467 replies to this topic

[DLibrasnow]

I think I am in the minority in liking the Wade character - but then I have always liked Joe Don Baker as an actor.

[Triton]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow
I think I am in the minority in liking the Wade character - but then I have always liked Joe Don Baker as an actor.

I like Joe Don Baker too. The issue that I have with the Jack Wade character is that his primary purpose is to serve as comic relief and to call in United States resources when they are needed by Bond. For a change, I would like to see an agent who is an equal to Bond employed by the CIA or the NSA in a future Bond film. I also don't want Bond to have a romantic interest in this character.

The filmmakers could bring Felix Leiter back after they fitted him with prosthetics. The operation in Licence to Kill to capture Franz Sanchez always struck me as a joint CIA/DEA operation, and that Leiter never left the CIA. Pam Bouvier was a CIA agent working for Leiter, why do we presume that Leiter left the CIA?

[ChandlerBing]

Bring Burt Reynolds in as Bond. He needs the work. He's a Southernor. Saw him in a wheelchair in Driven when I was flipping thru channels this weekend on TNT. Sadistic bastards are running Stallone flicks all weekend.

The horror...the horror...

[Qwerty]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow
I think I am in the minority in liking the Wade character - but then I have always liked Joe Don Baker as an actor.

Not at all DLibrasnow! I think there are many Bond fans that like Wade, sure, sometimes he goes a little over the top, but I still think he's greatly favored. As others have said, though, it would be great to see Felix Leiter again. It would be great to see him return after having been gone from the series for so long, the only trouble is, if Purvis and Wade would be bringing him back, this would be one thing they can not screw up. For a character a big as his, there's no room for error.

[CommanderBond]

how would you bring Leiter back??he got bittin up last time we saw him.he could have some prostetics.but other wise how would you bring him back.

[db5]

One good way would maybee to let Felix return for only one Bond film and introduce a successor for him to Bond. The new character must ofcourse have the same stile as Felix Leiter.

[Righty007]

Originally posted by db5
One good way would maybe to let Felix return for only one Bond film and introduce a successor for him to Bond. The new character must of course have the same stile as Felix Leiter.

Maybe it could be his "son" or his daughter, Cedar Leiter.

[db5]

Originally posted by db5
One good way would maybee to let Felix return for only one Bond film and introduce a successor for him to Bond. The new character must ofcourse have the same stile as Felix Leiter.

Yeas that might work, but they have to do it good so people font find it silly

[db5]

Oops wrong qoute above, I meant this one!

Originally posted by Righty007
Maybe it could be his "son" or his daughter, Cedar Leiter.

[Jaelle]

To bring back Felix Leiter would require an explicit recognition of the Dalton Bond films, something I suspect Mr. Brosnan would not care for. Unless they simply pretended that LTK never happened and brought Felix back with a normal leg -- something I think EON would not want to do because it would require an explicit *dismissal* of the Dalton Bond era, and LTK in particular. Whether an explicit recognition or dismissal, neither choice would make EON comfortable, imo.

The reason the Jack Wade character is, imo, worthless, is that he has *zero* impact, he has no purpose, he just suddenly appears and disappears. There's little attempt to establish any sort of serious working relationship between him and Bond, there's no attempt at even a backstory between them. Some might say that was also the case with Leiter but I disagree. I *do* think Leiter had some small impact on the series -- he allowed us to see a little side of Bond that we would otherwise never have been allowed to see.

I would love to see the return of Felix and have the events of LTK acknowledged but I just don't think that will ever happen.

Barring the return of Leiter, I would like to see Bond work with a MALE agent (of whatever race or nationality). What was interesting about Leiter is that his few appearances showed us Bond working with a fellow professional whom he trusted, respected and felt friendship for. The relationship was never treated with much consistency throughout the series, granted. But those few moments that we did see provided an interesting little window into Bond, showing him interracting with a fellow agent on both a professional and personal level. We haven't really seen that with Brosnan's Bond.

[ChandlerBing]

Maybe they can pair Brosnan up with Danny Glover, who can play an agent 5 days away from retirement.

[Triton]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing
Maybe they can pair Brosnan up with Danny Glover, who can play an agent 5 days away from retirement.

LOL! Somehow that sounds very familiar.

Isn't Bernie Casey still around?

[ChandlerBing]

Actually, Pierce will be paired up with Charles Martin Smith, who plays an analyst who gets drawn into the action with Bond. Smith has a dumbfounded reaction to all the violence as he is not a man of action, but Bond just tells him, "Carry a badge? Carry a gun."

[Turn]

I don't know if they would get a younger guy to play Leiter or any other younger agent.

