Bond who broke the bonds

  • When the man appeared on screen, you were almost biologically compelled to watch him and not the others in the same shot

Sandipan Deb
Updated2 Nov 2020, 06:59 AM IST
Connery was the only flesh-and-blood man who was much bigger and more loved than James Bond.
Connery was the only flesh-and-blood man who was much bigger and more loved than James Bond.

Sir Sean Connery is no more. The only flesh-and-blood man who was much bigger and more loved than James Bond. All obituaries remember him as the first man who was Bond, the spy with the licence to kill and seduce at will, convincing millions of men around the world that his was the role model they could dream of—guns and girls—and never be good enough to be, and entrancing further millions of women with his combination of recklessness, insouciance and super-strong pheromones.

Yet, the truth is that 007 was only a small part of Connery and he walked away from it when the series was jubilantly thriving, and certainly a principal reason for this was the uber-coolness he had brought to the role. But he felt hemmed in because he believed Bond would hamper his acting career choices. He returned for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) for a then-unheard-of fee of $1.25 million, with which he founded the Scottish International Education Trust, a charity to help deprived Scottish children. And later in 1983, in Never Say Never Again. He needed the money—he had just lost a fortune in some Spanish land deals. We are, after all, human.

Tales abound about how a Scotsman born to a dirt-poor family, forced to leave school at the age of 13, working as a coffin polisher and bricklayer, with no Eton education like Bond had, and only some minor roles in films to his credit, could land the role of Bond. But let’s go to the most authentic source, Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, the co-producer of the series. “When Sean left our office,” he said, “and walked across the street, we knew from the way he walked and the way he talked that he was the best possibility.”

Ian Fleming, initially sceptical, gave Bond a half-Scottish heritage in his later books to fit the actor’s Scottish accent.

Throughout his life, Connery remained a fierce supporter of Scottish independence from Britain. This delayed his knighthood by some years, but he may not have minded or cared. Even in the role for which he won his only Oscar, Jimmy Malone in the 1987 film The Untouchables, he played an Irish cop with a distinctly Sottish accent.

But above all, after he left Bond behind, he established himself as an actor of great range (Daniel Craig has a tough act to follow), earning worldwide adulation, which he detested, having once said famously: “To get anywhere in the world, you have to be anti-social; otherwise, you’ll get devoured”. He hated Hollywood life, preferring to live in Spain. He aged gracefully and in full public view—losing his hair and acquiring greater dignity and respect with every passing year. Effortlessly, he built a place for himself above the star system, playing character roles, and sometimes even the ageing hero, like in The Name of the Rose, or Entrapment. In a way, he became much larger than life than 007, but remained a gentleman, as countless people who knew him have tweeted in the last 36 hours, and have universally maintained.

The Untouchables is perhaps one of the most entertaining films ever made (at least for men). Connery appears for a total of maybe 30 minutes in the film, but his sheer screen presence overshadows the hero, Kevin Costner. Cinematically, Malone, the street cop, is the balancing factor to Robert de Niro’s bravura performance as Al Capone. The film, quite simply, would not have worked without that counterweight. When Costner tries to recruit him in his team to take down Capone, Malone asks him: “What are you prepared to do?”

“Everything within the law,” comes the reply.

“And then what are you prepared to do?” asks Malone.

“You want to get Capone, here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue…That’s how you get Capone.”

It is an unforgettable scene, and one cannot easily think of any other actor (Al Pacino, yes, or Javier Bardem when he gets older) who could have made it that, because for those dialogues, you not only need the craft, you need that indefinable quality that makes the audience believe in you: If you are saying it, we’re with you. Can you imagine anyone else carrying off the role of Indiana Jones’ father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with such sly gravitas, leaving Harrison Ford looking like a sidekick even though he is the hero in one of cinema’s most lucrative franchises?

Connery did not act in a film for the last 17 years, because he came to detest Hollywood, choosing golf over glitz. That is our loss. When the man appeared on screen, you were almost biologically compelled to watch him rather than the others in the same shot. He commanded attention, and he never disappointed. He was, in a very different way from the title of his celebrated film, untouchable.

Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.

MoreLess
First Published:2 Nov 2020, 06:59 AM IST
Business NewsNewsWorldBond who broke the bonds

Get Instant Loan up to ₹10 Lakh!

  • Employment Type

    Most Active Stocks

    Tata Motors share price

    784.95
    03:56 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -19.8 (-2.46%)

    Tata Steel share price

    144.15
    03:56 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -0.8 (-0.55%)

    Tata Power share price

    414.25
    03:56 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -17.25 (-4%)

    Oil & Natural Gas Corporation share price

    256.20
    03:55 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -0.7 (-0.27%)
    More Active Stocks

    Market Snapshot

    • Top Gainers
    • Top Losers
    • 52 Week High

    Fortis Healthcare share price

    638.50
    03:29 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    14.6 (2.34%)

    Coforge share price

    8,099.00
    03:45 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    35.6 (0.44%)

    HCL Technologies share price

    1,862.90
    03:29 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -4.1 (-0.22%)

    Federal Bank share price

    207.15
    03:53 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -0.6 (-0.29%)
    More from 52 Week High

    ITI share price

    295.15
    03:51 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -32.25 (-9.85%)

    Jyothy Labs share price

    441.65
    03:55 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -35.7 (-7.48%)

    Whirlpool Of India share price

    1,789.90
    03:29 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -141.5 (-7.33%)

    Britannia Industries share price

    5,028.25
    03:56 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    -397.05 (-7.32%)
    More from Top Losers

    Uno Minda share price

    1,002.75
    03:48 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    80.45 (8.72%)

    Jubilant Foodworks share price

    636.30
    03:29 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    34.45 (5.72%)

    The Ramco Cements share price

    910.25
    03:40 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    40.3 (4.63%)

    Macrotech Developers share price

    1,241.65
    03:44 PM | 12 NOV 2024
    52.9 (4.45%)
    More from Top Gainers

    Recommended For You

      More Recommendations

      Gold Prices

      • 24K
      • 22K
      Bangalore
      77,305.00-1,470.00
      Chennai
      77,311.00-1,470.00
      Delhi
      77,463.00-1,470.00
      Kolkata
      77,315.00-1,470.00

      Fuel Price

      • Petrol
      • Diesel
      Bangalore
      102.92/L0.00
      Chennai
      100.80/L0.00
      Kolkata
      104.95/L0.00
      New Delhi
      94.77/L0.00

      Popular in News

        HomeMarketsPremiumInstant LoanMint Shorts