Roger Moore has died.

[colacentral]

Double whammy for Nigel Farage today. He'll be sobbing into a sherry tonight.

New page Bond.

[billtheburger]

His Live and Let Die diary suggests he knew a little extra about the JFK assassination

Plus it's a great read.

[biggytitbo]

That was before the Zapruder film was first shown to the public on the Geraldo show, so it was undoubtedly that, because Garrison was the source of the leak.

[Brundle-Fly]

I never got the whole 'bad actor' thing. I always thought his performances were charismatic and witty. Moore's great in The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970). Anyway, another beloved childhood hero gone. R.I.P.

[mobias]

Very sad news. He seemed on fine form until relatively recently too. It must have been a quite cancer to get him. Still may favourite bond. His era seemed the most fun and also the most memorable.

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

This calls for a Bondathon, starting with The Best Film Ever Made (GLANG! GERLANGERLANG...)... RIP Sir Rog.

I promised a karma to the first glangerlanger in the thread. Sorry

+1 imaginary karma

[biggytitbo]

[mobias]

What a story, what a guy.

[royce coolidge]

RIP Roger,one of the old school gentlemen.And of course V T A K was a great Bond film !

[Glebe]

RIP Rog... the 'funnest' Bond, and the quintessential English gent.

[Rolf Lundgren]

He was the first to admit that he wasn't exactly a great actor, but he proved to be a fine human being.

In his autobiography he repeatedly remarks on how bad an actor he is and makes tongue-in-cheek references to his acting style as eyebrow up or eyebrow down. I kept thinking he needed someone to put an arm around him and tell him he was actually alright.

[monkfromhavana]

Moore was the best Bond, made some fine films, some enjoyable toss, but you always got the impression that he was sincere...and if it was a bad joke, you were in on it with Rog.

North Sea Hijack (or Fffffoulkes to give it it's US name) was very enjoyable.

[Howj Begg]

In his autobiography he repeatedly remarks on how bad an actor he is and makes tongue-in-cheek references to his acting style as eyebrow up or eyebrow down. I kept thinking he needed someone to put an arm around him and tell him he was actually alright.

Heh, this makes me like him all the Moore, far more than Connery, who starred in at least half a dozen good to great films (including Zardoz!) and Moore starred in... none as far as I can see from scanning IMDB.

[Buelligan]

Are any Bond films actually good, though, in all honesty?

No.

[Mr Brightside]

No.

Bollocks.

[Revelator]

A View to a Kill was my favourite as a kid....Basically every other Moore Bond was fucking garbage though.

A View to a Kill was Moore's least favorite Bond film--his favorite was The Spy Who Loved Me. That seems to be the general consensus view and a pretty wise one. I quite liked A View to a Kill when I was 8, but the direction sags more than Moore's facelift and the plot rehashes Goldfinger. The one great scene is the fight on top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Are any Bond films actually good, though, in all honesty?

From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and The Spy Who Loved Me are classics. And I'd rank You Only Live Twice, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, and Casino Royale as good. And some Bond films (Moonraker) are very good at being very bad.

In case anyone's missed it, this is a lovely Moore story: https://twitter.com/MrKenShabby/status/867036448037511169/photo/1

I don't mind saying that Moore was an underrated actor. He was the last of the suave, light-touched David Niven types, and it takes skill to pull off that sort of role and to project the charm and warmth that he did.

Heh, this makes me like him all the Moore, far more than Connery, who starred in at least half a dozen good to great films (including Zardoz!) and Moore starred in... none as far as I can see from scanning IMDB.

North Sea Hijack (aka ffolkes), The Man Who Haunted Himself, Gold, and Shout at the Devil are worth watching. The latter two were directed by Peter Hunt, who made On Her Majesty's Secret Service the best Bond film.

[monkfromhavana]

That story is fantastic, I almost shed a tear.

[Mr Brightside]

From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and The Spy Who Loved Me are classics. And I'd rank You Only Live Twice, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, and Casino Royale as good. And some Bond films (Moonraker) are very good at being very bad.

Would you not put GoldenEye and Skyfall with these?

The latter two were directed by Peter Hunt, who made On Her Majesty's Secret Service the best Bond film.

I think this might have been true if it had a properly good Bond in it. Lazenby isn't as terrible as a lot of people make out, but he is the worst Bond.

[Kane Jones]

I think Revelator's choices are pretty spot on, but I would also put Live And Let Die in the top tier.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is brilliant, and I would say Dalton is the worst Bond personally.

