Who is your favorite Bond director? (Poll)

123457

Comments

  • 1. Terence Young
    2. Peter Hunt
    3. Martin Campbell
    4. John Glen
    5. Guy Hamilton
    6. Lewis Gilbert
    7. Sam Mendes
    8. Roger Spottiswoode
    9. Marc Forster
    10. Michael Apted
    11. Lee Tamahori
  • QQ7QQ7 Croatia
    Posts: 371
    Terence Young and Martin Campbell definitely.
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 4,008
    Terence Young was the man. 3 great Bond films. The man lived like Bond!

  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    1 PETER R. HUNT
    2 Marc Forster
    3 Terence Young
    4 Sam Mendes
    5 Guy Hamilton
    6 Lewis Gilbert
    7 Martin Campbell
    8 Lee Tamahori
    9 John Glen
    10 Roger Spottiswoode
    11 Irvin Kershner
    12 Michael Apted
  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,138
    Revised list.

    Terence Young
    Peter Hunt
    John Glen
    Martin Campbell
    Guy Hamilton
    Lewis Gilbert
    Sam Mendes
    Lee Tamahori
    Roger Spottiswode
    Marc Forster
    Michael Apted.
  • Posts: 7,431
    My Revised list
    Returning Directors
    1. Terence Young
    2. John Glen
    3. Guy Hamilton
    4. Martin Campbell
    5. Sam Mendes
    6. Lewis Gilbert

    One offs
    1. Peter Hunt
    2. Marc Forster
    3. Irvin Kershner
    4. Michael Apted
    5. Roger Spottiswoode
    6. Lee Tamahori
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Agent005 wrote: »
    Top five:

    1. Terence Young
    2. Peter Hunt
    3. Guy Hamilton
    4. Martin Campbell
    5. John Glen

    Correct.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,136
    Returning directors
    1. Terence Young
    2. Martin Campbell
    3. John Glen
    4. Lewis Gilbert
    5. Guy Hamilton
    6. Sam Mendes

    One-time directors
    1. Peter Hunt
    2. Marc Forster
    3. Michael Apted
    4. Roger Spottiswoode
    5. Lee Tamahori
  • Posts: 7,431
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    Returning directors
    1. Terence Young
    2. Martin Campbell
    3. John Glen
    4. Lewis Gilbert
    5. Guy Hamilton
    6. Sam Mendes

    One-time directors
    1. Peter Hunt
    2. Marc Forster
    3. Michael Apted
    4. Roger Spottiswoode
    5. Lee Tamahori

    Your second list would match mine, but no Irvin Kershner?
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,136
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    Returning directors
    1. Terence Young
    2. Martin Campbell
    3. John Glen
    4. Lewis Gilbert
    5. Guy Hamilton
    6. Sam Mendes

    One-time directors
    1. Peter Hunt
    2. Marc Forster
    3. Michael Apted
    4. Roger Spottiswoode
    5. Lee Tamahori

    Some explanations maybe:

    Returning directors
    1. Terence Young, basically invented cinematic Bond. The Connery-Young collaborations remain the epitome of indistructable early 60's Bond class to me.

    2. Martin Campbell, reinvigorated the franchise twice with two modern classics.

    3. John Glen, I love 80's Bond, I like how the Cold War took centre stage for most of the decade. Nothing beats a good espionage atmosphere. Nevertheless, Glen ended on his highest note with LTK, exploring Bond's character for the first time since 1969 and for only the second time in the franchise's history. Underrated Bond director.

    4. Lewis Gilbert, style over substance, surely. Having said that, Gilbert does deliver three gorgeous pieces of spectacle.

    5. Guy Hamilton, I have never been GF's biggest defender despite its undeniable iconicness. On the other hand, I have always been a big TMWTGG defender, one of my favourites. Still though, both 'Golden' films of Hamilton are very enjoyable, recent viewings of his other two Bond films didn't deliver to that extent unfortunately.

    6. Sam Mendes, I don't like the road the series took after the fantastic CR-QOS double bill. SF isn't bad, but not my cup of tea. SP is a series' low.


    One-time directors
    1. Peter Hunt, OHMSS is revolutionary and well ahead of its time both as an action film as well as a study of Bond's character. LTK and CR would later on proof that not even by 1989, but only by 2006 audiences were ready for this sort of stuff.

    2. Marc Forster, inserting CR's follow-up with a distinctively European touch Forster's only Bond film is a mix of stylised story-telling and thrilling action, underrated by general audiences to this day.