Wade is the ugly American compared with the suave, handsome Bond. And Norman Burton was an older, bumbling type of Felix in DAF. Had it been Rik Van Nutter or another younger guy, it would have brought attention to how aged Connery looked.

And with Brosnan aging, they sure wouldn't bring in anybody to remind the audience of this.

But I would like a new Felix. It just feels right for the series. Or I've also suggested some young type agent who Bond used to be like to compete with him.

[ChandlerBing]

Maybe there will be a part for George Lazenby somewhere...

[CommanderBond]

i highly doubt that unless its a cameo. same thing for the other bonds. the only way there getting in a bond film is a cameo.

[DieAnotherDay57]

I think he should return only if they can incorparate him into the story.

[CommanderBond]

Originally posted by DieAnotherDay57
I think he should return only if they can incorparate him into the story.

i agree...but i would love to see felix back.

[Blox]

Originally posted by Jaelle
To bring back Felix Leiter would require an explicit recognition of the Dalton Bond films, something I suspect Mr. Brosnan would not care for.  Unless they simply pretended that LTK never happened and brought Felix back with a normal leg -- something I think EON would not want to do because it would require an explicit *dismissal* of the Dalton Bond era, and LTK in particular.  Whether an explicit recognition or dismissal, neither choice would make EON comfortable, imo.

...When Moore's Bond laid flowers at the grave of his wife -- who died in George Lazenby's Aston -- did Eon worry about dismisal or recognition issues? Bond fans have their noses tight up against the lens of Bond pictures. But average moviegoers probably won't remember what happened to the Leiter character in a film released 14 years ago.

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by Blox
...When Moore's Bond laid flowers at the grave of his wife -- who died in George Lazenby's Aston -- did Eon worry about dismisal or recognition issues? Bond fans have their noses tight up against the lens of Bond pictures. But average moviegoers probably won't remember what happened to the Leiter character in a film released 14 years ago.

Then why the explicit refusal to bring back Felix? Why create an entirely new character, Jack Wade? If they don't care, why studiously avoid the character in Brosnan's films?

[Blox]

Originally posted by Jaelle


Then why the explicit refusal to bring back Felix?  Why create an entirely new character, Jack Wade?  If they don't care, why studiously avoid the character in Brosnan's films?

...I think it has less to do with dismissal of the Dalton era, and more with the introduction of a new crop of characters for the Brosnan films such as Zukovsky, Robinson, Tanner, etc. If they can give M a sex change, they can screw the legs back onto Felix Leiter if they wished to...

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by Blox
...I think it has less to do with dismissal of the Dalton era, and more with the introduction of a new crop of characters for the Brosnan films such as Zukovsky, Robinson, Tanner, etc. If they can give M a sex change, they can screw the legs back onto Felix Leiter if they wished to...

I suppose that when the Brosnan era started, then, they wanted to break free entirely from the same running characters that had appeared in all the other Bond films. They never had the desire to do that before when they brought in a new Bond -- Leiter lasted thru the changeover from Connery to Moore to Dalton. Interesting that with Brosnan, they suddenly decided to get rid of the character entirely. I guess the 6-year gap, the whole new era of Bond in the post-cold war world ushered in this desire on EON's part to separate the Brosnan films from his predecessors---underscoring the NEWNESS of it all by changing the supporting characters.

M can be changed easily, that's just a new person coming up in the ranks with the same code name, male or female, black or white, doesn't matter.

[Blox]

Originally posted by Jaelle
M can be changed easily, that's just a new person coming up in the ranks with the same code name, male or female, black or white, doesn't matter.

...The days of 007 reflecting "Once when M & I were in Tokyo, we had an interesting experience." are over, as are the good-ol-boy revelling with the likes of Kerim Bey & Leiter (Goldfinger vintage). Today, M is a woman; Wade wants Bond's opinion of a tattoo on his backside; and the sexual aggressiveness comes from Jinx rather than Bond. Bond is a more passive character today than his previous incarnations. imo of course...

[DanMan]

Hmmm... Bond escapes from captivity and enters a luxury hotel, shags a beautiful woman seconds after meeting her, challenges a billionaire to a sport, stays at a hotel made of ice, shags another woman, sends a guy straight into a turbine engine, and has sex again on a bed of diamonds in a buddhist meditation hut.

I'd say Bond isn't more passive that previous Bond's and he is very much the same character as Sean or Roger...

