Pierce Brosnan-The fans speak: Part 2

About a month ago I asked for readers to submit their thoughts and opinions on Pierce Brosnan, in order to celebrate the man on the tenth anniversary of his final film. First I cobbled together the thoughts from our forum members, now here’s all the people who e-mailed me in their thoughts as well:

 

Sean:

I remember back when I when I was 13 years old with family visiting my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin down in Richmond, TX around winter holidays of 1997 and went to go to see Mouse Hunt in the theater. On the poster display, I saw the Tomorrow Never Dies poster and seeing Pierce and holding the gun in a certain fashion just drew my attention and wanted to see it bad. So around February 1998, TND still in theaters, I got my dad to take me and my brother in Dallas to see my first Bond movie, TND, and it was such an incredible experience. Immediately after I was hooked on it.  What I loved about Pierce Brosnan is style, the way he carries himself, his body language and way he spoke his dialog throughout the movies he did and for some reason the way he would run just seemed for awesome to me esp the action sequence in Hamburg Break Out half through the movie. I saw TND at least half a dozen times or more in theaters as well as the rest he did after TND. Pierce Brosnan was truly the best Bond because he had his own distinct style and take on the role and it’s a character I try to replicate day to day in the sense of his style and body language and spoken dialog style. After seeing TND I heard he did Goldeneye previously and watched that so many times I lost track and showed it to friends of mine. What I loved about the movies to is they always are released around my birthday on November 18 and gives me a chance to really enjoy those movies. But I love how each Bond movie Pierce did he had a slightly different approach on it but still stayed true to his sophistication. To this day I still am a huge fan of him and will be for very long down the road. I think he is a great role model to in a sense of his sophistication he brings and that I try to imitate on day to day life.

David:

Pierce Brosnan was exactly what Eon needed to launch Bond again in 1995. As soon as you saw him in Goldeneye you just knew Bond was back. He looked and acted just like Bond should and although he had some great moments in his 4 films, I did however find that he was actually let down by some bad writing that actually meant he was good, but not great.

As a person, I was privileged to meet him a few times and always found him to be graceful and chatty. One time we met whilst filming the boat chase in the Thames and I’ll never forget how  excited he was after he finished for the day going up and down on the ‘Q’ boat. He was like a giddy schoolboy. I actually believe that of the 6 actors who have played Bond that it actually meant the most to him.

 

Marc:

In 1995, I was a freshman in college – on the other side of the state where I grew up. It was my first time living away from home, and I was understandably overwhelmed. I remember I used to call and write to my family, sad, lonely, and overwhelmed at this new chapter of my life. I had a hard time making friends and finding my footing.

 

My father, who was a huge James Bond fan (no pun intended, but that was how we “Bonded” as I was growing up – watching James Bond flicks together), knew that GOLDENEYE was coming out that fall, and he flew down to surprise me and cheer me up a bit – we ended up going to see GOLDENEYE together on opening night, and had a great time. We spent a lot of time talking that weekend, and he cheered me up, and helped me realize that I was in charge of my life, and that if I was in a bad situation, I had the power to change that.  

 

As lame as that sounds, Pierce (and my dad!) helped get me out of a tough period of my life, and reinforced, as always, that family is the most important thing in the world.

 

After that, we made a family tradition to go see each Bond movie on opening night together as a family. 🙂

 While I was aware of the Bond franchise, it was Brosnan’s Bond that pulled me in and made me forever a fan. Leaving the theater after watching his Bond films always left me walking taller, wishing that I could be as cool as him. He brought the best of each Bond before him and made it his own all while making the movies so much fun to watch!

I wish they would have followed through with Brosnan’s fifth film to properly say goodbye to him but he left the series on top and didn’t wear out his welcome. I have come to love and appreciate each actor that has portrayed 007 and all the history of the character. But to me when I think of James Bond, the best will always be Brosnan, Pierce Brosnan.

Ian:

For me Brosnan’s greatest strength was that he combined elements from the two most iconic Bond actors who had gone before him. He had the charm and comedic touch of Roger Moore, while at the same time he could cope with the action and occasional brutality more commonly associated with Sean Connery as Bond. In this way I think he appealed to both the Connery and Moore ‘camps’ while at the same time recreating Bond in his own image.

