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==Reception== |
==Reception== |
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| − | Steven Rubin describes Whitaker as a "smarmy bad-guy arms trader".<ref name="Rubin2003">{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Steven Jay|title=The complete James Bond movie encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0HTQISb1hY0C|accessdate=11 December 2012|year=2003|publisher=Contemporary Books|isbn=978-0-07-141246-9|page=476}}</ref> Jeremy Black says of him; a "mad American pseudo-general, Brad Whitaker, the arms dealer, yet another figure with a [[Napoleon complex]]."<ref name="Black2005">{{cite book|last=Black|first=Jeremy|title=The Politics Of James Bond: From Fleming's Novels To The Big Screen|url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofjamesb0000blac|url-access=registration|accessdate=11 December 2012|year=2005|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|isbn=978-0-8032-6240-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsofjamesb0000blac/page/150 150]}}</ref> Baker himself called his character "a nut" who "thought he was [[Napoleon]]."<ref>{{cite video |people = Joe Don Baker |title = Inside The Living Daylights |medium = DVD |publisher = MGM Home Entertainment}}</ref> Paul Simpson describes Whitaker as "paunchy", and says that it is fortunate that he doesn't get much screen time.<ref name="Simpson2002">{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=Paul|title=The Rough Guide to James Bond: The Films, the Novels, the Villains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BikCz7XZijEC&pg=RA1-PA84|accessdate=11 December 2012|year=2002|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-84353-142-5|page=1}}</ref> Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall say of him, "this egotistical US arms dealer models himself on history's most notorious dictators. In between orchestrating international arms deals, Whitaker enjoys re-creating battles with his vast dioramas and toy soldiers."<ref name="PfeifferWorrall2003">{{cite book|last1=Pfeiffer|first1=Lee|last2=Worrall|first2=Dave|title=The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oEm9ZoD5vqwC&pg=PA153|accessdate=11 December 2012|date=1 April 2003|publisher=Channel Four Books|isbn=978-0-7522-1562-4|page=153}}</ref> They believe that Joe Don Baker, although amusing, was miscast in the role as Whitaker.<ref name="PfeifferWorrall2003"/> They also criticized his believability as a villain, describing him as an "oaf" from the American South who nobody would doubt could easily be defeated by James Bond.<ref name="PfeifferWorrall2003"/> |
+ | Steven Rubin describes Whitaker as a "smarmy bad-guy arms trader".<ref name="Rubin2003">{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Steven Jay|title=The complete James Bond movie encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0HTQISb1hY0C|accessdate=11 December 2012|year=2003|publisher=Contemporary Books|isbn=978-0-07-141246-9|page=476}}</ref> Jeremy Black says of him; a "mad American pseudo-general, Brad Whitaker, the arms dealer, yet another figure with a [[Napoleon complex]]."<ref name="Black2005">{{cite book|last=Black|first=Jeremy|title=The Politics Of James Bond: From Fleming's Novels To The Big Screen|url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofjamesb0000blac|url-access=registration|accessdate=11 December 2012|year=2005|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|isbn=978-0-8032-6240-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsofjamesb0000blac/page/150 150]}}</ref> Baker himself called his character "a nut" who "thought he was [[Napoleon]]."<ref>{{cite video |people = Joe Don Baker |title = Inside The Living Daylights |medium = DVD |publisher = MGM Home Entertainment}}</ref> Paul Simpson describes Whitaker as "paunchy", and says that it is fortunate that he doesn't get much screen time.<ref name="Simpson2002">{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=Paul|title=The Rough Guide to James Bond: The Films, the Novels, the Villains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BikCz7XZijEC&pg=RA1-PA84|accessdate=11 December 2012|year=2002|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-84353-142-5|page=1}}</ref> Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall say of him, "this egotistical US arms dealer models himself on history's most notorious dictators. In between orchestrating international arms deals, Whitaker enjoys re-creating battles with his vast dioramas and toy soldiers."<ref name="PfeifferWorrall2003">{{cite book|last1=Pfeiffer|first1=Lee|last2=Worrall|first2=Dave|title=The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oEm9ZoD5vqwC&pg=PA153|accessdate=11 December 2012|date=1 April 2003|publisher=Channel Four Books|isbn=978-0-7522-1562-4|page=153}}</ref> They believe that Joe Don Baker, although amusing, was miscast in the role as Whitaker.<ref name="PfeifferWorrall2003"/> They also criticized his believability as a villain, describing him as an "oaf" from the American South who nobody would doubt could easily be defeated by James Bond.<ref name="PfeifferWorrall2003"/> ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire Magazine]]'' ranked Whitaker #16 in the list of James Bond Villains, saying, "He's loud, obnoxious, and crass, played with sleazy southern charm by Joe Don Baker. He may have been kicked out of West Point, but hey, the arms dealing business has given him access to all the guns and violence he could possibly want."<ref name="Esquire2017">{{cite news |title=All 104 James Bond Villains, Ranked |author=Jacob Hall |date=14 May 2017 |journal=Esquire |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/g2496/best-james-bond-villains-ranked/ |accessdate=2018-07-18}}</ref> |
==Gallery== |
==Gallery== |
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Revision as of 07:28, 15 May 2022
- "You know, you could've been a live rich man... instead of a poor dead one."
