19 replies to this topic

[Judo chop]

Straight from Fleming

[Santa]

My thought is that you're putting too much thought into this .

[Judo chop]

Aw Santa.

[col_007]

Yes... considerably.

[Santa]

Full respect to Judo Chop for blessing us with this miraculously beauteous thread. I kneel at your feet.

[Judo chop]

I'm desperate enough for attention to accept even that bundle of sarcasm tied with a pretty bow.

[JimmyBond]

If I recall correctly, the script seems to imply that Bond ordered it in order to do what you just suggested in your first post: piss of LeChiffre.

[Navy007Fan]

The scene also takes place before Leiter introduces himself to Bond, so Felix's support was just luck, not planning.

[Santa]

I'm desperate enough for attention to accept even that bundle of sarcasm tied with a pretty bow.

Darling heart! Why the cynicism? You know you're my special little bunny rabbit.














OK, I've really had too much to drink now...

[spynovelfan]

I took it to be something like the following:

Bond is in deep. He's tired, frustrated, he needs a break (so do we, the audience) - they've been playing for a while. He orders the bar steward over and makes up something on the spot that he thinks will satisfy his thirst and make him a whole man again - he is dipping into his own sense of taste and style but doing so spontaneously, and in doing so defining his own taste and style (for many years to come).

The supreme ease, calm, self-confidence and collectedness with which he marshalls his thoughts at such a tense moment to come up with this fantastic-sounding concoction has us, the audience in awe, and has the table in awe, too. What a man! They all wish they had the presence of mind, savoir faire and knowledge of the world's workings to order such a thing, so despite not having a clue what it actually is they all follow suit. There's a double pay-off with Felix wanting his a little less extravagant than the Englishman's, which manages to be simultaneously a little uncool of him but also marks him out as having his own independent personality - he'll only go so far with the Limey, but he ain't having fruit in his drink. And that's cool in its own way.

As a whole, the moment relieves the tension with humour, pisses off his opponent, impresses the girl - and shows us a defining moment in which James Bond puts together some of what he has learned so far and, without contrivance, without forethought, takes one step closer to being 'James Bond'.

This post will be published in next month's Bright Lights Big City Film Journal.


(Incidentally, do we still need a spoiler section for the latest Bond film on this Bond site, now that is out on DVD?)

[Judo chop]

at least sumbudy still luves me.

[MHazard]

I think you all think to much. My take is much simpler. James needs a drink. James orders a martini. As James does throughout the books and films, he specifies it the way he likes it, specifically the Vesper recipe. I don't get the sense that he was thinking on the fly or that this was the first time he tried it. He orders quite quickly and doesn't look like he's trying to figure out what to put in his drink. He's had this before. His concentration is mainly on the game. So, he calls over the barman, orders a martini-mental attention to game-realizes he needs to specify how its made or he'll get standard mediocre bar martini-attention shifts briefly to drink-he orders it his way, as he's done many times before-shifts attention back to game. Judo, with respect, sometimes a drink is just a drink, even if it's a well made, well thought out drink.

[Judo chop]

Ooh, Plank. I guess it

[bond_girl_double07]

I make up drinks on the fly all the time.. (the other day I got the idea that Vanilla vodka, cherry vodka, grenadine, and a little soda would taste like cherry ice cream..sort of).. when you make up a drink (as he clearly has in the book and in the film), you have to be that precise. I do think it's odd in the heat of the moment that he would take the time to invent something, but who knows.. when you're not in a hand of poker, it gets really dull by the time a new hand gets started.. I'd assumed he'd been sitting there staring at the bar for a while

[Kilroy6644]

[quote name='Judo chop' post='726111' date='12 April 2007 - 16:59']I seem to recall elsewhere in the film that Bond makes it quite clear that the

[MarcAngeDraco]

[quote name='Kilroy6644' post='726140' date='12 April 2007 - 17:41'][quote name='Judo chop' post='726111' date='12 April 2007 - 16:59']I seem to recall elsewhere in the film that Bond makes it quite clear that the

[bill007]

Yes, I also agree that the implication in the film is that the Vesper is a first-timer. The "not half bad" line, along with no other mention from Bond that he had ever tried it before.

That said, if we consider Bond a real-life person, this spunky new double-0 had a history before we meet him on his first mission. I am of the opinion that he had indeed thought of the formula sometime prior to the game, to be used as a psych tactic against his nemesis at some point in the game.

[DaveBond21]

I have never read the novel, so the whole plot was all-new to me (except that someone mentioned Vesper dying on this site just weeks before the Australian release! I was in shock. The Bond girl dies??? )

Another bonus for me, however, was that I had 1) no idea who Jeffrey Wright was before this movie, and 2) forgotten that Felix Leiter was even in it, so it was a really nice surprise for the Leiter reveal.

[spynovelfan]

Agreed, the film presents it as the first time he's ordered or tasted this particular recipe (which is obviously quite different than the book where it is already familiar).

Well, it's not so different. Sure, in the book it doesn't seem to be the first time he's ordered it, but he tells Leiter it's his own invention and he'll patent it as soon as he can think of a decent name. It sounds to me like something he's invented pretty recently, perhaps even during his stay at the hotel. Something similar could apply in the film - he could have invented it a couple of weeks before in a restaurant in London, and he's trying it again, or a variation on it.

Let's not *always* go down the immediate line of the film being totally different from the film. It's remarkably similar in many ways, and nuances aside, this is one of those ways.

[ACE]

So totally with spynovelfan on this.

Judo chop, nice thoughts - waaay deep!