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The Bond That Defined Each Decade
chrisisall
Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
For each decade, name the Bond you feel defines it (and why if you wish to).
Obviously the 2010's are out as we only have SF so far.
And try to avoid simply picking your favourite. Some Bonds seem rather timeless; I'm interested in your takes on Bonds that feel heavily connected to the times in which they were made.
60's- OHMSS
The movie just practically screams 'Groovy' for me with its pastel posh playfulness. Free love AND romance abound. The hypnosis scene seem designed for audience members who might be high or tripping. But it came down hard...
70's- TSWLM
Hamlish's use of a disco beat cemented this as my Seventies pick. The 70's started small but ended big as if to celebrate the end of the war or something. And TSWLM was BIG.
80's- LTK
The Eighties was THE action era, and LTK pulled no punches in that department. I almost chose OP due to its glitzy early 80's excess, but LTK was undeniably part of that Die Hard/Lethal Weapon/Miami Vice mentality that I associate so much with the era.
90's- GE
Bond was back, he was bad, he wasn't black but he was mad.
And if we'd learned anything from Arnold, it was to keep that finger pressed on the automatic weapon's trigger for dear celluloid life!
2000's- CR
It's all there, the betrayal, the loss, the starting over. The perfect post 9-11 Bond.
What are your choices?
Obviously the 2010's are out as we only have SF so far.
And try to avoid simply picking your favourite. Some Bonds seem rather timeless; I'm interested in your takes on Bonds that feel heavily connected to the times in which they were made.
60's- OHMSS
The movie just practically screams 'Groovy' for me with its pastel posh playfulness. Free love AND romance abound. The hypnosis scene seem designed for audience members who might be high or tripping. But it came down hard...
70's- TSWLM
Hamlish's use of a disco beat cemented this as my Seventies pick. The 70's started small but ended big as if to celebrate the end of the war or something. And TSWLM was BIG.
80's- LTK
The Eighties was THE action era, and LTK pulled no punches in that department. I almost chose OP due to its glitzy early 80's excess, but LTK was undeniably part of that Die Hard/Lethal Weapon/Miami Vice mentality that I associate so much with the era.
90's- GE
Bond was back, he was bad, he wasn't black but he was mad.
And if we'd learned anything from Arnold, it was to keep that finger pressed on the automatic weapon's trigger for dear celluloid life!
2000's- CR
It's all there, the betrayal, the loss, the starting over. The perfect post 9-11 Bond.
What are your choices?
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Comments
70s. MR not my favourite either, but it represents the goofyness and sillyness of a decade I love. The pinnacle if you wish of what that era represented.
80s. TLD a new Bond very fitting for the age, pc endorsement of anything anti-Soviet including throat-slitting islamists as long as they are against the crumbling commie Empire, a harder edge veering away from the ludicrous and wonderful 70s and Moore era, if you like. I love Dalton, in case you think otherwise.
90s, GE yet a new Bond with metropolitan hairdo and soft feminine voice representing the decline of the macho man and introduction of values according to the EU who became a power to take seriously leading up to the new century. I do not love this, in case you wonder.
.
00s. QOS. Now we are back to realpolitik, and questions about who rules the (western ) world, natural resources and conspiracy theories a la the internet come into play.
Good thread idea, Chris. Looking forward to what others have to say.
Y'know, I was going to pick that one for those reasons, but my actual memory of that time is limited due to my lack of years back then...
Or lack of braincells depending on how old you actually are. Kidding, how old are you exactly? I am guessing 54.
60s: OHMSS: It's a psychedelic freak out! Everybody pull down your pants! Or as the hippie protestors use to say "Down with SPECTRE! Up with mini-skirts!"
70s: LALD: Racial words and Blaxploitation were far out back then baby.
80s: AVTAK: Dude, you need only to listen to or watch a Duran Duran video and look at Grace Jones' crazy hair to see what the 80s were like.
90s: GE, Political correctness. Can't call anyone a honky or harass females at work anymore. Or wear mini-skirts at work
00s: CR: Terrorism (playing the market and funding thereof). And Texas Hold 'em was the in thing a few years ago. Made playing draw poker in Houston look lame.
10s: SF: because it was the only Bond film released so far this decade.
2279: MR
2602: DAD
70s: The Spy Who Loved Me - groovy music mostly does it for me. The soundtrack, clothing, and environments just scream 70s to me.