    3. Michael Apted, TWINE is no perfect film, but to me it still remains an entertaining attempt at combining a more character-driven narrative with fine stunt work. My first Bond film, too.

    4. Roger Spottiswoode, one ok Bond film with some great stuff in it, that unfortunately loses itself in an overdose of dual-wielded gunplay and non-stop action after the hour mark.

    5. Lee Tamahori, I always wonder if DAD would have done something with its potential if the director had been less obsessed with questionable doube-entendres and CGI still in its infancy. As it stands, I don't think DAD is as horrid as I used to, though it nevertheless remains near the bottom.
  • OctopussyOctopussy Piz Gloria, Schilthorn, Switzerland.
    edited May 2020 Posts: 1,081
    Terence Young and Peter Hunt would be my favourite directors. They created the most quintessential Bond films in Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, IMO. Young shaped Connery and his influence arguably shaped cinematic Bond, whereas Hunt's desire to bring Fleming to the screen resulted in a masterpiece often hailed as the best of the series.
  • edited May 2020 Posts: 17,756
    Don't think I've made a list like this before. Anyway, here's mine:

    1. Terence Young
    2. Peter R. Hunt / John Glen (can't really put Hunt or Glen below the other; Hunt's fantastic OHMMS and Glen's films combined are so important to me)
    4. Guy Hamilton
    5. Lewis Gilbert
    6. Martin Campbell
    7. Michael Apted
    8. Roger Spottiswoode
    9. Marc Forster
    10. Lee Tamahori
    11. Sam Mendes (can't even bother watching SF or SP)
  • Agent_47Agent_47 Canada
    Posts: 330
    1. Martin Campbell
    2. Lewis Gilbert
    3. Terence Young
    4. Peter Hunt
    5. Michael Apted
    6. Sam Mendes
    7. Roger Spottiswoode
    8. Guy Hamilton
    9. Lee Tamahori
    10. John Glen
    11. Marc Forster
  • Posts: 1,596
    Terence Young followed by Martin Campbell followed by Lewis Gilbert, I think. Then the workman, Glen.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,433
    Favourite director of Bond? Must be Terrance Young. 3 classic films in delivered in 3 years. Amazing and never to be equaled. The budget of DN isn't visible on screen due to his assured direction.

    Close second for me is Hunt. He worked with the least talented actor to play Bond and still managed to deliver a masterpiece. To add to the complexity he did this in weather and unique settings.

    Taking third place is Hamilton. He helped to bring many of the touches the series was known for. Guy also worked well with 2 Bonds and helped the debut of the second. He was the one who made sure Moore's Bond stood on his own 2 feet with no callbacks to the touches he had helped create. Wonderful stuff.

    Worst Directors

    John Glen, after his first two he should have stopped. The remaining 3 films were uneven and not as solid. He used slow motion before Tamamori. He always had a rather pedestrian direction.

    Roger Spotiswoode was almost Glen like in his direction of TND and Brosnan. He manages to drain the spark of the film . Why was he chosen after Campbell...what a drop off.

    Lee Tamahori his style was like overload of Michael Bay. Cute cuts and slow motion galore. No sense of the style and a terrible pacing. He wears the failure of DAD to be the disappointment it has become. Time makes it look worse.
  • ProfJoeButcherProfJoeButcher Bless your heart
    Posts: 1,711
    I think I'll follow the model of separating returning directors from the one-offs....

    This is hard to do given the collaborative nature of the movies. Bond directors tend to do a decent amount of writing, really. So to some degree you have to factor in just how much you like the movies overall, apart from obvious choices of the director.

    Returning
    JOHN GLEN
    He directed four of my very favorite films, so he can't not be my favorite. He gets a lot of flak for being "workmanlike", but on the other hand, he never screwed anything up. He handles action brilliantly, and actually does get some nice shots in on films like FYEO and TLD. His direction of the bomb sequence in Octopussy I find brilliant. I've heard it said more than once that it feels like the thing is going to go off, even the 20th time you've seen the film. I think he's great.

    SAM MENDES
    He was blessed with great cinematographers, but I could look at his two movies, particularly Spectre, all day long. Gorgeous movies, both. And while I suspect many here would disagree, both of his films feel about 30 minutes shorter than they actually are to me. I'd have been happy to see him back for NTTD.

