On Her Majesty's Secret Service- Very overrated?

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  • Posts: 1,068
    No problem with that link from me - great stuff, thank you
  • Posts: 4,617
    well thanks to ThomasCrown, it would never have crossed my mind to google OHMSS and soderbergh until he mentioned that blog
  • Posts: 11,425
    patb wrote: »
    http://extension765.com/sdr/2-most-irrelevant-no-1
    sorry if this link is a repeat, he is a top director (any arguments with that statement?) so I think it's worth reading and adds some weight to the respect and affection that many fans have for this movie

    Nice. Agree with a lot of what he says as well. Laz was under appreciated. He was actually great casting.
  • ThomasCrown76ThomasCrown76 Augusta, ks
    Posts: 757
    Pretty wild, huh, about soderbergh?;)
  • Posts: 1,068
    Pretty wild, huh, about soderbergh?;)

    he actually comes over as a really big Bond fan with his Laz autograph and fair commentary and could even be someone online here...

  • Posts: 1,146
    Steven soderbergh did a review of this recently and said he could cur quite a bit from the piz Gloria scenes and the movie would be better for it

    I love this movie but agree with the above. It's not perfect. At the beginning of the picture, during the beach sequence you cut back to a wide over the shoulder shot of bond waking the girl after he's already waken her and told her he's Bond.
  • WalecsWalecs On Her Majesty's Secret Service
    Posts: 3,157
    patb wrote: »
    I don't think anyone is claiming that OHMSS is perfect. The dubbing as just silly, just silly. But it's a tribute to the movie's strengths that it is so highly regarded despite its weaknesses.

    I'm italian and watch the movie in my language thus Lazenby's acting and George Baker's dubbing are completly inexistent, making the movie perfect.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Walecs wrote: »
    patb wrote: »
    I don't think anyone is claiming that OHMSS is perfect. The dubbing as just silly, just silly. But it's a tribute to the movie's strengths that it is so highly regarded despite its weaknesses.

    I'm italian and watch the movie in my language thus Lazenby's acting and George Baker's dubbing are completly inexistent, making the movie perfect.
    Nice.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    When I watch it I fast forward and also leave the sound off at times. That helps immeasurably. Parts of the film are great.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    I love that blog post by Soderbergh! Great stuff there. And I agree with him except for the Piz Gloria moments he suggests should be trimmed. Though I certainly agree that there is hardly any narrative purpose to these scenes, IMO they are tremendously well shot, exceptionally well scored by Barry and aptly acted by all involved. Sometimes, that's enough to get me going. I don't mind "redundant" scenes if they somehow contribute to the overall experience and in this case I will argue they do.

    I already appreciated Soderbergh as a filmmaker and this blog makes me appreciate him even more. ;-)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I already appreciated Soderbergh as a filmmaker and this blog makes me appreciate him even more. ;-)
    So, do you love Haywire as much as I do?
  • ThomasCrown76ThomasCrown76 Augusta, ks
    Posts: 757
    If he hadn't sorta retired, he'd be good for bond.
  • Posts: 613
    I think it can be a little overrated having said that I watched it again a few days ago and I enjoyed it except for the dubbing which just lasts too long but the fights are great and tracy is really good as well as the raid in the end.
  • Didn't the Australian version of OHMSS retain Lazenby's accent for Hillary Bray? Is that version available?
  • Posts: 4,617
    Boy, I would love to see that version
  • edited January 2015 Posts: 11,425
    Some interesting stuff I've ripped from wikipedia:

    One of the few supporters of Lazenby amongst the critics was Alexander Walker in the London Evening Standard who said that "The truth is that George Lazenby is almost as good a James Bond as the man referred to in his film as 'the other fellow'. Lazenby's voice is more suave than sexy-sinister and he could pass for the other fellow's twin on the shady side of the casino. Bond is now definitely all set for the Seventies."

    Totally agree - OHMSS really feels like a reboot in many respects. Things really seemed set for Laz to plough forward into the 70s. What a movie a Lazenby revenge DAF would have been.

