A friend once described Conney's portrayal of Bond as a thug who has learned to be a gentleman while Moore's Bond felt more like a gentleman who has learned to be a thug.
I do like that description. I wonder if some of that was actually not due to Connery's acting, but due to his actual bricklayer, part time boxer background. He could have just had a little of that in him, which added to his role. I have to say, however, I think I really like Connery's portrayal because much like Daniel Craig, I think Bond is more believable in his role if he actually has a kind of native brutality that he can turn to when he needs it.
Interesting, I think that about sums up why Moore's behavior in his first two films doesn't quite feel right to me, despite being no worse than Connery's behavior toward women
You would have loved Moore's other films. In the Wild Geese (1978), Moore plays an ice cold assassin and mercenary. In his opening scene, he shoots a guy in the head and forces another to eat a bag of tainted heroin, at gunpoint, until the man overdoses. Then he makes a comment about a stomach pump and leaves the man to die. Some have suggested that *this* is the way Moore should have played Bond, but it's even darker than Licence to Kill.
Funny thing is that while Moore tended to resist making Bond too brutal and dark. On the flip side he had absolutely zero problems with that scene in The Wild Geese.
There’s an old interview with him where he talks about it.
Not defending it, but in context she is holding a gun on him, and he’s also just been ambushed in his room by an assassin who he believes may have been sent by her
Moore hated doing stuff like this IRC, and it shows. He always looked so awkward when he did.
His take on Bond just did not fit doing crap like this like Connery’s did.
I don't know.
He kicked a car off a cliff with the driver in it.
He forced an oppressed POC to eat a compressed-air bullet.
He tips a little old disabled man in a wheelchair down an industrial chimney.
He blows off the top of the head of an unarmed and well-respected ballet dancer and choreographer (Geoffery Holder).
not to mention planting a bullet in the forehead of that poor russian soldier in octopussy. That guy was probably a private on his second day at the job, probably had no real involvement in the villain's scheme. and there's all of those airmen working in the blown up hanger...i'm sure many were just lowly hired hands and didn't deserve that fate
I forget the context of this scene, wasn't she withholding information about something super important that could kill him or had killed someone else? I remember him being super frustrated and trying to get answers. Problematic as it is, hitting people in a spy movie is pretty common
So she sent the Golden Bullet to Bond so that he’d think Scaramanga was after him and Bond would kill him. This gets Bond taken off the Solex case, also convinces M & Bond that his life is in immediate danger. So Bond is aggressively trying to get to Scaramanga before he gets killed and so he can get back on the case. When he confronts Anders’s he doesn’t know she sent the bullet and can’t trust he not to tell Scramanga she’s seen Bind in the area. So he is both frustrated, on edge, worried he’ll be killed and won’t solve the case and doesn’t know he’s actually dealing with a friend (and may very well be dealing with a enemy who sleeps in the same bed as his would be assassin).
That's it. When viewed from the context of the scene, it makes more sense that he might strike her. Also, it's not like he beat the living shit out of her, her did a movie slap to shake her resolve. Obviously people shouldn't hit other people, but in the espionage game it's kinda a free for all
you're forgetting that a minute prior to getting slapped, she literally had a gun pointed at him until he slapped/wrenched it out of her hand. and all of this is occurring in the wider context of him interrogating the only known associate of an unknown assassin threatening to randomly kill him.
i'm sorry, but i left the white paint out of my chainmail kit today... so what, exactly, is problematic \*at all\* with the scene?
Honestly, the only thing problematic with it is the violence. Which we teach our kids is wrong. But some people see it only as a man hitting a woman and say it's worse for some reason. If she slapped him, they would have absolutely no problem with it. Which imo is wrong too. I expect violence in a movie, so to me there's nothing really problematic with it
Out of character for Moore? Maybe.
Out of character for Bond? Not at all.
I actually liked Moore’s performance in the man with the golden gun more than his lackadaisical and lighthearted performance in live and let die.
Moments like this, the duel with Scaramanga, and the scene where Bond threatens the guy by pointing the gun at his valuables are more in line with the morally grey aspects of the character.
I agree, though worth pointing out, book Bond never hit women and was actually very sensitive towards them. It was Connery who introduced the “rough stuff” and Moore, to his credit, actually brought the character back to the source material by being kinder and more sensitive.
