Jamie’s Bond Formula: the Value of a Villain
As Amazon walks like a drunk Monopoly guy into our childhoods and prepares to desecrate the precious memories of 007 I have asked myself the question… Why am I so against this?
The answer is pretty simple to be honest, I hate that this rich guy has clearly just bought the rights to Bond because he wants to own it. He is the child in the playground with the shiny Charizard who does not care about Pokemon but knows the social leverage it will get him.
I can hear you already, dear reader, “okay Jamie, what makes a good Bond film?” My takeaway is thus.
A Bond film can be a bad film but still be a good Bond film as long as one key ingredient is good; the villain. That’s all you need.
People on our guided walking tours like to ask “Who’s your favourite Bond?”, which is a perfectly fine question. It’s worth noting that the actor who plays James Bond doesn’t have much of a say in how good the Bond film is. Their job is to allow us to experience Bond’s world around them, they tee up the silliness and the twists and that is what keeps us coming back.
Every single Bond actor has something they bring to the franchise. Moore is charming and silly, Daniel Craig has gravity, Brosnan has both and therefore is probably the best across the board. But I’d argue it’s the villain that makes the film.
So without further ado, allow me to give you my top three Bond villains:
Franz Sanchez - License to Kill
Sanchez is not remembered by the masses because License to Kill is often forgotten in the franchise. Well I’m here to tell you that the masses are wrong. Before I start sounding like that Skinner meme, hear me out!
Robert Davi has recounted that he was initially offered the role of Sanchez, he was a bit offended. Davi is of Italian-American descent but was often presented by Hollywood as Hispanic-American. Apparently, when MGM offered him the role of a South American drug-lord he saw it as a bit offensive to Hispanic-Americans. He did, however, say that he would rewrite the role and if they liked it, he would sign on.
Thus, Sanchez was re-born. Davi’s idea was that Sanchez would be Bond but if Bond had ended up in the world of crime instead of MI6. He is charming, endearing, and scary all at once. There’s also a moment when Bond is undercover at Sanchez’ house where you really feel like these guys could be best mates in an alternative timeline. God I’d like to see that film. For Davi’s wonderful rewrite and performance he takes top spot in this short list for me. I can forever hear the words “You’ll kiss my ass to kill you!” in my head.
Alec Trevelyan - Goldeneye
Talking of memorable lines in Bond, what about the great back and forth of “Closing time James, last call!”, “Buy me a pint!”. Wonderful stuff.
006 or Alec Trevelyan played by the man who would become Boromir, Sean Bean, is so tragic, and his whole character is based on how he compares himself up to 007. I always wonder whether Alec would have stayed with her majesty's secret service if he had just believed that he was good enough. Who’s to say?
Sadly, if he had more self-esteem, we wouldn’t have the excellent Goldeneye so let’s keep it the way it is. A great villain who gets more and more manic and insane as the film goes on. His crowning achievement though is the second delivery of “For England James?”, and if you are reading this I’m sure I don’t need to fill in the blank of what the next line is…
Fun fact: Goldeneye is the only Bond themewhich isn’t written from the perspective of James Bond. It’s from Travelyan’s. Go on. Boot it up. Listen to it. You’ll see what I mean.
Auric Goldfinger - Goldfinger
He’s gotta be up there right? What is there to say? Before there was Hans Gruber, there was Auric Goldfinger played by the wonderful Gert Frobe. There aren’t many cinema bad guys who have made such an enormous cultural impact. Funnily enough, Frobe couldn’t actually speak English (his agent lied to the Bond Producers) so they had to hastily redub him with actor Michael Collins. Despite this, his performance is one for the ages.
It’s also Goldfinger where they set up the Big Bad and burly henchman dynamic (with Oddjob as the latter) which is sadly something the Bond films have now lost. While we all remember how wonderful Goldfinger was as a villain, let me just wrap up this section with another quote “No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” Sublime.
And the worst Bond villain goes to…
Sorry it’s gotta be Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre. When they announced the casting of Christopher Walts, alarm bells rang in my head. We all know that Waltz can do a Hollywood villain in his sleep, so casting him as the next big Bond one just seemed really dull and unimaginative. And so it would prove to be.
Waltz sleepwalks his way through that dreadful film. Spectre is far and away the worst Bond film of all time. Yes, even worse than the more recent one with another terrible villain in it. But, just goes to show you if the villain is good then the Bond film is good, if the villain is bad then you get Spectre.
Who knows what the next Bond film, if you can still call it that, will bring in terms of a villain but I doubt it will be a mad billionaire destroying people’s lives for greed. WINK WINK.
For more Bond opinions and stories please do come on our James Bond and Spies tour. I’ll even show you where Spectre was filmed. Maybe.
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