80s: For Your Eyes Only - feels the most like an 80s film to me; FYEO the song is so 80s, and the style of it overall just feels like it to me.
90s: GoldenEye - very 90s-esque between the music and clothing and politics. A lot more 90s-feeling than the other Broz films to me.
2000s: Casino Royale & Quantum of Solace - sorry can't pick one; they both define the age of terrorism and economic collapse well to me (just the feel of some of it). Also makes use of its technology well.
In the middle we had assassinations & Star Trek, and by the end the Hippie movement. Many Bonds to pick from there. Thunderfinger's pick of TB may be a good middle ground...
'70s: Live and Let Die- I suppose this one has the biggest '70s feel to it; blame it on the whole black focus, but for whatever reason, it just does. The soundtrack certainly has a good bit to do with it, I'd wager to say. Also, LALD began the Roger Moore era, which would round out the 1970's from '73 to '79. Technically, this direction was already instituted in DAF, but with Connery, you feel a sort of '60s hold over, rather than a '70s debut.
'80s: License to Kill- Once again, it comes down to a "feel"; there's the whole dark, action-oriented atmosphere that reflects many other '80s movies that came prior to Bond's 1989 outing.
'90s: Tomorrow Never Dies- I'd love to say GE, but frankly, TND exemplifies the '90s a little bit more directly, what with the focus on explosions, gunfire, gadgets, and grand spectacle.
'00s: Casino Royale- the reboot theme was really taking the movie industry by force in the early to mid 2000's, and 007 was no exception. However much CR was influenced by the Bourne movies, it still lit up the path for the direction of the remainder of the decade.
70's: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME - Everything from Bond's more sleek, casual attitude, to the disco infused score, costuming, and feel about this film screams 70s.
80's: OCTOPUSSY - The Cold War was reaching it's apex, and the ever growing threat of total nuclear annihilation was stronger than ever - and i think this is perfectly reflected in the final scenes of this movie, with Bond trying to stop a nuke from exploding on a US airbase in East Germany.
90's: GOLDENEYE - It's the film that brought Bond back to life from his 6 year coma, and it helped reinvigorate a franchise that many assumed was on it's last legs during the Dalton years. It was a film that also made popular a little videogame that redefined how games were made, especially the FPS... but as a film itself, it stands arguably as the most noteworthy Bond film of it's time, and all of the Brosnan films since lived in it's shadow.
2000's: CASINO ROYALE - What Goldeneye did for Bond in 90s, Casino Royale did for Bond in the 21st century... The world was changing, and the timing seemed right to introduce a Bond that would reflect that time and place.
60's - Difficult choice but I ended up going with You Only Live Twice. I think that it best represents the fear at the time of the Cold War turning very hot, with World War III breaking out between the United States and the Soviet Union. Also, for better or worse, the image of Donald Pleasence's Blofeld became absolutely iconic and is the definitive version of the character to the general public. Especially after Mike Myers put his spin on it.
70's- Live And Let Die. It was hard to ignore Spy's disco beats and Moonraker's Star Wars influence (cha-ching!) but if there was ever one film that screamed "70's" to me it's LALD. All of the 70's Bond films feel like a product of their times but LALD best represents the style of the decade in my opinion. Seriously, have you seen some of the clothes that they are wearing in this film?
80's - This was the hardest one for me to pick because you could make a strong case for any of them. For pure 80's style alone I think it would be AVTAK. OP has a strong Indiana Jones influence while LTK definitely has that Die Hard vibe going for it. In the end I chose The Living Daylights though. Timothy Dalton just feels like a modern 80's action hero. It also touched upon the AIDS scare and the Soviet/Afghan War.
90's - GoldenEye. Simply put, this film is the 90's to me. This was my easiest choice.
00's - Casino Royale. The era of the reboot has hit Bond now featuring a grittier version of the character and a more realistic view of the world that he inhabits. Hey, didn't we already do that for TLD? Anyway, the threat of terrorism is certainly touched upon and perhaps QUANTUM represents the Illuminati craze of the time in some way.
1970s- The Spy Who Loved Me- a statement to Roger Moore's era. The disco score by Hamlisch is the 70s all over.
1980s- A View to a Kill- Duran Duran, phosphorescent makeup in the opening titles (a statement to the 80s in itself) and Grace Jones. A View to a Kill is a time capsule of the 1980s.
