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A couple of years ago I found myself really liking DAF again, after having it sitting at the bottom of my rankings. It’s just a fun, bizarre little picture. The 60’s are well and truly over, being replaced with the almost dream like vision of the 70’s. But one man has not changed. Apart from his waist line of course...
I just love the three main cast members chemistry and dialogue, that it is easy to look over the disappointing elements such as, poor dubbing, poor special effects etc.
“Jealously from you Mr. Bond? I’m flattered.”
Lovely stuff.
From arguably the best dialogue in the series to Die Another Day. @Birdleson chose this one for me as it features diamonds, space weapons, lasers and scorpions. (I’m looking for a link – a connection - between one Bond film to the next, no matter how tenuous it is).
Also linking the films are the brassy and sassy American Bond Girls. And the trumpet on this particular track (James Bond Theme – listen to those blaring trumpets!) -
informs Arnold’s Ice Chase piece.
Some good things to DAD but not enough to save it from last place, alas!
Royale’s Ranking
1. Skyfall
2. Goldfinger
3. The World Is Not Enough
4. Diamonds Are Forever
5. Die Another Day
Next up - GoldenEye Cuba! Bronsan's last and first!
*Your check is in the post.
Surely you're joking. I rant all the time, even in my sleep. You should check out the religion thread. ;-)
Well, thank you kindly. I try to keep my record clean.
As for you, I've always taken you as a drunk, a fiend and a repugnant womaniser, but you're doing a good job changing my views.
Wait, I was thinking about @royale65. You're on my shortlist, sir. Hell, you both are.
Was going to wait until nearer Christmas to watch the only festive Bond film, but lo and behold I only meant to watch the PTS and ended up watching the whole darn thing!
This was one of my best viewings. Such a great film and it just reinforces the fact that if you are faithful to Fleming you can't go far wrong.
In some scenes Laz's lack of acting experience is painfully obvious but he holds his own in many scenes, and in some of them he is bloody good. The Casino scene near the beginning and the bit with Tracy in the hotel room he is very assured and holds his own. And also in the scene where he meets Draco.
I love how vulnerable he seems trying to avoid Blofeld's men after he escapes down the mountain and is it just me or is the scene where Tracy turns up on the ice one of the most wondrous moments in a Bond film? She looks absolutely stunning and you really get Bond's joy and relief when he see's her.
The stable scene is very well acted and has real warmth to it. Diana Rigg looking seriously sexy in her fur coat and little else.
Then we get one of the best Bond/M scenes in the series as Bond tries to convince M to launch an attack on Piz Gloria. (I love the way the scene begins by superimposing Tracy being pulled from the snow onto the window of M's office that Laz stares solemnly out of)
The ending is devastating and probably the best of the series. It's power comes from Laz's incredible bit of acting in this moment and he really is convincing. His final muffled sob is simply heartbreaking.
The rest of the cast really are on top form, especially Diana Rigg who is so amazing in the film it's believable that Bond could fall in love with her. Also great is Gabriele Ferzetti as Draco. I love his bluffing to the authorities as the helicopter tries to reach Piz Gloria.
The action is first class. Laz is incredible in the fight scenes and the editing is just stunning. The assault on Piz Gloria has to be the best climax of the series and the chase down the toboggan run is really well filmed.
With everyone on top of their game John Barry didn't disappoint with one of his greatest music scores. His main theme is exciting, rousing and just so cool!
Sits safely at number 5 in my rankings.
Hell, I may just watch this again before the 25th!
Thats where i have it. Never disappoints. One great scene after another! Love it! Like you i always watch it at Christmas. Hard to hold off not watching it before then. Just purchased 'Becoming Bond', so will probably watch it together!
I agree Lazenby does really well as Bond. I dont go along with the view Connery would have been better in it! Laz equates himself really well, not just in the fight scenes!
Such a pity he was badly advised and turned down the contract to do more! And what a shame Director Peter Hunt never got another chance to helm another Bond film! He did a terrific job!
One of the bad turns of the series.
Once again I was impressed by how good this film is. I tend to forget you see, and am always wondering how come I rank it so low.
The nineties have started, but no-one has told the Bond team. Which leads it to have a wonderfully retro feel and vibe. A bridge between old school Bond and the new era. It certainly looks that way - closer to LTK than TND, despite it being the other way round.
The script is superb. Always questioning Bond's place in the post Cold War, which Bond answers in his own unique way.
Royale’s Ranking, October 2017
1. Skyfall
2. Goldfinger
3. The World Is Not Enough
4. GoldenEye
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. Die Another Day
Next up, Tomorrow Never Dies - Wade and computer geeks.
Connery was a far superior actor but with him in it, OHMSS would have been a completely different film I feel.
Becoming Bond is a good watch but I would have preferred more about his time as Bond instead of just the last 20 minutes.
Boy, did I just enjoy the heck out of this film. Sleek and stylish is TND, as we enter the modern era of Bond films. TND is 20 years old, yet it doesn’t look it. (Almost to the day – its release date was the 9th of December) I think TND is the best lensed Brosnan era film – not as dated as GE, nor as bland as TWINE, or the technicolour nightmare that was DAD.
In fact, I say this film was a step up from GE, being more composed, more confident than its illustrious predecessor. Spottiswoode deserves great credit – not one wasted shot. Brosnan too deserves a shout out – like the film itself, Brosnan is more composed, he’s more comfortable, yet retains the reserved nature to his performance in GE – and by that I mean Brosnan is not too comfortable to allow his “acting ticks and foibles” to creep into his portrayal. Plus he looks great having been on a workout. Brosnan is smoother than was the case in GE, yet he hasn’t developed the gurning, the grunting, nor the melodrama that was his undoing in TWINE and DAD. Yes, I’ve convinced myself - this is Brosnan’s best performance as 007.
