Barbara Bach Can't Act
She was dreadful. she made Roger Moore and Richard Kiel look look like Olivier and Burton!!!!
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MovieChat Forums > The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Discussion > Barbara Bach Can't Act
Fortunately we already had Britt Eckland so Barbara looks like Meryl Streep by comparison
shareTrue, but it was the 70s - good acting wasn't in the selection criteria!
shareI think that among Roger Moore's leading ladies during his Bond run, Lois Chiles and Tanya Roberts were far worst. Not that Barbara Bach was good on her own because she wasn't. But Lois Chiles in Moonraker was EXTREMELY stiff, listless, and robotic. At least Barbara Bach could hide behind the excuse that she was playing a "foreign" agent for why her own acting in was decidedly distant and cold. I've already said that I had to say about Tanya Roberts in A View to a Kill here:
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These were two occasions were the acting of these too ladies were so outputting that they literally distracted you from the movie. Chiles acted like she wanted to go to sleep and Roberts acted like she was drunk.
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She looked great, but act she could not.
Just watch her first scene answering the call from KGB-HQ ...
S.
Why do people often consider Denise Richards in The World is Not Enough worst among the Bond Girls considering that unlike Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me, Richards wasn't the lead Bond girl in TWINE (Sophie Marceau was)?
shareDenise Richards was staggeringly bad and the point at which she is introduced into the film really does begin to drag it down. Making matters worse is the way they had this bimbo playing a nuclear physicist, which was just laughable. Sorry, but Denise "nuclear reACTuur" Richards really IS that bad. Barbara Bach wasn't anything special, but she was serviceable in the role. She doesn't come close to the level of badness that is Denise Richards. Hell, she is far better than Tanya "Jaaaammmes" Roberts in A View To a Kill as well. For that matter, she was better than the doofus Mary Goodnight played by Britt Eckland in The Man With The Golden Gun. I also prefer Bach to Jill St. John in Diamonds Are Forever as well. Barbara Bach is far from being the worst Bond girl.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
Agreed regarding Jill St. John. The only thing that character had for her was okay looks but in reality she's a dimwitted pain in the ass with an ass that could start a computer and couldn't hide a freaking tape in a place it wouldn't be found. Actually Connery placed it in her backside, but if she was smart she would stuck in the other end. Wouldn't be very comfortable, but it could be done.
shareTanya Roberts from a View to a Kill is to me, the worst Bond Girl of the Roger Moore era. All that she does is either give exposition or scream (as if she went to the Kim Basinger/Kate Capeshaw in Indiana Jones school of acting in an action-adventure movie) like a shrill, little wimp (as if she was too timid to over having to get her hands dirty). And plus, she was massive a bimbo at times (Stacey Sutton was like Mary Goodnight but without the slightest hint of irony), like when she gets herself captured by Christopher Walken's villain character on the blimp (and didn't know that it was behind her).
share@TMC-4 Why do people often consider Denise Richards in The World is Not Enough worst among the Bond Girls considering that unlike Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me, Richards wasn't the lead Bond girl...
I don't see what your point is - Denise Richards was a Bond girl, so what if she wasn't the lead?
The director freely said in an interview(s) that it's alright so long as the leading lady can "act a bit".
I thought she was great. The approach taken in action films was a bit different in the 70's, or so it looks at times.
Either way, she was fabulous looking lass and that's what her particular employers are paying her for.
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What is supposed to be alright as long as the leading lady can act a bit (which was a really tiny bit indeed)?
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Her name is Britt Ekland NOT Eckland! If you misspell it, you will pronounce it wrongly! She was/is not a bad actress, she was playing the role exactly as the director and the screenwriter wanted to. If you are supposed to act as a moron, what would you do as an actor and a woman, who often has to act as a moron? Would you say *beep* you to the filmmakers and go? Or would you say, what the heck, as long as I am having fun with Moore and Maud in this Bondfilm - I want to be in it!
shareI guess a certain distinction can be made there between Ekland and Bach in that the former was obviously playing Agent Airhead from her first scene while the latter was seriously supposed to be a smart, tough professional.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Yes indeed. Bach´s character must have been more honourable (?)to play.
shareHe meant having her in the film is alright.
That's his opinion as a filmmaker and Lewis Gilbert was/is a well-respected one at that.
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I think a lot of her problem in this movie was a result of her need to say everything in that fake Russian accent, which, like almost all fake accents on screen, was awful.