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by Blox
...The days of 007 reflecting "Once when M & I were in Tokyo, we had an interesting experience." are over, as are the good-ol-boy revelling with the likes of Kerim Bey & Leiter (Goldfinger vintage).  Today, M is a woman; Wade wants Bond's opinion of a tattoo on his backside; and the sexual aggressiveness comes from Jinx rather than Bond.  Bond is a more passive character today than his previous incarnations. imo of course...

Personally, I'd love to see the return of scenes like the one you describe above with a fellow agent; if not Leiter, then someone else (not Jack Wade of course).

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Blox

...The days of 007 reflecting "Once when M & I were in Tokyo, we had an interesting experience." are over, as are the good-ol-boy revelling with the likes of Kerim Bey & Leiter (Goldfinger vintage).  Today, M is a woman; Wade wants Bond's opinion of a tattoo on his backside; and the sexual aggressiveness comes from Jinx rather than Bond.  Bond is a more passive character today than his previous incarnations. imo of course...

I share your opinion 100%, Blox. Bond has been castrated. And I for one greatly miss his family jewels.

[Blox]

Originally posted by Loomis


I share your opinion 100%, Blox. Bond has been castrated. And I for one greatly miss his family jewels.

...100%? Permit me to have your post bronzed....

[Blox]

Originally posted by DanMan
Hmmm... Bond escapes from captivity and enters a luxury hotel, shags a beautiful woman seconds after meeting her, challenges a billionaire to a sport, stays at a hotel made of ice, shags another woman, sends a guy straight into a turbine engine, and has sex again on a bed of diamonds in a buddhist meditation hut.  

I'd say Bond isn't more passive that previous Bond's and he is very much the same character as Sean or Roger...

...I don't mean to offend here, but we don't agree. You know -- one can take PB's brooding deadpan Bond just so far. Yes, we see Bond twiddling diamonds on Berry's naval -- while Berry utters the suggestive bon mot. But he's flat lining. No spark. No zip. No enjoyment. No fun. Pierce's Bond is more submissive, less dominant than the Bond portrayed by Sean Connery. In TWINE, PB undresses a nurse early on -- but he doesn't evince the sensuality that made similar scenes in earlier pictures more erotic. Diane Cannon made this observation about Sean Connery in an old 20/20 interview -- that she felt Sean "really loved women." Whatever the case, you felt his testosterone was flowing during scenes. Sean saw Bond as a sensualist (and said as much in interviews.) Pierce's Bond? Whether he's setting a timer in GE, or cavorting with Jinx, Brosnan is so damned contained -- the Bond character isn't the same. And its not just about sex. Its about the intensity of the character. There's this scene in LTK -- where Dalton's Bond sneak's aboard Crest's yacht brandishing a knife, enters a cabin and confronts Soto's character. Dalton manages to be menacing/caring/chastising. He emotes. Brosnan would do all of this in a dispeptic deadpan. I miss the aggressive, "Iron John" Bond of old.

[FYEO007FAN]

Perhaps Felix should return as just a friend of Bond's. He would be incapbable of doing much in his old job after the injuries he suffered in Licence to Kill. He should return as a friend that Bond sees for consultation on something. They could give Felix a wheel chair or artificial limbs. Eon should just be sure that they maintain continuity.
Spurning the existence of Licence to Kill would be a mistake. Even though I dislike the film, I acknowledge and recognize its importance and place the history of the series.

[live & let spy]

I think bringing back Felix is a great idea. A lot of postings have mentioned how it may be a problem logistically, since his actions would be hampered by his prostetics, but it never bothered him in the books. He lost some of his limbs in only the second Bond novel, but reappeared many times after that, ably helping Bond each time. Plus, it's been 14 years since the incident in LTK. I'm sure he's gotten very good at getting around by now. And about the wheelchair idea, I totally disagree. Too much like the X-Men. Make him normal, human, perhaps with a walking stick. Felix should be tough. And how about finally giving him his straw couloured hair?

I think the best way to do it would be to give him a small part (the movie still has to focus on Bond), and more importantly, treat Felix's reappearance with respect, something I think the character has rarely gotten aside from LTK and perhaps Dr. No. Fleming may have used Felix as a way to comment on American inferiority and British ingenuity, but his examples never sank as low as some of the cardboard characterizations in many of the Bond films, notably Thunderball (okay, not a strong actor), LLD, and probably the worst example, TLD (ouch!)

After throwing in the kitchen sink in DAD with past references, it's obvious the next Bond needs to be wary of overdoing these elements. That was fun once, but the next Bond needs to be a more self-contained tale. However, every Bond needs something that lends the continuity we fans crave, and I think Felix's return would be a classy way to do so.

On a lighter note, I just watched YOLT again for the first time in quite awhile. Despite some flaws, that movie rocks!