Pierce Brosnan is a preposterously good-looking man, and like most preposterously good-looking males, he seems positively spectacular in nearly any piece of clothes you may throw on him. A tuxedo is sort of a second layer of pores and skin for Brosnan. He can rock a suede blazer with extra verve than another man on the planet. He may in all probability set hearts a-flutter in a clown swimsuit.
Brosnan has been a males’s vogue plate since “Remington Steele” turned him into a world famous person 43 years in the past. He was the primary option to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond after “A View to a Kill,” and solely misplaced out on the position as a result of NBC exercised its choice on a fifth season of “Remington Steele” that nobody needed. Clearly, he ultimately landed the position he was seemingly born to play, however whereas Brosnan was solely ever excellent as Bond, the movies round him tended to let him down. By the point he acquired to the atrocious “Die One other Day,” the franchise’s producers determined that the one manner ahead was to recast and (softly) reboot.
Was seven years of James Bond price it for Pierce Brosnan? Financially, virtually definitely. However having to drop the whole lot to make a 007 flick each different yr possible disadvantaged him of different alternatives. This obligation, which got here with a number of contractual stipulations, additionally impacted his portrayal of a personality in a non-Bond film. How so?
Pierce Brosnan could not put on a tuxedo in non-James Bond films
Brosnan’s Bond films would possibly’ve ranged from superb (“GoldenEye”) to downright embarrassing (look, I am going to by no means miss an opportunity to take a crack at “Die One other Day”), however the different movies he made throughout this era have been often glorious. He was excellent in John Boorman’s “The Tailor of Panama” and a complete hoot in Tim Burton’s “Mars Assaults!” However the perfect non-Bond film Brosnan made between 1995 and 2002 must be John McTiernan’s elegant remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
Because the titular playboy thief, Brosnan has by no means been extra charming. He additionally generates crackling sexual chemistry with the nice Rene Russo, who truthfully ought to’ve obtained an Oscar nomination for her scintillating work within the movie. Probably the most memorable scenes between the 2 arrives at a black-and-white ball the place their characters are each flagrantly violating the host’s vogue code (whereas dancing fairly provocatively). Whereas that is fully in character for Brosnan’s Crown, there was a further cause why he could not put on a tuxedo like the remainder of the boys on the shindig: His Bond contract forbade it.
In response to McTiernan’s director’s commentary for the DVD, Eon Productions wouldn’t enable Brosnan to don a tux in another movie whereas he was nonetheless underneath contract as 007. That is why he is clad in that midnight blue dinner swimsuit complemented by {a partially} unbuttoned gown shirt and an undone bowtie. It is strikingly raveled apparel that will look ludicrous on everybody else save for possibly George Clooney and Billy Dee Williams, however Brosnan makes it sing. Simply do not get any concepts your self: Should you flip up at a black-tie occasion trying like this, you will end up out in your ear.
