"It's gone berserk!" ~ Diamonds are Forever appreciation

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  • Posts: 1,497
    I found an interesting, albeit very succinct analysis of Diamonds here:

    <url>http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/sep/27/favourite-bond-diamonds-are-forever</url>;

    "Here is a Bond film in which the old glamour has lost its sparkle and the resolute hero has lost his way. It's jaded, uncertain and disillusioned. It's vicious, mordant, at times blackly comic. It's oddly brilliant, the best of the bunch: the perfect bleary Bond film for an imperfect bleary western world."

    I think that sums up the film nicely.
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 1,817
    The first rule in order to appreciate DAF is not to take it as an OHMSS sequel.
    For a long time I hated this movie because of what it could have been. Recently I began to like it for what it is: a campy, fun and over-the-top Bond adventure. A little of Roger but with a light Connery. Nevertheless it has the worst Blofeld of them all, an anticlimatic ending and some of the most stupid scenes in the series (the gorilla transformation, for example).
    Currently is 20th in my ranking but the strange thing is that I tend to see it more than the ranking could suggest... a guilty pleasure with no doubt.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    Wow, great find! Thanks! Never quite thought of DAF in those terms...
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 174
    As -AgentJamesbond007- stated earlier it is great light relief after the tragedy at the end of OHMSS.
    Connery seems to be having such fun and this helps with what I see as a perfect transition from DAF to LALD, which I also rate as one of the more fun Bonds.

    The fight with Franks in the lift and the subsequent line "oh my god youve just killed James Bond" "Is that who it was?" Is one of my all time favourite scenes.
    And perhaps one of my favourite quotes. "Well, one of us smells like a tart's handkerchief. I'm afraid it's me. Sorry, old boy." I laugh everytime I hear it. Connery really puts on his most over the top Scottish accents for that line!

    DAF has to be the movie that has grown on me the most out of all the Bonds. If you asked me where I would rate it 10 years ago it would have been near the bottom, Now tho it is in my top 8. what a difference a few years make.
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 11,189
    Saw a bit of DAF this morning on the movie channel. While it's still not one of my favourite I do like some of the early scenes (even if I can't take Blofelds guards seriously after watching Austin Powers). The film has character and some really good lines - but I still feel the second half drags it down somewhat (for me). The moonbuggy chase and oil rig climax feel distinctly...meh sadly.

    Highlight of the climax though:

    "Put it back Mr Bond...immediately"
  • @Bain
    I have always enjoyed the moon buggy chase for some reason. Find it kinda funny which I think fits with the overall fun theme of the movie.
    The oil rig climax however is as you say...meh.



  • Posts: 1,497
    DN climax: Just a bunch of henchmen in suits running around in a panic. Dr. No himself is dispatched in a pretty lackluster fashion.
    FRWL climax: Red Grant fight: amazing! Not much more of a finale after that, just chase scenes
    GF: Pretty good: Odd Job fight, the countdown part though is similar to DAF, plus the sleeping soldier part is cheesy.
    TB: Merely a fistfight on a boat, Largo is harpooned! Whoop-di-do. Underwate sequence prior is open to debate.
    YOLT: The scale and scope is incredible, but Blofeld just sort of gets away rather unspectacularly
    OHMSS: THE BEST FINALE OF THE SERIES - True, DAF can't hold a candle to it.
    LALD: More of the usual henchmen in a laire with a ridiculous end to the villian
    TMWTGG: I don't even need to tell you how lacklustre that is
    TSWLM: the re-used ticking bomb finale, same old, same old
    MR: A 'different' ending I'll give it that, but amounts to little more than faceless astronauts firing fake looking laser guns at each other and a giant falling in love with Ms. Pigtails
    FYEO: Very underwhelming: Some fisticuffs with Kriegler, someone gets knifed, and some "let's play hot potato with the ATAC" shenanigans
    OP: ...another ticking bomb finale
    AVTAK: Villain murdering his crew in cold blood, followed by some ax wielding atop a blimp, decent, not too shabby actually.

