The Bond films have kept stuntmen employed for fifty years. Those guys are nuts!
The Aston Martin DB5 first appeared in "Goldfinger" in 1964 and has become as synonymous with 007 as his dinner jackets and Walther PPK pistol. Nice to see it in "Casino Royale" (2006) and it makes another appearance in "Skyfall" later this year.
Image taken from Ever To Excel, courtesy of https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2012/title,85913,en.php
Thanks for reading, all!
Thanks for the find post on 007. I grew up with Sean Connery and Roger Moore as Bond in the movies. I liked the books too and as different actors portray bond I found I like the old movies and books better. However all of the neat devices Bond uses are always interesting.
ReplyDeleteBTW I actually worked with a fellow by the same name: Bond, James Bond.
This has to be one of the most creatively presented and impressive typecasts ever in the typosphere! Nice job.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Richard, good job die(another day?)-hard Bond fan. Haven't seen "From Russia..." yet but I will!
ReplyDelete"From Russia With Love" is one of the great ones, you'll enjoy it. Be especially amused when Bond shoots down a helicopter with a .22 rifle! (to be fair, he shoots a passenger holding a grenade, who drops the grenade in the helicopter)
ReplyDeleteAs always, an exceptional Bond Post, I always enjoy them! :D
PS: what's that PPK clone in the first shot? It doesn't seem well-finished enough to be a Walther (although the grips seem correct), and it's not an Iver Johnson or an RG. Perhaps one of the Soviet Bloc PPK copies that flooded the US market in the early 90's when the Berlin Wall fell?
I agree with Richard. I read the entire Fleming series - bought in used-book stores in the 80's - after I'd been a fan of the films for awhile. I liked the Lazenby film, as much for Diana Rigg as for the mountaintop Blofeld lair. My ambition used to be a Blofeld-like figure. That never worked out.
ReplyDeleteThis post is a fitting tribute to the Bond franchise. You have totally outdone yourself! I enjoyed all of the ways you mangled and manipulated paper in building this. I hope you get your Rolex at some point, but I guess another Bond movie will do. The Skyfall trailerr is pretty much awesome.
ReplyDeleteIn defence of Moore, I didn't think he was all that bad.... As a kid anyway. But as a kid I thought Dalton sucked.
ReplyDeleteAs an adult however, my views are somewhat the reverse.
I was lucky that my High School in Essendon had all of the fleming books on their shelves. Borrowing them and keeping them stuffed between my text books helped me survive the VCE.
Stuff it... I'm going to go and watch a Bond right now....
ReplyDeleteWauw, nice typecast!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. This one took me a while and I wasn't happy with the lighting on some of the photos. That first picture really bugged me.
ReplyDelete@ Ted, the PPK is a non-firing replica, purchased in the early '80s from an Army disposals store. I really should get around to hacksawing it to pieces one day.
@ notagain, start by getting yourself a fluffy white Persian cat. You'll be a Blofeld in no time. And yeah, Diana Rigg virtually carried that film. If it had starred Connery, it would have been in the Top 5 Bond films list.
@ Dwayne F, yep, I had fun trying to come up with creative use of paper. My Origami skills are non-existent, so I had my work cut out for me. I thought the blue-and-red handwritten page might have been hard to read and I even tried out typing each line in black and red, but it lost the whole Union Jack colour scheme that I was aiming for. And don't worry, that Rolex has been a carrot that I've dangled in front of me almost my entire life. One of these days...
@ Scott Kernaghan, Dalton was great. His intro in "The Living Daylights" was memorable. If anything, he probably fits Fleming's description of Bond the most. AND he could act. Better scripts would have cemented his place in Bond lore. I put him right up there behind Daniel Craig and Connery.
I agree that Dalton was perfect for the role but some time had come and gone after Sir Connery and Roger muddied up the character a lot and got viewers used to a saterical, humorous Bond..not what Fleming wrote and not the sarcastic, tongue in cheek type of Connery.
DeleteDalton was all business and would have fit if he succeeded Connery and , yes, after reading all Flemings books, he fit the mold best.
Too bad I always saw Roger Moore as the "SAint" , a tv series in the UK that came over to America as a late night show on a lesser channel.
If only Dalton had done another one or two Bond films. As you say, he fit Fleming's description the most and he would be viewed a lot more favorably these days if he had been given the chance. But, after all of EON Productions' legal woes of the early '90s, by the time they were ready to film another Bond movie, Dalton had decided to hang up his PPK. Damn shame.
DeleteI think it's better reading Bild rather than hearing crazy for another articles.
ReplyDeleteI really, really wish I knew what that meant. Is that some kind of code? I mean, I'm into spy novels and films, but...
DeleteGreat (and great-looking) post!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in America, and I don't remember there being any stigma around here about being a Bond fan, even during the Moore years. (I was born in '74, so Moore's era WAS my childhood.) But at the same time, I can absolutely see how it could happen, and I can imagine other kids making fun of you over it. I had a sort of equivalent: I was (and am) a big "Star Trek" fan, but liking Trek was desperately uncool, so I never mentioned that to ANYONE in school. If I had, I'd probably have taken a (verbal) beating over it.
In any case, it's nice to know the Bond franchise is in good hands again. I feel certain very few kids who are Bond fans these days get made fun of over it!