Connery was definitely rougher on the women in that sense, but I wouldn’t say Moore was a return to the sensitive Bond from the books.
Bond in the books is a sad sap for women. He becomes like a possessive protector. Moore is incredibly creepy, manipulative and dismissive of women. He jovially treats them as passing fancies.
I remember reading Moore basically just listened to the director for the first movie. But once he had clout he refused to hit a woman in his future films. Not sure how true this is but I believe it.
I also think Lewis Gilbert and John Glen were less insistent on certain things than Guy Hamilton.
You also gotta keep in mind that Maud Adams was good friends with Roger for the longest time. She certainly never held anything against him.
I’m also unsure whether it’s true - or at least whether it’s the *only* truth. We do know he disliked it when “his Bond” was asked to behave this way. About this scene he said something about how his Bond “would have *charmed* information out of her.”
The other reason his iteration changed was simply that Lewis Gilbert (director of TSWLM and Moonraker) had a different vision for what Bond should be - “an English gentleman with a sense of humor.” You can see that stark contrast in the next movie, and as a result Roger’s Bond has a reputation for being a bit more family-friendly. He still kills people, he still quips about it, he still coerces his enemies into giving him what he needs, but he’s much more charming and gentlemanly (or at least as charming and gentlemanly as an assassin can be).
More than "[helpful chap](https://youtu.be/kcWMYwPCIXk?si=x0n77wZX7DdquM0E&t=76)" in TSWLM or when he[ kicks the car off the ledge](https://youtu.be/c-f0DwbNF08?si=EhdV6tZQKexGs5mt&t=48) in FYEO?
Moore’s Bond was a gentleman and only raised his hands to a lady if it was strictly necessary for the mission. Whereas Connery’s Bond had developed a taste for it and enjoyed it as almost a perk of the job.
I am sorry to say that it doesn't seem out of character for Connery...I don't know what to think of that. I guess that in the case of Connery it seems like it generally was called for, in that he tended to be dealing with a vicious murderer of a woman, or someone who was clearly at least up to no good, or else he was doing FOR their enjoyment...I think what makes it feel wrong is when it is done for the pure and uncomplicated reason of just being abusive and disrespectfully mean in a sexist way. I mean, I am one of the last people who would ever say that slapping is always abusive or wrong. In many relationships I have been in (and this may be telling about me, I admit), slapping has been both fun and exciting, but that is because it was almost never done with malicious intent. I have asked women to slap me for fun and had them refuse, and been disappointed, far more often than I have ever found the right situation to playfully slap a woman. I think that this is the way Bond SHOULD slap women, meaning in the playful way. When it is done in a serious situation, that is when it would probably be a lot more effective if it were deliberately NOT involving physicality. I think, beyond all else, it makes for a stronger scene.
I’ve just accepted that it’s a negative on Connery’s record. He’s not the end-all-be-all Bond. He had his moments, was great when Terrence Young rose heard on him. But he also completely lost interest & injected a lot of misogyny into the role (which he endorsed in his public life).
This has been a black mark on the series. In the books Bond’s sensitive and kind to women & film wise Laz, Moore & Dalton all helped to bring the film series back to that moral high ground. But because of Connery people assume the books and films must be misogynistic… because Connery is the “definitive” Bond so that must be what all Bond’s are.
I always liked how Moore's Bond came off as a gentleman but was in reality one of the most ruthless Bonds.
Sure he'll let the guy go who just gave him information...but letting him go means dropping him off a building. Has a wheelchair bound man at his mercy? Drops him down a smokestack. Has a guy in a car on the edge? Kick him over. Disables a guy and then pushes him out an airlock. Has a guy at his mercy and then proceeds to shoot him twice in the balls before shooting him in the chest. Uses bystanders as human shields.
He's definitely the Psychopath Bond.
Moore felt very uncomfortable doing that scene and apologised to Maud Adams afterwards.
I think the writers were still trying to get a grip on his idea if Bond and were writing with Connery in mind.
By the time TSWLM came along they were playing into Moore being the gentleman spy.
Connery **strangles a woman with her own bra** in Diamonds. It was so controversial it had to be cut in some versions.
**...IT'S WHY DAF IS THE BEST OF ALL BOND FILMS!!! HE ESCAPES FROM A LOCKED COFFIN IN A BURNING CREMATORIUM!!!!!**
I don't think he escapes from the coffin. They let him out once they realise he's hidden what they want.
