A Little About Movie Timing

In the movie “Dr. No” they don’t introduce James Bond until around the 8 minute mark. Fairly late for your hero to enter. But Sean Connery’s entrance is memorable. He lights a cigarette, then says “Bond. (lighter clicks shut)James Bond” and an icon was born.

ORIGINALLY, he said “Bond. James Bond (lighter clicks shut).” Think about that for a second. The instinct to break up the line with a debonair move like that said SO much more about his character than the original way. The original way of him clicking the lighter AFTER his introduction elicit laughter. I can only venture to guess, the reasoning is…it’s smoother to take your time.

Remember when I told you movies are fragile. Things like this drive me nuts. Because a line said one way means completely something different with a minor tweak. Sure, you can over think a line. “Just say it” is how both Stanley Kubrick & Clint Eastwood operate. The latter being more actor friendly. Kubrick seemed to want to drain the life out of the actor’s technique as he felt he could see them “acting.” I prefer Clints approach. You casted them for a reason. Hard to cast someone then bend them to your will. Personally, it’s much more satisfying for the actor to find their interpretation. I’m constantly surprised by it.

I am constantly in awe of the “realism” that comes from actors. You know it when you see it as bad. Most audiences couldn’t tell you bad acting from good acting. Step out of your brain for a second as you’re watching a movie and you can actually see the words written on paper. Assuming you’re not engrossed in the story aspect of it, it’s eye opening to know how acting actually works. It’s obviously not how we really talk. But it works in movies.

Which reminds me, we don’t have real actor faces anymore. I mean a face like Ernest Borgnine or Lee Van Cleef or Charles Bronson. We just don’t have these types of faces as leading men anymore, and I miss it. If you think about it, the actors back when I was a kid in the 80’s really had…a face. It must be a psychological thing, but we had stars like Stallone and a Neanderthal forehead Ah-nold. I would say the prettiest guy back then that could rock a lead role was someone like Warren Beatty or Robert Redford. Everyone else just looked…normal. It could be that actors today aren’t required to carry a movie alone. You see so many ensemble movies now (probably because of the superhero push). MAYBE, the closest thing we have is Robert Downey Jr. And he doesn’t look like he could change a tire.