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My answers were not found in repeated viewings.
My answers, it seems, may lie in the films I watched a lot in my teen years. I am a sucker for 1970s cinema: not just the blockbusters, but the smaller, more delicate films. When I was 16, we got our first VCR (around 1984). That's when I started watching or re-watching these masterpieces:
The Conversation (Coppola)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman)
The Parallax View (Pakula)
The Stepford Wives (Forbes)
Shampoo (Ashby)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill)...OK, this was 1969
Network (Lumet)
Looking for Mr Goodbar (Brooks)
I watched some of these again over the summer. And then, for the first time in years, I watched The Parallax View....and it hit me.
The cold, pessimistic cinema of the 70s was something I was drawn to. I didn't always need (or like) happy endings. There was something gritty and intoxicating about these films.
No doubt, all of this came back to me with NTTD. I would not consider it a pessimistic film, but my acceptance and appreciation of Bond's demise is rooted in the ending of, say, The Parallax View. Perhaps even more so: The Stepford Wives and Network.
I'm seeing a connection.
In any case, I still think NTTD will be considered a masterpiece in 15-20 years from now. Time will change people's perspective, much in the way OHMSS has been re-evaluated.
Simple as that.
Thats a great selection of movies @TripAces. I'm a child of the 70's too, too young to see them in the cinema, late 60's and 70's movies are my go to favourites and feature widely in my collection!
Great analysis, @TripAces. And @peter, I also share your feelings about NTTD. I already watched it at least twice as often as the likes of QOS and SP. For me it's up there with CR'06 and SF, among the upper echelon of Bond movies.
Nice list. Another one I would add to that is 3 Days of the Condor, spy thriller which also has a 70's downbeat ending.
Great movies there you listed...with the exception of one stinker which is NTTD. I hated it on first viewing, and despise it to my very core now. It's easily the worst film in the entire franchise, a status which I thought would belong to DAD forever, but EON proved me wrong. They could stoop even lower.
For me, neither films are not my go to Bond movies. In fact I find both strange and often frustrating as much as I enjoy them. But they are unique, and despite my issues with them if I’m in the mood for something different I’ll revisit either film.
But I fail to see what any of that has to do with NTTD. It’s an unwritten rule that you don’t kill James Bond. Cubby had a strict guideline that he followed when making these films and never in a million years would he have been okay with killing 007. The very notion of “James Bond will return” at the end of every film cements that. It doesn’t mean a different parallel universe 007 will return. It means the same 007 that you first saw in DN will return. 007 never dies. It may be a different actor in the role but the same 007 character. So having downbeat endings in 70s films where the hero dies is totally irrelevant to the Bond series and should not be viewed as some sort of guideline for Bond films to follow. Pointing out a great film where such and such happened doesn’t mean if the same happens in a Bond film then it’s a good thing. Donner’s Superman is another 70s classic. Should we have Bond fly faster than a speeding bullet? Just because Superman did?
Bond needs to always maintain its identity. There are core elements it should always adhere to. The star of the picture should not make demands that go counter to the what the character is about. And the producers should be strong enough not to give into such ridiculous demands. Basically Craig said “kill Bond or I’m not doing the film” and the producers caved in. Pathetic.
It could've been so much better, it's a missed opportunity for me, they took a risk but they've dropped the ball and popped the bubble, it's messy upon the execution.
I would understand it more if it's adapted from the book, since it's really the way it's written, but since it's their original idea written into the script, I think they should've done it better.
My expectations on this film was really high before it came out, but I'm disappointed when I've watched it.
And the movie is long enough. I mean...They knew Safin was uninteresting.
I simply did a little introspection and wondered how much of my attraction to the end was rooted in 70's film cynicism. I'm thinking it is. And yes, @jetsetwilly , Three Days of the Condor is another excellent example. Love that film.
Love it.
Craig and Zimmer are the best things about NTTD.
SP has always felt more Bond to me than SF and NTTD, but I think NTTD is the better film (and this comes from a huge fan of SP.)
So as a Bond fan I tend to prefer Spectre, but as a movie watcher I'll take NTTD.
This is a very interesting discussion, I find. Some films are better 'Bond' films than they are films in general if that makes sense.
My choice would be SF. I know that many will find that strange. It's a very well-made film, no doubt about that. But it ranks colder on my Bond thermometer than the other Craigs.