    I could go on here. But the point is DAF's ending compared to a lot of others in the series isn't all half bad.
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 7,653
    Having read both DAF & the Diamond smugglers by Ian Fleming the movie kind of dissapointed me, that said it has Sean Connery (albeit with a pink tie) but the movie has it great moments ( a shedload more than QoB) and as such can be argued to be a decent installment.
    The one failing of this movie is the absence of Lazenby in a decent sequel to OHMSS. But still Connery is great too.
  • @
    JBFan626 wrote:
    DN climax: Just a bunch of henchmen in suits running around in a panic. Dr. No himself is dispatched in a pretty lackluster fashion.
    FRWL climax: Red Grant fight: amazing! Not much more of a finale after that, just chase scenes
    GF: Pretty good: Odd Job fight, the countdown part though is similar to DAF, plus the sleeping soldier part is cheesy.
    TB: Merely a fistfight on a boat, Largo is harpooned! Whoop-di-do. Underwate sequence prior is open to debate.
    YOLT: The scale and scope is incredible, but Blofeld just sort of gets away rather unspectacularly
    OHMSS: THE BEST FINALE OF THE SERIES - True, DAF can't hold a candle to it.
    LALD: More of the usual henchmen in a laire with a ridiculous end to the villian
    TMWTGG: I don't even need to tell you how lacklustre that is
    TSWLM: the re-used ticking bomb finale, same old, same old
    MR: A 'different' ending I'll give it that, but amounts to little more than faceless astronauts firing fake looking laser guns at each other and a giant falling in love with Ms. Pigtails
    FYEO: Very underwhelming: Some fisticuffs with Kriegler, someone gets knifed, and some "let's play hot potato with the ATAC" shenanigans
    OP: ...another ticking bomb finale
    AVTAK: Villain murdering his crew in cold blood, followed by some ax wielding atop a blimp, decent, not too shabby actually.

    I could go on here. But the point is DAF's ending compared to a lot of others in the series isn't all half bad.

    Can't argue with that.
    To be honest I don't really care for the endings in most Bonds, With the exception of OHMSS.
    Its more about the dialogue and the interaction between the characters for me rather than the end battle.
  • Once getting over the disappointment of not seeing OHMSS 2, I find DAF to be one of the more enjoyable and watchable of the Connery Bonds, definitely more so than YOLT. Connery is clearly having a good time and it tries nothing more than to be an entertaining film and it succeeds. I also love the relationship between Bond and Blofeld, sure it's inappropriate considering the events of the last film, but I like the familiarity they have with each other, very well done!

    The big problem I have with it however is that it is the start of what I call the 'lacklustre trilogy' which had quite a lot of lacklustre action sequences, they weren't all bad but many stand out as bad. Although worse was to come, it started in DAF with the moon buggy sequence which is IMO pretty dull, drawn-out and unexciting and the same goes for the finale. This trend of long, bland action sequences (which often suffered from a lack of a John Barry score) continued in to LALD and peaked with TMWTGG.

    But still, very entertaining, great performances, great score and a strong Connery performance, still a classic, albeit a lesser classic :)
  • It's the worst of the Connery lot, although Goldfinger may just be up there with it, but if viewing anytime, the highlights would include the lovely Jill St John, Wint and Kidd, and some decent action bits and pieces here and there. No fan of Bassey's music, but it could be her best of the three. For all that ensues, the final few minutes on the ship make it almost worth sitting through all that came before it. Wood's O Toole character could well be one of the most irritating characters in the history of Bond, even though it was a nasty demise she met, and of course there was almost a real life tragedy when shooting the sequence. I wish we had seen more of Amsterdam during screen time but the Franks elevator fight is actually one of the best of the entire franchise. But Connery was evidently past it and inappropriate for the part of 007 by now
  • Posts: 1,009
    DAF was the Bond film that really hooked me to the series, and as such, it will be always a top 10 of my list. Until I was about 15 years old and not familiar with them, I thought Bond films before Brosnan were serious, and then, inavertedly, I found out this and it got me laughing for all of the movie! I wasn't aware then that I was watching the definitive Bond Parody. Austin Powers? Flint? Johnny English? Leslie Nielsen? Who are those guys? Only James Bond can properly parody James Bond!

    This film is a funny 70s romp that borders on the bizarro, and I guess this was deliberate after the (kind of) seriousness of the film that is inmediately above this one in my list: OHMMS (now, that's a film that grows on you. Since watching it from the first time, it passed from the bottom of my list to the top-5 in two additional viewings). Its comedic value is priceless. Connery looks sure and funny here, a departure from that machine-like performance on YOLT. Jill St. John starts good and screws it in the end; Charles Gray (I prefer to think he's not Blofeld) is one of the funniest villains of the series; Glover and Smith are AWESOME as Wint and Kidd.

    Another highlight is John Barry's score, my favorite one by him: jazzy, bouncy and at times as over the top as the film itself. Man, "Q's Trick" is awesome!

    The main problem here are the action scenes. The fights are quite good, but the chases and the oil rig attack are dull, and as Calvin Dyson put it in his review, the latter makes one think of strangling that salt mine owner who denied shooting the REAL climax in his property. Not to mention the god-awful *so-called* FX. I've seen better ones on silent cinema, for Méliès's sake!
    I don't buy that Connery's salary drained the budget: that satellite scene, the explosions in the missile bases... I can't call it "budget restraints", I call it "lazyness"!

