Ship of Fools: Best Bond

Thread: Best Bond Board: The Circus / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=28;t=002290

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

On the Celebrity Death Pool, there was a little discussion over whether Roger Moore was the best Bond.

I would contend that he was the best Bond, but that he wasn't in the best Bond films. Sean Connery got the better plots, scripts and co-stars. This is the Circus because we can't (yet) post polls into Heaven.

Who was your best Bond and why?

Posted by Callan (# 525) on :

This is going to be like best Doctor Who. The 'best' one is the one who got you into the franchise. For me it is Brosnan, simply because I wasn't bothered previously and a friend wanted to go. The papers had been full of articles along the lines of "Is James Bond relevant anymore?" and the producers made this the subtext of the earlier part of the movie. Just as one was thinking that this was a QTWTAIN Brosnan borrowed a Russian tank and engaged in a car chase across St. Petersburg. BADADADA BABADA! Which made me want to go back and watch the other films.

Was Brosnan better than the other Bonds? Who knows. But he was MY Bond.

Posted by Imaginary Friend (# 186) on :

I'm disappointed that there's no option for "Idris Elba when he finally gets the part."

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

I have a friend who swears that his favorite Bond is Lazenby, and I don't think he's just trying to be different. He thinks he captured a vulnerability that no other Bond actor has since.

When I say something to my wife and I want her to understand that I'm supposed to sound like James Bond, I say it like Connery. (Probably because he has the most distinct voice- I don't know how I would try to sound like any other Bond).

That said, if I'm sitting down to watch a Bond film, more often than not I'm going for a trash / camp late 1970s Moore film that I can laugh at. So Moore gets my vote.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

Something wrong with the poll.
It has

David Niven - Not really Bond, but a camp parody.
Timothy Dalton - The poll is for Best Bond...
George LazzzZzZzZzZZzz

I love Connery's, Moore's and Brosnan's Bonds for different reasons but needs must, Craig is the winner by a narrow margin.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

There is a case for Lazenby being the best Bond, but the strongest storyline and the best music do not a Bond make.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Callan:
... The 'best' one is the one who got you into the franchise ...

I think you've hit it on the head, Callan; that's why Roger Moore gets my vote.

If I had to rate a second-best, it would be Daniel Craig; none of the others really quite hit the spot for me, but he had the right mix of suavity and toughness.

Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on :

I voted for Craig, though it's very close between him and Connery. I'm one of those rare people who actually liked Timothy Dalton as Bond--I think he, perhaps even better than Craig, captured the self-loathing that is at the core of Bond's personality in the books--and to me, Bond is first and foremost a character from novels, with film as a derivative version (I don't think the self-loathing was put there intentionally, because Fleming wasn't a self-conscious enough writer to do it--it was just his own unconscious psychopathology leaking in).

Moore was too genial, good-natured, and cheerful--the hard-edge of Bond is entirely absent. He's just Bond as action figure.

To rank them:

Craig
Connery
Dalton
Brosnan
Lazenby
Moore
Niven

BTW, Fleming said that in his mind Bond looked a bit like Hoagy Carmichael, which would seem to make Brosnan the best physical casting.

Posted by Teekeey Misha (# 18604) on :

I can't vote on this!
As I mentioned in "the other place", Moore was my favourite Bond (and is the Bond who "got me into" Bond) but I don't think he was the best Bond.

The best is a toss-up between the original (Connery) and the latest (Craig). Connery is, I think the best Bond-being-a-screen-Bond, but Craig is the best Bond-being-like-Bond-in-the-books-Bond. Craig has taken Bond back to the darker, nastier Bond of the books and I'm impressed with that... but I still like he of the Shcottish shounds, and "Goldfinger" is the best Bond film and that was Connery. Since the poll allows only one choice...

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Having read the Bond books before I saw any of the films I'm afraid I can't escape the physical description of JB as given in the Fleming books so it has to be Pierce Brosnan, who has the lot: height, hair and eye colour, and a degree of suave sophistication with a hint of menace.

Daniel Craig is simply too blond.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

I came up in the Brosnan era, and he's third or fourth on my list. Probably not so much his version of the character, but rather the fact that his movies seem so quaint, at least at this time. Everyone was wondering how you do Bond in a safe, post-Soviet era, and the question of every movie seemed to be "where do we find a bad guy now?"

Never mind that the Soviets were rarely the bad guys in the previous movies, and never mind that there actually were threats in the world that would shatter our temporary confidence.

That, and Madonna as the fencing instructor. [Help]

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:

quote:
Originally posted by Callan:
... The 'best' one is the one who got you into the franchise ...
I think you've hit it on the head, Callan; that's why Roger Moore gets my vote.

I got into the franchise through Connery, then I discovered that the books were better, which is why I voted for the Bond closest to the one that Fleming created. Timothy Dalton.

The darker more violent Bond of Dalton is the closest, and therefore best. However neither of the Dalton films would be the best Bond film, but that is a different question.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0