Posted on 02/11/2010 9:48:45 AM PST by Perdogg
Legendary actor Clint Eastwood has revealed that he has no regrets about turning down the role of James Bond, as he believes the 007 agent should be played by a British actor.
Buzz up!Eastwood, 79, who had been approached by Bond bosses after Sean Connery quit the franchise, insists that he made the right decision, as he did not want the surperspy to be portrayed by an American.
“I thought James Bond should be British. I am of British descent but by that same token, I thought that it should be more of the culture there and also, it was not my thing,” the Daily Express quoted him as saying.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.oneindia.in ...
Winchester ‘73 made by Mann, was a good western, but it was not as great a western as the cowboy-noir Unforgiven. ‘73 used cheap name dropping stunts like throwing in Will Geer as Wyatt Earp (the audience is set up to go 'ooooh, ahhh, its Wyatt Earp') in one of the worst miss castings in films of the 1950s’ and was corny in many ways. Geer he may be able to skin grizz, and be a gay commie, but he surely does not pull off Earp.
so yes, The Unforgiven, what you call flatfooted directing (because of some preconceived notion of what flatfooted is),is in my opinion a better flick than Manns ‘Winchester ‘73’ and Hawks Rio Bravo.
‘True Grit’ was Wayne engaging in self parody and directed by by a 2nd tier filmmaker (Henry Hathaway). However, Hawks’ ‘Red River’ and ‘Rio Bravo’ are masterly and thoroughly brilliant. Either one is American cinema at its zenith. ‘Flatfooted’ means he lacks expressiveness and subtlety. Eastwood just films the script without teasing any contradictions out of it. There’s not a single element in Unforgiven that wasn’t already dealt with in other Westerns with more complexity. It was too aware of its own revisionist context to transcend it. Whereas those ideas were just built in to the greater films.
I disagree....Rio Bravo really was cornball stuff....and casting Dean Martin and Rickey Nelson proved that it was.
ROTFLMAO! Wow...no kidding...what great evil guys in those movies...Dr. No with his cat...Goldfinger...
That guy looks a little like Robert Shaw...:)
gag.
a simple movie which does not suspend MY reality to make me feel like it is happening....it is 'just a movie' and I get no emotional visceral response from it.
I do from the Unforgiven....
a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have. (amazing statement...the Duke could have made it work....but it was Eastwood acting and directing who made it so powerful)
the kid...the Schofield kid...he never killed anyone...you thought that was probably the case, but how powerful it was to the audience when he realized what he had done.....
you do not get that kind of emotional jolt from Rio Bravo
Freepers! There’s nothing like them!
8^)
RB isn’t out to ‘jolt’ your emotions. It deals in very delicate shades of feeling. It’s not simple at all. The way that Hawks choregraphs all the characters in and out of the frame - the way all the subplots are juggled while never losing the main narrative is masterful.
I didn’t know Eastwood was considered. LOL. Can he do accents?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Connery was trying to do an Irish accent. I think he made it plain he couldn’t do accents and never tried to.
Because he is a supercool western actor.
Bond is suave. Clint is clint
Savalas’s American-ness was the only negative in his performance. It’s too bad they couldn’t have gotten an accent coach to at least have him do a British one. Otherwise, I wish they’d have kept Donald Pleasance for a second go, who was the definitive Blofeld, or as you suggested, Yul Brynner would’ve been superbly effective.
Exactly, Perdogg. Moore was VERY capable of serious work when allowed, he just was given all those cartoonish scripts. FYEO was probably the best script that allowed him to do a more serious Bond (although not without a few flaws). I’d also recommend seeing his turn in the film “ffolkes.” Moore supposedly claimed to prefer it to all his Bond work.
Er... no. Guy Hamilton and Peter Hunt were better.
I liked guy hamilton a lot more than peter hunt..
And that’s the problem right there with Craig. Except Robert Shaw played Red Grant with a lot more warmth and humanity.
It’s too bad they didn’t keep Jack Lord in the Leiter role, he was strong enough to play opposite Connery. The other Leiters were largely forgettable, although I liked Bernie Casey in NSNA.
Eastwood is as gifted at accents as Connery.
I thought he was trying to do an irish ‘Brogue, but his Scottish ‘Burr’, came through instead.
at least that is what I heard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.