Other strengths include Arnold’s superb score, Bruce Feirstein’s neat updating on the plot lines to YOLT and Spy, and the chemistry (what chemistry I can hear you cry!!) between Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh, possibly Bond’s finest comrade in arms.
The downside is the oft maligned shoot ‘em up abroad Carver’s stealth boat. And the nagging doubt that throughout his tenure, Brosnan’s films became pictures made for grown ups, that kids could enjoy, to teenager orientated films, that grown ups could only tolerate.
Royale’s Ranking, Bondathon - October 2017
1. Skyfall
2. Goldfinger
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. The World Is Not Enough
5. GoldenEye
6. Diamonds Are Forever
7. Die Another Day
This is the first time than TND has usurped TWINE in my ranking, like in forever. Although I admire TWINE for its courage, TND has the Bond formula down pat.
Next up, The Man With The Golden Gun – linked to TND thusly - Ha Long Bay and a brash American in a garish shirt.
*How did Wai Lin find the wreck of the Devonshire? If that happened in SF, this place would be up in arms about it.
Yeah it’s awful, I don’t like thunderball or skyfall very much but they are millions of times better than whatever trash NSNA is.
0/10
Yeah, I was only five when it came out and I had no idea that it wasn't an "official" film. I mean, it was a Bond film starring Sean Connery and for years it just existed alongside the others. It wasn't until I really got into Bond in the 90's that I learned the whole story.
I still enjoy it today though. I guess it has always helped that my dad, who is a huge Connery fan and was never too keen on Moore (we differ greatly there!), has always loved it. We watched it together a couple of years ago and had a good time with it.
The great (and crazy) thing about being a Connery Bond fan is that you essentially have three different endings for his Bond to pick from in YOLT, DAF or NSNA, the last of which being the most meta and perhaps strange of all for its in your face send-off.
It's been a long time since I watched NSNA. I think I only saw it once and only because I was running through all the films for the first time around age 15 or 16 when I really became a big fan. All I really remember of it are visuals, and none of them entirely pleasant, like the computerized game Bond and Largo play that really dates the film and the sight of Sean in tight bike shorts (yikes). I find it funny how a film that came out in the 80s is actually more dated than the 60s film it was remaking. Strange, but not the strangest thing in the world of Bond.
@barryt007, that seems to be the case with a lot of Bond films (or any, really) that have an aspect of technology to them that dates them to their original time of release. GE is a great example, as it's one of the most dated Bonds of all with its focus on that era's computer systems that are hilarious to see in this day and age. Part of what makes the 60s films more timeless than many of the films that came decades after is that they didn't have that focus on tech and were very finely grounded spy thrillers when all was said and done. It also helped that those films predated the crazy tech world of today, where no crazy gadgets could be implemented. As a Luddite, I think that's part of why I love those films so much; they were simple and didn't get held back by too much of what the films focus on these days (and spy stories of today in general).
It'll be interesting to see how SF dates with its own tech focus, though I fear it will actually be more appreciated as a warning sign of the times to come and the negative effects of technology in our lives. In other ways, it could feel as dated to future generations as the technology in GE or NSNA appears to us now, which is a crazy thought.
I'm partial to NSNA because it triggered my Bond fandom. Seeing Connery in his own Bond film a few months after the official OP was huge to me as a kid just getting interested in 007.
Not as easy access to the Bond films back then. In the U.S. we had the ABC network airings, which felt like an event in themselves, HBO, if one had cable, and the VHS/Beta releases were still in their infancy. One had to spend roughly between $60.00 and $89.95 in 1983 dollars of one wanted to purchase a Bond on home video.
By the mid eighties the video stores were booming and more Bonds were being distributed for rental (which is how I saw many for the first time).
So for me to see an older Connery as Bond in a new film was quite exciting. Still considering how much was limited legally for Taliafilm, I think NSNA feels extremely Bondian.
I imagine Eon must have liked some elements of the film, as many themes have been recycled for the Brosnan and Craig eras.
There are other things that date the 60s films, like men with hats, huge phones, awesome cars, slapping girls bottoms and so on. All good.
Of course, but the focus in those early films is often on cultural aspects that are more historically interesting than on tech which has the ability to date a film more than anything else because it underscores . The 60s Bond films can be boiled down to conflicts between people with guns despite everything else, with none of the plots crazily stepping into territory that would date them in the same way GE's 90s computers had or NSNA's weird game; the tech distracts from the human story in those examples, if you will, while those that don't aren't as jarring per se.
All Bond films will date, it's impossible for films not to no matter their content, but I've found that a focus on the capabilities of technology in the plot of a particular film often becomes the biggest detractor against it aging well. The "simpler" times of the 60s led to less emphasis on the developments of that time in tech which the later films seriously played to in extreme ways, and I think that partly hurts the latter because there is a feeling of them moving away from the sort of feeling of a Bond story. This could simply be because, like Fleming's books, the 60s films were created at a time where the action really focused on the characters and not plot elements with a tech bent to the degree we've seen in the later films.
Nowadays we'll be lucky to get a plot that doesn't have a heavy focus on computers, phones, hacking, and computer generated chaos when in the old days Bond just went after people who were bad with a gun and his brain. I think we've had this discussion a lot on the forum in other threads, but the further we move into an era owned by tech to a suffocating degree, the more boring certain stories become to tell and that's part of why I view the early films as so refreshing and welcoming now.