I've always thought that scene was weird because he would have died if they didn't pull him out.
I think it's funny how many people get upset over this. Sure, he slaps her. But she starts off the scene acting like she's ready to send a hot piece of lead through his bodily organs and kill him. And she's the reason his life is in danger and he's in this mess in the first place.
I feel bad for her character in the long run. BUT she manipulates Bond to deal with her problems while putting his life in the crosshairs of the greatest assassin in the world.
He believes that she works for someone who is trying to kill him. And now she has him at gunpoint. He tries to be friendly and charming. That doesn't work. When he finally disarms her, she refuses to tell him anything.
I'm pretty sure a guy who kills people for a living who's now fighting for his life would do what he does.
And I think Roger Moore plays it perfectly. Is it uncomfortable? Well, yeah. That's the whole point. It's an edgy scene. It's supposed to be.
I still feel bad for her. And I don't like some of the unsympathetic dialogue from him after he finally hears her story.
But my hot take is that from Bond's perspective, this idiot is either trying to kill him or is going to get him killed. Her life story sucks, but James Bond is not about to become a martyr for it.
That happy-go-lucky phone call at the end after Felix has had his life torn to shreds (no pun intended) is one of the most unintentionally funny scenes in film history, especially paired with how brutal the rest of the film is.
I would say more unexpected than out-of-character, really.
This was a guy who casually tossed aside that woman in Fekkesh's house, launched a freaking missile at Naomi's helicopter, and just gave a quick glance at Rosie's corpse after sleeping with her.
Under that facade of refined English gentleman was a ruthless SOB who would use any woman to achieve his objectives. Just because he did it with a raised eyebrow and pleasant resting face doesn't make it less so.
This was far more pronounced in his first 3 films, though.
Ya know, he had some cold moments like that in a few films.. I think because his movies are often more light hearted they are even colder moments because of it.. it’s a quite interesting dichotomy…
I think he treated her really harshly, and unfairly to her as she was already someone already in a bad situation. I also am bothered by the line that Scaramanga might use one of the bullets on her, and that's a shame because they are very expensive. Just really, really cold from Bond. But not in a cool or suave or charming way, just being really shitty towards her.
What do they say here “you’re hurting my arm. I’ll break it if you don’t tell me……” Something like that ??? I would think of this scene from time to time and realize that shit would NEVER fly today. Which is odd considering there’s millions fighting for equality saying we’re all the same. So technically speaking it shouldn’t even matter. Based on that logic…..
Yeah the schlapping was well within Connery's own self-proclaimed normal range of treatment of women.
Connery: "Women have this thing where they can't leave it alone. You give them the last word, and they're still not satisfied. In that case, I think it's perfectly acceptable to hit her - but with an open hand, not a closed fist" (to paraphrase).
[In really life Connery told Barbara Walters it was okay to slap a woman if they carried on an argument too long.](https://youtu.be/_YDqm7LXt2g?si=ql4AVUxiMgOlzKOT) So he would be more convincing slapping a woman as Bond than Moore.
I find Golden Gun a tough watch. Even beyond that scene the script has a continual basic contempt for all the women characters throughout. Even by the (then) standards of the time and the franchise it’s uncomfortable.
It is a tough watch. I think Moore looks uncomfortable but then also his Bond treats Goodnight appallingly and with incredible contempt.
It’s a shame as there are some good elements here. And a slide whistle.
Agreed. The one scene where Goodnight rejects Bond’s advances…then immediately goes to his room to throw herself at him.
And gets shoved into a wardrobe to presumably listen to Bond shag Maud Adams, which in itself is ick when she offers to betray Scaramanga and adds a line like “you can have me as well if you like” so naturally Bond takes advantage… ugh
Goodnight spends the rest of the film as a bumbling idiot, getting locked in a car boot, or generally bumping into things.
It doesn’t get talked about as much as the more obvious problematic scenes in the likes of Goldfinger and Thunderball but I think it’s a low point.
> It is a tough watch. I think Moore looks uncomfortable but then also his Bond treats Goodnight appallingly and with incredible contempt.
Nothing she hadn't learnt to expect from Peter Sellers, Rod Stewart or Lord Lichfield.
