Bond Drinks Beer

Bond takes a beer break! Man loves his suds.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Self-serving to what end? Saying "self-serving" as if that's a trait that inherently makes a character villainous is a little ridiculous.

Self-serving in that all of their actions appear to be designed to benefit themselves. I'm juxtaposing that against a potential origin as the East India Company, when they would have served the interests of England. As their modern incarnation, they wouldn't give a damn about Britain.

tiffanywint wrote:

Bond and Heineken have partnered for 15 years apparently. Who knew?

"Heineken recently announced that it has extended its 15 year partnership with the James Bond franchise. It will introduce an unprecedented and innovative global marketing campaign to support the launch of the new film Skyfall.This is the 23rd film in the James Bond series, and the 6th consecutive James Bond film that the Heineken brand has been involved with……"



Read more: http://chrisreed.brandrepublic.com/2012/03/14/the-names-heineken-james-heineken/#ixzz1qwwyWgsk



If Bond must drink beer, I at least approve of the brand. It's my absolute favourite beer. Has been forever.

Olga likes it too!

Yep, I have a 007/Heineken-branded bottle opener given away with six-packs of it in connection with CR's release. At least Bond's graduated to promoting a 5% strength beer, unlike that 3.8% Carlsberg muck in TLD.

He drinks beer with Leiter in QOS, if I recall.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Self-serving to what end? Saying "self-serving" as if that's a trait that inherently makes a character villainous is a little ridiculous.

Self-serving in that all of their actions appear to be designed to benefit themselves.

Thanks for that, could've never figured that one out.
What I'm trying to say is that you can't just say a villain is "self-serving" as if that's an inherently villainous trait, good enough to explain why the villain is dastardly. Iron Man is selfish but that doesn't make him evil. What sort've goal would you see them going after? For example, Sean Bean is self-serving in GoldenEye (it's all about satisifying his need for revenge against England), but what he's doing is ruining the financial system of the Western world. Which is why it's Bond's problem.

First off, this partnership with Heineken is nothing new. Second, didn't he have a beer in that bar scene with Felix in QOS? Or was that just Felix?

Regardless, EON has no hope of ever appeasing Bond fans. People make fun of him for being PC and wearing a dress, then word comes out that he might do something "manly" like have a beer and people lose their minds.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

*ugh*, I feel like a broken record, but Bond doesn't drink beer because that's not the kind of fellow he is. If James starts drinking cider and watching football in pubs then he's not really James Bond anymore, is he?
And he's got a very wide drink palette outside martinis. Bourbon, brandy, rye, scotch, champagne, etc.

Now, granted, looking through my Fleming he has been known to have beer (never English beer though):
A Lowenbrau in Goldfinger Chapter 14
Miller's Highlife in Diamonds Are Forever Chapter 10
Red Stripe in Man with the Golden Gun Chapter 5

For a long time I thought Bond had one in GOLDFINGER and when I looked at Khan's list and it wasn't there I thought I got it confused in another book. Looks like Khan has more work to do.

My list is of the "meals" of James Bond. I didn't make note if Bond popped into a roadside pub for a Watney's Red Barrel.

Fair enough. Somebody should start a complete list of drinks Bond had. I remember there used to be a statistic website of every drink he ever had in the films and books a couple of years ago. I can't seem to find it though.

Yes, there's been more general interest in Bond's bibulousness than his foodmanship because that aspect of the character has been portrayed more heavily in the films.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Yep, I have a 007/Heineken-branded bottle opener given away with six-packs of it in connection with CR's release. At least Bond's graduated to promoting a 5% strength beer, unlike that 3.8% Carlsberg muck in TLD.
He drinks beer with Leiter in QOS, if I recall.

You lucky dog. Put that bottle opener on Ebay. I'll pay triple asking price.

007 and Heineken. Awesome!

