The James Bond Film Discussion Thread (With Bonus Lazenby!)
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I wouldn’t underestimate Connery. Now if it was the same bored Connery in YOLT I could understand the concern, but then again YOLT was a very different kind of film and Connery was very vocal in his displeasure over how the series had gone on to supplant the character depth of the earlier films in favor of the more spectacle gimmickry. It would be like if you started off with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and then five films later you’re in an installment with as little depth as Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS. Had he stuck around for OHMSS to see what it offered him as an actor, I think he would have at least been reinvigorated in the role.
But there’s also another “what if” but without Connery. Diana Rigg went onto say she regretted that she wasn’t paired up with either Connery or Roger Moore. Now then! How would a Roger Moore fresh off of THE SAINT had been in OHMSS? I imagine this would have heavily altered his trajectory as Bond, especially since Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz weren’t there to help conceive his new Bond like in LIVE AND LET DIE. Starting off with a more dramatic take than the emphasis without humor. Perhaps OHMSS would have been more warmly embraced by audiences? Rigg certainly would have.
As late as 1979 Sean Connery was recorded as saying that though he'd seen Moonraker he thought the franchise had become unrecognizable due to the special effects and outlandish gimmicks. He was not a Bond who would have gone into space to grapple with a steel-toothed henchman.
Indeed. Moonraker was as a far cry from Dr. No as it possibly could get. There’s an anecdote during the production of Goldfinger where they’re about to shoot the scene with Oddjob crushing a golf ball with his bare hand. Connery thought THAT was too ridiculous.
Even after half a century and other great Bond ski sequences this is still the greatest Bond skiing scene in the franchise. It set the standard for every skiing sequence to follow.
And the ski chase in Fleming’s pages are just as excellent. Makes you really feel like Bond got worn to hell towards the end.
OHMSS remains one of my favorite Bond films. The scene where Bond escapes and finds Tracy, looking truly afraid is one of the best acting jobs any Bond actor has done, as well as dealing with Tracy's death.
It's probably no mistake my favorite EON Bond films are OHMSS, TLD, FYEO, and FRWL.
The thing that is cringe-worthy in the movie is the "Ethnic foods" dinner at Piz Gloria. Bananas anyone?
It's probably no mistake my favorite EON Bond films are OHMSS, TLD, FYEO, and FRWL.
The thing that is cringe-worthy in the movie is the "Ethnic foods" dinner at Piz Gloria. Bananas anyone?
Bond's pun when Blofeld gets snagged by the neck and hung up in the tree branch overhanging the bobsled course is pretty awful.
"He's branched off!"
"He's branched off!"
There's some impressive stunt work in that segment.Bond's pun when Blofeld gets snagged by the neck and hung up in the tree branch overhanging the bobsled course is pretty awful.
"He's branched off!"
There’s a ton of those one-liners that feels like they were written with Connery’s more quiet droll delivery in mind. In fact I feel they went a little overboard with the attempts to hammer home the idea that Lazenby was the same Bond. That’s why you get remarks like Moneypenny saying “same old James” and Bond reminiscing of past adventures with little souvenirs he collected.Bond's pun when Blofeld gets snagged by the neck and hung up in the tree branch overhanging the bobsled course is pretty awful.
"He's branched off!"
Live and Let Die was kind smart to put a concerted effort in dialing down the Bondian tropes so not to draw comparisons between Moore and Connery the way it happened with Lazenby. Which is why Moore at no point wears a tuxedo, orders a martini, or even gets equipped by Q. By The Spy Who Loved Me, Moore was well established in the role enough that the filmmakers became comfortable bringing back some of those tropes.
I'm pretty sure it was this film where the shooting was especially dangerous because it was turning from winter into spring and the ice on the bobsled run was starting to melt.
Moore's Bond didn't even smoke cigarettes during his first appearance. He smoked cigars, even while piloting a hang glider over San Monique in very dim lighting conditions. 
I could not see Connery's Bond doing that.
I could not see Connery's Bond doing that.
Was hang gliding a big thing in the '70s? Because after not hang gliding at all in the first seven movies, Moore does it twice — the scene you described above, and again in Moonraker as his escape when the speedboat goes off the falls.
It must have been. I don't have any memory of it being a big recreational outlet but if 007 did it twice in one decade then somebody somewhere thought it would make audiences watch with very strong interest.
I like this song ("Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?"), especially for how it's used in the film. The scene when Tracy appears on the ice just when James seems to believe all hope is gone is one of my favorites of the franchise.
What can I say about this movie? It was amazing, had a human (and less macho) James Bond who's a human being and not a superman, as somebody else said, with a great theme song and a great snow chase scene that's probably been paid tribute countless times (as in the opening scene of this episode of Reboot.) One of the best James Bond movies ever., and yeah, better than the crappy, silly and (at the end) downright homophobic Diamonds Are Forever (the title song's great, though.)
