The Best Bond

Who is the best bond ever: Connery? Moore? Martin Scott?

Of course I’m entitled to comment on this because I’ve actually read all of Ian Fleming’s Bond books. So I’m talking about the actor that best plays Bond. It’s actually pretty easy to answer. If you were to ask who is the best Bond for entertainment/movie value then that question would vary from person to person a hell of a lot more.

At last count there have been 6 Bonds. Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. I think David Niven played bond in an old version of Casino Royale, but I’ve never seen that movie. Check out wikipedia for more info on this stuff.

There are three main character traits that I picked up from the Fleming books. Bond was tough, sophisticated and a stud. In my mind, Sean Connery is the only one that fills all of these traits. Lazenby wasn’t near tough enough, and neither was Moore. Brosnan comes pretty close, but still errs on the side of being a softy. Dalton comes the closest to Connery. Unlike the others, Craig’s Bond wasn’t sophisticated enough.

Obviously the movie directors were often not trying to match their lead actor to Fleming’s Bond. This is all too clear with Craig. In Casino Royale, the movie actually plays off of the fact that Bond is rough around the edges. They treat it as the beginning of James Bond so there is a lot of potential for subsequent Bond movies with Craig to progress into the more traditional role.

One choice for Bond was clearly a mistake, that being Lazenby. This is unfortunate because On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is maybe the best Bond script. Lazenby was an okay character for this movie, but he wasn’t Bond. If you catch my drift.

Moore was an entertaining Bond. He added a comedic dimension to the movie and certainly was a womanizer. He was probably tough enough too, but the comedy aspect played against this. He was also the recipient of some pretty bad scripts. But that’s what you get for being an entertainer in the 80’s.

Dalton played the role of Bond very well. He also had some pretty bad scripts to work with. I think his biggest problem was his charisma. It’s hard to imagine that he would be swooning the ladies wherever he went. Overall he would be Bond #2.

From an entertainment point of view, Craig is one of the best bonds. The fact that his movie didn’t have a car chase adds to this greatly. A 10 minute car chase is a sure-fire way to lose an audience in my opinion. He sure the hell wasn’t sophisticated though and that doesn’t match up with Bond at all.

There’s just one outstanding question in my mind. Has anyone ever successfully watched A View To A Kill twice? That movie is shite.

Now please, someone shoot me for being dorky enough to write this post in my blog.