- Question
- Who was the best James Bond?
- Position‹5 of 6›
- Timothy Dalton was the best James Bond
- Argument‹3 of 3
Timothy Dalton was a real 007 on and off-screen
Dalton did his own stunts, showing he was as tough as 007 even when cameras were off.
The argument
This argument proposes a particular criterion for ranking Bond actors and then applies it. The criterion is correspondence: the best Bond actor should share some traits with 007 himself, so that what appears on screen is an expression of the performer rather than a departure from him. The traits that matter are the defining ones — toughness, daring, and a refusal to be risk-averse — because these are what the character consists of rather than incidental features of how he is written. On that test Dalton is said to qualify in his own person. He is tough, daring and not risk-averse, and the clearest demonstration offered is his insistence on doing his own stunts. The stunt work functions as evidence rather than as decoration. An actor who performs the dangerous sequences himself is accepting real physical risk to produce them, which means the quality the scene is meant to convey is actually present in the making of it. The audience is watching the trait rather than a representation of the trait, and that is what the argument means by calling him a real 007 on and off screen. The contrast with Roger Moore sharpens the point. Moore did not do his own stunts, and he acknowledged as much in the joke for which he is famous: 'Of course I do my own stunts', he said, before adding, 'I also do my own lying.' The remark is disarming, but on this reading it concedes exactly what is at issue — that the daring belonged to the production rather than to the man. Because he possessed the character's defining traits himself and proved it in the work, Timothy Dalton was the best James Bond.
Context
Dalton as an actor shared some of James Bond’s flair for danger and adventure by doing his own stunts, a feat very few actors manage.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Timothy Dalton is not the only Bond to do his own stunts. Daniel Craig did most of his own stunts too. Besides, being tough off-screen has no bearing on your on-screen heroics. A good Bond doesn’t need to do their own stunts, they just need to be able to portray a convincing and charming 007 on the big screen.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] The best Bond doesn't have to be tough off-screen. [Rejecting P2] Daniel Craig also did his own stunts.