Haphazard Bond Observations

Let this be the thread for any thoughts you might have on the Bondoverse that, while interesting, don't merit a separate thread.

I'll kick it off with an observation from the Khantessa. While listening to the Moonraker soundtrack tonight she noted that although the film is one of the funniest and most lighthearted in the Bond canon, its score is quite possibly the most melancholy.

True. And something I'd never noticed before. I don't think anybody would pick up on this unless they listened to the soundtrack outside of its filmic context.

I'd say DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER possibly gives MOONRAKER a run for its money (listen to Following the Diamonds, Peter Franks, middle third of Death at the Whyte House, Slumber Inc. etc.)

It's something I've noticed ever since I listened to the soundtrack for the first time. It really adds something unique to MR and is one of the reasons I prefer that film over TSWLM. Sometimes the music sounds like it should be for a very different flick, as listening to "Cable Car and Snake Fight" sounds like something dramatic and terrorizing is happening but on the screen it's Jaws comically crashing.

Over the years I've thought of an advertisement that would utilize this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JM2H7SIoGk It would be something old fashioned like a man chasing a woman from his dreams and at the end she reveals something he's always wanted but didn't know: [insert product "iPhone, a hamburger, can of beans, pack of smokes, ect"].

DAF has the conclusion to Peter Franks, Wint & Kidd's theme and Moon Buggy Ride to liven things up, plus The Whyte House and Circus Circus additional cues. In all, a tie with LALD for my favorite soundtrack.

But quite right: if you heard the MR soundtrack before seeing the film, you wouldn't expect such a score behind some of the goings-on - it's Mr. Barry who brings gravitas to the proceedings. His majestic Flight Into Space and Space Laser Battle, however, keep their seqences from appearing too OTT (until you've left the theatre and reflect on what you've just seen, rather than what you've just heard).

Must have been a job and a half for the Maestro, grounding that crazy movie.

What's the answer to the riddle, "you sit on it but you can't take it with you"?

"Chair", obviously.

As if you can't take a chair with you. Unless it's one of those bolted-down chairs. Those are a bitch to steal.

Python wrote:

What's the answer to the riddle, "you sit on it but you can't take it with you"?

"Chair", obviously.

I can't be sure, but I think this might be an actual Russian joke that has been translated into English. I'd say that some of the Russian words for "backside" and "chair" sound very similar.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Python wrote:

What's the answer to the riddle, "you sit on it but you can't take it with you"?

"Chair", obviously.

I can't be sure, but I think this might be an actual Russian joke that has been translated into English. I'd say that some of the Russian words for "backside" and "chair" sound very similar.

Can't say that there are.

I'd say that Natalya's confusion stems from her perception of Boris in that juvenile sex jokes are on his mind because he can't get any. Hence Bond's quick answer - he doesn't know Boris and can only answer literally.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Python wrote:

What's the answer to the riddle, "you sit on it but you can't take it with you"?

"Chair", obviously.

I can't be sure, but I think this might be an actual Russian joke that has been translated into English. I'd say that some of the Russian words for "backside" and "chair" sound very similar.

Maybe, I have no clue.

FieldsMan wrote:

I'd say that Natalya's confusion stems from her perception of Boris in that juvenile sex jokes are on his mind because he can't get any. Hence Bond's quick answer - he doesn't know Boris and can only answer literally.

I guess your right, though personally I always feel a little cheated that the answer isn't something really smutty...Roger Moore would of thought of one!

"Booty...situpon...cheeks...derriere..."

"BOOM!"

On reflection I think a better answer from Bond would of been - 'A vibrating washing machine'*







*I once read about that sort of thing in Cosmopolitan!

Python wrote:

It's something I've noticed ever since I listened to the soundtrack for the first time. It really adds something unique to MR and is one of the reasons I prefer that film over TSWLM. Sometimes the music sounds like it should be for a very different flick, as listening to "Cable Car and Snake Fight" sounds like something dramatic and terrorizing is happening but on the screen it's Jaws comically crashing.

Over the years I've thought of an advertisement that would utilize this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JM2H7SIoGk It would be something old fashioned like a man chasing a woman from his dreams and at the end she reveals something he's always wanted but didn't know: [insert product "iPhone, a hamburger, can of beans, pack of smokes, ect"].

The music DOES belong in a different film. I was deep in the midst of grinding out my super-8 epics during this period, and as soon as I got out of the theater (my head reeling, because I couldn't believe that they could deliver a pic that pissed me off more than SPY, and yet they had accomplished this), I went looking for the vinyl, because I knew the 'going to space' cue and the 'dog sics girl' cue would be perfect for my short 'last guy in the universe' film based on Ben Bova's STARS, WON'T YOU HIDE ME? (relating vaguely to Bond through 6 degrees of Pierce Brosnan, because the short story is punctuated by passages from the folk song 'Sinner Man,' utilized to strikingly different effect in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.)