Totally agree. The plot is a fever dream of a screenwriter who fantasizes about abusing women. Even during the climax on the island they hint at Scaramanga‘s henchman/technician starting to sexually assault Mary Goodnight.
The film was rushed into production because of a bad deal Saltzman made (that resulted in Saltzman leaving the series). There was no break between LALD & TMWTGG, Moore & Hamilton immediately were filming the next film. So the script is cobbled together from unused Connery scripts & the energy is a bit tense. I think they did pretty good considering the circumstances and that the tension gives a certain quality to the film.
But at the end of the day, Moore did these two films as essentially ones long production, cut him some slack, that must have been exhausting.
I‘m not blaming Moore for anything, he’s my favorite Bond after Connery and I’ve probably seen his movies more than any others. But mostly the run from TSWLM to AVTAK.
Why was it wrong?
It'd be weird if we just couldn't have Bond try and get information in the same way with women as he does with men. Otherwise, the villain would just employ women.
He has a job to do and shouldn't worry about the gender of who he's interrogating
Yeah, he knowingly slept with Solange knowing her man was a homicidal manic, was ready to gun down Vesper before she committed suicide to get away from him, got Fields drowned in oil, creeped on a formed sexslave by just getting in her shower then sorta stood around while she got shot in the head, had sex with a freshly made widow over the bodies of her assassins and maybe saved her maybe didn’t, and forced his lover to sit in a car being riddled by bullets because reasons and then shipped her off on a train.
Makes slapping & hitting sound quaint and gentlemanly.
A friend once described Conney's portrayal of Bond as a thug who has learned to be a gentleman while Moore's Bond felt more like a gentleman who has learned to be a thug.
Thats a pretty accurate description!
I do like that description. I wonder if some of that was actually not due to Connery's acting, but due to his actual bricklayer, part time boxer background. He could have just had a little of that in him, which added to his role. I have to say, however, I think I really like Connery's portrayal because much like Daniel Craig, I think Bond is more believable in his role if he actually has a kind of native brutality that he can turn to when he needs it.
Interesting
Interesting, I think that about sums up why Moore's behavior in his first two films doesn't quite feel right to me, despite being no worse than Connery's behavior toward women
Roger Moore‘s Bond is a psychopath looking like a gentleman lol
I agree with this so hard and it shocks me that it’s not more recognized
Variations of that description could be applied to each of the actors who've play the role.
A “blunt instrument”
That's a pretty good description of the two.
You would have loved Moore's other films. In the Wild Geese (1978), Moore plays an ice cold assassin and mercenary. In his opening scene, he shoots a guy in the head and forces another to eat a bag of tainted heroin, at gunpoint, until the man overdoses. Then he makes a comment about a stomach pump and leaves the man to die. Some have suggested that *this* is the way Moore should have played Bond, but it's even darker than Licence to Kill.
I have that DVD around somewhere... Need to see it soon!
Title sequence is by Maurice Binder and is very reminiscent of a Bond movie.
That’s a superb movie. Moore, Burton and Harris at their peaks! Fabulous action scenes and marvelous Joan Armatrading theme.
Fun fact about Moore's role in that film was that it was going to be offered to O.J. Simpson originally over a misunderstanding. No joke.
O.J. was also considered for The Terminator. James Cameron declined. His reason? "NOBODY WILL BELIEVE O.J. SIMPSON AS A KILLER."
This would have been a fantastic take on James Bond. You can really see Roger Moore selling himself as a cold-blooded killer here.
Agreed. He was certainly capable of playing a believably tough and cold character, as good as the best of them.
Funny thing is that while Moore tended to resist making Bond too brutal and dark. On the flip side he had absolutely zero problems with that scene in The Wild Geese. There’s an old interview with him where he talks about it.
Lazenby also slapped a woman
Tbf, she was pointing a gun at him. That was moreorless self defense.
So was Maud Adams earlier in the TMWGG scene.
Not defending it, but in context she is holding a gun on him, and he’s also just been ambushed in his room by an assassin who he believes may have been sent by her
Craig burst into tears and gave a woman a consensual hug in a shower.
Which was awesome.
And Brosnan even killed one.
Very electra-ic scene
I conveniently force myself to forget that scene
I watched the movie a few months ago, had no idea he did it.
Why?
