| The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles | |
|
|
Author | Message |
---|
GeneralGogol Senior Correspondent

Posts : 880 Member Since : 2011-03-18 Location : Kremlin
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:58 am | |
| I prefer the titles that refer to characters or operations or locations, ie. Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, OHMSS, Octopussy, GoldenEye, Skyfall, etc. When you get to the titles that feature "die", "kill" or "live", some are cool, but there are too many of them! Still, the only titles I would've changed would be Licence to Kill (it's just four years after A View to a Kill!), Tomorrow Never Dies ("Lies" would've been better), and Die Another Day. QOS is a bizarre one - it understandably refers to Bond's post-CR mood, but then the villain's organization happens to be named Quantum too. Awkward circumstances, with predictable confusion from moviegoers. |
|
 | |
Prisoner Monkeys Chief Executive


Posts : 2849 Member Since : 2011-10-29 Location : Located
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:53 pm | |
| - Perilagu Khan wrote:
- Another tremendous Fleming title would be The Fierce Possession.
I like it, but I think it would need some explaining - and as we saw with QUANTUM OF SOLACE, the press know that "New James Bond Title is WTF LOL" makes for a better headline that "New James Bond Title Means This ..." |
|
 | |
FieldsMan Chief Executive


Posts : 4472 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : The Alpine Room
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:21 pm | |
| - Harmsway wrote:
- FieldsMan wrote:
- The Elegant Venus
Can you honestly picture that on a Bond poster? It's not a Bondian title. At all.
There's an element of mystery to it. I like it. |
|
 | |
Louis Armstrong Moderator


Posts : 853 Member Since : 2010-05-26
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:52 pm | |
| |
|
 | |
CJB Chief Executive


Posts : 4048 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : 'Straya
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:01 pm | |
| Give or take a letter or two... |
|
 | |
Perilagu Khan Chief Executive


Posts : 3465 Member Since : 2011-03-22 Location : The high plains
 | Subject: s Tue May 01, 2012 12:12 am | |
| - Louis Armstrong wrote:
- Sounds like porn.
But very classy porn. |
|
 | |
right idea, wrong pussy Correspondent


Posts : 122 Member Since : 2012-04-14
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Tue May 01, 2012 7:40 am | |
| - FieldsMan wrote:
- Harmsway wrote:
- FieldsMan wrote:
- The Elegant Venus
Can you honestly picture that on a Bond poster? It's not a Bondian title. At all.
There's an element of mystery to it. I like it.
James Bond, art critic!  |
|
 | |
Gravity's Silhouette Chief Executive


Posts : 3910 Member Since : 2011-04-16 Location : Inside my safe space
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Tue May 01, 2012 8:05 am | |
| - Perilagu Khan wrote:
- Louis Armstrong wrote:
- Sounds like porn.
But very classy porn.
It would be classy porn only if Babs is producing the movie. Then you just know she'd have to hire an Oscar-nominated writer and director to work on the film. |
|
 | |
Louis Armstrong Moderator


Posts : 853 Member Since : 2010-05-26
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Thu May 03, 2012 2:10 pm | |
| - Harmsway wrote:
- I think it sounds like a video game. Fits with such "meh" titles as NIGHTFIRE and BLOOD STONE, titles that attempt to evoke the mystique of the Bond franchise's one-word titles, but ultimately aren't all that mysterious or vivid.
The biggest problem with the title is that it is incredibly short. It's two syllables long (same as Nightfire and Blood Stone), and no Bond film previous has suffered such a slight name. It's also not an unexpected or unlikely compound word. Thunderbolt? No, Thunderball. Skyfall? Oh, okay. Sounds normal enough. Things in the sky often do fall, and the sky falling is a common notion. Boring. I think Blood Stone has potential. It's somewhat evocative. Although I prefer Blood From a Stone as a title. |
|
 | |
Harmsway Chief Executive


Posts : 2801 Member Since : 2011-08-22
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Thu May 03, 2012 11:56 pm | |
| The trick with original Bond titles is that it's often quite difficult to find something that is sufficiently clever and sufficiently Bondian. It's altogether far too tempting to simply through "death" or "die" somewhere in some recognizable expression and think the result quite clever (ala, say, ONE DEATH TO DIE, which is as rubbish as it gets).
The trick of a great Bond title is to be something at once both pulpy and poetic, with a touch of the surreal. GHOST OF A CHANCE, perhaps? At the very least, it sounds like something Fleming might have conceived of and later rejected, ala THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH. Same goes for, say, DEATH HAS TWO FACES, which isn't altogether too terrible, provided the story had a good enough explanation for it. A SPY FOR A SPY? Now we're just getting silly.
And then there's the one-word titles. They can be pulled off by folks who aren't Ian Fleming (Gardner's novels gave us two good ones in ICEBREAKER and BROKENCLAW, though SEAFIRE leaves a great deal to be desired), but they're the hardest ones to pull off. SKYFALL doesn't quite cut it. I'm still waiting on EON to use SHATTERHAND and/or SHAMELADY. |
|
 | |
Largo's Shark Moderator


