Quote:
Originally Posted by Aceium
db, as an old school Bond fan what do you think of Judi Dench taking over the role of M in the Brosnan era?
I thought it was great. Once Bernard Lee died/stopped being M., the M that took over barely registered at all. During that time, I thought M was a blank - though I really liked the M that was in Never Say Never Again, played by Edward Fox.
I thought she was good in the Brosnan era, and transitioned well in the Craig reboot. There's only one thing I didn't like about her, that was a certain line in Goldeneye. The scene went like this:
M: You don't like me, Bond. You don't like my methods. You think I'm an accountant, a bean counter more interested in my numbers than your instincts.
Bond: The thought had occurred to me.
M: Good, because I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.
Bond: Point taken.
so far, so good, even though it's a little obviously written. Then:
M: If you think I don't have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong. I've no compunction about sending you to your death. But I won't do it on a whim, even with your cavalier attitude towards life.
yep all good there, but then as Bond leaves:
M: Bond...Come back alive.
ARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH. The line and even more importantly the way she played it, in a breathless, girlish manner, really pulled the rug out from the toughness of her character. Thankfully, we did see later she was tough but still cared without doing it in such a maudlin, crude way, and she also added the dimension that she was proud of Bond and her staff when they came through.
I liked Dench's M. you do know that these days Dench is slang for cool here in the UK, right? So, yeah, Dench is...Dench.
However, I really am relishing the new M at the end of Skyfall, a guy with a similar background to Bond, but older seems pretty kickass.