[Howj Begg]

North Sea Hijack (aka ffolkes), The Man Who Haunted Himself, Gold, and Shout at the Devil are worth watching. The latter two were directed by Peter Hunt, who made On Her Majesty's Secret Service the best Bond film.

cheers. The Man who Haunted Himself looks alright.

I've watched enough Bond in my life to know what they're like.

[Mr Brightside]

Who would win in a fight between Simon Templar and James Bond?

[mobias]

That story is fantastic, I almost shed a tear.

Isn't it just. It also has a second part, which i didn't realise before.

[Revelator]

Would you not put GoldenEye and Skyfall with these?

You're right, I should have included Skyfall. For whatever reason, I've never been very fond of GoldenEye, though it probably saved the franchise.

I think this might have been true if it had a properly good Bond in it. Lazenby isn't as terrible as a lot of people make out, but he is the worst Bond.

He's no Connery, but I think he did well as a sort of everyman-Bond. Plus he was excellent in fight scenes and action in general. And he was excellent in the finale, which is where you'd have expected an inexperienced actor to fall down.

[Mr Brightside]

He's no Connery, but I think he did well as a sort of everyman-Bond. Plus he was excellent in fight scenes and action in general. And he was excellent in the finale, which is where you'd have expected an inexperienced actor to fall down.

He's definitely physically convincing, just not sure about the other stuff. I guess the Hilary Bray dubbing thing didn't help.

[Replies From View]

First film Bond to die. He was the most fun Bond.

The name is Bond.





Fun Bond.

[the hum]

Would you not put GoldenEye and Skyfall with these?

I'd definitely put Goldeneye in the good, if not very good category. Shame the rest of the Brosnan era was utter drek though. Skyfall though? Meh.

The Living Daylights may very well be my favourite. It's about the only film in the canon that had a serious crack at the complexities of Cold War espionage, although it arguably has its failings in that in trying to be a more serious effort the attempted humour feels jarring, as if it's been shoehorned in from the Moore era. Still, it's got the best ever Bond car, and we get to see it lasering the chassis off a Lada. What's not to love?

I'd go with the consensus on Moore and say The Spy Who Loved Me, although like many here I have an irrational soft spot for A View To A Kill.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Watching The Spy Who Loved Me for the first time in about 15 years. I feel old today.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

It was only a matter of time before his beatification was announced.

[Revelator]

To expand what I said earlier about Moore's acting...There's a documentary on Moore included with the Blu-Ray of Gold, and in it David Niven's son praises Moore as his father's heir and an underrated player of light comedy. This makes Moore the last of a kind--the suave, unflappable, lighthearted, kindly, and very English gentleman. There isn't anyone acting today with that sort of old-fashioned savoir faire. Moore had a talent for projecting dapper aplomb and the skill to play with light touch. He did more than lift an eyebrow--he savored his roles as he played them, knowing when to step outside character to add a level of irony and deploy his charm, that playful complicity with the audience.

Bond would not have survived the 1970s without moving in a more comedic and lighthearted direction, and Moore was the best man for the job. Perhaps he regarded The Spy Who Loved Me as his favorite because he made the role his own in it. His first two Bond films were still in the Diamonds Are Forever mode--movies that didn't believe in themselves--and they made Moore's style look insubstantial and redundant. The Spy Who Loved Me was, despite its humor, a seriously-done epic, and it allowed Moore to pit his detachment and ironic commentary against the movie's monster-size scale and drama. And when the later Bond films floated down to earth, they allowed Moore to tap into his vulnerability--"the spark in his worried, squinched-up eyes" to quote Pauline Kael--and his good-humored warmth.

The last quality is why some scenes from his first two Bonds, when he's made to imitate Connery, don't work. You don't buy the idea of Moore's Bond slapping a woman, because he isn't prone to that sort of enraged brutality. Look instead at For Your Eyes Only, at the scene where he kicks Locque's car off a cliff. His anger is controlled, the usual ironic detachment transmuted to icy, calm vengefulness. The scene is so fine it reminds you how good some of his films could have been if they'd given Moore more opportunities to act with sober coolness. You can also find it in a scene from The Spy Who Loved Me, where he admits to killing Anya's lover. The detachment behind his usual irony becomes the source for a moment of direct honesty--no quips or raised eyebrows, just the admission of responsibility and a statement of purpose. It was the flip-side of his famous charm.

[Jittlebags]

I really liked Gold, with the lovely Susannah York. It's only a 5.7 on IMDB, but I really enjoyed it, presumably in 1974 when it came out. Might be rubbish if I watch it again now, especially after a bit of Dark Knight stuff.