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That's my ranking too.
Me: “Lazenby was the worst Bond”
Lazenby: “The college will require concrete proofs.”
Serra's score I think is and always will be polarizing and divisive among Bond fans. I'm a big fan, in the context of the film.
That was always one of my favorite tracks as well. The piano was really nice there. Helped add to the mood of Alec's tragedy and just the broken relationship between him and Bond at that point.
Makeshift; Lazenby is the worst Bond
Lazenby; This never happened to those other fellows
Wait, WHAT??? I don't hate it, but Serra was capable of a truer Bond score. But "you'd lose the soul of that film"???? Wow. I guess your final take is that the film sucked, like all of Brosnans', but the Serra score gave it its soul (That his other films did not have).
"I feel the hate, give in to it and we can end this destructive Brosnan fan base and bring order to the MI6 fan site!"
^:)^
What wait? I've read a lot of comments from various people ready to move on from Craig, many blaming him for how NTTD turned out and wanting to return to a more traditional Bond.
I won't be joining in as Craig was what a stagnant series needed and explored areas the producers only half-heartedly pursued previously. I was also not one of the fans singing Brosnan's praises back then, either while others were echoing "Best Bond since Connery." He was fine and the right choice at the time, but the whole composite Bond approach was just a jack of all trades and master of none that just felt like a place-holder for something more, which Craig fulfilled.
In my informal rankings, they all are. TWINE is rock bottom, although AVTAK is hovering just above it.
I’m just saying, if David Arnold had scored GE, that would be the equivalent of taking a healthy and good mannered dog out to the yard and shooting it in the head like Alec Trevelyan in the PTS but with live rounds.
While I don't rank SF anywhere near the bottom 3, I think we are closer to having similar feelings toward it.
Since then I’ve mellowed out, and aside from TMWTGG and AVTAK, I enjoy Moore’s films a lot more these days. My enjoyment of MR hasn’t changed. It’s nearly perfect British pantomime only on the big screen.
This is yet another example of why it's fun to be a fan of this franchise. You can go back and forth and there's so much to enjoy, discover and rediscover or even reevaluate. I can enjoy FRWL or CR as much as MR. I still occasionally see the comments on other sites where people say there is no other Bond but Connery and all that and makes me wonder if they've actually given the others a fair shot. The late critic Gene Siskel was one of those.
Tomorrow Never Dies and GoldenEye tend to move in the 1-3 range for me along with Skyfall. I know Die Another Day is objectively a bad movie, but I can't help but enjoy it.
As I said on the controversial opinions about other movies thread, Gene Siskel wasn’t a great film critic. It wasn’t just Bond that he did that “gold standard” basis with. He had a funny way of thinking. Ironically, he gave TND a glowing review.
I used to read a critic for my local newspaper. Just before CR came out, he wrote an article about remakes and sequels, one of his remarks was that Connery was the only worthy star as Bond. Shortly after CR came out, he touted Craig as the only Bond actor after Connery worth looking into. In fact, I’ve seen that sentiment from a lot of other people, especially those proclaiming Craig as “best since Connery”. My dad grew up on the Connery films, but he didn’t care for any of the other actors to keep up with the films. But once Craig was in the role, he was interested in seeing his flicks with me and my mom (who LOVES Craig as Bond). Sadly, my dad passed away a month before NTTD came out. It’s too bad, because that was actually the only movie he was interested in returning for the movies since COVID. But, oh well. It just reminds me that I’ll never see every Bond film ever made because I’m positive it’ll keep going well after my time.
I don't think Arnold would have worked for GE, or at least not the way I see it. Neither could Barry have worked for this film, in my opinion. GE attempts a darker tone. It plays more like a thriller than an adventure Bond. Even some of the action scenes are rather cold and brutal (such as Bond mowing down hordes of Russian troopers in the prison.) People meet very business-like in dark, underlit rooms. There's a strong focus on hi-tech computer stuff, but in a way that threatens the world, not like Paul Walker sci-fi-ing up his too-cool-for-you superhero car driving in 2 Fast 2 Furious (for which Arnold wrote an upbeat techno score.)
Serra may not have pushed our Bondian buttons in any way, but his sound effects and corny electronics do set the mood for this film for me. Dark, thunderous sounds play in the background when the danger bar is raised, something Arnold probably wouldn't have done. (Of course, I can't say for sure.) The much-hated pimpy car chase music brings a playfulness to that scene that I've always enjoyed. His strings get really close to Barry at the casino. I love the menacing vibes of his 'Dish Out Of water' cue. The score may be far from an excellent stand-alone listening experience to most, but at least it works in this movie for me.
Seeing where Barry was at back then, with The Specialist and Mercury Rising, I have no doubt that he could have scored this film well. Same with Arnold. The problem for me is not so much the excellent music these two composers would no doubt have written, but that their music would have turned GE into an altogether completely different experience. Something would have been lost. Now it's an at times fairly bleak and metallic film with a score that subsists on what feels like leftovers from Serra's Léon score. But somehow, amidst the crazy, Barry-to-the-power-minus-one score, lies a tonal intention that I appreciate. It made GE feel very "real" and "modern" and "updated" in many ways back in '95. What made me turn against TND during initial viewings was that that film, despite moments of absolute brilliance, felt like a happier, less credible, more wannabe-Bond than Bond, if you know what I mean. Arnold's score, which I absolutely love, is part of that, and that's what confuses me.
TND has since grown on me. But GE hasn't lost any of its charms. Music is always an integral part of how I experience film. So I can't diss Serra's work because I love GE. The film is still top-3 Bond for me. I love every aspect of this film because otherwise, it simply wouldn't make my top-3, where it now stands with CR and OHMSS. There's beauty in its ugliness... if that makes sense.
I’ve never thought of it this way…I have a feeling my next viewing of GoldenEye will be very different now.
One track I’ve never understood is Ladies First. I remember seeing a comment that it sounds like something you’d hear out of an 80’s or 90’s adult movie lol!
Yeah it's definitely a misstep.