Linked List: July 17, 2019

Wednesday, 17 July 2019

All 104 James Bond Movie Villains Ranked ★

Jacob Hall, writing for Esquire:

They say a James Bond movie is only as good as its villain. That’s not always true—weak bad guys unwind fantastic Bond movies. Stellar villains elevate terrible installments. While England’s top spy has gone head-to-head against a variety of foes, you can’t deny that some have served as meatier adversaries as others. That’s why we have to do what any Bond fan must do: rank every single James Bond villain in a big list.

Points to Hall for comprehensiveness — there are 24 Bond movies, with at least one boss and several henchmen in each film. I think he gets the order largely right, but there’s a lot to quibble with. (5th place isn’t shabby on a list of 104, but I’d rank Auric Goldfinger in the top 3, at least — he’s the quintessential Bond villain.)

The other thing I disagree with is putting Blofeld down as a single character. He appears in 7 films but, in the films in which we see his face, was never played by the same actor twice (yet). Hall’s rankings include the actors’ performances — I’d say each actor’s Blofeld should be included separately — or at least we need a separate list of ranked Blofelds. I’d go with: Donald Pleasence, Christoph Waltz, Charles Gray, Telly Savalas, Max von Sydow — and I’d probably put Pleasence’s Blofeld in the top 3 overall. Like Goldfinger, he’s quintessential. And the goofy unnamed “Blofeld” whom Roger Moore’s Bond tosses out of a helicopter and into a chimney in the dreadfully awkward opening scene of For Your Eyes Only ought to be dead last on the whole list.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Who Led Liberal Wing, Dies at 99 ★

Linda Greenstone’s obituary for The New York Times is utterly compelling. This anecdote says a lot:

Justice Stevens was known around the court for treating others with sensitivity and respect. One former law clerk, Christopher L. Eisgruber, described in a 1993 essay an incident at a party for new clerks: Before Justice Stevens arrived, an older male justice had instructed one of the few female clerks present to serve coffee. When Justice Stevens entered, he quickly grasped the situation, walked up to the young woman and said: “Thank you for taking your turn with the coffee. I think it’s my turn now.” He took over the job.

NYT: ‘Notre-Dame Came Far Closer to Collapsing Than People Knew’ ★

The New York Times:

The New York Times conducted scores of interviews and reviewed hundreds of documents to reconstruct the missteps — and the battle that saved Notre-Dame in the first four critical hours after the blaze began.

What became clear is just how close the cathedral came to collapsing.

The first hour was defined by that initial, critical mistake: the failure to identify the location of the fire, and by the delay that followed.

The second hour was dominated by a sense of helplessness. As people raced to the building, waves of shock and mourning for one of the world’s most beloved and recognizable buildings, amplified over social media, rippled in real time across the globe.

That Notre-Dame still stands is due solely to the enormous risks taken by firefighters in those third and fourth hours.

Fascinating investigative journalism and excellently illustrated presentation on the web. Highly recommend reading on an iPad.