Ooh! Can Helen Mirren be Bond?
I'm totally down with this, too. ita's an unqualified GENIUS!
don't think they let 60 year old agents go traipsing about these days.
t refers Nutty to half of Roger Moore's Bond work
(I'm not saying they were good, I'm just saying being old has never stopped someone from playing Bond)
(Although his choice of drink is distinctly declasse.)
There's a great bit in West Wing where President Bartlett explains that the reason you stir a martini is so as not to chip the ice, and thus Bond is ordering a watered down martini, and doing it in a snooty way.
Is it possible to order a martini made to your specifications and not be doing it in a snooty way? I mean, it's a snooty drink.
When my sister bartends, there are always customers who will ask for their martinis "mild" (or, alternately, "extra-strong"). She has given up trying to explain to these people why they are idiots.
I am obviously a martini-idiot. Guess that explains why I have had maybe one in my lifetime.
It's really too bad that nobody made a film with her as Lady Macbeth.
That reminds me to add the 1960s TV production of Macbeth with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth to my Netflix queue.
Macbeth with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench
Yes. Yes! Yes!
Ahem. Which is to say, I thought it was a rather well done version of the play.
The original Bond was a representative of patrician snob Britain, which may be why he has always been white and driven Austen Martins and whatall. (Although his choice of drink is distinctly declasse.)
His choice of drink was dictated, in the movies, by a deal with Smirnoff, I believe it was. In the books, he'd drink whatever was appropriate to the situation.
A martini, shaken, not stirred? I had no idea it was declasse.
There's a great bit in West Wing where President Bartlett explains that the reason you stir a martini is so as not to chip the ice, and thus Bond is ordering a watered down martini, and doing it in a snooty way.
Couple things. First, a martini is traditionally gin. You never, ever shake gin (i.e., put it in a shaker with ice), because that "bruises" the gin (dilutes it). You might serve a gin martini in a cold glass, but you never add ice in any way. Vodka martinis are newfangled, and part of the reason they exist is that you can do whatall to vodka and it doesn't affect the taste much. So, shaking or stirring a vodka drink is no beans either way.
Second, President Bartlett was talking out of his hindparts. You stir a martini to mix the gin and vermouth (or vodka and whatever), especially, as with gin, if you cannot shake the two ingredients together.
So, movie-Bond was ordering a vodka martini -- newfangled, declasse -- and ordering it in whatever way floated his boat, as is appropriate with vodka, but also kind of silly.
Second, President Bartlett was talking out of his hindparts.
On an Aaron Sorkin show? Never! Next you'll be saying that Joss likes to tear out our hears and stomp all over them.
