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Why is Your Favorite Bond Film Your Favorite?

The_ReaperThe_Reaper
edited April 2011 in Bond Movies Posts: 1,092
Since April is Goldfinger month and I said I would proivide a full review later, I thought I would combine it with a thread I have wanted to start for a while. GF is my favorite Bond film.

Why, pray tell? Some hard core fans may scoff, call my cliched, tired, sick of this overrated Bond film but I protest. This is the best Bond film ever made or ever will be made for many reasons. It is iconic for a reason. GF had everything that makes Bond great. An amazing PTS, with Bond being Bond in an adventure I for one would like to see the full version of (I'm always like, man, what was that all about, why can't I see the whole thing?!?), starts things off and doesn't let up.

When Bond is messing with GF in that early scene at the hotel, man, what a total bad mofu! Bond is awesome. Cool, confident, knows his business. The scene with Jill on the bed covered in gold paint remains an iconic image that will never die. And Bond's enemies are powerful. Oddjob takes Bond out with ease and we see the arrogance of our beloved spy; he ain't perfect. He's cocky and thinks he's unbeatable but the entire film he is trying to overcome his enemy and is constantly getting beat up. He is out of his league but never quits.

But Bond's persistance pays off and he wins in the end against overwhelming odds. It's a classic story and my 2nd favorite novel (DN being #1 FYI). There are so many things that make this movie great it is hard to list but it has the best villian, IMO, the best henchman, the hottest Bond girls, a great plan by the enemy, cool gadgets but not too many, Connery at his most suave and powerful; he really, really looks great and comfortable in the role, this is where he peaked, IMO.

It's the best. End of story. One of the best action/spy films of all time, not just the best Bond. What is your fav and why?
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Comments

  • jaguar007jaguar007
    Posts: 638
    Quoting The_Reaper: Some hard core fans may scoff, call my cliched, tired, sick of this overrated Bond film but I protest.
    Yes, many hard core fans may scoff calling your choice cliched. However there is a reason it has become cliched, and that is because so many people like it. It is not just the most iconic Bond film, it is one of the most iconic films EVER. Top 5 for me.
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    edited April 2011 Posts: 3,262
    Quoting The_Reaper: What is your fav and why?
    TB. Because it's the only film in the series to benefit from both the stylish contributions of original Bond director Terence Young and the big-budget Panavision epic style fans became accustomed to later in the Lewis Gilbert films, OHMSS and CR'06. Also, there's a cool superconfident feel from the film that exudes in Connery's James Bond performance, my favorite of all 22 official 007 performances. It also benefits from the most impressive gallery of Bond girls to appear in a single Bond film with Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona Volpe stealing the show.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,250
    I would have to say GE for me. Not only do I praise the film on many levels, technical and other, but it's also the first theatrical Bond for me. I was 7 when LTK premièred and sad as it is, my parents deemed me too young to watch this film in theatres. When GE premièred, I was 13. Not only was I more consciously aware of the new production, it was also within my reach because now they allowed me to go see it. These fond memories, combined with the fact that it simply is a great Bond film, turn GE into my favourite Bond film.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,198
    For the moment it would be like this:

    OHMSS, best adaption from the novel and the first Bond to be human.
    FRWL, thrilling and stylish Cold War thriller.
    TLD, grittiness "alla Fleming" mixed with escapist fun.
    TB, perfect blend of an epic Bond with Young's gentle class.
    GE, post-Soviet spy movie which introduces Bond to the new world.
  • MrSpyMrSpy
    Posts: 116
    Dr. No: very special boyhood memory. I watched it over and over. It was a real novelty: no gadgets, no super-car, no cheezy jokes. The calypso music, sweaty atmosphere, young Connery. Every time I watch it, that film takes me back to a great summer filled with great reading and simple pleasures :)
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,722
    TMWTGG. An all-round fantastic outing. Great score from Barry, great locals, a mesmerizing villain from Christopher Lee, Moore's best performance (and a Fleming-esque one at that), the return of the best character of the franchise - Pepper-, hilariously entertaining humour. And great sets too.
  • NicNacNicNac Administrator, Moderator
    Posts: 7,584
    Some truly diverse choices, but good to see someone championing TMWTGG.

  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited April 2011 Posts: 15,722
    Quoting NicNac: but good to see someone championing TMWTGG.
    ;;)
  • JBFan626JBFan626
    Posts: 1,497
    DAF: Not the best in the series. But I literally love every frame of this film-Making Mud Pies?, I was referring to the original Vintage sir 1851, If God wanted man to fly Mr. Kidd..., Where's the diamonds Franks?, Wrong Pussy, Hergesheimer, Baja? I haven't got anything in Baja!.

