Thoughts from the Curb

Sep 11, 2008 - Countdown to Bond: Ford LTD and Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

"A View to a Kill" is the rare Bond movie where 007 assumes multiple aliases. As super wealthy race horse owner James St. John Smythe (prononuned Sin-Gin Smythe), Roger Moore is chauffered about in a 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. This car was actually the prized possesion of Bond producer Cubby Broccoli. Naturally, they used a lesser example when it came time for Grace Jones to push the Rolls into a lake with Bond aboard. As a side note, if you've seen that Mythbusters where Adam attempts to breath underwater using a car tire, they got the idea from this scene in "A View to a Kill."

Later, as journalist James Stock, 007 drives a 1985 Ford LTD. And thus, the series reached a new low. Sure, that AMC Hornet was pretty lame, but it least it could do this. And that Citroen 2CV certainly sucks, but it was used ironically. The LTD is just lame beyond belief -- even if he's supposed to be a lowly journalist.

But I suppose this is fitting since "A View to a Kill" is pretty lame beyond belief. It has the coolest/creapiest on-screen couple ever thanks to bleached-blond Christopher Walken and amazonian Grace Jones. But the rest of the movie bounces back and forth between boring and just plain stupid.

And thus, the Moore Bond car years are over (and I didn't even get to talk about the "Octopussy" company taxis). They're about to get a whole lot cooler.

-James Riswick

2:24 pm | Categories: bond cars Permalink | Alert Administrator

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