Better
than half a dozen men have played 007 now. Comparisons are made, and
rankings among some audiences are inevitable.
Every few
years, one of the actors or a power-that-be will argue for a "return to
the original intent of Ian Fleming." As if his books were constructed
on par with the US Constitution or Scripture. Mr. Fleming was
without question the irreplaceable spark that let to the explosion of
James Bond films we now have to enjoy.
But read all
of what Ian Fleming wrote of James Bond before you argue too far that
this is what will work on the big screen in current Millennium.
I rather
think of "Bond" as a necessarily collaborative effort. Each film thus
takes on a special feeling based on the unique contribution of the
particular man in the tuxedo. Often building on traits handed to him
from his predecessors.
In many
cases, doing what none of the others could do — before or after him. But
only because they, in their tenures, did what he cannot today.
In 1988, I
had an advertising agency working for me here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Amazingly (for back in those days), they had in-house video editing
capabilities. The head of the firm and I had a number of passionate
discussions that would have fit nicely today within the pages that
follow here on my website.
On the one
hand, the head of this firm was deeply unsettled by what he considered the gratuitous
killing of Professor Dent by James Bond in Dr. No. By way of full
disclosure, I suspect Dr. Ad Agency might have been a little too close
to the situation, empathizing as he did with his Ph.D. from the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and he, himself, carrying the title of
full "professor" therewith.
"He could
have just knocked him out," he almost pleaded. "That's what 007 would do
today."
(So much for the Ian Fleming legacy we were talking about above.)
On the other
hand, he argued, Roger Moore wasn't credible as an agent with a "license
to kill."
That's
where his video editor came in — with freeze frame capabilities.
Remember that
harrowing helicopter ride from the gravesite in the pre-title sequence
of For Your Eyes Only? Take a look at Mr. Moore's eyes just after
he seizes the controls and begins to go after Ernst Stavro Blofeld. An anomaly? Continue
watching this Moore outing, if you think so, through the death of Emile Leopold Locque
off that high
cliff.
That's the
sort of analysis you have to look at here.