    What would have brought this film to greatness would be: 1). keep ALL of the deleted scenes: Sammy Davis Jr., Plenty finding the address, etc. to better connect the plot holes and 2). The filmakers should have gone back to Pinewood and finished the ending properly--recreate the oil tanker and give Bond a finish off on Blofeld. But as it stands I still love the movie, warts and all. It's seems contradictory to openly accept DAF as flawed yet it be a personal favorite. But the best way I can describe it is like unpolished gold.


    Vegas Baby

    B-)
  • saunderssaunders Living in a world of avarice and deceit
    Posts: 987
    For me it has always been OHMSS because before even becoming a Bond fan I first watched this film just before going on a school skiing trip to the Italian Alps, a week before Christmas. None of my friends were on the trip and I felt really isolated and on my own, hating the teachers and the other much older kids, stuck in a snow bound hotel on the mountainside and the only bits I remember enjoying were when I was on my own, skiing down the slopes while humming the OHMSS theme tune, I guess on more than a subliminal level I was identifying with James Bonds situation on Piz Gloria and his wonderful ability of self reliance. I like to think that despite really hating the trip it has helped to character build and define who I am today and my near obsessional interest in James Bond stems from this very point in time for much the same reasons. So now when I watch OHMSS (and that's a lot) it's always tinged with that sense of nostalgia that none of the other films could possibly hope to match!
  • CuishCuish
    Posts: 23
    On Her Majesty's Secret Service - http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0064757/usercomments-403
  • josiahjosiah
    Posts: 1,386
    From Russia with Love. Not only my favorite Bond film but my favorite spy film in general. You get a great Cold War plot revolving around British intelligence trying to get their hands on a decoding device used by Russian intelligence. You also get one of my favorite baddies in Red Grant (played by the fantastic Robert Shaw) who is set up right from the PTS as a force to be reckoned with
    out to kill Bond and who is a constant malevolent force stalking Bond throughout the film. Oh, did I mention the camerawork? I love Hitchcock films so I really can't help but love the expert use of angles. Rarely does another director use such a legend as Hitchcock for inspiration and wind up with a film that feels more like an homage and less like a cheap knockoff but this film is one of those rare exceptions in my opinion. The way the score by John Barry and the cinematography comes together as Connery strides through the train station as we the audience see his formidable foe Grant lurking after him through the train windows is magnificent. The film does such an incredible job of building up suspense in its first 45 min. and right when one's attention might be tempted to wander the movie kicks in with a great gypsy camp battle and once again Red Grant is lurking in the shadows keeping an assassin's eye trained on Bond. The action to the movie kicks in right when it I want it to and the majority of exposition is at the start of the film where I like it. The film expertly uses the figure of Red Grant lurking in the shadows racking up corpses to build up our anticipation for Bond's encounter with the character and when this man who we have seen so quickly kill again and again does encounter Bond, he doesn't instantly try to kill him. No this man, like Bond, is a professional and he waits methodically just like one of Blofeld's tropical fish "waits until the survivor is so exhausted that he cannot defend himself, & then, like SPECTRE, he strikes". The early scene where we get our first peek into SPECTRE and the faceless "number 1" is quite possibly still my favorite use of Blofeld and SPECTRE in a Bond film. Here Blofeld is never seen but rather skillfully moves killers in on Bond from the safety of his leather chair as if they were Kronsteen's chess pieces. In both this film and Thunderball we get a Blofeld who really does feel like M's dark counterpart. The scene between Bond and Grant in the claustraphobic confines of the cabin of the Orient Express is such a tense scene to watch--expertly acted and directed and the desperate fight to the death between two highly skilled assassins is still one of the series' most exciting brawls to watch thanks to skillfull camera work and excellent fight choreography and stunt work. The casting all around in this movie is pitch perfect and there's not a single weak link in the cast. Bond gets some of his best gadgets to date & we get the first appearance of the legendary Desmond Llewellyn as Q, may he rest in peace. Great ensemble cast, excellent build up of suspense with not a single scene that doesn't add something to the film for me, a classic score from John Barry, excellent action sequences, an intricate and compelling Cold War plot, some of the best villains in the series, a leading lady that matters to the plot and aids Bond but whom we're also left wondering at times "is she good or bad?", one of my favorite opening credit sequences, it's an excellent adaptation of the novel, and all of this conflict and deception is set against the fabulous exotic backdrop of Turkey.
    I absolutely love this movie, I've watched it more times than I can count and it still never gets old. :D
  • The_ReaperThe_Reaper
    Posts: 1,092
    FRWL is pretty damn good. I know why it's Connery and Craig's favorite. They know their Bond films!
  • josiahjosiah
    Posts: 1,386
    The_Reaper wrote: »
    FRWL is pretty damn good. I know why it's Connery and Craig's favorite. They know their Bond films!

