The Dark Side of the Bond Films

What do you think are some of the darkest scenes of the Bond franchise?

I'll nominate this scene:


I think several elements make this "dark".

First, as the audience, we know Corinne is working with Bond; along with being a beautiful woman, she's also one of the "good guys". Then we have Drax speaking to her coldly and disposing of her in a ruthless, barbaric manner. Barry's music, the building of the piano and then the release of the full strings, brilliantly creates apprehension and dread. The location is ominous, as well.

And all of this in the bozo of Bond films. For me, it seems a lot "darker" than watching Bond slam a man through a bathroom stall or telling someone to drink motor oil in the desert.

Gravity's nomination.

I nominate this....



Ok, so it ain't a patch on the nasty scene that Fleming wrote, but it still surprises me to this day that this made it to the final cut, being easily the most violent scene in the franchise, even with the slight comedy angle to it.

I think its mainly down to Craig's acting which makes this the most darkest scene for me. We never usually see Bond look so scared, or scream out in pain (if you ignore Brozza's failed `pain face' efforts)......

Control wrote:

What do you think are some of the darkest scenes of the Bond franchise?

I'll nominate this scene:

^ This one.

What makes it stand out even more, it's in stark contrast to quite a number of other scenes in MR which try too hard to be funny (like Jaws flapping his arms trying to fly or that fucking pigeon).

Yeah, out of context you'd think it wasn't even from the same film.

Felix is fed to the sharks in LTK, largely due to the performances of Davi, Del Toro and Hedison.

Agreed about Corrine's death… Possibly my favourite scene in MR.

bitchcraft wrote:

Control wrote:

What do you think are some of the darkest scenes of the Bond franchise?

I'll nominate this scene:

^ This one.

What makes it stand out even more, it's in stark contrast to quite a number of other scenes in MR which try too hard to be funny (like Jaws flapping his arms trying to fly or that fucking pigeon).

Agreed. Also within the scene itself - the stark contrast between Barry's dreamlike score along with Jean Tournier's impressionist cinematography next to the horror of what's going on. It's like something out a Bronte adaptation.

Thinking of it, Corrine's put-down is probably one of the most powerful scenes from the franchise.

Yes, it's hard to believe that an hour after this scene Roger Moore was having a zero gravity space fuck.

CJB wrote:

Yes, it's hard to believe that an hour after this scene Roger Moore was having a zero gravity space fuck.

And Jaws was drinking champagne with a blonde in an exploding space station.

John Barry must've been rolling his fucking eyes through out the scoring sessions.

Seriously, I'd put forward Bond's monologue from SF.



Terrific performances, scoring, directing (the slow dolly-in on Bond is subtle but very effective) and writing.

Shame about the uploader fucking it up with the compressed and flanged audio.

Yes, the Moonraker one - brr. It's a really violent film. Bond watching the scientists get gassed (although he can't do anything about it) is also very dark.

Thankfully the scene where the Double-Take Pigeon is flattened by a car never made it to the final cut.

The scene where Wint and Kidd masturbated over Mrs Whistler's corpse was mildly disturbing.

bitchcraft wrote:

Control wrote:

What do you think are some of the darkest scenes of the Bond franchise?

I'll nominate this scene:

^ This one.

What makes it stand out even more, it's in stark contrast to quite a number of other scenes in MR which try too hard to be funny (like Jaws flapping his arms trying to fly or that fucking pigeon).

Haven't seen Moonraker in a while. That scene is fab.

FieldsMan wrote:

Felix is fed to the sharks in LTK, largely due to the performances of Davi, Del Toro and Hedison.

Hedison? Really?? Couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.

Control wrote:

And all of this in the bozo of Bond films. For me, it seems a lot "darker" than watching Bond slam a man through a bathroom stall or telling someone to drink motor oil in the desert.

It's one of the most savage moments in the Bond franchise. It plays like a nasty nightmare.

bitchcraft wrote:

Control wrote:

What do you think are some of the darkest scenes of the Bond franchise?

I'll nominate this scene:

^ This one.

What makes it stand out even more, it's in stark contrast to quite a number of other scenes in MR which try too hard to be funny (like Jaws flapping his arms trying to fly or that fucking pigeon).

Even with the whole space thing going on, if you cut out the comical Jaws moments and the Dolly storyline and those really silly gags that pop up you actually have a pretty damn good film when it's all said and done. It's kind of a shame. Even with the space angle, I think a few tweaks to the script to make it a little bit more serious in tone would have done it a world of wonders.

With that said, I think it's certainly Bernard Lee's best outing as M. At least since the first three Connery films. Him and Rog never really seemed to mesh well. It didn't have the Connery-Lee dynamic. But I think Moonraker came pretty close to capturing it.

FieldsMan wrote:

Felix is fed to the sharks in LTK, largely due to the performances of Davi, Del Toro and Hedison.

Hedison? Really?? Couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.[/quote]

Hedison is only slightly better than Terry. Hedison almost reminds me a bit of Rik Van Nutter, except at least Van Nutter is probably the closest (looks wise, at least) to the Felix of the books.

Hedison being torn apart by sharks his pretty hilarious, the acting is pretty bad.

I'd probably take Norman Burton over Hedison. It was an odd portrayal. At least he tried to make his Felix unique and different instead of just a dull, cardboard character. He's the only who really tried to give the character little personality.

I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL, SANCHEZ!

You're all wrong.

The scenes you've nominated, such as Dufour's mauling by the dogs, or Leiter being fed to a shark, while dark, are actions to be expected by the villain. I even remember some fans outraged that Patrick McNee was killed off in AVTAK, vowing to never watch a Bond film again.

The worst, darkest scene in the entire series is one that was performed by Bond; it left the audience I was with noticeably uncomfortable: it was b]when Bond dumps Mathis' body in the garbage bin like a sack of trash[/b]. It was disgusting, it was crude, it was reprehensible....it was not supposed to be Bond, but for some reason Paul Haggis and Daniel Craig thought that audiences wanted to see that kind of 007 in a Bond film. Clearly they were mistaken.

I wouldn't call it the darkest scene, but I would call it one of the dumbest.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I wouldn't call it the darkest scene, but I would call it one of the dumbest.

I wouldn't call it the darkest or dumbest, but ugliest.

Bond wanted to make his death look like a robbery. Plus he put the mission first...dead bodies can still be useful.

Problem is that didn't really come through because they eventually caught up with Bond anyway (due to his negligence) and since the police are corrupt, it was kind of a pointless move on Bond. It would have made a nice call back to Mathis' remark in CR, I just wish it came off better and made some actual sense.

It all just confirms how the filmmakers were forced to do things on the fly. Just an attempt to say "wow this Bond is dark", which would be fine, if, again, it made sense.

Yeah, it was a very, very dumb move.

Harmsway wrote:

Yeah, it was a very, very dumb movie.