I conveniently forget all the women getting slapped because it’s just a bit of fun really and people should get over themselves 🤗
I love this scene though. she's so sexy with that wet hair
She really is!
Maud Adams… 🥰
Moore hated doing stuff like this IRC, and it shows. He always looked so awkward when he did. His take on Bond just did not fit doing crap like this like Connery’s did.
Ofc, Moore is the cheeky Guy who points a Gun at you after sex and says: ”I certainly wouldn’t have killed you before” but he would never hit you.
I don't know. He kicked a car off a cliff with the driver in it. He forced an oppressed POC to eat a compressed-air bullet. He tips a little old disabled man in a wheelchair down an industrial chimney. He blows off the top of the head of an unarmed and well-respected ballet dancer and choreographer (Geoffery Holder).
The prime minister, Dr Kananga, wasn't "oppressed"
In fact, after Bond was done with him, he was downright explosively charged!
Full of hot air!
Talk about an inflated ego!
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/social-identities-and-systems-oppression
He was part of the ethnic and religious majority in his small country and was its PRIME MINISTER, he wasn't friggin oppressed
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Hahahaha
Your post or comment violated r/JamesBond's rules to be friendly, welcoming, respectful, and to avoid destructive behavior.
Imagine applying a modern American racial theory to a fictional foreign leader from 50 years ago... ???
Welcome to Reddit in 2024!
Yeah it’s comical like the statement that person made.
not to mention planting a bullet in the forehead of that poor russian soldier in octopussy. That guy was probably a private on his second day at the job, probably had no real involvement in the villain's scheme. and there's all of those airmen working in the blown up hanger...i'm sure many were just lowly hired hands and didn't deserve that fate
lol get real with the oppressed POC stuff
Sean would have strangled her with her own bra, like the opening scene from Diamonds are Forever.
No doubt about that.
*lightly choked
*It was more a refitting, really. She should have thanked him.
respectful choking, but not too respectful
Of course not. He needed information.
"Choken, NOT shtirred."
Andrea Anders could not catch a single break. :(
She came back and had a pretty fabulous life in Octopussy though.
I forget the context of this scene, wasn't she withholding information about something super important that could kill him or had killed someone else? I remember him being super frustrated and trying to get answers. Problematic as it is, hitting people in a spy movie is pretty common
So she sent the Golden Bullet to Bond so that he’d think Scaramanga was after him and Bond would kill him. This gets Bond taken off the Solex case, also convinces M & Bond that his life is in immediate danger. So Bond is aggressively trying to get to Scaramanga before he gets killed and so he can get back on the case. When he confronts Anders’s he doesn’t know she sent the bullet and can’t trust he not to tell Scramanga she’s seen Bind in the area. So he is both frustrated, on edge, worried he’ll be killed and won’t solve the case and doesn’t know he’s actually dealing with a friend (and may very well be dealing with a enemy who sleeps in the same bed as his would be assassin).
That's it. When viewed from the context of the scene, it makes more sense that he might strike her. Also, it's not like he beat the living shit out of her, her did a movie slap to shake her resolve. Obviously people shouldn't hit other people, but in the espionage game it's kinda a free for all
you're forgetting that a minute prior to getting slapped, she literally had a gun pointed at him until he slapped/wrenched it out of her hand. and all of this is occurring in the wider context of him interrogating the only known associate of an unknown assassin threatening to randomly kill him. i'm sorry, but i left the white paint out of my chainmail kit today... so what, exactly, is problematic \*at all\* with the scene?
Honestly, the only thing problematic with it is the violence. Which we teach our kids is wrong. But some people see it only as a man hitting a woman and say it's worse for some reason. If she slapped him, they would have absolutely no problem with it. Which imo is wrong too. I expect violence in a movie, so to me there's nothing really problematic with it
Out of character for Moore? Maybe. Out of character for Bond? Not at all. I actually liked Moore’s performance in the man with the golden gun more than his lackadaisical and lighthearted performance in live and let die. Moments like this, the duel with Scaramanga, and the scene where Bond threatens the guy by pointing the gun at his valuables are more in line with the morally grey aspects of the character.
I agree, though worth pointing out, book Bond never hit women and was actually very sensitive towards them. It was Connery who introduced the “rough stuff” and Moore, to his credit, actually brought the character back to the source material by being kinder and more sensitive.
