Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

[Blowfeld]

Craig could be gay,after all there are rumors that George Clooney is gay as well but his PR hides that and the whole relationship with Amal is phoney. Either way I couldn't care less. As for that famous "gay" scene in Skyfall I think it's just PC thing,sucking up to "the right kind of people".
As for the terribly obvious lack of chemistry between Craig and ALL the female co-stars...it could be that he is truly uncomfortable when he has to do a love scene but I also think there's something to be said on the part of the actresses.
It also could be that they find him all around unattractive(which is pretty logical after all he is no Sean Connery no matter what some pathetic articles say) and they also don't try to invoke any chemistry. Even though Caterina Murino tried,poor woman.
I've read a couple of times how Craig and Green had excellent chemistry...where? In which movie? Certainly not in CR. The lines they had to utter didn't do them any favour either.

I never got the feeling from Casino Royale Daniel and Eva were burning up the screen. The preposterous idea they were supposed to be THE definitive couple was laughable if only so many will lemmings had not followed it off the cliff.

Now Caterina was completely wasted in this movie. She was far beyond the lead actor, yet cast only for a limited role. Caterina is a dream girl and Eva is the girl everyone is glad when the breakup happens.

[Blowfeld]

Maybe he swings both ways. Or maybe the rumours are rubbish. I tend to favour the latter explanation. As for John Wayne, he is known to have stood by Montgomery Clift when the rest of Hollywood turned its back on him after he was outed as gay. The Duke felt that loyalty to one's friends outweighed any disapproval he may have of Clift's sexual leanings.

I did not know of this story, I only used Wayne as a example because of his tough guy image.

[Veronica]

Craig could be gay,after all there are rumors that George Clooney is gay as well but his PR hides that and the whole relationship with Amal is phoney. Either way I couldn't care less. As for that famous "gay" scene in Skyfall I think it's just PC thing,sucking up to "the right kind of people".
As for the terribly obvious lack of chemistry between Craig and ALL the female co-stars...it could be that he is truly uncomfortable when he has to do a love scene but I also think there's something to be said on the part of the actresses.
It also could be that they find him all around unattractive(which is pretty logical after all he is no Sean Connery no matter what some pathetic articles say) and they also don't try to invoke any chemistry. Even though Caterina Murino tried,poor woman.
I've read a couple of times how Craig and Green had excellent chemistry...where? In which movie? Certainly not in CR. The lines they had to utter didn't do them any favour either.

I never got the feeling from Casino Royale Daniel and Eva were burning up the screen. The preposterous idea they were supposed to be THE definitive couple was laughable if only so many will lemmings had not followed it off the cliff.

Now Caterina was completely wasted in this movie. She was far beyond the lead actor, yet cast only for a limited role. Caterina is a dream girl and Eva is the girl everyone is glad when the breakup happens.

I agree,Caterina was by far the best thing about that movie along with that line "I miss Cold War" that M said. Murino is drop dead gorgeous,she sizzled on the screen. I never felt any kind of chemistry between Green and Craig but since it wasn't as awkward as the grapling between Craig and all the other female leads ESPECIALLY with Monica and Seydoux in the last movie some people might mistake that with chemistry.

[Omega]

Screw Craig! They introduced explicitly homoerotic scenes to Bond because of him or working with him. Who cares who will cry about it!

They probably think they are being edgy like Star Trek with sulu. These Hollywood know it alls like clooney think they stand up for rights of people first truth is they don't have the grapes, Hollywood is just as happy to discriminate if it fits with popular opinion at the time. Hollywood lags behind catching up to what people will tolerate.

Babs thinks Craig is perfect to make a bold gay statement about that awful hetro skirt chasing bond, but not too bold cause she still wants to make money while taking bond down a peg.
That's all Craig has been about, that do I look like I give a d**n line sums it up ten years and four movies it's all about slamming who bond is with a actor not fit to park Daltons car.


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[dirtybenny]

Rant 37: Misunderstanding Misogyny

Bond has been call a sexist, chauvinist and misogynist more times than can be counted. More often than not however, Craig, EON, and Classic Bond hating types use the “Misogynist” label. I believe this all stems from a throwaway line from GE where M states Bond is a “sexist misogynist dinosaur”, I assume that line was written that way because it flows much better that “sexist, chauvinist dinosaur” (say that 3 times fast), but what exactly is a misogynist and does that apply to Bond.

First let’s define Misogynist:

A person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women.
Synonym: woman-hater

Is that Bond? Is Bond a woman HATER? Perhaps I would apply that label to the mighty Craig, who once he beds a woman ether falls head over heels in love (Vesper, Swann) or shows utter disdain for their corpse (Solange, Fields, Severine) due to the internal conflict within his psyche. Let’s take a look at the two other definitions.

Sexist: prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex or gender.

Chauvinist: an attitude that the members of your own sex are always better than those of the opposite sex

Is Bond a sexist? Yes. A chauvinist? Definitely, but I draw the line at misogynist. Bond does not “hate” women, he may feel they don’t measure up to men in the things men have historically done, fighting, shooting, driving, etc. but to say he hates them is ridiculous.

Bond in all his previous interpretations has gone above and beyond to protect, rescue and show respect to women. Now we could debate whether or not some of those things are in some ways condescending or patronizing, but I’ve already conceded Bond is a sexist and chauvinistic, so no need.

I think most folks would agree Bond doesn’t hate women, yet Babzy and co. toss around the misogynist label and talk of Bond as “the man you love to hate”. Really?! People love to hate Bond? Is that why he’s a billion dollar commodity? Because we all hate him so much since he hates women?! This speaks volumes to the shear misunderstanding of Bond by those who are responsible for this “new direction” we’ve been subjected to this past decade.

[Veronica]

The problem is-Barbara is a hard-core angry feminist. Don't forget that this is a woman that put Craig in a drag.
And I don't think Craig's Bond actually sleeps with Solange. Just another proof Craig is not Bond. Bond would certainly sleep with a woman like THAT.

[The Saint 007]

People also tend to label the film Live And Let Die as "racist", which is another word that gets thrown around and has lost its meaning thanks to political correctness. These days, if someone gives the most constructive criticism about mass immigration, for example, they will most likely be deemed as "racist".

The whole "misogynist" label is just another way of making the older Bond films look bad compared to the more politically correct ones we get now.

[bjmdds]

Labels are now played out. Trump has exposed that this week claiming the Democrats keep using RACISM as a signature calling card every time elections are run and he is correct. It's effect is no longer important.

[Count_Lippe]

All this have everything to do with political correctness, the idea that white heterosexual males are the oppressors of everybody else... of women, of sexual minorities, of non-whites.

There aren't supposed to be any norm in society, no majority of any kind, especially not of white heterosexual males.

All there should be according to political correctness are a mixture of various ethnicities, sexual minorities, people with uncertain genders and so on.

All of these different minorities have of course also the same "value" and are not strange in any way, and James Bond should be just like this as well.

James Bond could just as well be a homosexual mulatto who wears dresses than a heterosexual white guy in a suit and there would be absolutely nothing to object about this.

That's why the advocators of political correctness are pushing for non-white immigration to white nations, of race-mixing, of normalizing every sort of sexuality, of feminism, and of portraying heterosexual white males as misogynist.

[Blowfeld]

Another good point, Bond was never a 'Misogynist'. It was a label the 70's feminist movement used with abandon, probably aptly at first, then it trickled down to almost have no meaning by the time Lady M rattles the line it was more an acknowledgement of past sin against womankind than a actual indictment of the character.

[dirtybenny]

Rant 38: Bond Girls Then and Now “A Different Kind of Bond Girl”


Speaking of Misogyny, Barbara Broccoli is always droning on about how she’s reinventing the female characters of the Bond films. Ignoring the fallacy of her comments for a moment, one must wonder what she means by that, because every film she chants precisely the same mantra that this story features a different type of woman, who isn’t just standing around as window dressing, yet the next film she’ll inevitably say it again. But didn’t you do change that last time? And the time before? If so why are you saying it now? If not, when will you?

Let’s start with the “dynamic” women Babz has given us since she resurrected this “tired” “played out” “sexist” franchise. First there’s Vesper Lynd who isn’t much to write home about in this regard, she’s a middle level bureaucrat who’s there to observe. She tags along most of the story and her only real contribution is acting as the object of Craig’s affections in the poorly fleshed out love story. And she’s the best of the bunch!

Jump to Camille Montes from QOS, she has the beginnings of an interesting character, ex secret agent out for revenge same as Craig, however she’s reduced to once again tagging along and requiring rescue in her scant 10 minutes of screen time.

SF has no real lead Bond girl to speak of, unless you count Momma M, and I don’t.

Finally SP, who’s starring woman was propped up as a pillar of the modern “can do” woman, Madeline Swann who was supposed to be the “bad ass” offspring of an assassin turned brilliant psychologist, which was reduced down to a few lines of stilted dialog and forgotten. In the end she was neither and just came off as a poor man’s Vesper, tagging along just because.

The scant other women in these films were reduced to cheap plot devices, Solange, Fields and Severine were just disposable pleasures whose deaths were met with a shrug. Monica Bellucci who was so celebrated in the run up to SP, spent a scant 3 minutes inexplicably kicking the plot along.

Although none of this is new, the old lines “she’s a different kind of Bond girl” or “she’s like a female James Bond” have been batted around for decades. There’s a “documentary” called Bond Girls are Forever, that came out a few years ago hosted by Miriam d’Abo where she goes about interviewing former Bond actresses. It plays on television from time to time or I believe it’s included as a special feature on the CR DVD so if you’ve been foolish enough to buy it you can see it there. The point is I’ve come up with a drinking game where you take a sip every time one of the starlets says one of those lines above. I suggest you play with non-alcoholic beer as anything stronger will have you blotto before the third act!

Saying all that perhaps there is something to Babzy’s assertion that her girls are different; they’re actually more vacuous than their predecessors.

Let’s step back to the “classic” Bond girls. Pussy Galore (silly name aside) was a very complex character. She’s “a d**n good pilot” who trained a squadron of women to fly in precision. She’s also willing to take part in a plot that would make her wealthy yet at the cost of “30,000 lives” however when push comes to shove her conscience is too strong leading her to undermine the operation and throw away millions.

Dr. Holly Goodhead (again name aside) is another accomplished woman, despite what Babz would have you believe. Babz is quoted as saying “the days of Bond girls standing around with clipboards are over” Holly is the only girl to come to mind as ever carrying a clipboard. Yet she’s a very accomplished character who is a talented CIA agent and an Astronaut! She files the Space Shuttle because Bond cannot!

Now sure there were some girls who were only there to simply dress up the scenery, take Dink from Goldfinger for example: She has hardly any lines and is dismissed with a pat on the rear and the line “man talk”. However I would like to defend her appearance (discounting the blatant sexism) by stating these characters offered more roles for women, not accomplished actresses mind you but models trying to up their stock. Used to be an up and comer could be skyrocketed in to the public eye by getting featured in a Bond film. Now under the staunch feminist Babz, these roles have dried up making it harder for these young ladies to get noticed.

In the end every one of the first 20 films featured capable and/or interesting women who if they didn’t work wonders, were at least fully fleshed out and interesting, as well as gave non-actresses roles to further their carrier, I can’t say the same for the last 4!

[acid]

I think you're right benny. Grace Jones's May Day was certainly very, er, capable and Octopussy was portrayed as a strong leader. On the other hand were characters like TMWTGG's Goodnight who was definitely written as a bimbo to back up Bond's sexist attitudes. Honey Ryder was introduced as a strong, though naive female though her film persona was pretty close to Fleming's original creation.

[acid]

People also tend to label the film Live And Let Die as "racist", which is another word that gets thrown around and has lost its meaning thanks to political correctness.

"We got a honkey on our tail!" "It's like following a cue ball!" etc. Maybe LALD is "racist" against white people?

