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Ranking Bond Movies by Era (not like other attempts)
I've tried to rank all the Bond movies but find the task impossible because the movies are so different in tone form era to era. For example, how does one compare MR (a fun camp movie) to, say, CR (a much more serious and personal espionage movie)?
So, I've decided to group the movies by era. This is different than other groupings though, that are based solely upon actor and/or decade. This grouping takes actor and decade into consideration, but makes some significant adjustments based upon tone.
For example, I place FYEO & OP in the same era as the more serious Dalton Bonds, rather than in the era of the 70's Moore Bonds -- but I displace the 70's throwback, AVTAK, from the 80's & call it a 90s era Bond movie, while moving OHMSS from the tonally balanced Bonds of the Connery 60s to the more serious Bonds of the Craig 2000's. Similarly, I place DAF in the Moore camp era rather than the balanced Connery era.
I understand that this is subjective. Even serious Bond movies contain camp elements and vice versa. Also, while several eras start-out semi-serious, they tend to evolve into OTT camp. I'm not considering this natural evolution. I'm considering the point where a drastic change in tone occurs and, if there is a movie that is way out of tone from others of that era (think OHMSS and AVTAK), I move that movie to its proper era (a subjective move decided by me as the creator of this thread).
Others would no doubt divide the movies differently, and some movies fit into more than one era, but I've chosen what I believe to be the most applicable era for each movie. To play along, please don't debate the divisions (you can start another thread to change the divisions). For this thread, please rank within the eras I've created.
A couple notes: 1. I deliberately chose to place the exact same number of movies in each category, thus forcing hard dividing lines. The reason for this is force me to make tough decisions as to which era to place each movie. No movie could be placed in more than one era. 2. I included NSNA but did not include the 50s or 60s CR as I've never been able to sit through either of those CR interpretations.
Here are the full groupings I wish for us to use for this ranking exercise:
Era 1 -- The Tonally Balanced Bond movies (relatively speaking)
1. Dr. No (DN)
2. From Russia With Love (FRWL)
3. Goldfinger (GF)
4. Thunderball (TB)
5. You Only Live Twice (YOLT)
Era 2 -- The Camp Bond Movies (relatively speaking)
1. Diamonds Are Forever (DAF)
2. Live and Let Die (LALD)
3. The Man with the Golden Gun (TMWTGG)
4. The Spy Who Loved Me (TSWLM)
5. Moonraker (MR)
Era 3 -- The Serious Bond Movies (relatively speaking)
1. For Your Eyes Only (FYEO)
2. Octopussy (OP)
3. Never Say Never Again (NSNA)
4. The Living Daylights (TLD)
5. License to Kill (LTK)
Era 4 -- "The Integration of Past Eras" Bond Movies (each Bond movie trying to be a "best of Bond")
1. A View to A Kill (AVTAK)
2. Golden Eye (GE)
3. Tomorrow Never Dies (TND)
4. The World is Not Enough (TWINE)
5. Die Another Day (DAD)
Era 5 -- The "this time it's personal" Bond Movies (relatively speaking)
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS)
2. Casino Royale 2006 (CR 06)
3. Quantum of Solace (QoS)
4. Skyfall (SF)
5. Spectre (SP)
Here are my rankings for each era (to get us started) from best to worst:
Era 1
1. FRWL
2. DN
3. TB
4. GF
5. YOLT
Era 2
1. TSWLM
2. LALD
3. MR
4. DAF
5. TMWTGG
Era 3
1. LTK
2. FYEO
3. TLD
4. OP
5. NSNA
Era 4
1. TWINE
2. GE
3. TND
4. DAD
5. AVTAK
Era 5
1. SP
2. QoS
3. CR
4. SF
5. OHMSS
Please rank from best to worst from each era. Thanks!
So, I've decided to group the movies by era. This is different than other groupings though, that are based solely upon actor and/or decade. This grouping takes actor and decade into consideration, but makes some significant adjustments based upon tone.
For example, I place FYEO & OP in the same era as the more serious Dalton Bonds, rather than in the era of the 70's Moore Bonds -- but I displace the 70's throwback, AVTAK, from the 80's & call it a 90s era Bond movie, while moving OHMSS from the tonally balanced Bonds of the Connery 60s to the more serious Bonds of the Craig 2000's. Similarly, I place DAF in the Moore camp era rather than the balanced Connery era.