Posts : 10600 Member Since : 2011-03-14
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Thu May 03, 2012 11:58 pm | |
| Nice copy n paste there. ;) |
|
 | |
Harmsway Chief Executive


Posts : 2801 Member Since : 2011-08-22
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Thu May 03, 2012 11:59 pm | |
| - Sharky wrote:
- Nice copy n paste there. ;)
I pride myself on my laziness. |
|
 | |
FieldsMan Chief Executive


Posts : 4472 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : The Alpine Room
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 12:09 am | |
| Shatterhand would be fantastic! |
|
 | |
Perilagu Khan Chief Executive


Posts : 3465 Member Since : 2011-03-22 Location : The high plains
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 12:49 am | |
| I've never liked Shatterhand. And Shamelady's worse by a factor of five. |
|
 | |
Harmsway Chief Executive


Posts : 2801 Member Since : 2011-08-22
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 2:35 am | |
| - Perilagu Khan wrote:
- I've never liked Shatterhand. And Shamelady's worse by a factor of five.
Mileage may vary. I prefer them both to SKYFALL by a factor of ten. ;) |
|
 | |
Prisoner Monkeys Chief Executive


Posts : 2849 Member Since : 2011-10-29 Location : Located
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 11:43 am | |
| - Perilagu Khan wrote:
- I've never liked Shatterhand.
Neither. I never liked the way Fleming used it as an alias for Blofeld in YOLT - it was obviously fake. I do like SHAMELADY, though. |
|
 | |
AMC Hornet Senior Correspondent

Posts : 726 Member Since : 2011-08-19 Location : Station 'C' - Canada
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 11:59 am | |
| |
|
 | |
bitchcraft Chief Executive


Posts : 3013 Member Since : 2011-03-28 Location : I don't know what things will be like in 2 years. I don't have 2020 vision.
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 12:03 pm | |
| Hmmm...Shamelady....sort of like me in my campus years.... :face: |
|
 | |
The White Tuxedo Chief Executive


Posts : 6062 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : ELdorado 5-9970
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 12:51 pm | |
| I came up with a title years back with "death". DEATH IS AN ALLY. That's all I got when it comes to "death". Though I think Benson's NEVER DREAM OF DYING isn't the crappiest one I've heard.
SHATTERHAND makes me think of a hand full of... well.
I wrote part of a Bond short story years back about Bond in an icy environment titled DANGER, ON THE ROCKS. But that would be at best a short story title.
Had a movie idea called SHADOW OF THE GUN, but the original Star Trek series had an episode called "Specter of the Gun".
Last edited by The White Tuxedo on Fri May 04, 2012 12:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
 | |
Harmsway Chief Executive


Posts : 2801 Member Since : 2011-08-22
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 12:53 pm | |
| - The White Tuxedo wrote:
- Though I think Benson's NEVER DREAM OF DYING isn't the crappiest one I've heard.
It's my favorite Benson title. Very elegant. |
|
 | |
Makeshift Python Chief Executive


Posts : 6800 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : Up
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 1:45 pm | |
| Thunderball = nuclear blast |
|
 | |
The White Tuxedo Chief Executive


Posts : 6062 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : ELdorado 5-9970
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 2:50 pm | |
| Oh shit, you're right. I'd even about read that before. |
|
 | |
Largo's Shark Moderator


Posts : 10600 Member Since : 2011-03-14
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles Fri May 04, 2012 9:52 pm | |
| |
|
 | |
Perilagu Khan Chief Executive


Posts : 3465 Member Since : 2011-03-22 Location : The high plains
 | Subject: s Fri May 04, 2012 11:50 pm | |
| - Mrs Aural Sects wrote:
- Hmmm...Shamelady....sort of like me in my campus years.... :face:
God be praised! You've brought back your nice avatar. I assume Tiffy's forgiven? |
|
 | |
Perilagu Khan Chief Executive


Posts : 3465 Member Since : 2011-03-22 Location : The high plains
 | Subject: s Fri May 04, 2012 11:53 pm | |
| - Harmsway wrote:
- The White Tuxedo wrote:
- Though I think Benson's NEVER DREAM OF DYING isn't the crappiest one I've heard.
It's my favorite Benson title. Very elegant.
It's not bad, although I'm firmly in the camp that supports a 50-year moratorium on the use of death and all its cognates in Bond film titles. |
|
 | |
Sponsored content
 | Subject: Re: The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles  | |
| |
|
 | |
| The Increasing Strangeness of James Bond Titles | |
|