dirtybenny wrote:
Indeed good rant acid, I hope you don't mind if I steal a few words and phrases when I rewrite?
DB I was think more about your rant, it’s like the bond haters do not know the definitions of the words they use, they rattle off some old 70s feminist mantra then feel virtue successfully signaled without knowing what bond is actually like, without think about how the women Fleming wrote about broke the 50s social status or how most of the women in the movies were not held back by the prudes of the decade they lived in.
Favorite Bond Movie: Dr No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, A View To a Kill, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye
dirtybenny wrote:
Indeed good rant acid, I hope you don't mind if I steal a few words and phrases when I rewrite?
DB I was think more about your rant, it’s like the bond haters do not know the definitions of the words they use, they rattle off some old 70s feminist mantra then feel virtue successfully signaled without knowing what bond is actually like, without think about how the women Fleming wrote about broke the 50s social status or how most of the women in the movies were not held back by the prudes of the decade they lived in.
Yeah, that's intellectual laziness. They're blindly parroting what their authority figures tell them without examining the information critically. It's a natural human trait to echo others in the tribe. We even do it here, but at least we spend a lot of time analyzing what is said.
Rant:44 2.0 Thanks for the ideas guys, here's the second draft.
Rant: 44 #EtTu, Bond?
Recently the question has been asked how will Bond navigate the new #metoo era, the answer is the same way he navigated every other social change, by being a constant in an ever changing world of upheaval. When the hippies hit the scene in the late sixties did Connery’s Bond don a tie dyed dashiki, load his trusty gunmetal cigarette case with reefer and sing Kumbaya around a drum circle? Of course not, so why should Bond fundamentally change because the truth we all knew since the beginning of the film industry came to light, which is it’s full of creeps who force themselves on young, naive aspiring actors?
In response to this movement a small yet very vocal minority has been building to a shrill crescendo recently, in which they demand, “It’s time for a female James Bond!” No, it seems it’s time to distract from the sexual abuse scandals in Hollywood and earn social justice points by pushing this ridiculous narrative. In much the same way the original movement was quickly sidetracked to “all abuse survivors” rather than its original specific target, the entertainment industry.
Short of going full “Jane Bond” many are saying Bond must give up his “womanizing ways” in order to meet the decree. Compared to the earlier eras, if Bond had any less female contact at this point he’d be a Benedictine Monk! I don’t see how a debonair secret agent having consensual encounters with beautiful women is in any way comparable to a slovenly film producer pleasuring himself into a potted plant while a horrified young starlet is forced to watch!
This opinion is has been formulated and bandied about because Bond is a “misogynist” or so the Professor teaching “Womyn’s Studies 101” at the local University says and they can’t be wrong! The problem is these people think of Bond in terms of a dirty stereotype their betters have concocted and shoved down their throats in an effort to play iconoclast, destroying and reshaping pop culture.
Of course the current spate of “Bond” films haven’t done much to derail this current hateful train of thought, between Craig’s creepy almost rape like “seduction” of Monica Bellucci’s widow in Spectre, his molesting and subsequently standing by as a former child prostitute is murdered in Skyfall when if he had acted 30 seconds sooner could have saved her, and of course that classic pick up line in Quantum of Solace “I can’t find the stationary.”
The truth however, is the Bond series has done much to elevate women and show them in a light far outside the social constrict of their day, for example:
Honey Ryder is an independent woman making her way on her own in the male dominated world of shell diving.
Tatiana Romanova is a soviet agent with orders to seduce.
Pussy Galore (silly name aside) was not only an accomplished pilot but as we see a worthy flight instructor (see her flying circus’ performance at Fort Knox).
Fiona Volpe is a top Spectre agent, assassin and leader in their organization.
Those are but a few women from the series and consider they are from the earliest films when Bond was at his most “vile” according to his critics.
You see the actual meaning of misogynist has been lost on this generation along with the ability to think critically. As I have pointed out in previous rants a misogynist is one who hates women. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest Bond (at least classic Bond) has any hatred toward women in any way, shape or form. Quite the opposite in fact, just this morning I was watching Goldfinger and the perfect example presented itself. After Bond ejects the Chinese solder from the Aston Martin he has a clear run to freedom. That is until the little old lady guarding the gate steps in front of him toting a machine gun, but rather than run her down as he did to numerous male solders just a moment before, he swerves off leading a chase through Goldfinger’s compound to ultimately be caught, all because he couldn’t bear to run over a woman.
