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The sound of 007 - Documentary

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  • HildebrandRarityHildebrandRarity Centre international d'assistance aux personnes déplacées, Paris, France
    Posts: 482
    For the composers who only wrote one score, they mostly focused on the films that had the more memorable theme songs, such as "Nobody Does It Better" or "Live and Let Die", even if George Martin just arranged the song. They didn't really dwell on Licence to Kill (Kamen is dead and had explained that he was just doing it because the rightful composer, Barry, was too sick) or For Your Eyes Only (song not being remembered fondly these days).
    GoldenEye may be an exception, as they put some emphasis on the song itself, but didn't mention the composer of the score. It could be that the score is now regarded as an anomaly better left forgotten, before Arnold showed up to be Barry's natural successor, or that Serra may still have a beef because of some of his score being replaced.
    And we didn't have anything about Dan Romer too...
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,423
    The director of the doc said he did have Bill Conti lined up as an interviewee but there was some sort of scheduling issue and they couldn't speak to him, I forget why now.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited October 2022 Posts: 3,152
    HildebrandRarity wrote: »
    Finally, after a few weeks of repeated requests, he obliges and plays them a new bombastic theme. It works great, everybody agrees, there are echoes of his work on the Bond films, except that Barry suddenly switches for four measures to some twangy moment that pops out just like a sore thumb.
    The director voices his admiration for the sketch, except that he suggests removing the small thing that sounded more suited for a western.
    That was officially enough for him to make him leave the whole thing.
    That's hilarious, though - that kind of bloody-minded, ornery contrariness is very Yorkshire, I have to admit! If I didn't know that Barry was from here, that story alone would make me wonder. :D
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    edited October 2022 Posts: 8,217
    HildebrandRarity wrote: »
    For the composers who only wrote one score, they mostly focused on the films that had the more memorable theme songs, such as "Nobody Does It Better" or "Live and Let Die", even if George Martin just arranged the song. They didn't really dwell on Licence to Kill (Kamen is dead and had explained that he was just doing it because the rightful composer, Barry, was too sick) or For Your Eyes Only (song not being remembered fondly these days).
    GoldenEye may be an exception, as they put some emphasis on the song itself, but didn't mention the composer of the score. It could be that the score is now regarded as an anomaly better left forgotten, before Arnold showed up to be Barry's natural successor, or that Serra may still have a beef because of some of his score being replaced.
    And we didn't have anything about Dan Romer too...

    I'd buy all of this if there wasn't a focus on all of these so called anomalies during the corresponding concert (bar FYEO).
  • patbpatb
    Posts: 4,617
    the doc was a reminder to me of how important/crucial music is for movies. I'd like to see more docs on this topic, have we ever had a thread re "the best music written for a movie" ? My goodness, over ther years, we have seen some wonderful stuff
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited October 2022 Posts: 16,423
    The concert and the doc were helmed by two different people; and Arnold did clearly see spreading the love across all of the composers as part of his brief, although Conti and Kamen both left empty-handed again, whilst for some reason two of Arnold's orchestral cues, two of his songs and one of his own arrangements made the grade.. ;)
    Mat Whitecross has said there was a four-hour cut of his doco originally, so I would imagine the focus on the final cut was less on getting an even spread on every single subject and just picking out the choice and more interesting stories, as well as giving an overview.

    (I'm not seriously criticising Arnold for that by the way- he did five films, he's entitled to get a bit more love)
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,184
    patb wrote: »
    the doc was a reminder to me of how important/crucial music is for movies. I'd like to see more docs on this topic, have we ever had a thread re "the best music written for a movie" ? My goodness, over ther years, we have seen some wonderful stuff

    You can open up such a thread if you want to, @patb . 😉
    mtm wrote: »
    The concert and the doc were helmed by two different people; and Arnold did clearly see spreading the love across all of the composers as part of his brief, although Conti and Kamen both left empty-handed again, whilst for some reason two of Arnold's orchestral cues, two of his songs and one of his own arrangements made the grade.. ;)
    Mat Whitecross has said there was a four-hour cut of his doco originally, so I would imagine the focus on the final cut was less on getting an even spread on every single subject and just picking out the choice and more interesting stories, as well as giving an overview.

    (I'm not seriously criticising Arnold for that by the way- he did five films, he's entitled to get a bit more love)

    He is. Arnold is an integral part of Bond's endurance.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,553
    I definitely have a higher appreciation for Arnold after the doc and concert. Mostly the concert.
  • AgentJamesBond007AgentJamesBond007 Vesper’s grave
    Posts: 2,632
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,553
    I did notice that gunbarrel but didn't associate it with NTTD; just assumed it was a wallpaper on his computer or something.
  • Escalus5Escalus5
    edited December 2022 Posts: 628
    I don't know what to think of this documentary. It's well-paced, and I liked seeing all of the interviews with John Barry, but there are some editing decisions that I don't understand.

    For example, "Live and Let Die" was the first Bond theme to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first to reach #1 in the U.S., the only one with a hit and Grammy-nominated cover version (by Guns N' Roses), and probably one of the very few Bond themes that is instantly recognizable to people who know nothing about James Bond.

    And yet, none of that is mentioned. Instead, two people (one of them Sam Mendes) tell us that they don't like the song's reggae-influenced bridge.

    Also, the subtle trivializing of "Writing's on the Wall" is really weird. I think more time is spent lamenting about Radiohead not making the cut than the development of an Oscar-winning song that actually appears in the movie.

    As some have already noted, the omission of "For Your Eyes Only" is glaring, and the movie completely ignores "Die Another Day" while allowing interviewees to slam "All Time High."
  • MalloryMallory
    Posts: 2,165
    @Escalus5 a four hour documentary cut down to 90 mins, so some areas had to be cut out, sadly.
  • RyanRyan Canada
    Posts: 692
    Now we'll have to start dreaming for the uncut version.
  • PDJamesBondPDJamesBond
    Posts: 669
    Mallory wrote: »
    @Escalus5 a four hour documentary cut down to 90 mins, so some areas had to be cut out, sadly.

    Out of curiosity, do you mean this is something that SHOULD have been a four hour documentary, or it actually WAS a four hour documentary and got cut down? I'm sure I'm not the only one here who would have happily sat through a four hour version!
  • MalloryMallory
    Posts: 2,165
    PDJamesBond wrote: »
    Mallory wrote: »
    @Escalus5 a four hour documentary cut down to 90 mins, so some areas had to be cut out, sadly.

    Out of curiosity, do you mean this is something that SHOULD have been a four hour documentary, or it actually WAS a four hour documentary and got cut down? I'm sure I'm not the only one here who would have happily sat through a four hour version!

    So, we definitely wanted to make it visual with the graphics and give it pace, but then also once you have a three and a half hour cut and you don’t want to lose anything but you realize that it’s got to come down, you want to squeeze in more and more. The poor editors, my thing is always that I want to try and preserve at least the essence of whatever the longer cut is and they’re going, “Listen, you’re just squeezing all this information in, it’s too much.

    Interview with director Mat Whitecross:

    https://www.awardsdaily.com/2022/10/26/director-mat-whitecross-on-assembling-60-years-worth-of-bond-music-for-amazon-primes-the-sound-of-007/
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