950s, Ian Fleming's James Bond far more resembled Chandler's Marlowe than he does Eon's super push-button commando of the late 1990s and 2000s. MOONRAKER, and the other four early Bond novels for that matter, are IMO influenced by the American noir private eye novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett with the noir hero transplanted into the English spy genre. Fleming was a huge fan of Chandler as Chandler was of Fleming and for a short time their writing overlapped.

Yeah, it's time for Bond to lose the girl again to a stable guy with a safe steady job and time to spend with the kids. Maybe Felix Leiter could end up with the girl for a change and Bond can end up alone with his gun to clean, a Walther PPK please, and a bottle of Vodka to finish. Now that would be a great final scene for Pierce Brosnan as 007 with the James Bond theme as background.

[Willie Garvin]

[quote name='Xenobia' date='17 May 2004 - 22:04'] I was going to save my general comments until I finished the whole book, you are right, I do agree the VR scene and the training scene are quite close.

I also have noticed SEVERAL similarities between Drax and Graves.

Edited by Willie Garvin, 23 May 2004 - 03:12 AM.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Die Another Day uses several key elements of the Moonraker novel-updated and slightly altered but still fairly recognizabile.

DAD isn't the only Brosnan Bond film to do this. GE does as well, i.e. both 006 and Fleming's Drax are villains with disfigured faces who plan to fire rockets as London in order to get revenge against the U.K. for events that happened in 1940s.