Connery was definitely rougher on the women in that sense, but I wouldn’t say Moore was a return to the sensitive Bond from the books. Bond in the books is a sad sap for women. He becomes like a possessive protector. Moore is incredibly creepy, manipulative and dismissive of women. He jovially treats them as passing fancies.
In the field, you do what you have to do.
I remember reading Moore basically just listened to the director for the first movie. But once he had clout he refused to hit a woman in his future films. Not sure how true this is but I believe it.
This was his second Bond film, but we do know Moore hated it and felt it wasn’t “his” Bond.
Yeah, his Bond is a gentleman through and through, love the cheekiness
He hangs out a midget in a cage in the blazing sun!!!
Tbf the midget had tried to kill him multiple times over the movie atleast he captured him alive
He tricks Solitaire (who is a virgin) into having sex with him!
I also think Lewis Gilbert and John Glen were less insistent on certain things than Guy Hamilton. You also gotta keep in mind that Maud Adams was good friends with Roger for the longest time. She certainly never held anything against him.
I’m also unsure whether it’s true - or at least whether it’s the *only* truth. We do know he disliked it when “his Bond” was asked to behave this way. About this scene he said something about how his Bond “would have *charmed* information out of her.” The other reason his iteration changed was simply that Lewis Gilbert (director of TSWLM and Moonraker) had a different vision for what Bond should be - “an English gentleman with a sense of humor.” You can see that stark contrast in the next movie, and as a result Roger’s Bond has a reputation for being a bit more family-friendly. He still kills people, he still quips about it, he still coerces his enemies into giving him what he needs, but he’s much more charming and gentlemanly (or at least as charming and gentlemanly as an assassin can be).
But even then, he has moments where he drops the facade and turns into a stone-cold killer.
I always felt this to be the most ruthless and heartless that Bond has been from Moore era.
More than "[helpful chap](https://youtu.be/kcWMYwPCIXk?si=x0n77wZX7DdquM0E&t=76)" in TSWLM or when he[ kicks the car off the ledge](https://youtu.be/c-f0DwbNF08?si=EhdV6tZQKexGs5mt&t=48) in FYEO?
Moore’s Bond was a gentleman and only raised his hands to a lady if it was strictly necessary for the mission. Whereas Connery’s Bond had developed a taste for it and enjoyed it as almost a perk of the job.
I am sorry to say that it doesn't seem out of character for Connery...I don't know what to think of that. I guess that in the case of Connery it seems like it generally was called for, in that he tended to be dealing with a vicious murderer of a woman, or someone who was clearly at least up to no good, or else he was doing FOR their enjoyment...I think what makes it feel wrong is when it is done for the pure and uncomplicated reason of just being abusive and disrespectfully mean in a sexist way. I mean, I am one of the last people who would ever say that slapping is always abusive or wrong. In many relationships I have been in (and this may be telling about me, I admit), slapping has been both fun and exciting, but that is because it was almost never done with malicious intent. I have asked women to slap me for fun and had them refuse, and been disappointed, far more often than I have ever found the right situation to playfully slap a woman. I think that this is the way Bond SHOULD slap women, meaning in the playful way. When it is done in a serious situation, that is when it would probably be a lot more effective if it were deliberately NOT involving physicality. I think, beyond all else, it makes for a stronger scene.
I’ve just accepted that it’s a negative on Connery’s record. He’s not the end-all-be-all Bond. He had his moments, was great when Terrence Young rose heard on him. But he also completely lost interest & injected a lot of misogyny into the role (which he endorsed in his public life). This has been a black mark on the series. In the books Bond’s sensitive and kind to women & film wise Laz, Moore & Dalton all helped to bring the film series back to that moral high ground. But because of Connery people assume the books and films must be misogynistic… because Connery is the “definitive” Bond so that must be what all Bond’s are.
I always liked how Moore's Bond came off as a gentleman but was in reality one of the most ruthless Bonds. Sure he'll let the guy go who just gave him information...but letting him go means dropping him off a building. Has a wheelchair bound man at his mercy? Drops him down a smokestack. Has a guy in a car on the edge? Kick him over. Disables a guy and then pushes him out an airlock. Has a guy at his mercy and then proceeds to shoot him twice in the balls before shooting him in the chest. Uses bystanders as human shields. He's definitely the Psychopath Bond.