- ― Brad Whitaker to James Bond
Brad Whitaker was a fictional American arms dealer and one of the two main antagonists in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, alongside General Georgi Koskov. He was portrayed by American actor Joe Don Baker.
Biography
Background
Brad Whitaker is an international black market arms dealer from the United States. He is fascinated by war - he always wears a US military uniform with the US insignia of General of the Army (5 stars General) - but his actual military career is a failure, so he turns to arms dealing to organize his own personal military force. Expelled from West Point for cheating, he spends a short stint as a mercenary in the Belgian Congo before working with various criminal organizations to help finance his first arms deals. He resides in Tangier, Morocco. He loves military history, and it is implied that he Wargames various historical conflicts using automated miniature figures and effects, such as the battles of Agincourt, Waterloo, and Gettysburg. In a conversation with James Bond, Whitaker believes that Pickett's Charge should have been made up Little Round Top, and that if Grant was in charge of the Union at Gettysburg, he would have crushed the Army of Northern Virginia, ending the war.
Whitaker even has a pantheon of "great military commanders" in his headquarters, which included some of history's most famous and infamous figures, such as Adolf Hitler, Napoleon I of France, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Attila the Hun. Whitaker holds these men in high regard and calls them "surgeons who removed society's dead flesh". Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this collection is that all representations of these "surgeons" are sculpted to resemble Whitaker himself, which is highly noticeable when Whitaker hides among the statues waiting for General Pushkin to visit.
Scheme
Whitaker hires the help of Soviet General Georgi Koskov to secure a large shipment of opium from the Snow Leopard Brotherhood in Afghanistan for $500,000,000 worth of diamonds that he had obtained from an arms deal with the Soviets. At the same time, they attempt to use James Bond to eliminate the Soviet head of secret operations, General Pushkin, on the basis that he has instituted an ongoing operation called "Smert Shpionam" meaning "Death to Spies." Actually, it is their men, especially Koskov's henchman Necros, who are involved in killing British secret service agents. After thwarting Whitaker's plans, Bond hunts him down at his Tangier headquarters and kills him after a game of cat-and-mouse in his gaming room, with him using high-tech weapons (such as a light machine gun with an integral ballistic shield), and Bond using his Walther PPK. After Bond hides behind a bust of British commander Wellington, he sets his key-ring finder behind it. Whitaker gets right in front of it, and the key-ring finder explodes, triggered by Bond's wolf whistle. The explosion topples the bust and podium on top of Whitaker, crushing him through a glass display case containing one of his miniature wargaming setups resembling Waterloo. He thus dies on the battlefield after all, Bond ironically quipping, "He met his Waterloo."
Henchmen & Associates
Reception
Steven Rubin describes Whitaker as a "smarmy bad-guy arms trader".[1] Jeremy Black says of him; a "mad American pseudo-general, Brad Whitaker, the arms dealer, yet another figure with a Napoleon complex."[2] Baker himself called his character "a nut" who "thought he was Napoleon."[3] Paul Simpson describes Whitaker as "paunchy", and says that it is fortunate that he doesn't get much screen time.[4] Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall say of him, "this egotistical US arms dealer models himself on history's most notorious dictators. In between orchestrating international arms deals, Whitaker enjoys re-creating battles with his vast dioramas and toy soldiers."[5] They believe that Joe Don Baker, although amusing, was miscast in the role as Whitaker.[5] They also criticized his believability as a villain, describing him as an "oaf" from the American South who nobody would doubt could easily be defeated by James Bond.[5] Esquire Magazine ranked Whitaker #16 in the list of James Bond Villains, saying, "He's loud, obnoxious, and crass, played with sleazy southern charm by Joe Don Baker. He may have been kicked out of West Point, but hey, the arms dealing business has given him access to all the guns and violence he could possibly want."[6]
Gallery
Trivia
- Actor Joe Don Baker would return to the Bond franchise eight years later to portray CIA agent, Jack Wade in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. This marks the second instance an actor has portrayed both a main villain and Bond ally as separate characters in two Bond films (the first being Charles Gray who portrayed Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice and Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever). He was hired based on his performance in Edge of Darkness, which was helmed by future Bond director Martin Campbell.[7]
References
- ↑ Rubin, Steven Jay (2003). The complete James Bond movie encyclopedia. Contemporary Books, 476. ISBN 978-0-07-141246-9. Retrieved on 11 December 2012.
- ↑ Black, Jeremy (2005). The Politics Of James Bond: From Fleming's Novels To The Big Screen. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 150. ISBN 978-0-8032-6240-9. Retrieved on 11 December 2012.
- ↑ Joe Don Baker. Inside The Living Daylights [DVD]. MGM Home Entertainment.
- ↑ Simpson, Paul (2002). The Rough Guide to James Bond: The Films, the Novels, the Villains. Rough Guides, 1. ISBN 978-1-84353-142-5. Retrieved on 11 December 2012.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 (1 April 2003) The Essential Bond: The Authorized Guide to the World of 007. Channel Four Books, 153. ISBN 978-0-7522-1562-4. Retrieved on 11 December 2012.
- ↑ Jacob Hall. "All 104 James Bond Villains, Ranked", 14 May 2017. Retrieved on 2018-07-18.
- ↑ "The making of The Living Daylights: Charles Helfenstein Podcast123" James Bond Radio