Synopsis:

From what many consider to be the the worst Bond title song ever, to the frenetic action sequences which have come straight from a Jason Bourne movie, Marc Forster’s take on James Bond struggled to maintain that special identity which separates 007 from the rest of the crowd. For this fanedit, I wanted to try and achieve a few things which I hope may inject the movie with more personal emotion and drum home the feeling that Bond’s trail of vengeance, not to forget Camille’s too, is very much what the film is about.

Intentions:

For this fanedit, I wanted to try and achieve a few things which I hope may inject the movie with more personal emotion and drum home the feeling that Bond’s trail of vengeance, not to forget Camille’s too, is very much what the film is about.

Change List:

- Inserted gun-barrel sequence to the beginning of the movie (accompanied by Michael Kaman’s “gun-barrel opening theme” from Licence To Kill) - New extended pre-credits sequence: now begins with a shortened and slowed down version of the opening car chase, intercut with a recap of the events from Casino Royale. Sound effects and music added. - Foot Chase through the sewers and along the rooftops in Sienna between Bond and Mitchell, now trimmed slightly and again slowed down. Some crowd shots cut. - Title sequence now starts after the fight between Bond and Mitchell, with new theme song. - Boat chase is trimmed - Opera sequence altered. During the shoot-out between Bond and Greene’s men, instead of the opera scenes being shown I have intercut memories of Vesper in an attempt to make it more personal. Also, replaced music with “Vesper’s Theme” from Casino Royale. Sound effects added, action from the shoot out is trimmed and slowed down. - Bond confronting the bodyguard on the roof is trimmed and moved to the scene where Tanner and M are discussing the identities of the Quantum group from the pictures Bond took. It now appears that Bond did actually shoot and push the guard off the roof. We do not see Greene’s men shoot the guard after the fall. - Bond’s arrival to meet Mathis is trimmed. The boat and aerial shots are removed. - Aerial battle and parachute scenes trimmed - One long shot of Agent Fields’ oil-covered dead body is cut (we had already seen the body twice), and then slowed down image of Bond being disarmed. - Hotel in the desert. The conversation between Medrano and the chief of police about the hotel’s unstable fuel cells has been cut. It makes it far too obvious that the whole hotel is like a bomb waiting to explode. - Desert inferno… when Bond jumps down onto the Chief of Police’s car, the line he speaks before firing his gun is cut, instead shooting straight away – just seemed more real to me. - Desert inferno II… the duel confrontation involving Camille vs. Medrano and Bond vs. Greene is considerably slowed down – Picture has been drained of colour and music has been changed in an attempt to add more emotional weight to the sequence. Scenes are also trimmed from both fights. - Aftermath… Bond’s line to Camille, “stay here”, is cut, as is Bond driving Greene out further into the desert. Instead, the scene just goes from the desert with Greene hobbling away into Camille and Bond saying their goodbyes. - M telling Bond that Greene’s body was found in the desert has been trimmed. She no longer says that motor oil was found in his stomach, just that 2 bullets were found in the back of his skull. The intention here is to really leave it up to the viewer as to whether Bond killed Greene or somebody else did. - Bond theme has been removed from end credits. After the gentle ending of Bond dropping Vesper’s necklace in the snow, it just didn’t seem to fit for me. The End Crawl music by Four Tet has been retained, along with a replay of the new title song.

Additional Notes:

Whilst I’ve now obtained a higher regard for Marc Forster’s theatrical cut, I truly hope that other Bond fans find something within this edit to make them appreciate that amongst the “blink and you’ll miss it” action scenes and the poor villains , there’s still some very strong material here, particularly in Craig’s ruthless yet haunted performance as 007. I wanted Vesper’s presence to be very much felt, so at every opportunity I have tried to put her in Bond’s mind. Plus, most of all, I hope that the climatic fight has now taken on a more thought provoking aspect, the kind of which is rarely seen in a Bond film (and yet definitely is felt in Fleming’s work) . Oh, and make sure you watch it with a classy drink or two at hand (or in my case a pint of ale and a packet of crisps… shame on me!) Started Edit: February 2011 Completed: May 2011

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Thanks to my lovely girlfriend, Sophie, as always. You gave me the idea for this edit in the first place and chose the title song, so this one really is for you. Also thanks to L8wrtr for his continued patience and support and to everyone here at fanedit.org for taking an interest.