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I first heard the MR theme and some other parts of the score when John Barry played them for me on his livingroom piano before the film or the soundtrack had been released! I challenge anyone on this thread to beat that for OMG coolness! TBH I still can't believe it myself all these years later. It seems like a lovely dream now. But all I have to do is look at my personally signed Goldfinger LP to reassure myself that, yes, it really did happen!
Shortly before I wound up working professionally with many of the Bond team -- both onscreen and offscreen talent -- I was invited by Cubby Broccoli to see a private pre-release screening of TSWLM at MGM studios with Richard Kiel and Jane Seymour in attendance!
But that was just the warm-up to making an action film (unfortunately, not a great one) with... Maurice Binder, Michael Reed, the whole 007 stunt team, Christopher Lee and Michael Lonsdale! In fact, Michael accepted the role of Drax because of strong advice from me! (Absolutely true -- my signed screenplay of MR bears this inscription from Michael: "You told me to play the part, did not you?") Oh, and Roger Moore just happened to be making a film at the same studio in France where we were shooting & I was able to visit with him as well. (Jealous yet? 😉)
Then, following the completed production of MR, I hosted Lonsdale in Los Angeles when he flew there for the L.A. premiere screening -- which I attended as his guest, as well going to the after-party at the classic long-gone Chasen's Restaurant where Lewis Gilbert, Ken Adam, Roger & many others were also in attendance. And, as if that wasn't amazing enough, I became the tour-guide for Lonsdale, Blanche Revalec, and Corinne Clery for a whole day at Disneyland!
Now, if that isn't a lifelong Bond fan's wet dream I don't know what is! (Well, except for actually being in or working on a Bond film, of course.)
I can imagine Fleming's detail of the dogs and the forest foliage and all that to make it that much more descriptive and effective. It makes me want to go back to look at that passage in Wood's novelization.
What also adds to that scene is just before we get the amusement of Bond gunning down a potential assassin with a perfect Moore smirk and line delivery, which makes it that much darker. Then there's a great segue to the chime or bell in Venice, almost like a death knell.
Given it's Moonraker, so I'm not surprised, but a missed opportunity could've been for Bond to learn from Holly about Corrine's fate, knowing he was responsible, and using that as extra motivation for revenge on Chang during his fight to the finish with him.
All of that said, I do understand why some don't like it. The OTT moments (even by Bond standards) are really out there (gondola hover boat and Jaws love subplot primarily).
To make it a much better Bond film would probably mean excising both the Venice boat chase (and did we need two boat chases?) and the cable car fight. The first lifts out of the movie seamlessly but the second presents problems because it introduces Dolly and the kidnapping of Holly.
Holly and Dolly...never realized that before.
Never seen that picture before? Very cool!! :-bd
Yeah I agree, that’s quite an upsetting scene for a kid to watch: you’ve got two goodies (as Jaws is at that point) sitting down and accepting their imminent deaths!
I remember as a kid even missing the line Bond has about “don’t worry, they’ll make it”: I thought they definitely died!
- The first quarter of the film is a competition between Bond and Drax - one of the funniest main villains in the series - to be the most chichi and stuck-up dude in this God-forsaken planet. I don't know if it's just me, but in this film Rog played Bond at his most pompous and downright rude in contrast to his excellent performance on TSWLM: the way he speaks to Goodhead or the way he hisses to that poor hotel clerk in Rio... And Lonsdale was the same, but using apocriphal quotes and rethorical figures, but you'd expect it from a villain in such a crazy movie, not from 007 himself.
- I give Lois Chiles more credit than all main Bond girls in this series since Diana Rigg. I kinda like Holly Goodhead despite being just an American Anya. Problem is that she's just as boring as her Soviet colleague. But having the patience to put up with this movie's Bond... Saint, this woman is a saint.
- Over time, the parachuting scene turns out to be more spectacular than the space battle itself: it's pure cinematic adrenaline.
- OK, this flick is so funny ha-ha, but has some nightmarish scenes: the centrifugue, Corinne's death, or Jaws harrassing Manuela on that creepy costume. At least the centrifugue (Cheng's hilarious, puppy-like expression of utter dissapontment when Bond saves himself from certain doom) and the carnival (I just love how Jaws goes all like "well, if you can't beat 'em...").
Wow, you had to have been so sad, because the US guys even specifically state that they have indeed rescued Jaws and Dolly. :-bd
Two scenes immediately come mind:
- The remarks towards Anya in the van when they get attacked by Jaws takes every tension out of the scene: "Women drivers"
- The smirk he has when they are lowered down to the sub is totally inappropriate given he admitted killing her boyfriend in the previous scene.
I think his relationship with Holly is much better. It starts off in the same fashion, but it evolves in such a way that Bond is ultimately impressed by her towards the end of the film.
Good points about TSWLM! I also dislike the one-upmanship scene when they are viewing the slides with M and Gogol, I find Bond a bit snarky here and i hate M comment "Well done James!" , it seems out of character with his relationship with Bond. I think a shot if M having a wry smile would have worked better!
These are very good points indeed, but, to be fair, never noticed them. Which goes to show how differently can viewers watch two films despite having basically the same basic story (I know I'm saying something obvious, but... Let's say I'm in several fanbases).
Anyway, do we agree that Rog plays a much nicer Bond from FYEO onwards? Or it's just an impression of mine?
That is fair to say. I thought Moore s Bond was extremely unpleasant and unlikable in both LALD and TSWLM, in many scenes.
Guy Hamilton's version of Bond is noticeably more unpleasant. He's quite a prick in TMWTGG generally, and I think if anyone but Roger had played him the audience might not have even liked him! :)
There are three subtly different Roger Bonds really, depending on who is directing the film, and they sort of sequentially go up the scale of cuddliness; with Glen's RogerBond being the nicest.
Lewis Gilbert's balance of making him an endearing bastard is probably my favourite of the three though :)
Oh, yes: I just said that Moore's Bond is uncouth on Gilbert's movies. On Hamilton's ones he's an utter bastard: we can even notice how unconfortable Rog looks while hitting Maud on TMWTGG, like saying to himself, "gee, Roger it's just make believe, but still...". It was when Sean's shadow still loomed high over his friend Rog and the filmmakers tried too hard to put Connery traits on Moore's 007.
I think you're right. He's a lot more likeable in his later outings. Given that it's Rog, the most unbelievable yet also the most likeable of Bonds, I think I prefer him that way.
Hamilton's Bond films do indeed tend to portray a bit of a ruder Bond persona. It sits weird with Moore, but it was no different for his Connery outings. For me, Connery's 007 is less likeable in GF/DAF than in DN/FRWL/TB. Might indeed be the director's take on the character.
I guess yes and no: I think he's a real dick to pretty much everyone in Dr No, really sullen and rude; as well as being a bit rubbish (he gets Quarrel killed) and a bit of a psycho (he kills that guard in the river for no reason whatsoever). I recently watched DN again and I was a bit surprised that the character was such a hit because I thought he's pretty unlikable in it: I think Connery's sexiness and sophistication is what people were responding to. The improvement to the characterisation of Bond is one of FRWL's real highlights I think.
I've not really considered him being different in, say GF to TB. I'll have to have a ponder on that. I think it's maybe not as stark a difference that we get between TMWTGG and TSWLM.
- Bond’s mini-camera makes me want to say "Three more clicks and Mr. Drax will hit the canvas". Even the 007 font looks like the one on Goldfinger's bomb counter.
- I never noticed the man playing the first three notes of Also Sprach Zarathustra on the hunting horn. Now I want me some Eumir Deodato.
- The Bondola. Yes, another masterpiece from John Glen: such a funny scene, full of throwaway gags. I even love the double-take pigeon. In my case the thing that rubs me the wrong way is the absolutely faked expression of surprise on that sailor on St. Mark's Square. It's so exxagerated even given the circumstances... :-O
- Drax ridiculing Bond, M and Sir Freddie in their gas masks is one of these little awesome Bond moments that make every single film of this series worthy (I'm counting the two unofficial flicks here, too). The facial expressions of Moore, Lee, Gray and Lonsdale really sell it.
- Ahhhh, poor Manuela. The protagonist of the very only Bond scene that makes me crap my pants. That said, she tries to put a brave face: I would be running away and to hell with the mission. Heroes are for tombstones, baby!