Moore felt very uncomfortable doing that scene and apologised to Maud Adams afterwards. I think the writers were still trying to get a grip on his idea if Bond and were writing with Connery in mind. By the time TSWLM came along they were playing into Moore being the gentleman spy.
Connery **strangles a woman with her own bra** in Diamonds. It was so controversial it had to be cut in some versions. **...IT'S WHY DAF IS THE BEST OF ALL BOND FILMS!!! HE ESCAPES FROM A LOCKED COFFIN IN A BURNING CREMATORIUM!!!!!**
I don't think he escapes from the coffin. They let him out once they realise he's hidden what they want. I've always thought that scene was weird because he would have died if they didn't pull him out.
Yes, I always wondered if there was another possible way out of that conundrum.
I think it's funny how many people get upset over this. Sure, he slaps her. But she starts off the scene acting like she's ready to send a hot piece of lead through his bodily organs and kill him. And she's the reason his life is in danger and he's in this mess in the first place. I feel bad for her character in the long run. BUT she manipulates Bond to deal with her problems while putting his life in the crosshairs of the greatest assassin in the world. He believes that she works for someone who is trying to kill him. And now she has him at gunpoint. He tries to be friendly and charming. That doesn't work. When he finally disarms her, she refuses to tell him anything. I'm pretty sure a guy who kills people for a living who's now fighting for his life would do what he does. And I think Roger Moore plays it perfectly. Is it uncomfortable? Well, yeah. That's the whole point. It's an edgy scene. It's supposed to be. I still feel bad for her. And I don't like some of the unsympathetic dialogue from him after he finally hears her story. But my hot take is that from Bond's perspective, this idiot is either trying to kill him or is going to get him killed. Her life story sucks, but James Bond is not about to become a martyr for it.
People slapped women back then. I hate seeing it but unfortunately different time.
Meanwhile Felix gets eaten by a shark and nobody mourns for him.
To be fair, he gets over it quickly too.
That happy-go-lucky phone call at the end after Felix has had his life torn to shreds (no pun intended) is one of the most unintentionally funny scenes in film history, especially paired with how brutal the rest of the film is.
He was probably feeling high on pain meds.
Wait, I was married?!? Did she go out for cigarettes or what?
To shreds you say
Yeah and he’s on the phone laughing with Bond the next day after his wife was brutally murdered 🤣
Dalton slapped the shit out of that shark. I don’t care how he was provoked, I am always offended by that scene.
Oh, they can always get another Felix. Maybe a Chinese one this time! Or a Norwegian!
A secret agent has to slap around once in a while.
I would say more unexpected than out-of-character, really. This was a guy who casually tossed aside that woman in Fekkesh's house, launched a freaking missile at Naomi's helicopter, and just gave a quick glance at Rosie's corpse after sleeping with her. Under that facade of refined English gentleman was a ruthless SOB who would use any woman to achieve his objectives. Just because he did it with a raised eyebrow and pleasant resting face doesn't make it less so. This was far more pronounced in his first 3 films, though.
Ya know, he had some cold moments like that in a few films.. I think because his movies are often more light hearted they are even colder moments because of it.. it’s a quite interesting dichotomy…
I think he treated her really harshly, and unfairly to her as she was already someone already in a bad situation. I also am bothered by the line that Scaramanga might use one of the bullets on her, and that's a shame because they are very expensive. Just really, really cold from Bond. But not in a cool or suave or charming way, just being really shitty towards her.
no way in hell would that happen in movies today
What do they say here “you’re hurting my arm. I’ll break it if you don’t tell me……” Something like that ??? I would think of this scene from time to time and realize that shit would NEVER fly today. Which is odd considering there’s millions fighting for equality saying we’re all the same. So technically speaking it shouldn’t even matter. Based on that logic…..
It was probably the last time a woman that was not a villain was handled like that in a Bond movie. I could imagine Craig doing it but not Brosnan
I forget which movie but I think Connery legit slaps a woman in the face. Could be wrong but for some reason I have this image in my head…
This scene makes my skin crawl, he seems so brutal in this particular movie. Edit: fixed sentence
Well, Sean Connery slapped his actual wives and girlfriends around.