1990s- GoldenEye- Natalya's hairstyle, Pierce Brosnan, a woman in the role of M, Samantha Bond's Moneypenny incarnation and the obvious boom in the technology field. What can get more 90s that 1995s GoldenEye?
2000s- Casino Royale- Barbara Broccoli has said it herself, the Craig era reflects the change in the world after the events of 9/11. Terrorism is an underlying plot in the film, and we have a black Felix Leiter, reflecting how much the world has changed since previous decades.
I'll have what he's having....
For AVTAK the reason I choose it, was because it's like an microsom of I thought the 80's was, in terms of the general audience perception on Bond. It start of well with FYEO, but steadily declined from there. With NSNA Connery returned, and so did the some of the original, that started watching the Bond films in the 60's, and the critics too, but by this time, they're were relatively old, and the stars, Connery and Moore were in their 50's - Bond seemed passe, the sense that Bond was for your father, not you, and it was not helped by the 58 year old Moore in AVTAK two years later. Also three Bond movies in two years I felt that cinema audience had Bond fatigue.
By the time that Mr Dalton came in, the general audience had had enough of the franchise; they were too into big budget 80's action films, with no plot and plenty of explosions.
OHMSS- the psychedelia, fashion
TSWLM- disco music, flares, although LALD could take the title for the fashion, music, blaxploitation
LTK- Miami Vice style, very violent, cocaine baron for a villain
GE- Politically correct, post-Cold War setting
CR- the mid noughties was a time of reinvention through gritty realism
I do agree with your choices, even if I would call TSWLM/MR the great statement Roger Moore made for the seventies.
Oh yeah, I left that part out! M giving a PC thrashing. Loved his comeback ("Point taken.").
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1970s - The Spy Who Loved Me
1980s - The Living Daylights
1990s - GoldenEye
2000s - Casino Royale
StirredNotShaken said it: well played. I suscribe everything, but LALD is a serious contender for the 1970s title...
Exactly the same as yours for me !
These films would be my choices too. Those that had an impact when they were released though maybe one could argue Thunderball and Moonraker would fit that mold for the 1960's and 1970's.
Great stuff, @QBranch! :-) Thank you.
1960 - TB
While GF may have boosted Bond's success, in many ways the spy mania of the 60s culminated in TB and was further reflected in YOLT.
1970 - [undecided]
The 70s were a turbulent decade. Many genres (blaxploitation, kung-fu films, ...), rose, had a short period of success and disappeared again. The 70s generally began grey and depressed, then saw the coming of the big summer blockbusters halfway through it and ended in happy and light entertainment with Star Wars and the likes. So in a way, all of the 70s Bonds defined (parts of) the 70s.
1980 - LTK
It was the age of Die Hard and Miami Vice, of S-bombs in mainstream films, of war on drugs and buddy cop movies. LTK blended elements of those into a fairly representative movie, even if many folks failed to recognise it as such or be interested in that.
1990 - GE
Computers, electronics in scores, emphasis on the post-Cold War times and a certain cinematography I fail to describe but recognise as being part of the 90s through and through.
2000 - DAD and CR (surprised?)
Obvious CGI, video game effects all around, it really was part of the early 2000s. Other examples include M:I 2 and Romeo Must Die, Burton's Planet Of The Apes and Ang Lee's Hulk. DAD was part of that output.
CR, on the other hand, reflects the second half of the 2000s, the age of realism and less-is-more, the age of heroes as real people instead of people as real heroes, the age of reboots. We like to explore the inner universe of our main characters. Batman Begins, Bourne, M:I 3, ...
I think the 2000s were too big to consider as one.
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4495/james-bond-comic-books-reviews-story-discussion-criticism/p1
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4495/james-bond-comic-books-reviews-story-discussion-criticism/p1
aaand back to the topic at hand ;)
The music of the eighties is still bloody brilliant imho, the movies of the eighties are quite often tough to rewatch with the exception of the Moore movies.
70's : TSWLM - The first 007 blockbuster in a while but MR is almost neck-and-neck,oh and tuxedos with flares - respect !
80's : AVTAK - Duran Duran at their peak,Grace Jones,a TOTALLY 80's Bond film,luv it.
90's : GE - Bond returned and had to change,this is a PC age with equality to boot.
00's : CR - The age of the new action hero and Bond adapted to it superbly,better even.