    GUY HAMILTON
    He has some sins to his name for sure, but I absolutely love the light, quirky, bizarre feel Guy brought to the movies. Maybe the stuff he introduced to the series got out of control in the hands of other directors (looking at you, Lewis), but I'm very glad he did what did. And it can't be a coincidence that Oddjob, Wint and Kidd, Tee Hee and Baron Samedi, and Nick Nack all happened on his watch. Brilliant creations all.

    TERENCE YOUNG
    I know he's the man that got it going, but I just like the first three more. And while I like the film, and some of it is in the editing and writing, Thunderball is a shockingly sloppy film in a lot of places.

    LEWIS GILBERT
    While not entirely unenjoyable, YOLT and TSWLM are probably the two dumbest films in the series for me. Again, writers are largely to blame, but Gilbert was surely involved at that level given that his films all follow the same basic story. I've pointed it out many times, but the number of times we see people in YOLT watching scenes from the film on monitors is embarrassing. Furthermore, I'm not a fan of Jaws, and I find Sean's and Roger's weakest performances to have happened on his watch.

    MARTIN CAMPBELL
    I'm not trolling, honestly. I'm not a fan of Goldeneye, and I enjoy Casino Royale quite a bit less than the average fan, so I'm not in awe of Campbell. Nothing about his direction stands out to me either, except an apparent interest in soap opera scenes on beaches. The one in Goldeneye is painful to watch. Goldeneye generally I find badly paced, with way too much Natalya stuff in the first half, and the rejuvenated tropes popping up at odd places. Has he ever done anything outside of Bond that people love? Perhaps directing two first movies was just a nice bit of luck for him: those ones always turn out well.

    One-off
    MARC FORSTER
    QoS looks even better than the Mendes films, and I also like the editing style. Daniel gives his best performance, and the film, despite the writers' strike, has probably the most character development of any film in the series. He did a hell of a good job.

    PETER HUNT
    OHMSS is done brilliantly, save for the nonsensical pre-titles sequence (did they misunderstand the book?). Beautiful looking film, paced perfectly. And he got a pretty good performance out of George. If only he'd been allowed to do YOLT, we might have had a different trajectory in the tone of the films, and been saved some of the crappier moments in the series...

    LEE TAMAHORI
    I have no real problem with this guy. I find DAD perfectly watchable and entertaining, and he keeps things moving and interesting more than the other Brosnan directors do.

    ROGER SPOTTISWOODE
    He does well in the first half, but the second half of TND feels longer than all of Spectre. That shooting on the boat just goes on and on.

    MICHAEL APTED
    Boring as hell.
  • Posts: 928
    1. Terence Young
    2. Martin Campbell
    3. Peter Hunt
    4. Sam Mendes
    5. Lewis Gilbert
    6. John Glen
    7. Guy Hamilton
    8. Marc Forster
    9. Roger Spotiswoode
    10. Michael Apted
    11. Irvin Kershner
    12. Lee Tamahori
  • Posts: 698
    1. Martin Campbell
    2. Peter Hunt
    3. Sam Mendes
    4. Michael Apted
    5. Terence Young
    6. Lewis Gilbert
    7. John Glen
    8. Guy Hamilton
    9. Roger Spotiswoode
    10. Marc Forster
    11. Lee Tamahori
    12. Irvin Kershner
  • edited May 2020 Posts: 1,009
    1. Martin Campbell (this man saved the saga twice and is a great action director)
    2. Guy Hamilton (another great action director. I love Cold Sweat).
    3. Sam Mendes (revitalized - not "saved" - the saga on a kind of a necessary moment)
    4. Peter Hunt (he would rank higher if he had made at least another Bond film)
    5. Terence Young (he created the cinematic Bond, plain and simple)
    6. John Glen (carried Bond through the 80s with style and flair)
    7. Lewis Gilbert (made the 3 most epic films of the saga, and one of them saved the franchise)
    8. Roger Spottiswoode (only one movie, but he did a good work on it)
    9. Michael Apted (same as Spotiswoode)
    10. Irvin Kershner (given the circumstances he didn't make that bad of a work)
    11. Marc Forster (he made the most impersonal film of the saga IMHO)
    12. Lee Tamahori (he went too far)
    13/VERY HONORABLE mention: The five directors of CR67 (they deserve to be here even if it's in last place. Working on that disaster was heroic on itself. And they partly succeeded: for what it's worth, even if it's on a "so bad it's good" basis, CR67 is, for me, a very fun movie with a fascinating behind the scenes story).
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    edited May 2020 Posts: 4,399
    last time i commented on this was all the way back in 2011 - yikes! lol..

