Roger Moore was pretty cold blooded as Bond

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Gray_Ghost

Even better in the movie, and it must have been shocking for a 1962 movie audience, Bond not only shoots the unarmed Dent, he puts another shot into his back to make sure Dent’s dead. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cns2HKn0tDk

@AK84

Bond does essentially the same thing thing to Stromberg. Shoots him twice, even taunting him that he is out of ammo, then moves in closer for two further shots.

https://youtu.be/XbqxXFv1sik

Rule 2: Double tap.

@spifflog

Ian Fleming’s Bond was a cold blooded killer. Much like the early Connery and like Craig…

Yes and no. I’ve been reading the early Fleming books recently, and what struck me most was how often Bond is described as scared or lonely or dejected. Not as cold-blooded as the movies make him seem.

[bump]

@Dead_Cat

Not to disagree with your thesis, which I support, but #1 in the list has to be him rifling through the pockets of his long-time friend Mathis, just after the latter has been shot dead by corrupt Bolivian police. He takes the cash in the wallet then chucks the body in a nearby dumpster.

Cold, but then again, what could Bond have done differently? It’s not like he could report it to the police, and I half suspected that the idea was for the corrupt cops to kill Mathis, and then frame Bond for the murder, when the body was found or something.

By tossing him in the dumpster, he took the body out of the equation and gave himself something of a head start.

Plus, Mathis knew the rules and knew that he ran no small risk of ending up in a landfill some day, just like Bond knows the same thing is true for himself as well.

[AK84]

@spifflog

Ian Flemming’s Bond was a cold blooded killer. Much like the early Connery and like Craig.

I thought that Roger Moore’s Bond was a joke. Not sure if that was Moore or the producers, but I was very glad to see Moore gone.

Come on dude. Moore’s Bond regularly killed people who were defenceless, most of them had it coming, true, but people whose race was run.

To take an example, people hate on the “007 in a clown suit in Octopussey”, but forget it was played dead seriously, he was trying to enter a circus undercover. Rewtach Goldfinger. It has pretty much all the elements that Moore’s films was accused off, campy, a never ending parade of Dad jokes. Plus Bond spends a lot of time essentially trolling Goldfinger, and poorly, Goldfinger sees it a mile off and outright tells Bond to cut it out.
Awesome film regardless.

@Dead_Cat

Not to disagree with your thesis, which I support, but #1 in the list has to be him rifling through the pockets of his long-time friend Mathis, just after the latter has been shot dead by corrupt Bolivian police. He takes the cash in the wallet then chucks the body in a nearby dumpster.

All the Bonds have their moments…but Moore’s Bond leads the pack.

Oh sure, what could possibly go wrong with keeping your enemy alive when you had a golden opportunity to permanently dispose of them? Bond doesn’t usually copy the mistakes of his enemies.

@Elendil_s_Heir

Rule 2: Double tap.

QFT

Yes and no. I’ve been reading the early Fleming books recently, and what struck me most was how often Bond is described as scared or lonely or dejected. Not as cold-blooded as the movies make him seem.

Yes, but most of its internal monolouge. In the film, Bond does a very good job of hiding his emotions and remaining stoic and impassive, its notable the few times when it *does * come through. Usually when Tracy is mentioned

[AK84]

Moore did, however, hang on too long. I was surprised recently to realize that most of the Bond Girls in his era were not that young, despite my recollection.
Brit Ekland 30, as was Maud Adams, Barbera Bach, 31, Lois Chiles was 32, Tanya Roberts was 31, Grace Jones, 37. Bach and Ekland were mothers when they appeared. Compare Eva Greene who was 26, gemma Arterton 21, Izabella Scorupco, 25

Moore was just too dang old.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Agreed. He was looking like a senior citizen by the end.

[Wheelz]

@AK84

Rewatching some of the Roger Moore era Bond films recently, its quite striking just how cold-blooded he can be, despite his era supposedly being more light-hearted.

I don’t think it would be paradoxical to say that Moore’s Bond was more cold-blooded because his films were more light-hearted.

Think about it. Though there was some variance in tone among films for every Bond portrayer, the Roger Moore era is easily the most cartoonish, with the least depth of character in both heroes and villains. Therefore, it’s not as jarring to dispatch with two-dimendional characters more easily, or even in a joking manner, because they were never portrayed as relatable human beings in the first place.

[Lucas_Jackson]

@madsircool

Connery was a street kid from Aberdeen and Lazenby was an Aussie special forcer. They could believably pull off a hand to hand fight to the death. The others not so much.

Wait, what!? Almost everything about Bond movies are not believable. Why would you care about the fight scenes?

I know I’m in the minority but for my money Moore was the quintessential Bond.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

I would say that, in Bond’s line of work, killing any “players” when you get a chance is a good thing. Nothing cold blooded about it, just good business. A dead foreign agent/SPECTRE henchman is one less person who is going to come after you later, one less person to deal with when you make the final assault on the volcano/secret underground lair/space station. They knew what they were getting into when they hired on. I don’t know where they hire henchmen, but there must be a finite number of competent ones.

Killing civilians should be avoided.

[Shodan]

In the last Ian Fleming James Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond has two chances to kill Scaramanga, which is supposed to be his mission, but he doesn’t do it. One is when Scaramanga is driving off with Bond, and Bond doesn’t shoot him in the back of the head because he would have to shoot the driver too, and because it is a nice evening (?!). Then later he could shoot Scaramanga when Scaramanga is bouncing on the trampoline, but also doesn’t, for no particular reason. It works out OK, pretty much, mostly because of Bond’s nearly unbroken streak of dumb luck. So, essentially, he is not cold-blooded enough.

Regards,
Shodan

[AK84]

He kills Doctor No by dumping birdshit on him. So sometimes yes sometimes no. (!)

[spifflog]

@AK84

Come on dude. Moore’s Bond regularly killed people who were defenceless, most of them had it coming, true, but people whose race was run.

To take an example, people hate on the “007 in a clown suit in Octopussey”, but forget it was played dead seriously, he was trying to enter a circus undercover. Rewtach Goldfinger. It has pretty much all the elements that Moore’s films was accused off, campy, a never ending parade of Dad jokes. Plus Bond spends a lot of time essentially trolling Goldfinger, and poorly, Goldfinger sees it a mile off and outright tells Bond to cut it out.
Awesome film regardless.

All the Bonds have their moments…but Moore’s Bond leads the pack.

We’ll agree to disagree then. I felt that early Connery and all of Craig are much more in tune with the Bond in print. Moore killed people, but the buffoonery all around made it more camp than Bond.