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Today I'll start counting!
That is great. Will you give us a few statistics as well?
It pitted every single Bond film against every other and people stated which of the two they preferred. Then I counted a win as a point and a loss as a minus point. The draws evened out.
This is what that looked like, for anyone interested.
I've counted 10 out of the 25 rankings, so I should be done by the end of the week. Maybe even earlier.
One film will be revealed each day, starting tomorrow. On the final day the top 2 will be revealed at the same time, of course. I've always been fascinated by film posters, so each film will be accompanied by an international film poster that I hope isn't too familiar with you yet.
But first I'd like to thank all of you participants. 26, myself excluded, have gone through the trouble of sending me their list:
@echo @pachazo @QBranch @PG007 @Max_The_Parrot
@Creasy47 @MonsieurMerci @Agent_99 @JTW
@Klaus_Doberman @Some_Kind_Of_Hero @Dwayne
@ShakenNotStirred @DarthDimi @royale65 @zebrafish
@Thunderfinger @SomethingThatAteHim @Slazenger7
@GeneralGogol @Benny @jake24 @Mathis1
@Birdleson @goldenswissroyale @Junglist_1985
Thanks a lot, folks! Much appreciated :)
Yeah, I know what you mean. We are both pretty bad.
STARRING
Sean Connery as James Bond 007
WITH
Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Barbara Carrera & Bernie Casey
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
MUSIC BY Michel Legrand
DIRECTED BY Irvin Kershner
Unsurprisingly, given that quite a few members don't consider it canon, the only non-EON entry comes in last.
The inclusion of NSNA was optional, 7 members chose not to include it, resulting in 7 last places by default. Another 4 last places gives NSNA a total of 11 last places, the most of all the contestents.
Its highest ranking was 12th out of 25, which it reached on two occasions.
In total, NSNA managed to collect 60 points.
But what happened to the score? Didn't Legrand get the memo about this being the '80s? Why does the plot feel like something Jess Franco spat on paper over the weekend in the days when he was doing cheapies at a rate of 12 films per year? Why does the action look like something H.G. Lewis directed?
This film neither feels like, nor aspires to be a good Bond film. Regardless of the fact that they couldn't do the gunbarrel or use the Bond Theme, nothing else even remotely signals "Bond" except for Connery being there. And Connery is good, don't get me wrong. So is Brandauer and Basinger's physique. But that's where it ends. Austin Powers feels like a more bonafide Bond film to me than this thing. If this is the best McClory could do with all the tools at his disposal, if this was the grand kickoff to a competing Bond series, then EON never had much to worry about. NSNA is a fundamentally flawed film, and the few positives cannot even come close to balancing out the vast array of negatives.
It has that 80's French Riviera vibe, I like how it handles the older Bond angle (which the EON series never quite got right, imo) and most of all, I love the cast.
Connery has more fun here than in either of his official swansongs, Brandauer is a fabulous actor and he's actually one of my favourite villains, Carrera is devilishly entertaining, Fox is another gifted actor who stiff-upperlips all over the place and Bernie Casey is my very favourite Felix. Also, Max von Sydow might as well be the best actor ever to appear in a Bond film.
I know it's flawed and its origins are questionable, but I'd lie if I don't admit I do enjoy it a lot.
That being said, I understand not everyone feels the same way and I also understand it isn't canon for all, hence why I left its inclusion optional.
Thanks @Thunderfinger! Love this artwork too. It's from Thailand :)
Looking at the nice poster: is this pepsi product placement or what is written there at the bottom right?
It has a lot of flaws, and yes, the score is very weak, but it has come up in the rankings for me over the years, have been entertained by it in my most recent viewings!
Back in 1983, I – like many people I suspect – were willing to overlook the film’s faults just for a chance to see Connery back in the role that he made famous (And with my mother being the world’s leading Sean Connery fan, I watched this movie A LOT back in the day 😊). Only later, as my Bond fandom grew, did the “oh its’ not really that good” feelings kick in. The “80ish” of the production values, does work against it for me (*).
That said, almost 40 years on, (IMO) that there are things to like about NSNA: Connery is actually in fine form – better in some ways than he was in DAF. And, Barbara Carrera, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Bernie Casey are treats. I even like the Lani Hall theme song (it is actually the first track on my 007 mixtape!). Of course, that could be due to the fact that I've always had a "thing" for Ms. Hall :-). BTW: In an interview, she stated that the song could have been better in retrospect.
Like CR 1967, I glad NSNA exists – even with its’ faults.
**Whether in music or film, there is just something about the early 1980s that feels artificial, “corporate” and bland to me.
The Cast: As others have mentioned, Connery is in top form here, performance- and fitness-wise. In the years since DAF, he appears to have packed on some muscle and here glows with healthy vitality (ironic perhaps, given the film's Shrublands angle). Brandauer and Carrera make for one of the best villainous duos of the series, both toeing a perfect line between campy villainy and chilling insanity. Bernie Casey is simply my favorite Felix Leiter of all time. He plays perfectly against Connery, and NSNA marks the only time we've seen Felix in combat. Pat Roach, while silent, puts more personality into Lippe through the physicality of his fight choreography and stuntwork than Thunderball's Guy Doleman did, and a very young Rowan Atkinson is delightful as the bumbling comedic relief.
The Action: The mid-film motorcycle chase down the narrow alleys and streets of Nice, culminating in a terrific canal leap, packs more thrills than many of the other 80s chase sequences and without the goofy gags that tended to mar them. The clinic fight with Lippe ranks up there among the better staged and better executed and is packed full of wisely judged visual humor. The underwater action is better paced than Thunderball's. Even the finale, which is sometimes ragged on for its set limitations, delivers a thrilling close quarters gun battle.
The Comedy: Credit to Lorenzo Semple, Jr., this is one witty script. From Bond's crack to M about cutting out the white bread to his leaving the gala guard hanging with his cigarette case to his final conversation with Fatima about raptures and endorsements, the cast is given a lot to play with and they do.
The Cinematography: It's a fine looking film, courtesy of Douglas Slocombe (of Indy trilogy fame), that makes great use of its wider frame.
The Music: Yes, the music! For a long time I was hung up on the more dreadful parts of the score—the clunky jazz-action that accompanies Bond and Domino's horseback escape from Palmyra with terrible incongruity, for instance. But there are quite lovely parts to the score as well that help steep the film in the luxury and escapism of Southern France. At times, the music immerses you in the 80s. At times, it achieves a kind of timeless splendor.
I'm also not sure it's quite accurate to call the film "a labour of hatred." If you've ever listened to the DVD commentary, you've heard with what fondness and what passion Irvin Kershner speaks of the film. A lot of the creative forces on this film had nothing to do with any behind-the-scenes feuds or courtroom battles. They were simply trying to make the most entertaining picture they could, same as any other Bond film. In my opinion, they succeeded.
I wish there was some way to see how everyone would rank NSNA independently of its behind-the-scenes business, but as Connery would say, "C'est la vie."
I'm not great at math, so I've got to say that I'm not sure where to rate a film that got 20 votes to 24 other films that got 27 votes. I might figure that out at some point, but not the next few days though. Sorry, mate.
About NSNA's music. Sure it has some weird moments, but I do overall like the jazzy stuff. I also consider Legrand a very gifted musician, given his other work.