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Answer: Newman's SP soundtrack. ;)
I have to confess I downloaded that in 2008 and still have it in my music list. It's not aged well at all though.
Yes of course, I purchased the single as well on iTunes. I always will buy the Bond score and theme song.
I would even buy a Bond theme if it was a recording of Adele having a cough attack for three minutes.
I though that initially but it's just confusing editing. He chucks the grenade through one open window and crashes through the closed window on the other side.
Now that's a name to really shit on.
This was my first watch of this non-EON entry in a while. It went very well this time around. In fact, I can safely say that this was my most enjoyable viewing of this film ever. The reason? Well, as Bond would say, it's all a matter of perspective. I've always previously watched this film with the preconceived notion that it is an inferior remake of TB, which it indeed is. This time I approached it without expectations just as I would any other Bond film, or any other film for that matter, and this resulted in the more positive assessment.
Connery is in excellent form here as a slightly older, veteran agent. His trademark coolness and detachment is as entertaining as ever, although I wish he had more pithy comebacks (to quote Alec). There are many instances in this film when I expected him to deliver a trademark quip as he often did in the later EON entries. The rest of the cast is stellar as well, especially Klaus Maria Brandauer as Largo and Barbara Carerra as Fatima Blush, who's frighteningly unhinged while looking sexy as hell. I even enjoyed Kim Basinger more as Domino this time around. At least she is far less annoying than I remember.
The cinematography by the late Douglas Slocombe is quite impressive in many of the European locations, and evokes Indy, which is not surprising given that he lensed the 3 early classic Indy adventures. Irvin Kershner's direction is competent and effective, and the film is well paced throughout. It does lack the immediacy of John Glen's work in the action dept however.
Michel Legrand's score is the weak component of this film imho. He underscores scenes in many instances, while Barry in contrast would have given us something stirring. Having said that, his score for the underwater finale is not bad. As expected, I didn't find it all that annoying this time around because I've had to endure some rubbish scores from EON over the past 25 years, and this one seemed of the same calibre as the worst of those. It's not like we've been getting Barry level work from the official franchise since.....well since Barry retired.
A few things I noticed:
M in this film reminds me of C in SP. I realize he's not a traitor, but he is an annoying official who thinks the 00 program is obsolete, like Scott's character.
Connery looks damn good in his suits even at 53. Far better than Craig does in his of late. There's no substitute for fine tailoring, it seems.
I noticed Manning Redwood as General Miller here. He plays Bob Conley in AVTAK. I also noticed Robert Rietty as a minister during the Spectre blackmail scene. He did the voice for Largo in TB, Blofeld in FYEO & Tanaka in YOLT.
I like Largo's expression when Bond tells him he wants a Vodka Martini. I also like how Bond played on Fatima's ego by saying he was thinking of mentioning her in his memoirs. He expected her to take the bait and want him to do it before she shot him, thereby giving him an opportunity to pull out the exploding pen. Oh, and I like the video game encounter as well.
I look forward to seeing this film more often, now that I have discovered an appreciation for it.
Excellent post! Sean is quite stylish in his suits here. The nice thing is the suits are somewhat subtle, no over the top flashy lapels or loud ties. He looks extremely suave in Nassau flirting with Valerie Leon and Fatima. With the tighter fashions today, Craig often looks like if he moves even slightly the seat of his pants will rip.
I also really like his combat attire in the wargames sequence and the outfit he wears during the escape from Palmyra. He looks cool as f*** on that horse with Domino.
Glad you enjoyed NSNA this time around.
Roger Moore looked fantastic for being almost 50, and put in a great performance. There were a few times where the one liners and grins threatened to cross the line, but they were pulled back before things got out of hand. The dam broke in MR and everything spilled out, for better or worse.
I still like Anya and Stromberg. I wouldn't put them in my top ten girls or villains, but they get the job done. Jaws is larger than life, and yes, there's a bit of a fantasy element to him, but I think it all works perfectly in the context of the film.
After reading some interesting debating about the train fight on another thread, I can't find anything wrong with it. Of course it's no masterpiece like FRWL, but I don't think it was played for laughs either. Again, it fits within the Gilbert realm of an entertaining adventure film.
The settings are a real treat. Egypt was used to great effect. And the score was highly enjoyable. Plus, that Lotus chase is still an exhilarating ride after all these years! Cubby went all out with this one. It may be a greatest hits package at times, but it delivers the goods with excitement and style.
I hate when they do that. Oh, it's just an exercise, or even worse, a dream…or even worser, a virtual reality snog between Moneypenny and Bond, my god that was awful!
I just had to watch this one today. One thing I noticed, the opening does sort of play like a pre-title sequence, and a decent one at that. Interesting how the filmmakers walked that fine legal line of incorporating Bondian elements, but not stepping on trademarks. No gunbarrel, so those rows of 007s zoom in to open to the exotic location. I admit I like the 007s. There's no law forbidding a title song, but they couldn't copy the Binder sequences, so the song plays over the wargames bit. Actually, they didn't really HAVE to have a title song, it's only there because it's a Bond tradition they could get away wit . A few years back there was an Eonized fan edit that included a gunbarrel and changed the score to some Barry cues.
I LOVE the fight with Lippe. Sean's pain face while being strangled can give Pierce a run for his money. While at the same time, he does seem to be in danger and not too over the top. The pacing in the first half is an improvement on TB in the bits of Spectre stealing the missiles is streamlined.
I remember after seeing CR in 2006 a friend said it didn't feel like a Bond film at all, and I replied that it was an adaptation of the novel. I'd say NSNA can bee looked at as simply an adaptation of the TB novel. From that perspective it succeeds in many levels.
I just think that this awful song does not really fit to the opening sequence which is supposed to be an intense scene.
The training exercise component was interesting enough though, and was used by EON in the later TLD pretitles to introduce Dalton. Speaking of which, I would have preferred if they had kept Connery's face hidden (with a hood or something) until the end, to increase the anticipation of seeing him in action as Bond again.
I agree that they should have put the song in between the training exercise and the meeting with M.
The NSNA opening could have been one with a different sound (the ticking clock) and a litlle bit more realism. It could have been quiet similarly suspensefull as the FRWL opening.
It just comes off as slimy rather than cool.
Bond quickly walks away to release some tension.
Lol! Good one.