    i think since then my sensibilities have changed..

    in terms of my favorite director for Bond, Peter Hunt has really grown on me over the years.. he has a great cinematic and artistic eye.. but i also love his editing style.. some may think it looks hokey, but there is something i kinda love about the look of the film when it's sped up at certain times - plus i love the artistic choice of using the echoes in OHMSS when Bond is beating up Draco's thugs outside his office..

    i really wish we could've gotten a proper Lazenby / Hunt DAF.. i think that would've been spectacular.
  • R1s1ngs0nR1s1ngs0n France
    Posts: 2,148
    Terence Young is definitely the greatest Bond director: 3 movies, 3 absolute classics.
    Without him, Connery's iconic interpretation as we know it wouldn't exist.
    Peter Hunt follows closely. One film but what a film it is! Deserves credit for being the most faithful to Fleming's novel plus his great editing skills lend his movie a unique visual style.
    Guy Hamilton - Peaked early with the greatest Bond of all but went downhill from there.
    Lewis Gilbert - Responsible for the silliest Bonds but also the most grandiose and visually stunning (YOLT being the best of the lot).
    John Glen deserves credit for helming a couple of good entries (Dalton's) but nothing really special and his films don't bear any particular signature.
    The rest are interchangeable...
  • matt_umatt_u better known as Mr. Roark
    Posts: 4,343
    Young
    Mendes
    Campbell
    Hunt
    Glen
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    edited May 2020 Posts: 5,970
    Top 5

    1. Terence Young
    2. Martin Campbell
    3. Peter Hunt
    4. Lewis Gilbert
    5. Sam Mendes

    This is primarily based on the success and failures of each director. In my opinion, all three of Terence Young's films are perfect making him number one, both of Campbell's film were perfect making him number two, Hunt's only film is perfect making him number three. The only thing that separates these guys is how many they did.

    As for the last two - with Gilbert, I like his first movie, love his second, and do not like his third and last, making him number four. With Mendes, he directed my favourite Bond film, which I think is perfect, but he also directed one of my least favourite Bond films and the latter was the biggest disappointment for me, so comes in fifth and last.
  • edited May 2020 Posts: 1,596
    To those crediting Martin Campbell above Terence Young because he saved the series, perhaps consider that without Young there wouldn't have been a series to save.

    edit: Worth mentioning that I do believe Campbell deserves an enormous amount of credit, and I adore both of his Bond films. He is surely up there with Young, but Young established Bond and brought him to life with those first two films, and then synthesized the early films with Hamilton's GF in TB, which is no easy task I don't think, given how different the portrayal and depiction of 007 is in Hamilton vs. Young films.

    Young brought a palpable sense of danger, he directed Connery better than anyone (and one could argue that his direction gave us the quintessential Bond performance from the quintessential Bond actor - he more than anyone else brought out that iconic performance from Connery and helped to shape him into the character), and he, moreso than any other director in the series save perhaps Peter Hunt, was able to bring the feel of Fleming's novels to life. Those first two, in particular, somehow feel like Fleming's prose. That is not easy to achieve, I don't think.
  • edited May 2020 Posts: 628
    Terence Young - FRWL is my favorite Bond film and DN sits somewhere in my Top 10. I'm not a fan of TB, which felt like Young was on auto-pilot (he handed it over to Peter Hunt, who had to save the film in the editing room). I should also mention that outside of the Bond series, I really like Young's WAIT UNTIL DARK and his three films with Charles Bronson.

    John Glen - A consistently solid Bond filmmaker and director of three of my favorites in the series (OCTOPUSSY, TLD and LTK).
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    1 PETER R. HUNT
    2 Marc Forster
    3.Cary Joji Fukunaga
    4 Terence Young
    5 Sam Mendes
    6 Guy Hamilton
    7 Lewis Gilbert
    8 Martin Campbell
    9 Lee Tamahori
    10 John Glen
    11 Roger Spottiswoode
    12 Irvin Kershner
    13 Michael Apted
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    Martin Campbell is the best director EON ever hired.
    Roger Spottiswoode is the most under-rated.
  • M16_CartM16_Cart Craig fanboy?
    Posts: 541
    Martin Campbell best. Hope he comes back for the next Bond debut.
  • edited December 2021 Posts: 53
    Martin Campbell. 2 of the best films in the entire franchise.
  • marcmarc Universal Exports
    Posts: 2,610
    My top 3, currently:

    1. Young
    2. Fukunaga
    3. Glen
Sign In or Register to comment.