17 replies to this topic

[Digitarius]

I'm trying to compare Fleming's novels with the subsequent movies here:
Dr. No - movie was great, so was the book, but I'll have to give the film the slight edge because of Andress.
From Russia With Love - likewise with Dr. No, this time Red Grant takes the bows.
Goldfinger - Tough one. Oddjob was better in the book, I feel, so I give it the thumbs up.
Thunderball - film, of course, even though the book was sheer class.
You Only Live Twice - film definitely. The book was a minor disappointment, I feel.
Diamonds Are Forever - book no doubt. Jill St. John as Tiffany Case spoiled my image of her. St. John wasn't pretty enough.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Book of course. The film was no substitute for the brilliant love story weaved in the book.
Live and Let Die - Book. The film was too cheesy, I thought.
The Man With the Golden Gun - Book definitely. The film was cack.
The Spy Who Loved Me - Film. The book was the worst that Fleming wrote.
Moonraker, A View to A Kill, For Your Eyes Only - Dunno. Haven't read the book.
Octopussy, Living Daylights - Can't compare. Book and story in film was completely different.

Any comments anyone?

[White Persian]

Love to add my two cents' worth.
DR. NO The book by a whisker. The budget didn't allow the torture course (and giant squid) to be done on screen. Ursula Andress is perfect casting, but the book Honey was a more interesting character.
FRWL Perfect realisation (and simplification) of the book on film. Perfect casting. A tie.
GOLDFINGER The film tidied up and improved on the book's plot, Goldfinger and Oddjob perfectly cast (only Felix is a letdown). The Aston and Connery at the top of his game tips the balance to the film.
THUNDERBALL I completely agree, Digitarius.
YOLT Sorry, I thinl the film is as hollowas Blofeld's volcano. The dark and bizarre book by a mile!
OHMSS Fleming's best book versus my favourite Bond film...hmmm. I thought the love story worked brilliantly in the film, the tragic ending had real impact and the action was awsome. I even like Lazenby. The film by a whisker.
DIAMONDS The book (even though it's one of Fleming's weaker ones). The film's only assets are Connery and Charles Gray's Blofeld ( who doesn't belong in the story).
LALD The book. The film tried to hard to be trendy. The voodoo stuff was fake looking, Roger Moore wasn't comfortable as Bond, Jane Seymour's a great Solitaire, though.
TMWTGG A tie, A weak book and a weak film.
SPY Roger Moore's best film beats the strange book.
MOONRAKER The book leaves the film on the launch pad.
FYEO. The film is a good combination of two minor stories. The film.
OCTOPUSSY The film by default. The short story is an uneventful character study, the film an overblown mess with a couple of good moments.
AVTAK No real basis for comparison. The film is really a disguised remake of Goldfinger.
LIVING DAYLIGHTS Can't agree here,Digitarius. The first twenty minutes are a fine version of Fleming's short story. The film wins,because I like how the story has been expanded and I like the cast, especially Dalton.
License To Kill. Agree there's no real comparison, though the film uses bits of Fleming's Live And Let Die very effectively.
The Brosnan Bonds also can't be compared.

On the whole, the ealry films compare well with the books, the later ones missed some opportunities to use some great Fleming material.

[Blue Eyes]

Without spending heaps of time here (I do have some work to do )

FRWL is a brilliant book and a brilliant movie. They were tied in excellently together, almost identical. I think I preferred the idea of Rose Klebb still working for the Russians but I didn't like the idea that the code machine (my mind has gone blank as to the name, SPEKTOR I think) was rigged with a bomb and the fact that Bond get's kicked by the shoe at the end. For those two negatives I'll go with the film!

[Digitarius]

The FRWL film was slightly spoiled by the fact that they had SPECTRE working against MI6 instead of the KGB. But that's just how I feel.
And come to think of it, You Only Live Twice, the film, was pretty weak. The book was OK, but possibly out of date by the time the film was make, though.

[Digitarius]

White Persian is right. The film producers changed ship from portraying Russia as the enemy, and instead gave SPECTRE the job, because of the fact that they might be able to find a Russian market for the film.

[RossMan]

I think that the book Dr. No is better than the film only because it has Bond going through that maze at the end and fighting the squid. It would have been great to have seen that in the movie.

[Blue Eyes]

FRWL should have kept the Russians as the enemy. It would have avoided further mess with Kevin McClory. It would be something he could not claim to have created. He would have no stranglehold on FRWL.

That aside, the film was set and made and released during the Cold War. There was no bigger enemy than Communism, which was even bigger than Blofeld! The Communist Machine should have been the true enemy!

[White Persian]

FRWL would have been better if Rosa Klebb had still been working for mother Russia.
I think that back in '63, Saltzman and Broccoli (and possibly UA) wanted to steer Bond away from being too political, hence the switch to SPECTRE.
It *is* odd, though, because other movie and TV thrillers of the time had no qualms about making those pesky Russkies the baddies.

[White Persian]

CASINO ROYALE - er...I think the book is ever so slightly better...

[Blue Eyes]

It would have been good yes. But the budget would have not allowed for the best fx so the sequence would have most likely come across poorly.

[Boldman]

I prefer them using SPECTRE as the enemy. I makes the plan more ingenious.

[bridge]

Mostly I think that movies are more entertaining than the books. Bond is an action hero, and it is usually better to witness the action rather than reading about it. But Fleming's European writing is indeed charming. I must agree that Casino Royale's book version was better. The movie can hardly be more shrewd in the torture that was a huge part of the story. FRWL, I liked the book better because the movie was slow and I didn't like the Bond girl's actress. But the fighting scene in the train was more than good.

