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Dr. No
Francisco Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington
From Russia With Love
Anita Ekberg and Bob Hope poster in FRWL
Goldfinger
Bond: My dear, some things just aren't done.
Such as drinking Dom Prignon '53 above a temperature of 38° Fahrenheit.
That's as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Before Bond meets Draco he and Draco's men walk through offices where a janitor is whistling the Goldfinger theme.
Diamonds Are Forever
Tiffany: Hi, Ernst.
Is Superman giving you any trouble?
Sammy Davis Jr. as himself in deleted scenes in DAF.
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The Spy Who Loved Me
Musically TSWLM references Lawrence Of Arabia.
Moonraker
Musically MR references 2001: A Space Oddyssey, Close Encounters and The Magnificent Seven. Visually it references The Man With No Name films.
Bond: Play it again, Sam. (after the fight that ends with Chang crashing into the piano)
For Your Eyes Only
Sheena Easton in the title sequence.
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Octopussy
Tarzan
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Barbara Woodhouse's famous phrase "Sit!" when Bond faces the Tiger.
Here is a very interesting documentary about her:
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Vijay playing the James Bond theme!
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A View To A Kill
Bond: The name is Bond. James Bond.
Police officer: Are you?
Bond: Yes.
Police officer: And I'm Dick Tracy and you're still under arrest.
The Beach Boys<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jGOe-KLc9QI"; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The Living Daylights
Moneypenny to Bond: I didn't know you were such a music lover, James.
Any time you want to drop by and listen to my Barry Manilow collection...
(sighs)
Necros listening to The Pretenders on his walkman.
Tomorrow Never Dies
Elliot Carver: ...you've not had chance to peruse today's headlines.
I rather like the last one. It isn't even mine. (Star Wars)
Die Another Day
London Calling by The Clash
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Skyfall
Woman With A Fan by Amedeo Clemente Modigliani
Bond and Q in the National Gallery in London.
Q: (looking at the painting) Always makes me feel a little melancholy.
A grand old warship being ignominiously hauled away for scrap. (sighs)
The inevitability of time, don't you think? What do you see?
Bond: A bloody big ship.
The Fighting Temeraire by J.M.W. Turner
M reciting the final lines of Tennyson's Ulysses poem:
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Spectre
Doorkeeper: Identify yourself, asshole. Who are you?
Bond: I'm Mickey Mouse. Who are you?
Doorkeeper: (later) Ciao, Mickey Mouse.
Woman With A Fan by Amedeo Clemente Modigliani appearing again in Blofeld's Volcano Lair.
Atmosphere button playing New York New York in Bond's Aston Martin.
Musically, there are lots more. Remember the use of classical music: Rachmaninoff, Puccini, Vivaldi...
Perhaps those are not "pop cultural", but what about in SF from Trenet to The Animals or in SP, New York, New York...
#06 PopCulture and Art References in the films
@Birdleson can you give me more details about Sit! don't know about that one.
AVTAK:Duran Duran. 80's sound.
TLD: A-ha. 80's sound.
GE: Tina Turner. 70's star sing the theme.
TMND: Heineken
Twine: Bernard Lee potret.
DAD: Madonna. 80's star sing the theme.
CR: Die Hard/24 subject. Hints to terrible truth/real story of Daniel Craig era.
QOS: Arthouse. Hints to terrible truth/real story of Daniel Craig era.
SF: Costume Designer, Fienes and Helen McCrory earlier work on Harry Potter. 24 subject. The paintings in movie. Hints to terrible truth/real story of Daniel Craig era.
Spectre: Frank Sinatra played on radio in ''009'' his car. Arthouse. Chess. Tom and Jerry (80's animated series) Hints to terrible truth/real story of Daniel Craig era.
It´s not Sinatra's version. ;)
Found it. Now I remember, seen her as a kid on TV all the time, thanks for this! Fond memories for sure.
@royale65 thanks for the hint. See the clip above I posted about her.
you are correct, it's a pop culture reference, even if it's Bond itself, both instances are very clear so it should be included imo. I'll add it. You got to help me with the OHMSS scene though, can't remember where in the movie it happens.
But I actually think I will do MUSIC IN BOND FILMS next for this thread :)
She appears as herself in the film singing, so I let it count as pop culture reference. A grey area perhaps.
First, some Skyfall references....
*The final lines of Tennyson's Ulysses are recited by M in Skyfall to symbolize the endurance with which she and Bond face their challenges and continue pulling forward.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
I suggest everyone read the entire poem, as it is the best ever produced in my opinion.
*Severine's boat is named "Chimera," after the famous creature of Greek mythology, a monster with the body and head of a lion, the tail of a snake and the head of a goat rising from its back. Severine herself apes the fire-breathing capabilities of the Chimera in the casino as she blows smoke in Bond's face, and her nails are sharp like talons, characterizing her as a dragon-like creature trapped inside a woman.
