Who is the best Bond?
Bond is much like Doctor Who, in that you usually love the actor who played the character as you grew up. For me Doctor Who is Tom Baker, and with Bond it's Sean Connery. Yet there's something slightly different with Bond, I have more than one favourite. It's because Bond has changed and moved through various styles that I appreciate the different actors for their different portrayals. So it's difficult to say "The top three Bond's are..." but we're going to try.
With the impending release of the latest Bond, Daniel Craig, bringing yet another take on the masterful and ageless spy, it seems fitting that we return to one of the hottest debates about film, who is the best Bond?
Each actor brought something different to the role and created their own Bond, and if you need some reminding of their faces, their films, or their order, head over to Bond on Wikipedia. Here's my thoughts...
Connery was the strong, wise cracking Bond that stood back and gave a sense of menace and roughness along with his cool exterior. He conserved his actions for quick and decisive moments.
George Lazenby made a brief appearance as Bond, but he was well before his time and brought a much more normal bloke approach to his Bond. Actually I confess to not remembering much about his Bond.
Roger Moore seems to have a much more hands on and basic approach to his Bond, and he also brought a much lighter and more humorous style. Although gadgets were still there, he would be much more hands on in his dealing of the enemy.
Then we had Timothy Dalton gave us something in the realm of Lazenby with his more realistic and reachable Bond. He wasn't so calculating, cocksure and infallible all the time, he wavered and carried much more human character traits such as anger and revenge.
Pierce Brosnan returned to the strength and coldness of the original Bond that Connery gave us. He brought back that conservation of action, the feeling that he would stand back and give the occasional quip or barb and when action was required he would be deadly. His Bond was darker and carried less humour than the others.
Then there's Craig. Since the film hasn't been released yet I can't really comment, but as soon as we start seeing it I'm sure we can get stuck in. What we do know is that it sounds like he's looking to Dalton and Lazenby for his Bond. He's real, rough, human, and yet still deadly when needed.
So out of all those possibilities, is there a way to say this is my favourite, or these are my top three? Well, I think so...although as soon as I started going through the list in my head I started arguing with myself!
There was a time my list would have read Connery, Moore, Brosnan. However now I'm thinking more of the Bond that is more grounded in reality, I'm almost thinking Brosnan, Connery, Dalton. Or maybe even Brosnan, Dalton, Connery. I even can see the anticipation of Craig pushing into that list too.
As much as I love the old Bond's and their whymsical methods, over the top villains, gadgets and stunts, there's something that has becoming more and more appealing about the real Bond. It's something I noticed with Die Another Day and the opening torture and betrayal of Bond by his own organisation, and I liked it. Bond was human, fallible and dispensable.
So I am torn between that Connery, Moore, Brosnan (or Connery, Brosnan,
Moore) and the Brosnan, Dalton, Connery (or Brosnan, Connery, Dalton)...Damn I just can't decide! What about you? If you had to choose your top three who would they be and why? What attracks you to their Bond? Where do you think Craig might slot in, and once you see him where does he?
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