Brosnan’s greatest success was in being one of the major reasons for Bond’s triumphant return in Goldeneye, after a six year absence. The series was in jeopardy at this point through a combination of other action film franchises and the cessation of the Cold War, but Goldenye re-established Bond’s place at the top of the box office and Brosnan contributed hugely to that. Tomorrow Never Dies Brosnan brought Bond back to his swaggering best, and then The World Is Not Enough was in my opinion Brosnan’s ‘signature’ film as 007.

Brendan:

Pierce Brosnan will always have a special place in my Bond fandom.  I was 11 when Goldeneye was released and it was the first Bond film I experienced on the big screen.
It kick started what would become a huge love of my life – James Bond.
I always loved Brosnan in the role because, for me, he was the perfect combination of the attitude of Connery and the charm and humor of Moore.  That is what made him the Bond of
my childhood.  Even though we have moved on to Daniel Craig, Brosnan will always be special to me.

Chris:

Pierce Brosnan brought an air of Celtic hard-scrabble flintiness mixed with a sense of art school fun. But you know he has lived. He was a breath of fresh moorland air blown via the streets of a hedonistic London. The debut scenes of banter with fellow agent Sean Bean (Alex Trevelyan) in Goldeneye are memorable for their authentic servicemen’s gallows humour: “It’s closing time, James”. And he is a man you’d like to share a pub lock-in with.  

Paul:

What can i say about him will first Pierce Brosnan is my role model he made me into the guy i am 2day i seen him in Goldeneye in 95 i though he was god i was bulled going to school watching him made me stand up for myself he made me get into acting i love acting and its thanks to him. Thats me in the photo for my James bond fan film im making called RISQUE this man was put on this earth to BE 007 and my role model. id love to act with him in a film but i  know that will never happen this guy is in my eyes is the best actor, Bond, Irish actor(besides me ) and my role model i love this guy i just hope to meet this guy someday and be a great actor like him from me Pierce Brosnan IS James Bond 007.

Sal:

I remember standing in line to see Goldeneye on opening night, sitting in a parking garage listening to the entire TND soundtrack days before its release and trying to figure out what would be happening on screen, and inviting more than a dozen coworkers to see “Die Another Day” with me on opening day. I bought all their tickets. I was sad to see Brosnan go without a fifth film. His turns in “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “After the Sunset” told me he could take Bond to an entirely different level if given the chance and the right, age-appropriate co-stars. Thanks, Pierce, you made Bond great again.

Ben:

I was never allowed to watch James Bond until I was 16, which was just a few years ago.  But growing up, all the Bond trailers I saw were for his movies, and of course I have the memories of playing Goldeneye with my friends.  Pierce Brosnan was always the person I associated with being James Bond.  Once I was finally allowed to watch the movies, Brosnan’s were the first ones I watched, and I actually found it weird at first to see others playing the role.  But after having seen each Bond film thousands of times, I can safely say that Pierce Brosnan IS James Bond.  He personifies what, in my mind at least, the very essence of the character.  The suave, his one-liners, his posture, his confidence, everything about him brings James Bond to life.

Alex:

The first time I ever heard the famous words, “Bond….James Bond,” was in 1997 when I sawGoldeneye on VHS.  On that day, I was introduced to not only my favorite film character of all time, but also my favorite actor to play him.  I can’t tell you how many times I watched not only Goldeneye, but Pierce’s three other 007 adventures to the point where I could probably quote all four films verbatim.  It was through Goldeneye that I also became a fan of Brosnan’s non-Bond films making him my favorite actor to watch on film.

There is not one actor to play James Bond that I do not enjoy watching.  Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Craig have all put in great performances as 007.  But as the saying goes, “You always remember your first.”  My first introduction to James Bond was through Pierce Brosnan and that I won’t forget.  Thank you, Pierce.

Again, thanks everyone for all your contributions, and because of the timing of this whole thing, I would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay save people.