It’s quite obvious these detractors don’t give a toss about Bond and are only trying to out “woke” each other, while blowing a smoke screen to divert attention from their friend’s crimes. I know this because their own words betray them. They call Bond sexist, misogynist, racist, xenophobic, etc. I can’t believe someone who feels Bond is so evil and deplorable watched any of the films more than once, let alone the entire series. So I must ask, how are these people qualified to be experts on Bond and what he “needs” to be?
The irony is if EON caved to every whim the warriors of social justice demanded, these folks still wouldn’t watch the films! Generally speaking people who hold these opinions don’t care for action adventure pictures.
The Rouge Warrior, On Hermaphrodite's Secret Service
Favorite Bond Movie: Dr No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, A View To a Kill, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye
Favorite Bond Movie: Dr No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, A View To a Kill, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye
dirtybenny wrote:if Bond had any less female contact at this point he’d be a Benedictine Monk!
Just don't Benny! I did have a dream about Bond as a Chinese monk so I hope this doesn't mean it was a premonition!
In truth I think my subconscious must have been mashing up bits of YOLT ("You must become..." ...Chinese!) with AVTAK (rich evil industrialist slips off high place) and possibly some other fantasy and eco themed things. Honestly I think I'd rather watch one of these movies about a Chinese or Benedictine Monk than any of the last 4 Bond flicks!
Favorite Bond Movie: From Russia With Love,GoldenEye,The Spy Who Loved Me,Goldfinger,Dr.No
Favorite Movies: After the Sunset,The Devil Wears Prada,The Thomas Crown Affair,To Catch a Thief,Midnight in Paris,North by Northwest, Purple Noon, La piscine.
For all the huff and puff about Craig era being very progressive when it comes to female roles I'd actually say it did the worst job out of any era to have any sort of memorable female characters. They handled the character of Vesper poorly in my opinion, of course it didn't help that Craig and Green had as much as chemistry as Winnie the Pooh and Darth Vader.
Too bad Caterina Murino lasted for a minute and a half she was dazzling. As far as it concerns me the most interesting thing about QOS girl is her name, Strawberry Fields. Skyfall, again, has no real Bond girl to speak of, as far as it's my concern. The actress who played Severine was beautifull was she was barely a character.
And then Spectre of course wastes a famously beautiful woman for two scenes and a talented French actress for the most bland, lazy attempt at Tracy. And again,Craig has ZERO chemistry with both of these women. So Barbara can talk rubbish about feminism and all but the fact is in the last 12 years she failed to have ONE interesting Bond girl.
Oh well, she lost Bond somewhere between 2002 and 2006 as well so I guess we should't say anything about any other role
bjmdds wrote:DB, how about this website turning you loose on Broccoli at EON and you directly send her a DB rant to straighten her out?
Doubt she can be straightened out, they do pay attention to us just because we annoy them be existing. So somebody in that organization has been forced to read DB's rants BTW we actually get decent traffic to both the main site and forums, plus we are indexed by all the search engines so what we say here does get noticed on some level.
DB I was thinking about the Bond girls as Fleming wrote them, while he was not a feminist he didn't lock them in the stereotypes Barbara has stuck Bond girls with. In some ways his female leads were more modern than the Cubby/Babs vision
bjmdds wrote:DB, how about this website turning you loose on Broccoli at EON and you directly send her a DB rant to straighten her out?
Doubt she can be straightened out, they do pay attention to us just because we annoy them be existing. So somebody in that organization has been forced to read DB's rants BTW we actually get decent traffic to both the main site and forums, plus we are indexed by all the search engines so what we say here does get noticed on some level.
Well I found this site when EON showed a screen shot of it in their documentary Everything Or Nothing during the lead up to Skyfall, so they are certainly aware of it! It has no impact, but it's nice to be a thorn in the side of such poor film making!
Goldeneye wrote:DB I was thinking about the Bond girls as Fleming wrote them, while he was not a feminist he didn't lock them in the stereotypes Barbara has stuck Bond girls with. In some ways his female leads were more modern than the Cubby/Babs vision
I had the same idea, but decided to considerate on the films as that is what is most known and didn't want to beat the point too much with too many examples.
