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Yes I agree. But it's all in execution. It was executed brilliantly in CR. Not so in DAF. In DAF it really just felt like a cheat.
It really was the only way Bond could have escaped, and I think the filmmakers even subtly reference and acknowledge the whole deux ex machina troupe with Bond referring to Shady Tree as St. Peter i.e saved by help from the heavens. The whole execution of the sequence works for me because of the whole build up with the music score and the shots of the coffin entering the cremation chamber, the hiss and roar of the rising flames. It's also the sense of urgency in the scene that makes it exciting, Bond wouldn't have lasted another 30 seconds in the oven. A real crematorium reaches temperatures in excess of 1600 degrees rather quickly and would have burned up all his oxygen rather fast. He was basically toast. It's all very tense and terrifying at least for me and that's what makes it so memorable.
Another blatant deux ex machina is the cocaine grinder in LTK and again when Pam arrives we even get a slight ethereal moment when Dario says "You're dead" thinking he had already shot her but it could also be read as Bond is saved by Pam who appears almost angelic in her white robes, help sent from the heavens, again a blatant reference to the whole devine intervention and luck from above. If Pam didn't show up when she did Dario could have easily sent Bond into the blades with a couple of kicks to the face. You could easily say the Bond films feature some classic textbook examples of the deux ex machina plot device. That could be a whole thread in and of itself.
You are right about the urgency in the scene. But I think that in the example you bring up, whilst Pam does save Bond, there is still agency on Bond's part since he's the one pulling Dario into the grinder. In the crematorium he just waits to die.
Furthermore the scene just stands on its own better. You can get a sense of thrill and unsettled pleasure from it despite Pam coming to save the day. I just sighed after Bond got out of the coffin but I suppose that it must be someone else's cup of tea.
Which is what makes the scene so tense and almost hopeless from Bond's perspective which for me makes the scene all the more terrifying. I too sighed when Bond exits the coffin but for me it was a sigh of relief. For me the crematorium death trap is still the most terrifying of all the death traps/snake pits scenes in the franchise and a lot of that has to do with Barry's ominous and scary score for the scene and also the method of execution, being cremated alive is just so horrible a fate.
I wonder if they got the crematorium idea from the tales of the soviets filming executions of traitors, allegedly including Oleg Penkovsky, being fed alive and screaming into crematoriums to ensure loyalty to the organization. I know Gardner's novel No Deals, Mr. Bond has a brief reference to the GRU cremating agents alive who had betrayed the organization. Supposedly the KGB used to shows this "film" to all recurits. I think even the Tom Clancy novels also reference the cremated alive story. A kinda creepy real world angle to the whole idea now.
Also the whole diamond smuggling angle works with the crematory angle because supposedly diamond smugglers have indeed smuggled diamonds in bodies and recovered them after cremation. For me the whole sequence works in the context of the film. The question from me would be was Morton Slumber in on it with Wint and Kidd, providing the coffin for Bond to be cremated in? If not it makes Bond's escape even more miraculous that they where able to figure out that he was in crematorium and they decided to pull him out when they did. Also had the diamonds not been phony then they wouldn't bothered at all. For me the crematorium is and will always be my favorite and most terrifying deathtrap in the franchise but like you said it's someone else's cup of tea.
Yes, he got out of the situation using his own foresight.
I also find the picking holes in past movies because today's special effects have improved baseless. Why not pick holes in the orginal Star Wars movie before Lucas improved the flaws with his CGI updates? And if you're the kind of person that does do this then you have no understanding of the epoch of time and the history of moviemaking, and maybe it's you that needs a lesson? At least DAF's effects looked good at the time of release, unlike DAD's which were lambasted from all quarters.
But he doesn't just "wait to die." He struggles frantically to find some way out of the coffin. Fat lot of good it would have done him.
Multifaceted actor !" ;)
No idea really. I watch it regularly. It's camp and dark. Perfect balance. Colourful, spooky in parts.
The transition from pts to the eerie opening bits of the title song is my favourite part. Cat screech.
Connery is at his relaxed understated best. He's not better than his previous masterworks, just more mature. He's a Bond whose seen it all, who is nearing proper mandatory retirement age of 45.
I love the Bond Ernst banter. Ernst revels in their shared history. Bond plays along but all he wants to do is put the madman down once and for all.
This is not the best Bond film,although it kind of is IMO, as there is no film in the whole world that I enjoy more.
Barry's score can't be overstated. It does a real job of ratcheting up the suspense, and creating exciting mood.
Connery delivers some of his best lines in the series.
The first meeting with Tiffany is both Bond and Barry at their smoothest. The mood music here is perfect. Connery is droll as only he can be, yet maintains an ever present air of menace.
Actually I could rave about every scene in this film, it's that good.
Great commentary above btw regarding the crematorium scene.
Harry Saltz had a thing with playing with Bond being dead, in the early run of films
Of course, there are some things I can't stand. Tiffany's character (I wish they'd made her a lot more competent towards the end, and part of me wishes they cast Faye Dunaway instead), Lana Wood's acting makes me cringe, and I really would have liked to see the planned ending they had. NOT the one where they chase Blofeld across Lake Meade with Marko Ramius declaring "Las Vegas expects every man to do his duty" (that's a job for Moore), the one where 007 fights in the mine after Blofeld escapes.
To end, yes, DAF is a flawed film, but as I'm concerned, it's the King of the Bond Hill for me.
Femme fatale, lady of the book.
character closer to Fleming's creation, but bimbos are good too, whatever
floats your boat.
That is a good line.
Technically speaking you are right but nothing he does has agency. Shady Tree of all people wholly saves the day. In nearly all the other examples Bond has some sort of part to play in saving his skin. That's why it doesn't cut it for me. It's just a complete letdown. I see why some people can get a kick out of it but in terms of what he accomplishes he may as well done nothing and the same thing would have happened.
This is hardly unique to DAF. The first example that springs to mind is during the gypsy shootout in FRWL where Grant guns down a Bulgarian who is on the verge of killing Bond. No Bond agency at all. Grant saves Bond every bit as clearly as does Shady.
Bond had covered his flank by replacing the real diamonds with fakes.
Very good point, timmer. Bond certainly has covered many a flank in his day, some of them his own!
Well he didn't do nothing. He switched the real diamonds for fakes, and that is what saved him. He made himself indispensable.
Whereas in TWINE, for example, Bond is saved not by his own ingenuity, but by a massive inflatable suit, that then seems to be the size of a small cave.
I know which "cliffhanger" I prefer.
That's made very clear in the books .
That whole scene at crematorium with Slumber Wint Kidd and Tree is a hoot yet still drips with danger and tension.
What makes DAF work to much degree is that Sean plays dangerous calm cool foil to the eccentric characters that surround him.