[Veronica]

Despite the obligatory talk from Barbara about how women of Bond films now supposedly have a real role *snort* Craig era has the most forgettable female roles out of them all. The only one worth mentioning is Solange and that's solely because Caterina Murino is so d**n sizzling,she is the only thing worth mentioning from that movie.
Like someone already said,it's like they casted her before they knew what kind of movie they were making.
And even though agent Fields is completely forgettable and her death reminds you and makes you wish you were watching Goldfinger instead of QOS at least her name is Strawberry Fields. That's IMO by far the best thing about Craig era.

[The Saint 007]

People also tend to label the film Live And Let Die as "racist", which is another word that gets thrown around and has lost its meaning thanks to political correctness.

"We got a honkey on our tail!" "It's like following a cue ball!" etc. Maybe LALD is "racist" against white people?

Haven't you heard the propaganda these days about how only white people are racist and oppressive? When people say Live And Let Die is "racist", they mean racist towards blacks. Benny actually made a rant about the subject a while back.

Rant 14

The “racism” of Live and Let Die

Some have the view that the film Live and Let Die (LALD) is “racist”. Simply search for the term and you will be inundated with literally hundreds of claims to the fact. Most however do not offer any proof to back up their beliefs and those that do only present one, which is usually “all of the black characters are villains”. I suppose those folks didn't see Harold Strutter and Quarrel Jr.

Now before we get started let me give you a little detail about me and my perspective. It is true I am a white male and therefore the bane of world society, however Mrs. Benny is black or African American or person of African descent depending on how politically correct you want to be, for brevity’s sake let’s use black here. I feel that uniquely qualifies us to speak on the subject as we have been married for some time, so we don’t feel the need to candy coat or sugar coat or otherwise sweeten our opinions to each other and can talk freely about any subject including race.

So this rant came to fruition while watching LALD on cable T.V. the other week with Mrs. Benny. I remembered how some think of it as “racist”, so I asked my very own Bond Girl what she thought, with a chuckle the answer was a resounding “no, why would it be”.

So now you know where I’m coming from and can better see where we’re going with this.

What makes LALD “racist” well I’ll do you better than those who actually claim it is by giving you examples, then explain why they don’t apply.

1. The liberal use of the word “boy”.
This is the biggest one as it is true that a white man calling a black man “boy” is very disrespectful and racist and in the wrong connotations is just as bad as the N-word. However unlike the N-word boy is not in and of itself derogatory, only when used improperly. So while I can see how some may see a bunch of slack jawed white good ol’boys throwing around the word “boy” as offensive, it’s not in the context of racism in this film. Here the word is much more akin to “pal” or “buddy” as in “watch it pal” or “don’t you know anything buddy”. These boys call everyone “boy” and I mean everyone, including each other and Bond himself. Let’s remember this film was written by Englishmen who were trying to put together dialogue they thought would be coming out of a southerners mouth and thought “boy’ was stereotypical enough to fit.

2. The “Voodoo Ceremony”
The Voodoo scenes are a bit peculiar I suppose and I see how some may be put off by them. But then how exactly does one film a Voodoo scene? And does Voodoo not exist? How does it’s inclusion in a film that takes place in the heart of the Caribbean constitute “racism”

3. My favorite and as I stated at the top the only one offered by those who cry foul is “all the black characters are villains”
As I pointed out there are two “good” black characters but that aside are we not allowed to have black “bad guys”? These same people don’t seem to mind Asian villains in Dr. No, or You Only Live Twice, are they somehow different? I read the occasional gripe about homophobia directed at Mr. Wint and Kidd in Diamonds are Forever but nothing like what we get concerning this movie.

I’ll switch gears here and speak about the go to defense for this movie: “It was made 40 years ago and comes from a different time and we must judge it through the lens of it’s era.” I can’t get behind this, because not only is this film not racist in it’s time but in any time. Sure the movie is dated and as I said in the last rant the “Blaxploitation” theme is a bit grating but there is no reason this film could not be made as is today.