The Rouge Warrior, On Hermaphrodite's Secret Service
Not a rant here but I thought I'd share this blog I stumbled upon last night. It's called You Only Blog Twice and it's written by a Craig fan, or should I say former Craig fan. When you read his review of SPECTRE you can see the stark realization and internal grappling I think we all went through when we realized EON had lost their ever loving mind. For some that occurred the moment Craig was announced as Bond, for others it came with Casino Royal, for me Skyfall was the final straw in short we all hit this wall at some point or another and it's interesting to see it play out on screen.
The Rouge Warrior, On Hermaphrodite's Secret Service
Much of what he writes here is exactly the way I felt about CR, especially the airport scene, where he was just as careless about putting innocent lives at risk.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
Favorite Bond Movie: From Russia With Love,GoldenEye,The Spy Who Loved Me,Goldfinger,Dr.No
Favorite Movies: After the Sunset,The Devil Wears Prada,The Thomas Crown Affair,To Catch a Thief,Midnight in Paris,North by Northwest, Purple Noon, La piscine.
Don't know how this person realised Craid doesn't play Bond in SPECTRE but I guess saw Craig as Bond in his previous movies.
Also, I saw all the rankings. Putting QOS ahead of LALD, GoldenEye, TSWLM and well... basically any other Bond movie is downright insane in my opinion.
But I loved that bit that explains what would happen with that girl from Mexico if this was TRULY an attempt at making a Moore Bond movie
Yes V, I certainly don't agree with this guy's ranking system or his seething hatred for Diamonds Are Forever and The Spy Who Loved Me. I also don't agree with the bits of SPECTRE he likes for example any part of that film! However to your point he does state that this film has caused him to reevaluate his appreciation for Craig on the whole and that is very telling. Now will he fully let go and come to his senses or latch back on to his loyalty of EON only time will tell.
The Rouge Warrior, On Hermaphrodite's Secret Service
Favorite Bond Movie: From Russia With Love,GoldenEye,The Spy Who Loved Me,Goldfinger,Dr.No
Favorite Movies: After the Sunset,The Devil Wears Prada,The Thomas Crown Affair,To Catch a Thief,Midnight in Paris,North by Northwest, Purple Noon, La piscine.
I am thinking that a person who puts QOS ahead of many of the franchise's classics(or any movie for that matter) isn't all that keen on the classic Bond altogether.
Then again, no two ranked lists of Bond films are likely to be identical. Heck, if I were to produce a list ranked from best to worst now, I'm not even sure it would be the same as a list I produced a year ago.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
I was thinking back to CR and why I didn’t like it the simplest way for me to put it back then was with Living daylights and Goldeneye I was convinced the new actor was bond before the opening credits or at least by the half way mark. Dalton had me after Gibraltar and Brosnan had me after the first Russia escape. Even Lazenby by the halfway mark was bond. Moore and Connery are the definition of bond so it wasn’t hard to see them as bond even when I was first watching them.
Craig was still trying to find his bond in spectre, four movies later. I’m glad some fans are waking up, sometimes with brutally honest take downs but I’m not sure why they have to defend parts of the Craig era and defame the classic series. I’ve seen recent blogs or whatever by critics who bash DAD and repeat talking point from 2006 about Craig saving the franchise but point out some of the things that Craig does that are totally unbond like and damage the brand more than doubling taking pidgins roosting on the invisible car.
Favorite Bond Movie: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies.
People bash DAD simply because it's an easy target. It's basically a comic book movie you could see Nick Fury (the original) starring in. But, some Bond fans are vehemently overdramatic and "realism" matters to them most, which means there has to be a "grounded" threat involved, some USB flash drive or surveillance problems, rogue agents and colorless characters straight out of a telenovela.
Whatever promise CR had, the follow-ups deteriorated it and devalued "the reboot". They still haven't moved forward since 2006, and like Omega above said, Craig still hasn't found his Bond yet, even though he was trying to in SP.
Favorite Bond Movie: From Russia With Love,GoldenEye,The Spy Who Loved Me,Goldfinger,Dr.No
Favorite Movies: After the Sunset,The Devil Wears Prada,The Thomas Crown Affair,To Catch a Thief,Midnight in Paris,North by Northwest, Purple Noon, La piscine.
I wanted to write how DAD is just a safety net whenever fans of this new order need to argue once again how terrible Bond was before Craig but you beat me to it John P. That poor movie, they talk about it like it made everyone in the world ill and poor. I'm not going to argue it's a great movie by any means but it had some strenghts that, DARE I SAY IT, last Craig atrocity didn't.
Favorite Bond Movie: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies.