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If the movie is poor then at the end of the day, the director is to blame. He makes the final decision on what goes into, or is removed from the film.
According to me. A fan of the Bond series.
just my 2 cents
Agree with all of this. Your complaining towards every person who puts Spottiswoode below #1 is bordering on spam (and far past the border of annoying) now, @chrisisall. I gave my arguments above, and there's no reason @Benny nor anyone else are obligated to do the same, considering their arguments are likely similar if not the same to mine.
Not to mention you unnecessarily jump down others' throats. You criticized me for having Spottiswoode 9th when I don't even particularly dislike him, I just like the contributions of the eight above more.
Campbell
Mendes
Young
Hunt
Gilbert
Spottiswood
Apted
Glen
Forster
Tamahori
Terence Young - I think Young was probably the best Bond director and also the most fortunate. Young injected the wit and style into the films. He saw that Bond as a character was inherently silly and he gave his films a serious but very playful feel. By all intents he was Bond, and the urbane, chic and sexy feel of the films today were all down to Young's personal tastes back then. However, he was the first director so his films are blissfully unselfconscious which I think has allowed them to age well.
Guy Hamilton - I'm not the biggest Hamilton fan. His films were camp, silly comic-strips. I feel that whatever edge Young bought to the series, Hamilton successfully sanded off.
Lewis Gilbert - He was the only Oscar nominated director before Mendes and his track record would suggest he would be more interested in a character-driven film but Gilbert's Bonds are the least personal of the series. They are great exercises in excess and their production values are sky high but they are not my favourites.
Peter Hunt - Hunt was a novice with a lot to prove. The guy had buckets of style and OHMSS is one of the best looking Bond's there is and the film also has soul. It's also the most experimental of the Bonds at that point. I think he's fantastic.
John Glen - The most workman of the bunch. Glen was dictated by the material if it was good the film went well. I just found him slightly bland and some of his staging is well off. Having said that Glen shot fantastic action sequences, his five movies have some of the most impressive ariel scenes on film.
Martin Campbell - Campbell seems to be something of a second Terence Young. He understands Bond very well probably better than any other director. He has made the best Bond films in recent memory with lots of character, plot and action. He is probably my favourite Bond director.
Roger Spottiswoode - Workman job and a generic film.
Michael Apted - I really like TWINE, I think Apted bought his documentarian soul to the film (the Baku/oil subplot) but also created the most complex female character in a Bond film.
Lee Tamahori - I think Tamahori just didn't understand Bond. He didn't get why the films worked so well for such a long time and instead made a noisy early 00's action film in the vein of xXx and the Fast and Furious films. He made the whole thing very video-gamey.
Marc Forster - I like Forster's past work but he dropped the ball with QOS. I feel once again that he didn't get Bond and instead made a pseudo-Bourne movie. Forster is an art-house director and I feel he only took Bond on as an experiment. He never connected with the series, QOS was just an artistic excursion for him.
Sam Mendes - The most accomplished and intelligent director of the bunch. Mendes is a soulful director invested in themes, character and motifs. People could probably write an English major on SF. He's also great an shooting action something none of the other dramatic directors did well in the series (Gilbert, Apted and Forster). If Bond 24 is anything like SF, he will undoubtedly jump ahead of Campbell for me.
Yeah he was a workman type director but he understood Bond and he made some brilliant films. I love OP and the Dalton films are my favourite in the series. Plus he was by far the best director when it comes to action. We got the best stunts of the series under Glen and we won't get anything on the same level as the likes of the cargo net fight today, not when they can just use CGI.
2) Martin Campbell. He's a better director than Glen but Glen made more films and the Dalton films are my favourites so he just edges it for me. Campbell though is brilliant. He managed to reinvent Bond twice, for post cold war and for post 9/11, and both times he made one of the best Bond films ever. I think when it comes to fight scenes he's without a doubt the best director and GE and CR are both fantastic looking films. He's great with action but he's also great with the drama and character stuff. GE made Bond a more vulnerable character and CR has the most complex Bond of the series. I'd love it if he did one more when the next actor takes over but sadly he's probably too old.
3) Peter Hunt. I had a hard time choosing between him and Terrance Young but I prefer OHMSS to any of Young's films so Hunt manages to take the no 3 spot. Peter Hunt is the only director so far to really capture Fleming's Bond imo. Lazenby gave a good performance but I think Hunt deserves most of the credit for turning someone who isn't even an actor into Fleming's Bond and placing him what's just a fantastic film all round. Shame he didn't do anymore.
4) Terrance Young. If it wasn't for Sean Connery and Terrance Young we wouldn't even be doing this. Young and Connery invented an icon with DN. Fleming might have invented Bond but Young invented the cinematic Bond. The only reason he isn't ranked higher is because I'm not a huge fan of DN or TB (I don't mind them, I just think there are better films). FRWL is class though.
5) Sam Mendes. He's only done one film so far but it was a great one. He made a deep, brilliant, amazing looking film that was perfect for the 50th anniversary. SF is my favourite Craig film and I can't wait for Bond 24. I do think he could be better with action though, particularly the fight scenes, which I thought didn't live up to CR and QOS. It also annoyed me how he put the gunbarrel at the end again. Also I didn't like how he bought Thomas Newman with him, I hope he ditches him for the next one.
6) Lewis Gilbert. Nobody does OTT Bond better than him. What I love about his films were that they were all on an epic scale. His films were also stylish, they looked brilliant and had some fantastic action with some amazing special effects (they've aged really well). YOLT is great fun and TSWLM is one of my top 5 Bond films. Not a huge fan of MR but most of my problems with that are down the script, not him. He made some great films and I feel like I'm ranking him a bit low but that's just because I like the others better, not because I don't like him.
7) Michael Apted. Like Glen, he could've done with a bit more style and visual flair (all the locations in TWINE look a bit dull and grey) but he managed to make a great, complex Bond film. TWINE is one of my favourites and I wish he'd returned for DAD.
8) Guy Hamilton. Goldfinger is a classic but I think he got lucky. LALD is a mixed bag for me and TMWTGG and DAF are two of my least favourites. He deserves respect for GF which really defined the Bond formula (gadgets, Aston Martin, henchman, big Ken Adam set, girls with sex puns for names, great one liners, etc), but I don't think he was a great director. Shouldn't have returned after GF.
9) Roger Spottiswoode. I really enjoy TND. It's generic but it's lots of fun, Brosnan is on top form and I think Spottiswoode did a good job. Again, it's not that I don't like him, it's just that I think the people above all, at some point or another, made better films. He did a good job though, he made a fast paced, fun Bond movie with some great action. The Lewis Gilbert of the 90s.
10) Lee Tamahori. This is controversial but let me explain. While Marc Foster made a worse film, I think Lee Tamahori is a better director. In fact I think he's a good director. He's great with action, he can do drama well and he's brilliant with pacing. The problem is he's too much of a fanboy, filling the film with cheesey references, and he had some crap ideas. He also can't do big action films because he goes overboard with the CGI. He's great with something like the Devils Double (fantastic film btw) because it's a thriller but it's on a small scale. But he can't do big action films because when he has a big set piece, he seems to rely too much on naff CGI. So when he's given a film with explosions, a falling ice palace and a laser satellite...yeah. Good director but he shouldn't have been allowed near a Bond film, especially not one as OTT as DAD.
11) Marc Forster. QOS, while not crap like DAD or DAF, is a pretentious mess of a film. It's a good looking film with great cinematography, and there are a few good moments but they get lost in a sea of badly edited, shoved in action scenes. I've ranted about QOS before so I can't really be arsed now but I think Forster did a terrible job.
I don't see what's funny about it. What's wrong with Brosnan in TND? Yeah it's not a groundbreaking original performance but that doesn't make it the worst Bond performance of the series.
I asked folks why they dislike Spottiswoode, and I keep getting the same non-specific answer: too much generic gun fire & he made Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot. Pardon me if that doesn't fully satisfy my need to know. :P
Oh wait-! I thought this was MI6! Have I accidentally logged on to PiercewasNOTBond.com?? @-)
;)
You are right, that would be Brosnan in GE. For me he is just too lightweight and feminine. Like he walked out of a ladies magazine or daytime soap series.We will always disagree about him, that is OK. I did enjoy your review of all the directors, though. Even if I do not agree with everything, it was articulate and well thought out. Same to you, @Pierce2Daniel. Well done, both.
Anyhow, favorite directors:
1. Young. He had quite a hand in inventing cinematic Bond, and his films still belong to the best.
2. Glen. He didn´t exactly invent anything, yet his films have a solidity that bears more than any originality.
3. Campbell and Forster. With CR and QOS, they both did something miraculously incomplete yet at the same time very beautiful. I´d say they both didn´t make the mistake of trying to make the perfect Bond film, although I guess in both cases it wasn´t intentional.
4. Hunt. He made one of the best Bond films, moreover, with one of the least actors in the lead role.
5. Hamilton and Gilbert.
I gave you my sincere, full answer and yet you proceeded to question two other users' choices afterwards. Of course I would question why someone would call Young a poor director, but I wouldn't go making a post for every single person who ranked him in a low spot. That's just repetitive and takes up space.
Post deleted by me.
Apologies to @StirredNotShaken & others.
Yeah I don't think we'll ever agree on Brosnan. I do think GE is his worst performance (he seems a bit uncomfortable and self conscious, he got better as he went on because he relaxed more and more) but I'd say the worst Bond performance is Connery in DAF.
Outside their work in the Bond series, I would have to say Marc Forster though regrettably his latter day output has been a far cry from his pre Quantum of Solace achievements. Sam Mendes might be up for consideration too, and of course Roger Spottiswoode get a honourable mention for Terror Train as well.
I was checking my old post. Updated with Mendes will be now this (the comments remain as I wrote them before):
1. Terence Young
2. Martin Campbell
3. Peter Young
4. Sam Mendes
5. John Glen
6. Lewis Gilbert
7. Guy Hamilton
8. Roger Spootiswood and Michael Apted
9. Marc Foster
10. Lee Tamahori
Compare silva and Camille's opening scene with Lupe gushing"I love James so much" or cheery Felix at the end of LTK
:P
And if Mendes has so much class, then why did he have Naomi Harris deliver such a lousy performance?
He's a director, not a magician. If you think an actor/actress delivered a bad performance, the director can't always be blamed, especially if the performer simply lacks the talent for the job (not referring to Harris here). By that logic, Francis Ford Coppola could make Denise Richards an Oscar winning actress in minutes. Har har.
;)
Well then if he can't be held responsible for a poor performance then why does Mendes deserve credit for the good ones?
A master at blending escapist camp with real danger and suspense.
Also directed another Bond inspired vehicle, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
Hamilton is my favourite all-time film director.
#2 Terrence Young
#3 Peter Hunt
#4 Lewis Gilbert
#5 John Glen
#6 Martin Campbell
#7 Michael Apted
#8 Lee Tamahori
#9 Roger Spottiswoode
#10 Marc Forster
#11 Sam Mendes
Well, the performances in Skyfall that often get praise are chiefly from Dan, Judi and Javier, who each have great acting talents already, and their performances can only be improved by the proper direction, if any, that Mendes gives them. I guess that is why some praise those great performances and hand Mendes some of that credit, since the actors are already professionals in their own right. That's what I would commend Mendes on, anyway. I look at it this way: a great director can get great performances out of actors that already have the talent for the job, but no director can do that for someone who doesn't have those skills. Therefore, we may often give credit to the director for the good performances because we rationalize that they took already great actors and made them even better, whereas bad actors are just bad and can't be helped when their performance inevitably fails to meet the proper criteria. Hence my hypothetical joke about Coppola not being able to get a great performance out of Richards.
I hope I explained myself clearly here...
#1 Lewis Gilbert
#2 Terrence Young
#3 Martin Campbell
#4 John Glen
#5 Peter Hunt
#6 Sam Mendes
#7 Guy Hamilton
#8 Marc Forster
#9 Michael Apted
#10 Roger Spottiswoode
#11 Lee Tamahori
So low?
LEE KICK ASS!
As for Miami Vice, you could argue that, no matter how good or not Mann´s films might be, since Heat he gets good performances out of every single actor (e.g. Colin Farrell). But that would again mean that Mendes is not such a good director.
According to Mendes himself (I think in his 25 rules) he gave the ok for every actor and is therefore one of the people to take the blame.
I remember very clearly some of the older films, e.g. TSHLM, having some terribly bad acting in it. But in those films, always the minor actors were arranged around the central characters in a complimentary way. Much like a George Stubbs painting, with the animals in the foreground incredibly accurate, and the landscape in the background on purpose a bit sloppy. What Mendes did, he gave some characters (especially Tanner and MP) foreground space but still painted them sloppily.
Another point is that SF is all about talking and not much about doing. When Q came in in FRWL and exchanged greetings with M and Bond, you knew after two words in depth how each one was thinking about each other. When Bond meets with Q in SF, they exchange a lot of banter that, even though it leads somewhere, is in the end by far shallower than it pretends to be. It seems they tried to emulate the kind of pointy dialogue at Bond and Vesper´s first meeting, but didn´t get anywhere near it.
But that might not be only the director´s fault.
1. Martin Campbell
2. John Glen
3. Terrence Young
4. Sam Mendes
5. Guy Hamilton
6. Roger Spottiswoode
7. Lewis Gilbert
8. Michael Apted
9. Lee Tamahori