    I didn't know that about Craig. Huh, guess I learned something new.
    :)
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    edited February 2016 Posts: 1,984
    I think I enjoy The Spy Who Loved Me the most out of all of them - probably because it has everything, like Goldfinger, but in my opinion it's just a notch better. Everything is pushed to its limits but not beyond, and its that fine balance of everything that makes the film so great. It's hugely entertaining and it's got the best pre-title and title sequence in the franchise, IMO (with close contenders, of course). I admit that the final act isn't quite as strong as Egypt and Sardinia but then again, those segments were phenomenal, so it's hard to match them. TSWLM's one of the Moore films that I can see myself going back to constantly, and it presents a really good case for ranking Moore just behind Connery and Craig.

    I think From Russia With Love and Casino Royale are a bit better as films, but TSWLM is still my favorite.
  • ThighsOfXeniaThighsOfXenia
    edited February 2016 Posts: 1,596
    Yes! Any time the end of a Bond film is the peak it shoots up greatly with rewatch value etc.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    Birdleson wrote: »
    I think the final act is the peak of the film (it's all great, obviously). The battle aboard the Liparus is the best of its kind in the franchise (and all of the bomb, the escape, etc.) and I absolutely love the killing of Stromberg.

    Of course I still think it's great (hence why I think the whole movie is top-tier), just not as good as the first two acts which were virtually flawless IMO (maybe a bit too much humour here and there, but it's Moore, so that's forgivable). Stromberg's death is definitely one of Moore's coldest and best moments, and indeed, the quality of the film goes right back up towards the end to become on par with Egypt/Sardinia. It's just the bit before that which is slightly inferior. I still find it greatly entertaining, though.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,198
    After recent post Spectre rewatches, I've come to the conclusion that my favourite Bond film is Licence to Kill.

    As much as I love the classic Bonds from the sixties, and I really do, my favourite James Bond is Timothy Dalton and in my opinion he gives the single best, most engaging and most Fleming-esque performance of them all in LTK.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    The opening post says it all.
  • ThighsOfXeniaThighsOfXenia
    Posts: 1,596
    Current favorite is TB and I don't think it's changing any time soon. Why? I dunno. Too many reasons, although there are several movies that could almost be #1 with it.

    Connery, cinematography, the mix of GF's spectacle with Young's sharper, more dangerous direction. The underwater action is suspenseful and gorgeous, sometimes both at the same time. The music fits the movie perfectly. Fiona is maybe my favorite hench-person. The dialogue(!). It's just pure cinematic Bond for me.

    Sure, some bad editing and dubbing here and there, and the rear projection in the finale is not good etc etc. But that fight on the boat is quite good.

    I could go on forever with little things that make the movie for me. I like the slow, epic pace.
  • TellyBlofeldTellyBlofeld
    Posts: 489
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    For the moment it would be like this:<br />
    <br />
    OHMSS, best adaption from the novel and the first Bond to be human.<br />
    FRWL, thrilling and stylish Cold War thriller.<br />
    TLD, grittiness "alla Fleming" mixed with escapist fun.<br />
    TB, perfect blend of an epic Bond with Young's gentle class.<br />
    GE, post-Soviet spy movie which introduces Bond to the new world.

    I pretty much agree with all this.

    OHMSS is pretty much my favorite, with a tone that I wish had continued into and through the next decade.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited February 2016 Posts: 23,883
    This is a tough call for me, because my top two to four Bond films are all bunched up very closely together in terms of preference (positions can change any time) and are actually all quite different from one another (FRWL, TB, CR, TSWLM). Some are large in scale and some are quite small in scale.

    The one thing I think they all share is execution. They are all near perfectly executed Bond films, very true to whatever vision they were each made to achieve, at least in my view anway.

    FRWL tends to always just come out on top because I really like the suspense orientation of the film. The toned down thriller aspect. The mystery combined with the romance. The score captures these elements perfectly as well. The fact that it's simple yet so memorable.

    The standout scenes are all sinister (pretitles, Bond at Hagia Sophia, Bond on the Orient Express with Grant, Bond and Kerim in the tunnels, Bond and Kerim shoot Krylenko, the Roma fight etc.etc) and the romantic scenes are very memorable (Bond and Tanya on the Bosphorous Strait discussing the Lektor, Bond and Tanya on the train, Bond's first meeting with Tanya in bed, Bond and Sylvia picnicking). Furthermore, all the villains are extremely charismatic and somewhat OTT, which for me is imperative for a successful Bond film.

