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MY_NAME_IS_MODESTY

                                             January 22, 2009


After several years, I've finally
discovered the direct-to-video
submarine released film:                     Passed on to
                                             me by:
  "My Name is Modesty" (2004)
                                                 SUN_FISH

   This was intended as legal
   placeholder -- Tarrentino
   and co needed to do something
   with the property or lose
   the rights, so they commisioned
   this quickie.

   It is then supposed to be remarkable
   that the writers actually pulled off          Written by:
   a pretty authentic Modesty Blaise             Lee Batchler &
   story -- by far the best of the               Janet Scott Batchler
   filmed attempts to date.


   There is, of course, nothing at all
   remarkable about this fact -- if you're
   doing a low budget project that no one            In the DVD extras,
   has anything invested in, it suddenly             an interview with
   becomes possible to do a good job --       Tarrentino and the
   you don't have incessant story conferences,       director reveals
   and re-writes by umpteen different writers,       that he has a lot
   and extraneous demands placed on the story        of respect for
   by "stars" and producers...                       Roger Corman, in
                                                     particularly a
   The low budget necessitated a story heavy         film called "Rock
   on dialog and character, leading up to the        all Night".
   one real fight scene at the close.

   The stuff that really make a film work
   are the cheap things -- when the
   budget gets too large, it threatens to       UNINTENDED
   undercut everything that really matters.


A possible flaw:

I've heard the complaint that the actress
playing Modesty Blaise is "too skinny"...              Played by:
this is true enough, but misses a few points:          Alexandra Staden
(1) they were filming a very young Modesty
Blaise, and in flashbacks this actress needs
to play the character at an even younger age;
(2) she plays the role with conviction: when
she looks into the camera you see a woman with
some force to her -- this is really the key         For some reason,
thing for someone playing a character like          Hollywood
Modesty Blaise.                                     productions
                                                    insist on taking
                                                    some random bimbo
                                                    and pretending
A definite flaw:                                    that she can act
                                                    tough.
They needed to do one scene of Modesty Blaise
using martial arts skills, but if they followed          Writing in Venus
O'Donnel's history, at this early stage in her           Smith when the
career she would still be a street fighter               story calls
without formal training.                                 for Catherine Gale.

As a patch, they tossed in the idea that her                  THE_VENUS_SMITH
original tutor Lob also knew the "secrets"
of martial arts masters of the east.

This is a complete violation of Lob's character,
and isn't at all plausible given what we're shown
(when they meet, the young Modesty defends Lob
against some attacking kids).

                                    It would only have taken
                                    another line or two to
                                    cover this.

                                    How about:

                                    "He taught you to fight?"

                                    "I have known how to fight for
                                     as long as I can remember --
                                     Lob taught me to think
                                     about fighting.  He was always
                                     strong on theory."

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