There was a funny movie from the 80’s called “Hollywood Shuffle” about a young black man (Robert Townsend) trying to break in to Hollywood. He lands a role and the Director and producers instruct him to “black it up some more, stick your rear out and slur your words, you know like they do” to which Townsend’s character see’s the folly of Hollywood and quits. Well I don’t see any of that in LALD, the black characters while “Bond Villains” are very real, sure you've got “Whisper” who can’t speak in a full voice and “Tee Hee” has a mechanical arm, and there’s some corny dialogue but none of them come off as caricatures “racist” or otherwise. Compare that to actual “Blaxploitation” films some of which were actually written, produced and directed by black people. These films set the civil rights movement back at least ten years!


Now what’s the over under on someone “Joining this forum just so I can show my displeasure in this racist post”.

[acid]

Haven't you heard the propaganda these days about how only white people are racist and oppressive? When people say Live And Let Die is "racist", they mean racist towards blacks. Benny actually made a rant about the subject a while back.

Yeah I remember that rant. I was going to make my comment when I first read it, but I was a bit late. You gave me the chance by bringing it up again, thanks.

For what it's worth though, I also don't think it is racist against blacks in any way. Phrases like "honkey" and "cue ball" are racist pretty much by definition though, which I find slightly ironic. I get your point though.

[dirtybenny]

Hey all, been pretty busy lately so haven't had time for any full blown rants, but I found this blurb from Ralph Fiennes which I thought would make a nice mini rant.

Ralph Fiennes chatted to The Telegraph this week about his latest film 'Two Women,' but the topic of 007 and his role as M and what should happen next in Bond 25 lead the piece.

“Well I think if you’re the next director of Bond, you’re going to not want to go down the tone and argument of what Sam [Mendes] has put into the films,” he says, though is quick to stress he’s “heard nothing”.

“Questions of British nationhood, and whether Bond is a dinosaur, all that. So I would guess if you’re coming to do the next Bond, you’d want to take it somewhere radically different, I think.”

He also mentioned that Russian friends told him they hated the latest Bond outings. “I hated thees! So serious! Please! Why? Vere are the jokes?" Fiennes imitated. “I think the British audience likes Bond being brought into a more serious real world. So they should nod to all those well-known Bond tropes and icons that we want, but with an undertone of gravitas.”


First of all I hope to god the next director takes the bloated corpse of the dead horse that is “Questions of British nationhood, and whether Bond is a dinosaur" or whatever else Sammy boy started with his "films" and gives it a quiet, unseen burial, somewhere deep and forgettable so we can never speak it's name again. I'm tired of all the Bournesque questions of whether the west is on the right side and "Bond the dinosaur" was done to death in the 90's. I know I'm not alone in a desire to return to some good old fashioned fun, adventurous, gratuitous, sex and violence!

Second I find it ironic that it is the Russians pining for the fun light hearted days, when forgive me, but they aren't stereotypically known for their humor. Don't get me wrong, I know Russians are a warm hearted and lovely people, just other than Yakov Smirnoff they aren't known for their comedy (and to be honest neither is he). I guess that's just how dark and melancholy these films have become, even the Russkies are telling EON to lighten up!

Finally there's this: "...they should nod to all those well-known Bond tropes and icons that we want, but with an undertone of gravitas.” Really more nods, winks and homages? Also an undertone of gravitas would be welcome, but not the beats you over the head seriousness we've been subjected to for the last decade! I can't abide another Bond film where I walk out of the theater more depressed than when I entered!

[Kristatos]

Great rant, once again, but I can imagine Fleming spinning in his grave at the notion that Bond needs to be made more appealing to the Russians!

[dirtybenny]

Lol thanks Kris, and so true, however I imagine Fleming would be spinning at a lower RPM than what he is currently. Very ironic how the nation who gave us Tolstoy and Dostoevsky want to return to the playboy super spy from the vodka swilling depression soaked nimrod we have now.

[Omega]

Funny his Russian friend told him his bond movies suck.
Craig can't do comedy, can't do bond. These nods to the past are painful because they are so poorly done and remind you of better movies and that EON is out of ideas


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