Is Bond actually going to have a Heineken on screen, or is this just an extension of the Heineken-Bond partnership that's extended through the past assortment of Bond films? I see no evidence that Bond's actually drinking beer in SKYFALL (though, as noted, it's not exactly without precedent in Fleming).

What about the fact that he has a beer bottle in his hand, and clinks it against Felix's while they talk in that bar in La Paz?

Fortunately, he started getting shot at and had to run before he was forced to drink any and defeat Harmsway's point.

So why is it so terrible if Bond enjoys a beer now and then (which he does, in at least four of Fleming's novels and at least one of Gardner's - COLD (appropriate, that!)). Because it smacks of inappropriate product placement? It's only inappropriate if neither Bond nor anyone else in the film would drink the stuff.

BTW, did anyone drink 7-Up in MR?

No one complained when the Smirnoff label was turned towards the camera in Dr. No and TND - and all the publicity around Finlandia replacing Smirnoff in DAD didn't affect the film - I never noticed any Finlandia bottles anyway.

Sure, product placement is getting out of hand (from my perspective the worst case was the inclusion of the #4 American automaker's new line in TMWTGG), but it's a fact of life, so let's just hope that the publicity around Skyfall's budget sources proves to be the most attention those sources get. Who knows? Perhaps C & W can succeed in working the products in as subtley as is possible in this day and age.

Yes, I know - who am I kidding? But a gilr can dream...

...and having said all that, I suddenly have a craving for 7-Up.

Didn't Bond said the best meal he ever had in one of the books was Stone Crabs and Beer?

IIRC, Bond had a beer with Felix in the Diamonds Are Forever novel...

Edit: looks like I was beaten to it.

I hear Lazenby was offered a can of Fosters on set and proceeded to deck the bastard.

CJB wrote:

I hear Lazenby was offered a can of Fosters on set and proceeded to deck the bastard.

Assisted by speed ramping no less.

AMC Hornet wrote:

What about the fact that he has a beer bottle in his hand, and clinks it against Felix's while they talk in that bar in La Paz?

Fortunately, he started getting shot at and had to run before he was forced to drink any and defeat Harmsway's point.

So why is it so terrible if Bond enjoys a beer now and then (which he does, in at least four of Fleming's novels and at least one of Gardner's - COLD (appropriate, that!)). Because it smacks of inappropriate product placement? It's only inappropriate if neither Bond nor anyone else in the film would drink the stuff.

BTW, did anyone drink 7-Up in MR?

No one complained when the Smirnoff label was turned towards the camera in Dr. No and TND - and all the publicity around Finlandia replacing Smirnoff in DAD didn't affect the film - I never noticed any Finlandia bottles anyway.

Sure, product placement is getting out of hand (from my perspective the worst case was the inclusion of the #4 American automaker's new line in TMWTGG), but it's a fact of life, so let's just hope that the publicity around Skyfall's budget sources proves to be the most attention those sources get. Who knows? Perhaps C & W can succeed in working the products in as subtley as is possible in this day and age.

Yes, I know - who am I kidding? But a gilr can dream...

No one cares about the product placement. Bond is probably the MOST product placement friendly franchise in the entire Western hemisphere. Practically all Bond does in the novels is list off the brands he spends money on -- food he eats, the liquor he drinks, the watch he wears, the suits he has, the cars he drives, the tobacco he smokes, etc. etc. etc. No one cares about the Smirnoff bottle labels because BOND DRINKS VODKA MARTINIS.

IT'S THE FREAKIN BEER, itself. As a concept. If he's drinking it, that is.

