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Francisco Scaramanga is now my favourite Bond villain. I do like the score as well. Both the opening duel between Scaramanga & Rodney, and Scaramanga and Bond make up the highlights of the film. And while Brit Ekland was gorgeous, it's impossible to take her seriously as a competent agent.
My 1996-2016 20th Anniversary Bondathon
1. The Living Daylights
2. Licence To Kill
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Octopussy
6. The World Is Not Enough
7. Spectre
8. GoldenEye
9. Die Another Day
10. The Spy Who Loved Me
11. The Man With The Golden Gun
12. Casino Royale
13. A View To A Kill
14. Skyfall
15. Moonraker
16. Quantum Of Solace
I watched TSWLM yesterday. The film has never been one of my favourites but I must admit that the film has some very positive elements:
The characters are all great. Jaws is wonderfully introduced and has everything an iconic henchman needs. His metal teeth are used perfectly, as his deadly weapon but also as his achilles heel. You can see that much thought went into the development of this character. Roger Moore gives a splendid performance as 007 and I really like XXX who is not only extremely beautifull but also does not seem to be completely unconvincing as a spy. I also find that Roger and her have good chemistry and their permanent challenge is amusing most of the time. Stromberg is not bad either. He is perfect as the old misanthrope. Some of his lines are great too.
Egypt is used very well, even though I found the Jaws scene in the Karnak Temple was a bit silly. I must hawever say that I liked the "Death on the Nile" reference. The interesting thing is that"Death on the Nile" was filmed one year later but I guess it was still a reference to the book.
The plot is OK overall. It follows the Bond formular. However, I disliked some of the inconsistancies and unexplained objectives. So it is never really explained why Bond is supposed to be killed by the Russians in the beginning. Was this a "death to spies" mission? I guess the attempt alone does not really fit to the more cooperative behaviour of both secret services which we see later in the film. I liked however the idea that Bond killed Anja's boy friend. Another issue was the lazy inclusion of some scenes. So it makes absolutely no sense to travel from Egypt to Sardinia by train. It is not a big thing but it is just an example of quite a few parts in the film where the writers could have been more carefull.
The film has a great amount of iconic Bondian moments, I still find that the pacing could have been better. Some of the scenes drag a little bit and the action scene could have been more intense. I allready mentioned the score which I find to be the biggest problem of the film, especially during the action scenes. Either there is no score at all or there is a relaxed disco score which lacks any power, danger and intensity.
Overall I enjoyed the film more than I expected due to the great characters, the dialouges and the inconic moments. I however still find that the film could have been much more intense and immensely improved by a better score.
Meh......
I guess I'm one of the few to find that film infinitely stronger than SF.
Never been the biggest Moore fan but having rewatched The Spy Who Loved Me recently, I think it's easily his best go. This is big-budget, pure spectacle Bond at its best and he's the glue that holds everything together. I think one of reasons TSWLM works over YOLT is because of Moore's performance. He brings a sort of energy and charm to every scene he's on screen. Moore's interpretation of the character here is also probably his best - humorous and charming but still shows some of the depth that we expect from the character. Two of Moore's best scenes in the film are the scene with the missile disarming and the scene where he tells Anya he killed her lover. While it might be hard for me to list Moore above the likes of Connery, Craig and Dalton, I really do appreciate everything he did do for the franchise.
A lot of Moore's entries don't do much for me either, but I recognise that TSWLM is certainly his best effort, for the reasons you mentioned.
I prefer Skyfall to SPECTRE, there are just some things in SPECTRE that I really don't like so it is very much a mixed viewing experience for me.
A decent debut performance from Moore (especially in comparison to what came next). Jane Seymour is one Bond Girl which I would have liked to have seen in another Bond film (as a different character). just like Maude Adams. This is in all likelihood my neutral Bond film, it doesn't blow my trousers off, nor does it cause me to face palm.
&
Diamonds Are Forever
............................... I ......... it's awful. The whole film has a campy feel, even Conney has an effeminate quality to him (the way he holds up his hands in the PTS). Long gone is the lean leathal Bond of FRWL, in his place is an out of shape, perpetually bored impersonator. I will cut the film some slack with the instrumental music (I do like 'Bond To Holland' and 'Bond Meets Bambi & Thumper'). The Connery era ends not with a bang, but a half hearted whimper.
My 1996-2016 20th Anniversary Bondathon
1. The Living Daylights
2. Licence To Kill
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Octopussy
6. The World Is Not Enough
7. Spectre
8. GoldenEye
9. Live And Let Die
10. Die Another Day
11. The Spy Who Loved Me
12. The Man With The Golden Gun
13. Casino Royale
14. A View To A Kill
15. Skyfall
16. Moonraker
17. Diamonds Are Forever
18. Quantum Of Solace
Skip to 02:30
Those first 20 seconds of the slow Bond theme, then the tempo picks up. =D>
Nothing is guaranteed, but I think Dr No, From Russia With Love & On Her Majesty's Secret Service stand a good chance of making my top 10.