I understand that this is subjective. Even serious Bond movies contain camp elements and vice versa. Also, while several eras start-out semi-serious, they tend to evolve into OTT camp. I'm not considering this natural evolution. I'm considering the point where a drastic change in tone occurs and, if there is a movie that is way out of tone from others of that era (think OHMSS and AVTAK), I move that movie to its proper era (a subjective move decided by me as the creator of this thread).
Others would no doubt divide the movies differently, and some movies fit into more than one era, but I've chosen what I believe to be the most applicable era for each movie. To play along, please don't debate the divisions (you can start another thread to change the divisions). For this thread, please rank within the eras I've created.
A couple notes: 1. I deliberately chose to place the exact same number of movies in each category, thus forcing hard dividing lines. The reason for this is force me to make tough decisions as to which era to place each movie. No movie could be placed in more than one era. 2. I included NSNA but did not include the 50s or 60s CR as I've never been able to sit through either of those CR interpretations.
Here are the full groupings I wish for us to use for this ranking exercise:
Era 1 -- The Tonally Balanced Bond movies (relatively speaking)
1. Dr. No (DN)
2. From Russia With Love (FRWL)
3. Goldfinger (GF)
4. Thunderball (TB)
5. You Only Live Twice (YOLT)
Era 2 -- The Camp Bond Movies (relatively speaking)
1. Diamonds Are Forever (DAF)
2. Live and Let Die (LALD)
3. The Man with the Golden Gun (TMWTGG)
4. The Spy Who Loved Me (TSWLM)
5. Moonraker (MR)
Era 3 -- The Serious Bond Movies (relatively speaking)
1. For Your Eyes Only (FYEO)
2. Octopussy (OP)
3. Never Say Never Again (NSNA)
4. The Living Daylights (TLD)
5. License to Kill (LTK)
Era 4 -- "The Integration of Past Eras" Bond Movies (each Bond movie trying to be a "best of Bond")
1. A View to A Kill (AVTAK)
2. Golden Eye (GE)
3. Tomorrow Never Dies (TND)
4. The World is Not Enough (TWINE)
5. Die Another Day (DAD)
Era 5 -- The "this time it's personal" Bond Movies (relatively speaking)
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS)
2. Casino Royale 2006 (CR 06)
3. Quantum of Solace (QoS)
4. Skyfall (SF)
5. Spectre (SP)
Here are my rankings for each era (to get us started) from best to worst:
Era 1
1. FRWL
2. DN
3. TB
4. GF
5. YOLT
Era 2
1. TSWLM
2. LALD
3. MR
4. DAF
5. TMWTGG
Era 3
1. LTK
2. FYEO
3. TLD
4. OP
5. NSNA
Era 4
1. TWINE
2. GE
3. TND
4. DAD
5. AVTAK
Era 5
1. SP
2. QoS
3. CR
4. SF
5. OHMSS
Please rank from best to worst from each era. Thanks!
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Comments
Here are my rankings for each era from best to worst:
Era 1
1. FRWL
2. DN
3. GF
4. TB
5. YOLT
Era 2
1. TSWLM
2. DAF
3. LALD
4. MR
5. TMWTGG
Era 3
1. TLD
2. FYEO
3. LTK
4. OP
5. NSNA
Era 4
1. GE
2. TND
3. DAD
4. AVTAK
5. TWINE
Era 5
1. OHMSS
2. SP
3. QoS
4. CR
5. SF
do you really rank NSNA over TLD? I mean I like NSNA of course, a lot, just saying...
Anyway, here we go:
Era 1
1. FRWL
2. GF
3. YOLT
4. DN
5. TB
Era 2
1. TMWTGG
2. TSWLM
3. MR
4. LALD
5. DAF
Era 3
1. TLD
2. LTK
3. NSNA
4. OP
5. FYEO
Era 4
1. GE
2. TWINE
3. TND
4. AVTAK
5. DAD
Era 5
1. OHMSS
2. CR
3. QOS
4. SP
5. SF
Damn, I might have to change my bloody ranking again.
