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I have to agree with that statement. I would rather watch GF... yes, I do think DAF is that bad.
And when Plenty O'Toole is thrown out the window...and into the pool below:
Bond: "Good shot."
Henchman: "I didn't know there was a pool down there."
:))
And that scene was copied in THE WOLVERINE.
Same here. As a listening experience on album DAF is better than OHMSS. As a soundtrack for a film, however, OHMSS is superior. Just listen how Barry's killer action theme enhances the ski chases, how his instrumental variation on the love theme sets the scene during the helicopter ride to Piz Gloria, and how his cue for the sequence in Gumbold's office single-handedly creates the suspense.
But for a selection of hugely enjoyable jazz, lounge and big band numbers, as well as the best main title song of any Bond film, DAF wins hands down.
I'd pick GF in a second over DAF. At least GF looked decent and polished.
The early 70's setting plays a large part, so does the Las Vegas backdrop, but where the film really scores high is a general feeling of weirdness and bizarreness throughout, from the rather unsettling John Barry score, to the strange characters and scenes in the movie - Blofeld in drag, Connery being trapped in a coffin, Bambi and Thumper, and of course Kidd & Wint, who are the creepiest villains ever.
DAF is the closest the franchise ever gets to a Hammer Horror movie. If it wasn't for the witty script, there is an argument to say the film is only a few notches away from being a 70's horror movie.
This henchman got his. Scaramanga blew him away in the fun house, 2 films later.
And it's slower than crawling through treacle, but at least Connery was in better shape in GF.
Me, I have always hated this film. The campiness, the weak Blofeld, the silliness of the moon buggy chase as well as the chase in the Mach I. It was a pity how Blofeld being Bond's greatest adversary is downplayed. His death scene is comedic. Not to mention the fight on the ocean liner. That buffoonery is more in tune to the Marx Brothers than Ian Fleming.
Cheap FX, poor skill by the stuntmen, sloppy editing... Everything just seemed so off.
But like all Bond films it does have something that make it worth watching:
the witty dialogue
Jill St John
This was my least favorite film until I saw MR
Pardon me, but I think there are quite a few more positives than just those. The score, for instance, is terrific.
Not to mention the cast of weird and wonderful characters; Dr Metz, Shady Tree, Willard Whyte...
I'd better not give away too many of my own thoughts just yet.
Two really odd characters ( Nothing to do with their sexuality ) they're just weird.
Morton Slumber, Plenty O'Toole, the man working the water balloon booth, the professor in the Zambora show: ("Kwiet, be veeeery kwiet. We wouldn't want to disturb Zambora from her transcendental sleep.")
Bambi and Thumber--two other weird and wacky characters. DAF is a riot.
Oh, of course not! Not that there's anything wrong with that!
And of course, Mrs Whistler!
A cousin of mine saw DAF when he was 7 and it gave him nightmares. It is the dark comedy of Bond films.
The whole damn film is weird.
One thing to remember: the early 70s was made up of made-for-TV films with weird plotlines. There was...
Bad Ronald, about a kid who accidentally murders a girl and then, to avoid the police, is tucked away inside the walls of a house by his senile grandmother;
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, about little demons living under stairs (remade by Guillermo del Toro);
The Missing Are Deadly, starring Leonard Nimoy, about some teens who steal a lab rat that is infected with a deadly virus;
Trapped, starring James Brolin, about a man trapped inside a closed department store, patrolled by a pack of Dobermans;
Where Have All the People Gone?, about a deadly solar flare that wipes out half the population;
Second Chance, about a rich man who buys a ghost town and turns it into a rehab center.
There were more too. Some of you who are as old as me, will remember this intro for ABC's movies (this is the one for another weird movie called The People):
This was the atmosphere for DAF. Given that it's set in the U.S., it seems to be of the same, acid-trip-induced vein. And it's glorious!!!
That scene really stood out and still does as one of the most tenses "snake pit"/deathtrap scenes in the entire franchise. When I would finally get a chance to watch DAF again on TBS when they were doing their "James Bond Wednesdays" in the early '90s, I remember running away from the TV whenever the film approached the crematorium scene because it scared me as a child and I had my grandmother, who would record the Bond films for me on VHS, actually stop the recording and resume only after the sequence had passed. It wasn't until we bought the VHS tape that I finally forced myself to watch it and actually found that I really enjoyed the sequence.
It really is one of those scenes that Bond really had no escape. He would have been ashes if not for Shady Tree. It also makes Wint and Kidd in my opinion in spite of their campy nature, among the scariest and most evil henchmen from the franchise. Leaving Bond to burn alive trapped in a coffin has to be one of the worst ways for someone to die. It's just plain evil. The only other snake pit scene that had me on the edge of my seat was the cocaine grinder in LTK.
For me DAF is a memorable Bond film. It has it moments, and yes while it's kinda lighthearted(a glowing tribute haha) it does have a very dark sequence in it, and also we get the great fight scene with Franks in the elevator, which is my favorite Connery brawl after Grant on the train in FRWL. And yes I'll echo what others have said that Barry's score here is top notch.
Great post. People talk about how weird the late 60s were, but the early 70s were even weirder.
That's one of DAF's flaws I think. What's the point of putting Bond in something inescapable if it's a complete deux ex machina that gets him out??? Far worse than the much maligned use of gadgets. All the tension in that scene was resolved so unsatisfactorily.
It's also pure Fleming. In Casino Royale the novel he was pretty much dead until the soviet assassin came to execute Le Chiffre and it was only by luck that the killer had no orders to kill Bond also. The same thing also happens in LALD the novel with the limpet mine being perfectly timed to go off before Bond and Solitaire are raked over the reefs. They are probably some more instances that I'm forgetting but the whole Bond being saved by a "deux ex machina" is pretty much a part of the character. Bond isn't a superhuman. Sometimes it all comes down to having them lucky stars.