I've been following the James Bond marathon that has been showing on Star Movies and realised a vast difference betweens the Bonds.

Sean Connery's Bond was very brutal and very politically incorrect. He did say his fair share of cliches but he didn't make them tedious to listen to. He was very into hand-to-hand combat and he did this with a lot of gusto too. Whenever he beat up someone, you could see that he put his whole heart and soul into it. He was very violent and he made no qualms about killing endangered animals like sharks (Thunderball). He also seemed to believe in not taking 'No' for an answer and the way he dealt with the ladies bordered on sexual molestation. Connery's Bond was also very full of himself. I suppose some people would call this confidence but, unless you can pull it off in a suave yet appealing way as Connery did, I would still call it full of himself. Although in You Only Live Twice, I suddenly was reminded that Bond has a qualification in Eastern languages. Pretty cool! And also, with Connery, Bond is less inclined to be overly impressed with Q's gadgets and Q leaves his lab to travel to Bond. In addition, as Shook pointed out to me, the screenplay for You Only Live Twice was written by Roald Dahl. I found this as funny as the fact that Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Come to think of it, Ian Fleming did love the 'Bang Bang' a lot.

Then there is Octopussy. How more wrong can a movie get when it has a title like that?! I used to like Sir Roger Moore a lot but not as Bond. I preferred him as Simon Templar - the original Saint. As much as I like Val Kilmer, even he cannot surpass Roger Moore's Saint. Because of Moore's Templar, I bought as many Saint books by Leslie Charteris as I could get my hands on.

Anyway, after these few days of watching Connery's Bond, watching Timothy Dalton's Bond was rather...anticlimatic, to say the least. Dalton, despite being a good Shakeapearen actor, was rather soft and unexciting in comparison. He also seemed to lack the passion for his work. For someone with a license to kill, he prefered to ask first then act later, like he did a lot in The Living Daylights. Connery acted first then asked questions. If he was wrong, he'd probably have just shrugged it off and announce that the person he wronged was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Did I ever say I prefer Sean Connery even now? I think he is the exact idea of a character created during unsettling times. If any of you know your History well, you'd realise that Connery was very much a Cold War Bond. Dalton and Brosnan might have the looks but they definitely do not have the drive and convictions. Connery's Bond is such the anti-hero. And some people like anti-heroes because heroes get boring after a while.