Rewatching Bond films

[Paul Farquhar]

And also an exception to the whole "easily-escapable deathtrap" cliche. Goldfinger doesn't leave Bond to die there, he sticks around, and Bond doesn't manage a gadget-assisted daring escape - instead, Goldfinger learns that he's under surveillance by the FBI and decides to keep Bond alive and on display to allay their suspicions.

Make a Persuasion check, Mr Bond.

 

[TiQuinn]

Make a Persuasion check, Mr Bond.

"Can you afford to take that chance?"

 

[jian]

Some of the best parts of the Bond movies are the little tit for tat exchanges between Bond and the villain. It's funny because when it comes down to it, Bond is really a terrible spy. The bad guy almost always knows exactly who Bond is right away. They exchange pleasantries, joust verbally a bit, and then the villain tries to kill Bond in the next scene in some grandly elaborate way. Even though it's become such a trope of these movies - to remove the trope is to kind of remove one of the things that I love about these movies.

As noted before, Bond isn’t a spy - he’s not there to gather information. He’s there to send a message, which usually boils down to “FAFO”. He’s a human hand grenade.

 

[TiQuinn]

As noted before, Bond isn’t a spy - he’s not there to gather information. He’s there to send a message, which usually boils down to “FAFO”. He’s a human hand grenade.

I think that's been more the case in the Craig era, but that was not as explicit in earlier movies. In Goldfinger, for instance, his mission starts out purely investigative. From Russia With Love starts out with helping a Russian cipher clerk defect. It wasn't until we really hit the later Bond movies that the movies really started emphasizing that Bond is chiefly an assassin, a blunt instrument, License To Kill being primary.

 

[Morrus]

I think that's been more the case in the Craig era, but that was not as explicit in earlier movies. In Goldfinger, for instance, his mission starts out purely investigative. From Russia With Love starts out with helping a Russian cipher clerk defect. It wasn't until we really hit the later Bond movies that the movies really started emphasizing that Bond is chiefly an assassin, a blunt instrument, License To Kill being primary.

He’s not so much an assassin as a general international investigative troubleshooter who has a habit of killing the subjects of his investigations.