    But these flaws do not spoil the film for me. On the contrary, they add to its geeky charm. If I have to got personal, this would be my second Connery favorite after GF.
  • XXXXXX Banned
    Posts: 132
    DAF was the Bond film that really hooked me to the series, and as such, it will be always a top 10 of my list. Until I was about 15 years old and not familiar with them, I thought Bond films before Brosnan were serious, and then, inavertedly, I found out this and it got me laughing for all of the movie! I wasn't aware then that I was watching the definitive Bond Parody. Austin Powers? Flint? Johnny English? Leslie Nielsen? Who are those guys? Only James Bond can properly parody James Bond!

    This film is a funny 70s romp that borders on the bizarro, and I guess this was deliberate after the (kind of) seriousness of the film that is inmediately above this one in my list: OHMMS (now, that's a film that grows on you. Since watching it from the first time, it passed from the bottom of my list to the top-5 in two additional viewings). Its comedic value is priceless. Connery looks sure and funny here, a departure from that machine-like performance on YOLT. Jill St. John starts good and screws it in the end; Charles Gray (I prefer to think he's not Blofeld) is one of the funniest villains of the series; Glover and Smith are AWESOME as Wint and Kidd.

    Another highlight is John Barry's score, my favorite one by him: jazzy, bouncy and at times as over the top as the film itself. Man, "Q's Trick" is awesome!

    The main problem here are the action scenes. The fights are quite good, but the chases and the oil rig attack are dull, and as Calvin Dyson put it in his review, the latter makes one think of strangling that salt mine owner who denied shooting the REAL climax in his property. Not to mention the god-awful *so-called* FX. I've seen better ones on silent cinema, for Méliès's sake!
    I don't buy that Connery's salary drained the budget: that satellite scene, the explosions in the missile bases... I can't call it "budget restraints", I call it "lazyness"!

    But these flaws do not spoil the film for me. On the contrary, they add to its geeky charm. If I have to got personal, this would be my second Connery favorite after GF.
    Film has lots of potential but a lass, no Petey Hunt. not in front of cameria, behind camera, or editing. first.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Recently rewatched DAF for the first time in ages and I have to say, it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The Guardian blog posted by @JBFan626 really sums it up very well.

    The whole film is quite seedy and unpleasant. Many of the locations are about as unglamarous as you can get - Dover, Holland, petrol station forecourts, Vegas gaming floors, a funeral parlour and an oil rig. It all reeks of decline and Connery's gone-to-seed devil may care attitude, while not exactly appealing, does seem to actually suit the film quite well. The girls all look like hookers (and probably are) and any sense of the excitement and glamour has gone. This is a sordid Bond, doing sordid work in one of the most sordid places on earth - Vegas.

    It's very far from vintage Bond, but despite all this, I don't think it's a 'bad' film. It has a strange period appeal and all in all actually works quite well. Connery's Bond seems like a man out of time here - a relic, nearing the end of the road.

    Not 'enjoyable' exactly, but interesting in a good way.
  • Posts: 11,189
    A 'strange period appeal' = dodgy 70s parody.
  • Posts: 11,189
    Parts of the first half aren't that bad but the film to me just feels like its on autopilot most of the time. I couldn't care less about most of the characters or the story.
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 11,425
    I understand where your coming from.

    It's just that I've suddently seen it in a new light. This whole end of the 60s, start of the 70s come-down thing. And it's all so rancid and far removed from those early movies, where everything's so cool. It is actually quite brilliant in the way it responds to and reflects Connery's altered state. It's not trying to recapture the golden days of the early films. It's just unashamedly sordid and sort of repugnant.

    I have to say, seen in this new light, I have new found appreciation for it.

    And it really does feel like the transition movie between Sean and Rog as well. You could have seen Rog in it as well, but Sean's overweight and aged appearance just suits it so well.

    Of course, I'd have loved to have seen a Lazneby revenge movie after OHMSS, and it could well have been a better film. All I'm saying is that DAF as made has qualities that I had not fully appreciated before.

    I also think it sort of explodes that idea that Mendes peddles, about SF being the first film to address the passing of time and the characters ageing. I do actually think DAF does this - may be not a directly as SF (no need for clunking pointers from Turner or Tennyson) but in a more subtle and nuanced way.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited October 2014 Posts: 15,718
    I always thought that DAF didn't know in what decade it was meant to be set in. There's not enough elements of the 60's and 70's to bound it to either decades. Connery is definatly better than in YOLT but still no where near his DN-TB streak. It was the start of the dodgy way to film action sequences that would plague the franchise until Dalton arrived. It was the first full blown comedic Bond film, but wasn't to the level of the Moore era. Barry gave his best, so did Bassey, but the look of the movie felt bland to me. Shame, because I really liked Las Vegas as a location.
  • Movie aside, am I the only one who thinks "Diamonds are Forever" is the best film title in the series so far?
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 7,507
    Getafix wrote: »
    This whole end of the 60s, start of the 70s come-down thing. And it's all so rancid and far removed from those early movies, where everything's so cool. It is actually quite brilliant in the way it responds to and reflects Connery's altered state. It's not trying to recapture the golden days of the early films. It's just unashamedly sordid and sort of repugnant.

