People often talk about the bashing of Brosnan being tied into the Daniel Craig issue, but forget the Dalton issue. There are a lot of Dalton fans out there who were pee-ed off that Dalton never got his third film. Personally, Brosnan didn't seem even vaguely like Bond for the first half of GoldenEye to me. But then again, I think GoldenEye is a pile of politically correct, overrated garbage! Of course, it was also put around by people, including Martin Campbell, that Dalton's Bonds were rubbish to Big Up GoldenEye.
I always remember the near-despair I felt watching Brosnan defy gravity in the opening of GoldenEye, jumping after a plane, then the misery of the champagne bottle seduction of that irritating PC 1990s driving test woman. Everything that had been achieved in Dalton's tenure was seemingly reversed back to Roger Moore's era, except it wasn't funny. There's a certain irony to Daniel Craig's Bond: he's continuing what Dalton started. A lot of us see Brozza's films as a waste of time and that we should have had a film in the style of QoS or CR back in 1991.
There's a topic elsewhere asking whether Brosnan could have done Bonds in the style of CR and QoS. The answer is a clear no. They don't play to Brosnan's strengths. On the other hand, could you imagine Connery, Lazenby, Moore or Dalton in Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace? Actually yes. And that goes for Roger too, in his earlier days.
As for Brozza's films in general, they're still symptomatic of people's lingering perception of the film series back then. Yes GE does probably get rated higher than From Russia With Love. But when FRWL came out, its target audience was grown ups with kids as a secondary issue. By the time I was growing up in the Roger Moore era, Bond had a massive children's following (kids with 007 digital watches that bleeped the 007 theme tune were near deities at primary schools!) in many ways being seen more as a family movie franchise.
When Licence to Kill bagged a 15 rating, signaled big changes for the series, refocusing it in the firection of an older audience. Unfortunately, years of legal action postponed the series and the audience moved on. Additionally, Batman which debuted the same summer as LTK changed the marketing model for all future Hollywood movies.
Shot your bolt on From Russia With Love:
THAT said, for a good 40 minutes are so it feels like a travel log, where Bond kinda walks around, the Bond music playing in the most random places(checking his bedroom? HOW EXCITING AND SUSPENSEFUL! HIT THE BOND THEME!), and Red Grant/Random spy with glasses walks around too. Bond FINALLY meets Titaina like 55 minutes into the movie and then it starts getting interesting. The train scenes onward are great, although I still laugh at the whole helicopter scene.
Remember when FRWL was made. In that period, just coming out of post-war austerity, ordinary people in the UK didn't travel that much. Lingering shots of places like Istanbul and all the travelogue material was fantastic for audiences back then. You couldn't just take a trip to Paris on the Chunnel or go on the kind of holiday where you can gangbang a random drunk British girl in an Ibiza toilet back then!
And, yeah, Bond searches his room. Again, FRWL was setting up aspects of Bond's life that we all take for granted in an era where Bond films are on TV several times a year!
Brosnan has done himself no favours where Bond is concerned and the perception of his films will be tarnished for a good few years to come. Maybe after Daniel Craig's tenure is over and the series is revamped with another new actor people might look back on them more kindly!
Edited by Gabriel, 14 September 2008 - 02:20 PM.