What makes Bond Bond, what makes him a unique and interesting character different from a Jason Bourne or an Ethan Hunt or a John McClane or a Harry Callahan is largely his attitudes and his behaviour which manifest themselves primarily in how he dresses and what he drinks -- his sense of class. His sense that since he's going to die tomorrow he might as well live it up today, after all it's on the company's time. In Fleming he could afford to have a beer once in a while (3 times in total over 14 books) because you're with Bond all the time and you know that this is a rarity (and we have Bond's internal monologue saying that he'd never been caught dead drinking a stout in a pub back in England etc). In a film you establish character visually. You also don't have a lot of time, especially in today's films that insist on go-go-go-go, no moments to slow down and pace and reflect. Which is strange because in Fleming that's often what Bond does -- he takes the time to stop and do something, like order food and drink, properly. But anyways, my point is that having Bond sit down at a bar and drink a Heineken -- specifically that brand and its associations -- creates a different image in an audience's mind, immediately and subconsciously, about the kind of guy Bond is.

If you're trying to make him more like a regular chap, more blue collar or something, well then he's just not James Bond anymore. I mean, I'm overstating the case for emphasis, but we've seen so many small bits of Bond's character chipped away over the years that eventually he won't really be James Bond. He'll be an MI6 agent with that name going on adventures, but it will largely be because that name recognition is worth money. It's easier to make a movie with a recognizable property than invent your own damn characters -- even if they way you're depicting those characters is miles apart from who they're supposed to be. Ask the filmmakers behind I, ROBOT, or CONSTANTINE or FROM HELL.

FB, your commitment to the Bond ideal is commendable.

Cheers!

Thank you. I find that my devotion to Fleming is usually bested only by Khanners, one of my primary role models and mentors online ever since I joined MI6. Him and Tux really brought me up when I joined in '06. So blame them for everything.

tiffanywint wrote:

FB, your commitment to the Bond ideal is commendable.

Cheers!

Indeed I would like to second that, everything that sets Bond apart, makes him different or special is being compromised in the current era. Hollywood spent years trying to copy Bond and failing, eventually developing its own action hero Hurrah! We have choice and variety, but the current production team seem so clueless about Bond they are just making him more of the same. It's not down to who plays Bond its more fundamental, Skyfall has to recover some ground and can't afford too many lapses like this.

j7wild wrote:

Didn't Bond said the best meal he ever had in one of the books was Stone Crabs and Beer?

Stone crabs, drawn butter, thick-sliced toast and champagne.

CJB wrote:

I hear Lazenby was offered a can of Fosters on set and proceeded to deck the bastard.

I heard Colin Salmon and Dame Judi Dench sat around on set in their underwear drinking Old English 800 40-dawgs when TND was being filmed.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Thank you. I find that my devotion to Fleming is usually bested only by Khanners, one of my primary role models and mentors online ever since I joined MI6. Him and Tux really brought me up when I joined in '06. So blame them for everything.

:oops:

This story is..........interesting. Van Jones was President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar" until Glenn Beck put enough heat on him (for being an avowed Communist and "truther") that it forced the White House to quietly let Jones go over the Labor Day weekend back in 2009. Of all the problems Jones could have found with the series, I'm surprised it's just the beer that is at issue:

The phrase “shaken, not stirred” has become such a signature of James Bond, that it’s hard to imagine him drinking any other than martinis. Well, turns out Bond will be drinking, yes, beer in an upcoming movie. And Van Jones, for one, is not happy about it.

On Wednesday morning’s Starting Point, Soledad O’Brien had a short segment about this, saying the martinis is the “thing that has been consistent” throughout Bond movies. Product placement, “which of course translates into dollars,” is to blame, she said. Advertising Age reported that Daniel Craig, as James Bond, will be sipping a Heineken in at least one scene in the forthcoming movie.

Jones was not pleased. “The first novels I read were Ian Fleming novels,” he said. “The idea that you’re gonna go from being this incredible, iconic — it’s the 50 year anniversary of the creation of this character, and now he becomes a corporate shill?”

Video here:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/van-jones-not-happy-james-bond-will-be-drinking-beer-turning-iconic-character-into-corporate-shill/

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Thank you. I find that my devotion to Fleming is usually bested only by Khanners, one of my primary role models and mentors online ever since I joined MI6. Him and Tux really brought me up when I joined in '06. So blame them for everything.

:oops:

Khan, you need a bath and I need to puke