    I also think it sort of explodes that idea that Mendes peddles, about SF being the first film to address the passing of time and the characters ageing. I do actually think DAF does this - may be not a directly as SF (no need for clunking pointers from Turner or Tennyson) but in a more subtle and nuanced way.

    If that's the case, I sincerely doubt it was an intended move from the filmmakers. On the contrary DAF seems like a very obvious attempt to replicate Goldfinger's cool, extravagant smart fun, what the nostalgic fans wanted... and a complete failure at that... Although sordid by todays standards, Vegas was considered glamorous in the early 70s. The laser satelite was an attempt at an epic plot devise, the underwhelming oil rig being a product of lazyness if anything. Ken Adam does his best to to provide elegant sets, Barry provides a "classic" score and so on... The film feels tired and sordid because it was made on tired and sordid premises, not as an effort of thematical symbolism. "Nuanced" is definitely not the word to describe it...

    ...but since this is an appreciation thread... I might add that I enjoy some of the humour in the film. Those jokes and lines that are tasteful and clever that is, not the embarrasing farce. I can't find more positives than that though... Oh well, the elevator fight is decent I guess...
  • Posts: 11,189
    I actually think Charles Grey probably gives the best overall performance in the film. His character is obviously nothing like the original Blofeld, but he seems to be having the most fun.
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 7,507
    I might have been able to appreciate Grey's performance more if it wasn't for that tragic moment when he... X_X ~X( :-& well, you know what I'm talking about...
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,718
    I thought everyone agreed the best perfomance in DAF was the COUNTdown guy at the end :(
  • Posts: 11,189
    "Well well well...look what the cat dragged in"

    Yeah that's pretty bad, but I do like Grey's response when Bond Connery ejects the tape:

    "Put it back Mr Bond...immediately"
  • Posts: 11,425
    jobo wrote: »
    Getafix wrote: »
    This whole end of the 60s, start of the 70s come-down thing. And it's all so rancid and far removed from those early movies, where everything's so cool. It is actually quite brilliant in the way it responds to and reflects Connery's altered state. It's not trying to recapture the golden days of the early films. It's just unashamedly sordid and sort of repugnant.

    I also think it sort of explodes that idea that Mendes peddles, about SF being the first film to address the passing of time and the characters ageing. I do actually think DAF does this - may be not a directly as SF (no need for clunking pointers from Turner or Tennyson) but in a more subtle and nuanced way.

    If that's the case, I sincerely doubt it was an intended move from the filmmakers. On the contrary DAF seems like a very obvious attempt to replicate Goldfinger's cool, extravagant smart fun, what the nostalgic fans wanted... and a complete failure at that... Although sordid by todays standards, Vegas was considered glamorous in the early 70s. The laser satelite was an attempt at an epic plot devise, the underwhelming oil rig being a product of lazyness if anything. Ken Adam does his best to to provide elegant sets, Barry provides a "classic" score and so on... The film feels tired and sordid because it was made on tired and sordid premises, not as an effort of thematical symbolism. "Nuanced" is definitely not the word to describe it...

    ...but since this is an appreciation thread... I might add that I enjoy some of the humour in the film. Those jokes and lines that are tasteful and clever that is, not the embarrasing farce. I can't find more positives than that though... Oh well, the elevator fight is decent I guess...

    Would have been better with Telly
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Wint and Kidd-the only henchmen who could have carried their own film.

    Something for Tarantino to explore.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    I just love the cat screaming at the beginning of the song... =D>
  • I love DAF. The only thing keeping it out of my top 10 is the rather lackluster climax. By far the wittiest Bond movie, the funniest, and Connery is better here than he was in YOLT.

    I rank it around the middle, which, if you know me, means I think quite a lot of it. Interested to see where it ends up after this Bondathon. Probably around 13 or so.
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 11,425
    It's an odd movie, in a good way. Not a classic, but I am much more positive about it after my recent viewing than I used to be. Misunderstood I think. And a really nice transition between the Connery and Moore eras.
  • Last_Rat_StandingLast_Rat_Standing Long Neck Ice Cold Beer Never Broke My Heart
    Posts: 4,589
    I have it ranked as my second favourite Connery film and 7th overall.
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