Era 1
1. FRWL (firmly on top of this category)
2. TB (far ahead of 3 - 5)
3. DN
4. GF
5. YOLT
Era 2
1. TSWLM (firmly on top of this category)
2. LALD
3. TMWTGG
4. MR
5. DAF
Era 3
1. OP (close win)
2. LTK (close second)
3. FYEO (almost took 2nd - big gap to next film)
4. TLD
5. NSNA
Era 4
1. GE (firmly on top of this category)
2. TND
3. AVTAK
4. DAD
5. TWINE
Era 5
1. CR (close win)
2. OHMSS (close 2nd)
3. SF (close 3rd - big gap to 4)
4. QoS
5. SP
PS: I believe TSWLM should really be in Era 1. It's more TB than MR or Hamilton. I also believe GE should be in Era 1. However, I'm playing along with the OP's era categorizations, as he has requested.
1. FRWL
2. TB
3. DN
4. GF
5. YOLT
Era 2
1. MR
2. LALD
3. TWSLM
4. DAF
5. TMWTGG
Era 3
1. TLD
2. OP
3. LTK
4. FYEO
5. NSNA
Era 4
1. GE
2. AVTAK
3. TND
4. TWINE
5. DAD
Era 5
1. CR
2. OHMSS
3. SF
4. SP
5. QoS
Yes, it would. However, I gave myself the rule that each era must have an equal number of movies, and that each movie could only be placed into one era, then placed movies in the era I felt most appropriate. Thus, I felt LTK was a slightly better fit in era 3 than era 5. Thanks for going along with it!
I kinda agree. It's really a throw-back to the 70s camp era. For the sake of balance though, I placed it in the 90s era, which did have an over-the-top element to it.
Thanks!
?
Oh, no worries. I didn't take any disrespect. I was truly wondering what you meant by "Craig era hatred". Just curious, that's all.
Era 1
1. DN
2. GF
3. FRWL
4. YOLT
5. TB
Era 2
1. TMWTGG
2. TSWLM
3. DAF
4. LALD
5. MR
Era 3
1. TLD
2. LTK
3. FYEO
4. OP
5. NSNA
Era 4
1. TND
2. GE
3. TWINE
4. DAD
5. AVTAK
Era 5
1. OHMSS
2. SP
3. QoS
4. CR
5. SF
Ah. Fair enough.
FRWL
GF
DN
TB
YOLT
Era 2
TSWLM
LALD
MR
DAF
TMWTGG
Era 3
OP
TLD
LTK
FYEO
NSNA
Era 4
GE
AVTAK
TND
DAD
TWINE
Era 5
OHMSS
CR
SF
SP
QOS
GF
DN
FRWL
TB
YOLT
2
TSWLM
DAF
TMWTGG
LALD
MR
3
FYEO
TLD
LTK
NSNA
OP
4
AVTAK
TND
GE
TWINE
DAD
5
OHMSS
CR
SF
SP
QOS
Era 1
1. FRWL
2. GF
3. DN
4. TB
5. YOLT
Era 2
1. TSWLM
2. LALD
3. MR
4. DAF
5. TMWTGG
Era 3
1. LTK
2. TLD
3. OP
4. FYEO
5. NSNA *The most difficult era to rank
Era 4
1. TWINE
2. TND
3. GE
4. AVTAK
5. DAD
Era 5
1. OHMSS
2. CR
3. QOS
4. SP
5. SF
Era 1 (Balanced)
1. DN
2. GF
3. FRWL
4. TB
5. YOLT
Era 2 (Campy)
1. TSWLM
2. LALD
3. MR
4. TMWTGG
5. DAF
Era 3 (Serious)
1. TLD
2. OP
3. NSNA (somehow underrated)
4. FYEO
5. LTK (sorry, I really don't appreciate of this one)
Era 4 (Best of the past)
1. GE
2. TND
3. TWINE
4. AVTAK
5. DAD
Era 5 (Taking it personal)
1. OHMSS
2. CR
3. SF
4. SP
5. QOS
Glad to see another LTK & TWINE fan.
I like your short re-title of the eras! Your era 2 is the same as mine.
Thanks for playing! Wow an AVTAK fan! You just never know!
2. GF
3. TB
4. YOLT
5. DN
1. TSWLM
2. DAF
3. LALD
4. MR
5. TMWTGG
1. FYEO
2. OP
3. TLD
4. LTK
5. NSNA
1. AVTAK
2. TND
3. GE
4. TWINE
5. DAD
1. OHMSS
2. CR
3. SF
4. QOS
5. SP
It really says more about the other films.