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What do you mean- you think Barry wrote that bit of music for Dr No? I really don't think so- it's noticeably worse. If that's what you mean...?
Careful now: the lawyers are everywhere! :D
I though David Arnold was quite ballsy on his radio show on the subject actually: he came as close as anyone I've ever heard to publicly saying that Barry wrote most of it. Which he obviously didn't, Mr Norman!
The court cases over the years on the Bond Theme could warrant a film on their own. Is Tom Hanks recovered yet?
I forget, is there a transcript of the original Laserdisc commentary that spoke to this.
I expect he would have been paid (if they needed to, depending on his original contract) and don't forget he gets credited for every Bond film, so recognition shouldn't be an issue.
I can't see Norman allowing it! :)
By Mr Norman of course.
And he's only Monty Norman for life.
You can hear the Bond theme all over that original Norman song, not just the one part. Barry just did an amazing job taking the fundamentals and radically reshaping them. Turning something average into something great.
The academy votes show as follows:
SP received 16 votes
Bill Conti and FYEO received 7 votes
Eric Serra and GE received 6 votes
Monty Norman and DN received 6 votes!
Lets turn back to a Bondie and this time touch on a classic staple (or is it a trope?) of the series. The melee or epic good versus bad final showdown. Although not so much a staple of the more recent films, this was in a lot of the earlier productions. Whether it's been Space Rangers, Ninjas or the Navy, Bond has led the good guys in a final brawl for it all. This Bondie shall be awarded to "Best Melee". Some things for the esteemed academy to consider could be:
Without further ado the nominees are:
Okay dear academy please vote for best melee!
The nominees are all pretty good, actually. I have a sentimental favorite with Bond, Kerim Bey and the gypsies in FRWL ... but I have to go with Bond and the ninjas in the volcano lair from YOLT. What a lair! What a melee! Bad buys thrown through the air? Check! Ninjas descending into the volcano on ropes at breakneck speed? Check! Explosions aplenty? Check! PLUS: the lunatic white cat clawing at Blofeld's tunic, yowling the feline equivalent of "Let me the heck outta here!" I'm sorry, but the cat beats out every other proposed melee scene. YOLT for the win!
Bond and the ninjas turn Japanese and storm the volcano lair of SPECTRE from YOLT
Made quite an impression on me as a child.
Indeed. I love that one. I'd easily replace the FRWL melee with the MR space battle on the Dove's nominees list and you'd have my top 005 final battles. (The FRWL battle is good but it's not a final battle). I guess it's from his experience on directing war movies but one thing Lewis Gilbert knew how to stage well was spectacular battle sequences.
If I was voting I would go with the TB melee. The ballet of death and the creative ways people are killed is enough for me. Then when you layer on how difficult it was to shoot this sequence it pushes it above the melee with the Ninjas! To me that's the standard.
Bond takes it underwater and battles frogmen with help from the US Navy from TB
Runner up would be the battle on the Liparus.
Which Norman song do you mean?
I don't really like the melee scenes in the old Bond films: I tend to find all of them quite dull. Just lots of edited together shots of stuntmen doing poorly acted big falls.
But, of these ones... the FRWL one is pretty good and has decent tension with Grant actually helping Bond out with 007 unawares; the TSWLM has a good plot to it as they all advance and set each other free, get the bomb etc.
And, well, those are the only two decent ones I think: TB's is the most boring part of a boring film. I'll go for TSWLM, even though it's far from my favourite bit of the film.
TB, YOLT and OHMSS.
Going to go with the Piz Gloria attack, mainly for one of the coolest Bond scenes of Laz sliding on the ice with machine gun!
By a Blofeld's cat's whisker, I will take Piz Gloria as the winner.