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Comments
Goldfinger
Diamonds Are Forever
Live And Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun...
while the 3 films after Goldfinger might not have been as strong as it - i felt like this wasn't a fault of direction - it was just mainly the story (although Live And Let Die is one of my personal favorites)... the direction in each of these films i felt was excellent..
1. Terence Young
2. Peter Hunt
3. Guy Hamilton
4. Martin Campbell
5. John Glen
sorry, I am too lazy to look them up!
that would be... in order...
Terence Young
Terence Young
Guy Hamilton
Peter Hunt
Lewis Gilbert
John Glen
John Glen
John Glen
Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
;-)
Lee Tamahori anyone???
so Peter Hunt only directed ONE Bond Film, OHMSS, and it's still the BEST Bond Film ever.
Why did he not direct any others?
a review of OHMSS "took the words right out of my mouth!!"
http://www.thevervoid.com/media/bond_06.htm
--
Who's the best director? Terrance Young without a doubt. Young was just as important to the success of the Franchise as Connery and Ian Fleming. He made James Bond classy, the direction of the first 4 films is really all his vision. Hamilton basically admitted he just copied what Young did.
1) Martin Campbell. He did two near-impossible things with GE. He took a lightweight TV personality who looked a little manorexic and made him credible as James Bond, one of the greatest film characters of all time. The other thing he did was to bring back the lush, timeless class of the greatest Bond films and update it to the modern age. GE was the first Bond film in a long time that felt like "classic" Bond despite the modern touches.
Then with CR he again brought the sense of class and luxury but added three dimensional characters, the most exciting action scenes since OHMSS, and complex, memorable performances. It's no accident that CR was the best reviewed major studio release of the year (as per Rotten Tomatoes) and that Craig was nominated for a BAFTA. To use an over-used phrase, Campbell simply took Bond to another level and showed that after over 40 years Bond could still be fresh, exciting, and relevent.
2) Peter Hunt. Prior to CR he probably would have ranked as my #1. OHMSS still stands up today - while in look it's the most mod of all the Bond films (and therefore the most uncomfortably close to Austin Powers) it's cutting edge direction and pace means that it probably holds up to mainstream audience veiwing better than most of the 60s Bond films. Like Campbell he hits all the right "Bond buttons" but his action scenes are still potent today and there's a touching love story as well - all the more amazing considering Lazenby's lack of acting experience at the time. The touching nature of the proposal scene, the wordless suspense of the safecracking scene, the ballistic nature of the fight on the beach - again, like Campbell, he took the type of scenes that had been done before and raised them to the next level.
3) Terence Young. Set the template and what a template it was. I can't imagine what it must have been like for an audience seeing his films during their first release; how they must have been unlike anything they had ever seen before. While Connery was the definitive Bond Young was the unseen Bond - without him we would likely not be watching new Bond films today.
2. Terence Young - turned the rough diamond that was Sean Connery and turned him into a gem. Young and Hunt deliverd the most intense action scenes. Look at Chateau fight from Thunderball, helped by John Barry, of course.
3. Lewis Gilbert - big budget, epic films; he kept the pace up AND he delivered thrills, spills and suspense. Underrated.
4. Martin Campbell - GE is alright, I felt the action scenes could do with a little trimming, but with CR.... I feel lordflasheart said it best, up above.......
:)
It seems to fall apart in the writing in the second half, in the dialogue., and of course the dodgy CG effects. Who's to blame here I wonder? Purvis and Wade have gone on record to say that there original story was blown out of proportion. But what about those terrible lines? I guess it's the producers. Anyways...
As far as best directors go, I would have to say Peter Hunt. Sure he was working with the best Fleming story, but he really crafted a fine movie, got excellent performances, and orchestrated some of the best action scenes in a movie possibly ever.
Of course Terrence Young does come to mind, but compare his first Bond picture to Peter Hunt's first! Imagine if Peter Hunt had gone on to do Diamonds as a follow up with Lazenby?
OHMSS is such a superb - if not the best - Bond film and for so many reasons it's because of Hunt's direction.
By the way, I hope you don't mind, @TRUSTNO1, I've taken the liberty of adding a poll... :)