[White Persian]

In the cases where the books and films are reasonably similar (The early Connerys and OHMSS), they really complement each other. Watching FRWL or Goldfinger after reading the book, our enjoyment is enhanced by the backstory about Klebb or Grant or Goldfinger derived from the novel.
Conversely, reading Fleming after seeing Connery, made it difficult not to cast the book Bond after Connery's image, and the same goes for other characters as well. Since the casting was often exemplary, the reading experience was enhanced for the most part.

Of course, later books and movies are really apples and oranges.

[Digitarius]

A lot of earlier Bond films (mostly Connery ones) suffered from lack of funding. This is clearly shown in Dr. No, where the action sequences, I feel, were poor compared to his later outings. The books, however, did not have that problem, because it costs Fleming zilch to write a thrilling scene set in an exotic location. The later Bond films, however, have strayed off Fleming's work so much that it's really hard to compare.

[General Koskov]

CASINO ROYALE...phttt! HAARHARRHeeeee!
Think SPECTRE employing Le Chiffre to race cars for money, Bond outraces him (with the aid of an ejection-seat, some smoke, oil, tacks, etc. ) and he has to recoup his funds before the 'tax-collecter' comes after him. Sounds good to me.

LALD...phttt! HAAR--okay *it* wasn't a comedy, but the film sure did suck compared to the book I only liked the out-of-control-car in NYC, and the croc farm.

MOONRAKER did a good job of updating Fleming's story...until the laser fight...tsk tsk. It would have been cool to have the same story as the novel, but with Britain having a space shuttle programme that an evil neo-Nazi was going to spoil. I liked the movie itself when I shut the novel out of my head--except for the gondola and pigeon.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER was a great book that only suffered from colourless villains and a rather short plot. Sticking Bolfeld in was a good idea since YOLT had been used up, but at least keep it to ONE Blofeld with NO dresses!

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is a tie, but I liked the cigarette case trick and the book-gun. Unfortuately because Bond quit smoking, they can't do that stunt anymore!

DOCTOR NO wins over DR NO (had you noticed the difference before? ) because of the squid/assault course, and the guano, lol! But the reactor death was vey cool too, and saddening when Dr No's metal hands failed him (you can't see his face to remind you he's the bad guy who's diverting missiles).

GOLDFINGER improved on the novel up 'till Bond was put in jail at Auric Stud. Then Fleming's impeccible decriptions and Goldfinger's insaitiable planning with the group of crooks won me over to his thought-to-be-rediculous *stealing* the gold plan, rather than the irradiating it.

There's a line by Goldfinger that says something about the US not knowing where the bomb is '...prehaps the sub pens at Norfolk?...' which attempts to give the film some 'substance'.

Also Mr Ling is there to give an 'expert' science guy who somehow makes Goldfinger's plot more 'pro' than the idea of Goldfinger lifting his warhead onto the conference table in a carboard box!

Even AVTAK didn't improve on the hood's meeting because Eon were (and rightly so) too afraid to copy Goldfinger *that* much. LTK did a job on TMWTGG's convention, which btw, the Godfather Pt. 2 reminds me of

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY does a wonderful job of combining RISICO and FYEO so I say a tie.

A VIEW TO A KILL was like TSWLM, not really comparable but the films seem better because they are more expansive.

THUNDERBALL's 'Manta' submarine really added excitement to the novel, but the extra characters in the film make this a tie.

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is a great book, though Vivienne's monologue gets annoying occasionally, but if Fleming had realised that it could make a good intro to a Bond-girl relationship, Eon would have been wise to use it's rather short plot.

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is really the only one where the film wins. Tracy's capture, and the Gumboldt scene really add a lot. But the book is Fleming's best.

With YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE the book wins, no need for details, though the first half of the film was okay, I guess. The film could have incorporated MAGIC44 for it's 'world-domination-type-plot' which was in style at the time.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is a bad movie with some good stunts (think twirling AMC Hornet), however the book's characterisations are far superior and the attempt at assassinating M would win me over if it ended right there (though I would wonder wtf the title's about, lol ).

OCTOPUSSY wins over the book for it's combo of Octopussy and THE PROPERTY OF A LADY with a really good expansion.

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS does the same with the expansion, and I rate expansions as ties.

[White Persian]

An unused Fleming element with great potential is the climax of YOLT.
It would make a great teaser sequence- Bond infiltrating the garden of death, avoiding the geysers and venomous creepy crawlies, breaking into the castle, the samurai sword battle, lots of explosions, and Bond escaping by hanging onto a gigantic Japanese dragon balloon.

[RossMan]

I think that the books are probably better than the films in most cases but the movies do sometimes add something that enhances the story. Such as Thunderball, they added more villains like Fiona Volpe and Vargas. The books are definetly better than the movies in the case of LALD and MR where they completey through away Fleming's story and ideas.

Should the TSWLM movie be compared to the book? The movie is not even supposed to be based on the book (didn't FLeming even say that they could not used the story but only the title) they only share the same title in common.

[rafterman]

Dr. No is a better book
FRWL is a tie
Goldfinger is much better as a film
Thunderball's a tie
You Only Live Twice is a much better book than that crap film
OHMSS is a tie, both are excellent
Diamonds sucks on both accounts
LALD better book
TMWTGG better movie
Spy different, but film is better
Moonraker, both are good, but different
the rest can't be compared really, but I like the use of bits of short stories to create full films, expecially TLD.....hope they bring out more unused elements...