*In the film Silva uses two songs as elements of his theatrical performance. First, while on his island the song "Boum!" by French artist Charles Trenet is overheard on the loudspeakers, a cheery tune that feels all the more strange when played over the dilapidated surroundings of the island that have since been abandoned.
At the end of the film Silva then uses the famous tune "Boom Boom" as his entrance music as he flies to attack Bond's childhood home. John Lee Hooker made the song famous but here the villain uses the version by The Animals from one of their blues albums, giving it a suitably British sound, as if Silva is trying to tease Bond for his country of origin again.
*One last reference from Skyfall is one I've noticed. On the island that Silva strategically evacuated, we see a statue that is collapsed and broken, with the face of the figure buried into the ground. This is the same statue Severine is later strapped to:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/04/29/13/33A749B200000578-3565515-image-m-78_1461933230315.jpg
The statue's design and how it was constructed in the film is very reminiscent of the statue of the ruler Ozymandias that appears in Percy Shelley's famous poem of the same name:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
The poem is a lauded and ironic slam against imperial rule, showing that its ruler and all that he stood for in his day now mean nothing as his legacy is in rubble. The poem and the image of rulers and empires that it conjures are perfect pieces of symbolism in a film where Silva is an anarchist who is always telling Bond that the empire he is fighting for is both literally and figuratively in rubble, with M cast as Ozymandias in his mind.
Now for On Her Majesty's Secret Service...
*In the film Tracy recites a part of James Elroy Flecker's play "Hassan" while Blofeld has her in Piz Gloria, a piece where a prisoner sings to a Caliph while on death row in order to play to his ego, and the ruler is so impressed he refuses to have the man killed:
Thy dawn, O Master of the world, thy dawn;
The hour the lilies open on the lawn,
The hour the grey wings pass beyond the mountains,
The hour of silence, when we hear the fountains,
The hour that dreams are brighter and winds colder,
The hour that young love wakes on a white shoulder,
O Master of the world, the Persian Dawn.
That hour, O Master, shall be bright for thee:
Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea,
The braves who fight thy war unsheathe the sabre,
The slaves who work thy mines are lashed to labour,
For thee the waggons of the world are drawn—
The ebony of night, the red of dawn!
The play's lines and references to a "master" that rules all are perfect symbolism for Blofeld and his inflated opinion of himself as Tracy plays to his ego in an effort to distract him from coming doom.
*The "other fella" line at the start of the film is also a reference to Sean, who had become a phenomenon incarnate by that time.
Quantum of Solace...
*Quantum of Solace openly references the three-act Giacomo Puccini play "Tosca," whose plot has connections with the previous film and Bond and Vesper's love and betrayal. One of the climaxes of the play take place before our eyes in Quantum of Solace, as the female lead Tosca (Vesper here) does a deed to save her lover, Cavaradossi (Bond).
The play itself portrays the crumbling trust of two lovers (Bond & Vesper), and in the plot of the story the female lover is deceived by a powerful man and police chief Scarpia to do his bidding (like Yusef's manipulation of Vesper). A painful scene soon unfolds where the male lover Cavaradossi (Bond) is taken to an antechamber (like the ship barge in Casino Royale) to be tortured by Scarpia, who has deceived Tosca into doing his bidding. Tosca and Cavaradossi briefly speak before the torture begins, and though Cavaradossi experiences untold torture that causes him to scream in high shrills (like Bond's whacking from Le Chiffre) he doesn't give in or let slip the information Scarpia wants, who is looking for a friend of Cavaradossi who also happens to be a political enemy. Tosca is told by Scarpia that her lover's torture will end if she gives them what they want-the location of Cavaradossi's friend, an enemy of the police (the parallel of this being the money from the poker game in the film), which she does after hearing the pain her Cavaradossi is going through (much like the choice Vesper makes to get the money in order to save Bond). As with Bond, when Cavaradossi finds out about his lover's betrayal he is furious, but even in the face of possible death he gloats as Bond does in his torture. Tosca agrees to work at the mercy of Scarpia, and does so only to free Cavaradossi. The lovers meet one last time following Tosca's murder of Scarpia, and they plan their future, plans which are undone when unseen conspiracies kill Cavaradossi and like Vesper, Tosca commits suicide out of grief and emotional turmoil.
Other random references:
*The From Russia with Love helicopter chase is a homage to Hitchcock's North By Northwest.
*In GoldenEye the post-Gorbachev freedoms of the Russian people and the acceptance of Western culture into the nation is symbolized when one of Zukovsky's women (played by Minnie Driver) dresses like a cowgirl and sings the famous country song ”Stand By Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
The film also features Alec quoting the famous line of New York Senator William L. Marcy which the man said in a debate in reaction to president Andrew Jackson appointing Martin van Buren as Minister to the UK.
I'll try to think of more of these, but for anyone who is interested in researching the many references in the Bond series to art, history and pop culture, the blog 007 Under the Mango Tree is a great source:
https://007underthemangotree.wordpress.com/about/
If pepper is a democrat then I'm Arnold palmer
The dude said it himself, so you must be Palmer. Happy to have a golf pro on the boards.