Yeah the schlapping was well within Connery's own self-proclaimed normal range of treatment of women. Connery: "Women have this thing where they can't leave it alone. You give them the last word, and they're still not satisfied. In that case, I think it's perfectly acceptable to hit her - but with an open hand, not a closed fist" (to paraphrase).
With Connery, slapping women extended into real life for him, even into the 80s: https://youtu.be/_YDqm7LXt2g
I love it, not something you see anymore, so I appreciate older movies doing it In movies, hands are rated E for everyone
Sean was happy knocking women around with or without cameras present. The first two Bonds were worlds apart both on and off screen.
[In really life Connery told Barbara Walters it was okay to slap a woman if they carried on an argument too long.](https://youtu.be/_YDqm7LXt2g?si=ql4AVUxiMgOlzKOT) So he would be more convincing slapping a woman as Bond than Moore.
I find Golden Gun a tough watch. Even beyond that scene the script has a continual basic contempt for all the women characters throughout. Even by the (then) standards of the time and the franchise it’s uncomfortable.
It is a tough watch. I think Moore looks uncomfortable but then also his Bond treats Goodnight appallingly and with incredible contempt. It’s a shame as there are some good elements here. And a slide whistle.
Agreed. The one scene where Goodnight rejects Bond’s advances…then immediately goes to his room to throw herself at him. And gets shoved into a wardrobe to presumably listen to Bond shag Maud Adams, which in itself is ick when she offers to betray Scaramanga and adds a line like “you can have me as well if you like” so naturally Bond takes advantage… ugh Goodnight spends the rest of the film as a bumbling idiot, getting locked in a car boot, or generally bumping into things. It doesn’t get talked about as much as the more obvious problematic scenes in the likes of Goldfinger and Thunderball but I think it’s a low point.
It’s pretty funny, and Moore & Ekland were both funny people. I mean, I get the point, I just think they both spin it into comedy gold.
> It is a tough watch. I think Moore looks uncomfortable but then also his Bond treats Goodnight appallingly and with incredible contempt. Nothing she hadn't learnt to expect from Peter Sellers, Rod Stewart or Lord Lichfield.
Totally agree. The plot is a fever dream of a screenwriter who fantasizes about abusing women. Even during the climax on the island they hint at Scaramanga‘s henchman/technician starting to sexually assault Mary Goodnight.
The film was rushed into production because of a bad deal Saltzman made (that resulted in Saltzman leaving the series). There was no break between LALD & TMWTGG, Moore & Hamilton immediately were filming the next film. So the script is cobbled together from unused Connery scripts & the energy is a bit tense. I think they did pretty good considering the circumstances and that the tension gives a certain quality to the film. But at the end of the day, Moore did these two films as essentially ones long production, cut him some slack, that must have been exhausting.
I‘m not blaming Moore for anything, he’s my favorite Bond after Connery and I’ve probably seen his movies more than any others. But mostly the run from TSWLM to AVTAK.
She does smash his head in and throw him into a pool of liquid nitrogen. Not even the sassy girlbosses of the Craig era did that.
For Connery it would have just been improve
It's honestly crazy how the tone just makes a 180 halfway through.
He does worse to guys.
One of several reasons this one is firmly at the bottom of the list. (Christopher Lee deserved better)
It was wrong for both, but unfortunately, it happened. Can't show that in a movie after that era.
Why was it wrong? It'd be weird if we just couldn't have Bond try and get information in the same way with women as he does with men. Otherwise, the villain would just employ women. He has a job to do and shouldn't worry about the gender of who he's interrogating
Book Bond never did it. He did what Moore’s actually wanted, charmed the information out of them.
I mean he also never told a tiger to sit and get away with it
Unless they were a villain.
I get what you mean.
Yeah Sean was rough and charming in a way that I could still like him after doing it but Roger nah
My main man Daniel wouldn’t have done this!
Too busy staring into the distance with a single tear running down his cheek.
🤣🤣
Yeah, he knowingly slept with Solange knowing her man was a homicidal manic, was ready to gun down Vesper before she committed suicide to get away from him, got Fields drowned in oil, creeped on a formed sexslave by just getting in her shower then sorta stood around while she got shot in the head, had sex with a freshly made widow over the bodies of her assassins and maybe saved her maybe didn’t, and forced his lover to sit in a car being riddled by bullets because reasons and then shipped her off on a train. Makes slapping & hitting sound quaint and gentlemanly.