Sadly, no-there's no way that Tracy would've survived even if she and Bond not stopped to get rid of the flowers. Blofeld would've eventually found out where Tracy was living at the planned house she and her hubby had set up for him to visit every so often to see her and their kids. Blofeld would have a ton of spies and informants looking for her and Bond's children, and then would kill her and the kids when he wanted to.
Somebody paid tribute to the end scene in the car, but with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (Kim as Bond, Ron as Tracy.)
Sadly, no-there's no way that Tracy would've survived even if she and Bond not stopped to get rid of the flowers. Blofeld would've eventually found out where Tracy was living at the planned house she and her hubby had set up for him to visit every so often to see her and their kids. Blofeld would have a ton of spies and informants looking for her and Bond's children, and then would kill her and the kids when he wanted to.
Somebody paid tribute to the end scene in the car, but with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (Kim as Bond, Ron as Tracy.)
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Those fight scenes are impressive as hell, which was one reason Lazenby got cast. Some of his dialogue is a little wooden, but sometimes he nails it...
...And those fighting scenes - which are integral to Bond films - help immensely. Even the sped-up one, but that's a time-old practice for films to begin with.
Diana Rigg was probably the perfect actor at the time to be brought in.
Lazenby easily could have been a top-2 Bond had another movie been developed and honed, but I can see why they went back to the drawing board. Moore would reclaim the role, make it his own, and even engage in some cold-blooded moments the way Bond is supposed to... but I'll save all that for those movies in question in due course. I will still note that "For Your Eyes Only" did also re-visit Tracy's murder and follow up (without using Blofeld's name, only visage, due to legal reasons) and was also a jam-packed action piece with a terrific plot...
OHMSS's plot is rather good, if a trifle long.
"This didn't happen to the other fella" is thankfully the only consciously crass moment in the movie.
And the ending is ripe for a sequel. Bond's wife being slaughtered so viciously - a very tension-filled and gripping scene, and what do viewers get for the next movie? The eminently crass "Diamonds are Forever", or as many go by its initials instead, "DAFfy duck's dung", it's that incredulous as far as scripts go but I'll save that cant for that movie's post in due course...
But did Bond really need to read Playboy magazine when he's a carrier and spreader of so many STDs from all those previous liaisons with enemy spies?
...And those fighting scenes - which are integral to Bond films - help immensely. Even the sped-up one, but that's a time-old practice for films to begin with.
Diana Rigg was probably the perfect actor at the time to be brought in.
Lazenby easily could have been a top-2 Bond had another movie been developed and honed, but I can see why they went back to the drawing board. Moore would reclaim the role, make it his own, and even engage in some cold-blooded moments the way Bond is supposed to... but I'll save all that for those movies in question in due course. I will still note that "For Your Eyes Only" did also re-visit Tracy's murder and follow up (without using Blofeld's name, only visage, due to legal reasons) and was also a jam-packed action piece with a terrific plot...
OHMSS's plot is rather good, if a trifle long.
"This didn't happen to the other fella" is thankfully the only consciously crass moment in the movie.
And the ending is ripe for a sequel. Bond's wife being slaughtered so viciously - a very tension-filled and gripping scene, and what do viewers get for the next movie? The eminently crass "Diamonds are Forever", or as many go by its initials instead, "DAFfy duck's dung", it's that incredulous as far as scripts go but I'll save that cant for that movie's post in due course...
But did Bond really need to read Playboy magazine when he's a carrier and spreader of so many STDs from all those previous liaisons with enemy spies?
LTK is fantastic, but it was more akin to borrowing from "Miami Vice" or "Live and Let Die" (which could have been an influence on MV) whereas OHMSS was a bona fide Fleming novel and certainly feels like it on screen. It's not the easiest decision but I ultimately do have to put OHMSS above LTK in my list, but both are absolutely terrific entries.
I felt that riff as well, the mention of Bond's wife being part of the set-up, as well as he and Felix being good friends as well as allies. Getting David Hedison back was a sheer stroke of genius as well, he was the best Felix of all -- if not still is (Felix in the Craig movies is the only other I think of highly, but Hedison's approach is just enough more stern.)
I feel the opposite about Hedison. He’s very evidently from the same generation as Moore or Connery rather than Dalton. In The Living Daylights, Felix was played by the much younger John Terry, who looked like a contemporary of Dalton and could conceivably have risen through the CIA ranks at the same time as Bond did in Mi6. So to me, it would’ve made much more sense for him to have reprised the role for LTK than an actor last seen 15 years earlier.
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