A Fake accent is doubly bad: Not only does it almost always sound forced and terrible, but the actor's concentration is compromised between the acting and the accent. And at not-exactly-A-list-thespian level, it's going to have pretty sad results.
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The story is king.
I thought her accent was OK, long way off her natural southern American accent.
I wouldn't have too much faith in better actors doing better with accents, look at the well-seasoned Dickie Attenborough in Jurassic Park - the perfect voice of Edinburgh in Surrey :-)
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Free your mind and the rest will follow
Maybe that's why she married Ringo Starr and retired from films in the early 80s !
share:-)
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Free your mind and the rest will follow
A lot of Barbara Bach's films were in the B-movie category if I'm not mistaken, and it's quite apparent in TSWLM in regards to where she fit acting abilities wise.
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Barbara Bach Can't Act
Neither can Daniel Craig but he is still the current Bond (unfortunately!).
But seriously, which Bond girls would you classify as a "great actress"? None of them were known for their immense acting skills. Back then, being a Bond girls wasn't exactly the same as performing in a Shakespearian play. A Bond girl's job was to simply look sexy, play the damsel in distress and occasionally kick some butt!
I think Bach did a pretty good job in her role as a Russian agent. Her (lack of) acting, suited her character.I think Carole Bouquet was much worse than Bach. share
I completely agree with the second and third paragraphs.
But how can you be so harsh about old Danny-boy's acting :-) No independent eyebrows, I grant you, and he can't say, "Shirtainly", but he's suredy got it where it counts on his stage.
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But how can you be so harsh about old Danny-boy's acting :-) No independent eyebrows, I grant you, and he can't say, "Shirtainly", but he's suredy got it where it counts on his stage.
LOL!!!
I apologize if my comment upset or offended you. I don't really hate Craig but I am very unhappy with the way the Bond series has now become since his arrival. I understand the filmmakers wanted to bring some realism into the reboot but the departure from the tone of the previous movies is just TOO MUCH. If I want realism, I'll watch the news (then again, even half of that is manipulated these days!)
Imagine if they did a reboot of "The Godfather" and turned it into a musical comedy. How would fans of the original movies feel? I feel the same way about the new direction that Bond has taken.
Call me old fashioned, but I love the old Bond movies. The unbelievable plots, the fancy gadgets, the sexy babes, the millionaire megalomaniacs, the cheesy but funny one-liners. For me, Bond films were all about entertainment and fun, kind of like going on a roller-coaster. In comparison, the Craig Bond movies are like sitting in a taxi. How many people go "WHEEEEEEE!" in a cab ride??
But what bugs me MOST is the fact that many of the so-called "critics" of the old Bond movies are mostly people who weren't even Born in the time of Moore or Connery. They never saw the movies in their time-frames nor are they familiar with the craze that Bond movies generated back in their days. So IMHO, they have no right to criticize the old movies. These are the same folks who think Justin Bieber is better than Elvis!! LOL!! share
First off, no apology needed as certainly no offence taken :-)
I do see your point about the oldies and I grew up with some of them so the times they were made in are familiar. I actually think it's a tribute to the quality of the series that forty or fifty year-old films are being watched so avidly by younger viewers. They won't be so keen to watch, say, the Pink Panther series - films fabulously successful in their time but probably unknowns now. I remember when the big sci-fi films were Close Encounters and Star Wars - one popularly unknown by many under twenty, the other a household name.
I think storytelling has definitely changed in that time and I've seen enough blokes want to take over the world while stroking a cat to want something new :-) I thought Casino Royale and Skyfall were fabulous Bond films while QoS was indecipherably awful but I do like the new direction that's come along since Goldeneye. But I like films grounded in reality so that fits me well. I think wanting to take over the world might not have seemed out of reach in the sixties, twenty years after an evil maniac had got millions killed by trying to do it. But it's a different world these days.
Anyway, ignore me going on - stick You Only Live Twice in the DVD player, sit back and have an unbeatably enjoyable two hours :-)
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BRAVO! BRAVO! YOU ABSOLUTELY STOLE MY LIGHTENING + THUNDER!!! WELL SAID!!! Roger Moore NEVER took the role/character too seriously because then it would become a "documentary" and NOT entertainment!!!!!!!!
shareBach's acting isn't the greatest here (notice how she takes cues from Moore on when to step up her pace while searching for Jaws among the Egyptian ruins) but it's completely forgivable because of her lovely screen presence; lots of slow, graceful movement and delicate sensuality. I love her darting glances when she and Bond are with Kalba.
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