Probably because my childhood revolved around watching NFL highlight films and being warped by seeing 2001 in L.A at age 7-1/2 during its first release, I have always been having my visuals influenced by, often driven by, music, sometimes in a most ironic fashion. I would come up with a rough idea for a story, then listen to soundtracks, which would actually generate shots and even dialog exchanges in my head. I was even doing this in my 30s, working out story ideas for various episodes of my dream series by having each installment deriving from an existing piece of Goldsmith score. It started as a bit of a gag, but soon I realized that his stuff really did spark my brain in a way nothing else has.

The music when Hanks & Newman play with the piano in ROAD TO PERDITION has always haunted me ... it feels like the thing you carry away from a dream, where it seems you are on the verge of some great discovery ... and can't quite remember it.

Specific sounds of music can kind of ruin movies for you too ... when I first saw THE UNTOUCHABLES and heard Capone's theme, all I could think of was the motorboat approach to Stromberg's Atlantis in SPY. My mind still defaults that same way a quarter-century later.

And audio conditioning becomes addicitive. When I fail to hear brass at certain points in a Bond movie, it pretty much stops being a Bond movie for me.

trevanian wrote:

The music when Hanks & Newman play with the piano in ROAD TO PERDITION has always haunted me ... it feels like the thing you carry away from a dream, where it seems you are on the verge of some great discovery ... and can't quite remember it.

Or you find your notes are inadequate, see Fermat's Last Theorem.

trevanian wrote:

Ben Bova's STARS, WON'T YOU HIDE ME? (relating vaguely to Bond through 6 degrees of Pierce Brosnan, because the short story is punctuated by passages from the folk song 'Sinner Man,' utilized to strikingly different effect in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.)

The song evokes Pierce Brosnan for you, but not Steve McQueen?

AMC Hornet wrote:

trevanian wrote:

Ben Bova's STARS, WON'T YOU HIDE ME? (relating vaguely to Bond through 6 degrees of Pierce Brosnan, because the short story is punctuated by passages from the folk song 'Sinner Man,' utilized to strikingly different effect in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.)

The song evokes Pierce Brosnan for you, but not Steve McQueen?

Not a fan of his acting, and certainly not of him personally (trying to shoot an apple off his dog's head and instead blowing the dog's head off? Yeah, I'd really want to get behind THAT guy.)

I own BULLITT (as of a week back), but I'm pretty sure there's no other McQueen movie I've seen twice, outside of MAG7.

The Jewison version of CROWN needed a classier act, seriously. To me it is like DUNE, where you've got world-class acting talent surrounding the black hole that Kyle was at that point.

trevanian wrote:

trying to shoot an apple off his dog's head and instead blowing the dog's head off? Yeah, I'd really want to get behind THAT guy.

Then I guess you're not a fan of William S. Burroughs.

Burroughs at least had being drunk as a non-excuse. McQueen was on-set and in full possession of his faculties.

I saw Craig, Dench and Bardem on The Graham Norton Show last night. I had to laugh at one of Norton's observations:




"Javier Bardem plays Raoul Silva, a platinum-haired megalomaniac who wreaks havoc on central London!"

Smash cut to:

trevanian wrote:

AMC Hornet wrote:

trevanian wrote:

Ben Bova's STARS, WON'T YOU HIDE ME? (relating vaguely to Bond through 6 degrees of Pierce Brosnan, because the short story is punctuated by passages from the folk song 'Sinner Man,' utilized to strikingly different effect in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.)

The song evokes Pierce Brosnan for you, but not Steve McQueen?

Not a fan of his acting, and certainly not of him personally (trying to shoot an apple off his dog's head and instead blowing the dog's head off? Yeah, I'd really want to get behind THAT guy.)

What don't you like about his acting? I'm asking, because I find this more interesting than going off on some tangent about his private life. McQueen was a strange, lonely guy, but that's neither here nor there.

Saunders...V Section wrote:

On reflection I think a better answer from Bond would of been - 'A vibrating washing machine'*







*I once read about that sort of thing in Cosmopolitan!

Cosmo!

Quote :

Haphazard Bond Observations

Craig looks silly when he runs.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Quote :

Haphazard Bond Observations

Craig looks silly when he runs.

The ears create a certain aerodynamic lift.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Quote :

Haphazard Bond Observations

Craig looks silly when he runs.

The ears create a certain aerodynamic lift.

So he can take the title role when DUMBO gets remade?