Casino Royale it occurred to me after Bond took down Mr White in the final scene, did White make a call to Oberhauser and say 'Franz your brother bloody shot me in the leg' Franz replying 'dont fret I am writing a book about James Bonds Pain'.
Top 5 more like.
This may seem like a strange combination, but is it? It's the last time Blofeld appeared (in a helicopter sequence which starts over the Thames) and his re-emergence (ironically, also on the Thames in a helicopter sequence at the finale in the latest entry). They both feature French leading ladies whose characters' fathers were assassinated by the chief villain. They both have a very popular Bond actor taking a different approach to his traditional interpretation on the character. There are alpine chase sequences. These are both films which made substantially less money than their wildly popular predecessors. They have finales that are let downs in comparison to what happens earlier in each entry. They also have scores that are maligned (perhaps correctly) and title songs that are hated (by this viewer) despite critical acclaim. No, I think there are certainly parallels between these two films, if not so obvious at the beginning.
First SP - my views on this film are well known by now. In a word, I 'dislike' it, and I don't think I'll ever really enjoy it. Having said that, I watch it quite regularly (I think this is my third watch this year). I tend to do that with Bond films which rank in the lower middle pack. This time around I discovered a few new things. Daniel Craig is very good in the character scenes, particularly with White and with Swann at L'Americain. He is absolutely cringe worthy awful (imho) however when he tries to do Connery/Moore smug. In particular I'm referring to the scene in M's office, the Mickey Mouse scene, the Q scenes and the Blofeld scenes. That smirk he delivers is as fake as it gets. I think Newman's score is actually quite good....in the slow and suspense scenes. I appreciate his ambient touch. It's in the action scoring where he fails, and quite miserably imho. It's actually offensive to me. I'm referring in particular to the pretitles post-explosion, the car chase, the plane chase, and the finale. Having said that 'Westminster Bridge' (a recycle of SF) is excellent. I also now believe that Mendes wanted his film to be the way it ended up being. There was intent here. I think he was going for a 'feel' with this one. Whereas SF was all 'passion and heat', this one is 'cool and detached'. I'm not enough of a student of cinema to know what exactly he was getting at, but there is something distinctly 'European' about it. A stylish but disconnected aloofness. It's in the performances and well as the scenery. I'd liken it in a way to George Clooney's 2010 film The American to hammer home the point (even if the two films are very dissimilar). It's not surprising in the slightest that this film under performed relative to its predecessor in North America, yet did well in Europe. That is exactly as I would expect. I'll never like it, but understanding this makes me appreciate the film more for what it is.
Second FYEO - this is a film that I watch very often since it came out on blu ray. I've wondered why, and have concluded it's because it just looks so damn beautiful in this medium. All the colours really pop, and Greece really comes alive. I've never been a huge fan of this movie (it's sits somewhere between 12 and 15 in my rankings) because I find the performances a bit muted in this film, ironically like SP. Roger Moore in particular is missing his trademark spark (something which returns in full effect in OP). Having said that, watching this film after SP made me realize why he is an excellent Bond actor. He can convey a lot just with a few movements of facial muscles quite subtly, as he does in the opening scene at Tracy's grave. "It usually is. Thank you". His height advantage over Craig is quite noticeable on a back to back viewing. As I've said elsewhere, I really want the next Bond actor to be at least 6 ft. Carole Bouquet has the most piercing blue-green eyes (she demonstrates so much in that opening scene when they close up on her after Melina's parents are killed....initial sadness turning to revenge seeking anger) and her character is all icy cold exterior with smoldering passion underneath. It's an impressive performance, given she was dubbed. The ski action sequences are top notch (Glen showing his excellence in this area, particularly in comparison to Mendes) and the film has some interesting side characters, particularly Topol's Columbo. The mountain climb to St Cyril's is quite tense, although the finale atop the mountain is a let down. The dialogue is somewhat unmemorable and Bibi is a disgrace. The keelhauling sequence is one of the franchise's best imho. I actually didn't mind Conti's disco this time out. It's so much more entertaining and interesting than Newman's action scoring.
Mixed results with dubbing, re-using what sounds like the Dr No Bond theme, not fixing the plastic surgery/Blofeld not recognising Bond, and Savalas' overly theatrical performance all aside, OHMSS is still one of my favourite Bonds. When the crowd parts, and Mr & Mrs Bond set off for their honeymoon, I still get a feeling of dread in my stomach, no matter how many times I have watched the film or read the book.
My 1996-2016 20th Anniversary Bondathon
1. The Living Daylights
2. Licence To Kill
3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
4. Tomorrow Never Dies
5. For Your Eyes Only
6. Octopussy
7. The World Is Not Enough
8. Spectre
9. GoldenEye
10. Live And Let Die
11. Die Another Day
12. The Spy Who Loved Me
13. The Man With The Golden Gun
14. Casino Royale
15. A View To A Kill
16. Skyfall
17. Moonraker
18. Diamonds Are Forever
19. Quantum Of Solace