    And also this is really interesting, as I always understood Hunt didn't think much of Laz, but it sounds like he did actually put some time in with him, and would have directed him in DAF if Laz had stayed in the part. Not sure this is accurate but it flies in the face of my understanding of what happened.

    Lazenby said he experienced difficulties during shooting, not receiving any coaching despite his lack of acting experience, and with director Hunt never addressing him directly, only through his assistant. Lazenby also declared that Hunt also asked the rest of the crew to keep a distance from him, as "Peter thought the more I was alone, the better I would be as James Bond."[21] Allegedly, there also were personality conflicts with Rigg, who was already an established star. However, according to director Hunt, these rumours are untrue and there were no such difficulties—or else they were minor—and may have started with Rigg joking to Lazenby before filming a love scene "Hey George, I'm having garlic for lunch. I hope you are!"[11] Hunt also declared that he usually had long talks with Lazenby before and during shooting. For instance, to shoot Tracy's death scene, Hunt brought Lazenby to the set at 8 o'clock in the morning and made him rehearse all day long, "and I broke him down until he was absolutely exhausted, and by the time we shot it at five o'clock, he was exhausted, and that's how I got the performance."[36] Hunt said that if Lazenby had remained in the role, he would also have directed the successor film, Diamonds Are Forever and that his original intentions were concluding the film with Bond and Tracy driving off following their wedding, saving Tracy's murder for the pre-credit sequence of Diamonds Are Forever. The idea was discarded after Lazenby quit the role.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Interesting reading, Getafix. :)
  • It has been hinted that Lazenby and Rigg had a bit of a thing for each other during filming, and at a conference in around 1995 with the James Bond fan club, based around OHMSS, Lazenby said 'She caught me with my pants down' ie with another woman, which only applies if the two of them were an item in some way.

    Then there was an open letter the two of them wrote to each other, sniping, in one of the tabloids when the film was released.

    That said, it's true the garlic incident was a joke, but the press sometimes like to make something of that kind of stuff, to point to a bigger problem.
  • Posts: 11,425
    It was probably expected back then that two leads would hop into bed at least once - bad form not to.
  • Posts: 1,009
    I didn't like it when I was younger, but it's a film that grew on me. The very late-60s setting, the thrilling action scenes, that 4th wall joke at the beginning... After knowing it was made almost by accident, I don't care about the ending anymore, but back then I did not like it. It would have been nice to include Tracy's funeral and show Bond back in action, kinda like CR, but then I learned the film was not supposed to end like this, but was to be the exciting start of DAF and, well, I always wondered what could have been.

    The big problem in this film is the acting. Quite mediocre IMHO except for Mrs. Rigg. The star of this film is no other than Peter Hunt and his - then - innovative and colorful approach. I think Lazenby was not that bad: if well-guided, he would have made a good Bond on following films, but, alas...

    As a sidenote, I would have loved to see the chase involving Lazenby and the SPECTRE operative in the streets of London, ending in the Underground. Well... At least we have a nice reconstruction in YT.
  • Posts: 11,425
    I assume they knew when they were making SF that they were realising that long-incubated idea for a chase in London.
  • Posts: 1,009
    Getafix wrote: »
    I assume they knew when they were making SF that they were realising that long-incubated idea for a chase in London.

    I'm completely buying this, by Tutatis.

  • Posts: 11,425
    EON has a habit of keeping these ideas and using them in other films. Like the helicopter sequence in TND, which was actually rubbish.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Or the helicopters with dangling circular blades in TWINE, which was also rubbish.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I liked the " Dangling Blades" idea, it was sadly filmed with no tension !
  • Posts: 11,425
    I know. People always slate John Glen but he knew the basic tricks of the trade. His films are full of tension.
  • ThomasCrown76ThomasCrown76 Augusta, ks
    Posts: 757
    Rubbish...the word of the day
  • Posts: 11,425
    Well, you can't fault his second unit work on OHMSS.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    @chrisisall, I have yet to see Haywire. :-)
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,718
    I always wondered, during the PTS: That shape far away in the water. It looks like a boat but has a 'hole' in the middle. Reminds me of the design of Stromberg's lair in TSWLM... :-?
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