    I think my other highly ranked Bond films (TB, CR, TSWLM) also share some of these attributes (namely the combination of sinister, romantic, and charismatic OTT) but in slightly different measures.
  • The_ReaperThe_Reaper
    Posts: 1,092
    Yeah, I'm kinda the same on my top 4 these days. GF, CR, FYEO, TSWLM. Every time I watch them individually I always think, "Man, this is the best one!" Then I watch the next one and feel the same. It's a nice feeling to have, actually. What a great series to have so many amazing films to choose from.
  • Mathis1Mathis1
    Posts: 7,532
    Has to be OHMSS.Watch it every year, uaually at Christmas, and it never fails to satisfy my Bond craving. Close to the novel, well written, directed and great cast. Lazenby isn't as bad as people think. great sequences and set pieces, tremendous action scenes which hold up to anything they produce today, great score, and of course theres THAT ending! Superb Mr. Bond
    Notables follow ups would be TLD, CR AND LTK! All brilliant with every viewing!
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,514
    It's Casino Royale (2006) for me. It's one of my most-watched movies ever and I can't imagine it being topped as my favorite Bond film. Craig, the PTS, the action scenes, the suspense, Judi Dench's M, Le Chiffre, Vesper, Jeffrey Wright's Felix, Mr. White, the ending, etc. all help make this a perfect adventure for me. The most notable runner-uppers are OHMSS, GF, GE, and SF on my list.
  • GBFGBF
    Posts: 3,198
    Mine is a A view to a kill which is certainly a controvercial choice. But for me it is the optimal mix of humour, supense, dialouges and action sequences. It also has some of the best and most impressive locations, the best score, some of the best villains, a great ally and one of the best third acts. Wheras some other bond films have their best sequences very early in the film (the PTS is the best sequnece in many bond films) AVTAK has a great and memorable climax near the end of the film. The pacing is also very good. The film is nither too short nor too long and there is a very solid directing by John Glen. I can understand that people prefer other bond films, but I cannot understand that a film with so many great incredients has such a bad reputation. Just give it another try!
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    @GBF, I did enjoy it on my last watch (as part of a pre-SP Bondathon) but it seemed quite small in scale to me in comparison to the other Moore vehicles in particular. OP seemed grander, as did all the early ones, much more so in fact.

    There was something almost tv film like about AVTAK in some of the location filming. Like the firetruck chase with green screen, Stacy's southern Savannah style residence, and most notably the fire scene at City Hall. Also, Moore himself looked a little long in the tooth (for him) and that knocks it down a few notches for me.

    You're right though. Perhaps it is underrated.
  • GBFGBF
    Posts: 3,198
    I agree that Moore was probably 10 years too old but I still enjoy him as the "globetrotting action grandfather" who takes himself no to seriously. However I don't really see the age gap between For your eyes only and AVTAK. He already looked quiet old in that film, especially since he was matched with even much younger women in that film. But nobody (including me) complaints about Moore's age in FYEO.

    I think the set pieces and locations are great in AVTAK. They are all very memorable and the landmarks (Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge) are used perfectly. I cannot remember any other famous building being used so perfectly in a bond film. I never really realized the green screne in that film but I am also not an expert on this. But I also think the production overall is not that bad. In fact many of the older bond films have not aged so well with regard to their visual effects. Just watch the older ski sequences in OHMSS or TSWLM with very obvious rear projection. The ski sequence in the PTS of AVTAK is far better than the older ski sequences, at least if it had not been spoiled by some strange score (GG).
  • Mathis1Mathis1
    Posts: 7,532
    Well the ski sequence is very impressive... when Ol Rogs stunt double is doing it. But when we have close ups of Ol Rog, particularly on the snowbike, he definitely aint in Iceland!
  • JBFan626JBFan626
    Posts: 1,497
    OHMSS: It's interesting, I find this to be an imperfect Bond film - the odd dubbing of Lazenby as Sir Hilary Bray, the romantic montage of Bond and Tracy window shopping feels a little schmaltzy, the germ warfare plot using femme assassins is strange, the blatant racism (banana girl/rice girl), some of the editing is off...there are a lot bizarre things about this film, it's a like surreal psychedelic trip. Telly Savalas isn't even my favorite Blofeld either, nor is Lazenby my favorite Bond.

    But it's the overall majesty of this film, pardon the pun: the gorgeous scenery of the Swiss Alps, the high octane action that serves the plot, excellent acting with Diana Rigg and Gabrielle Ferzetti, Lazenby moves like a cat and brings out the emotion when needed (note the scene at the ice skating rink when Tracy shows up), the music is just perfect for Bond, easily in Barry's top 3 scores. Then there is the emotion in both the barn scene and the tearjerker ending. Frau Irma Bundt is undeniably creepy and scary. Telly, if not my favorite Ernst, makes for a coy and more physical version that serves the film well. There is just a grand sense of adventure of Bond uncovering the mystery, making is way up the mountain, and then criss-crossing his way down again.

    I'd argue that FRWL and TB are better executed by the numbers. OHMSS just has the feeling of going all in, it's a grand escapade, and I can't help but feel this is the ultimate Bond experience.
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