Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, is due to be released next year marking 50 years of 007. So it got me thinking about some of the best and worst moments of the franchise. This will be in a few parts as I will begin with the Sean Connery era and work my way through to Daniel Craig.
To start, there were 2 non-EON Bond productions, Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). Please don't confuse the 1967 version of Casino Royale with the nearly excellent 2006 version. Because it was a non-EON production (not to get to lenghty but basically it wasn't a Broccoli & Saltzman produced film) the film was made as a satire with a 57 y/o David Niven as James Bond. I saw this film nearly 30 years ago and was taken aback at how ridiculous it was and I've never gone back to give it another chance as an adult. Since it was filmed in 1967 there's a kind of trippy, psychedelic feel to it (which I may not have understood as a kid). Woody Allen has an appearance as Jimmy Bond, 007's nephew, who's also the bad guy. The film has an all-star cast but I doubt anyone took it seriously. Never Say Never Again was a remake of Thunderball starring Sean Connery and Kim Basinger. When I saw this in 1983 I thought it was kind of cool (not as good as Thunderball) but I came to find out later that since it was a non-EON production that's why they couldn't say certain lines are say the names of EON characters ("Q" was reffered to as Algernon for example). Though not a bad film it doesn't stand the test of time and Connery is pretty much there for the paycheck.
Suffice to say I will not count these films in the discussion to follow.
Sean Connery was the original James Bond (some say the best) and here are his films:
Things start to turn south with You Only Live Twice. There are some good sequences but you can kind of see Connery start to lose interest in the character as he doesn't seem to have the same mean streak as he had in Dr. No through Thunderball. He seems more concerned about bedding the various women he's working with or against than anything else (except the mission of course). The 4 year gap is because Connery had had enough after You Only Live Twice, the next Bond Film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969 starring George Lazenby in the role of James Bond.
About Her Majesty's Secret Service, the movie itself isn't bad (probably better than You Only Live Twice), Diana Rigg (Mrs. Emma Peel from the tv series The Avengers) was great as the Countess Tracy Di Vicenzo and Telly Savalas was a competent Blofeld (certainly better than Donald Pleasence of You Only Live Twice). Which brings me to poor old George Lazenby. Lazenby, an Australian, was not the 1st choice to replace Connery but impressed the producers enough to get a 7 picture deal! However, Lazenby got his agent to reduce it to a one off as he felt that 007 wouldn't cut it in the 70's. The film did well at the box office but people didn't warm up to Lazenby (I'm going off of what I've read from Wikipedia and from talking to my parents & their friends about it since I was yet to be born in 1969). Connery was the original Bond & the franchise was very successful so it would have been difficult to replace him. I'd wager that it's an almost impossible situation (isn't there a saying that goes you don't want to be the guy that replaces a legend, you want to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaces the legend). This is also the film where Bond gets married but Tracy is killed by Blofeld after the ceremony in a drive by shooting. This would lead to Bond going back to treating women like disposable pleasures as he would never get too close to any woman again until the reboot in 2006.
Since Lazenby was only going to do the 1 film, the producers had to get someone else. Connery was not on speaking terms with Broccoli in 1967 but the producers were able to lure Connery back with a then whopping $1.25 million paycheck! That next film was Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Diamonds is by far the worst of the Connery Bond films. Connery clearly doesn't want to be in this film (much like Mel Gibson in The Patriot) and has no edge to him at all, much like the entire film as a whole. In fact most of the characters were pretty bland as well. Jill St John's Tiffany Case, although beautiful is pretty much eye candy with no depth to the character and Charles Gray wasn't a very good Blofeld. This is the film where we start to see a comic aspect to the villain's henchmen, for this film those henchmen were Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd.
Ranking Connery's Bond films is difficult because the 1st 4 are excellent and it comes down to personal preference but here it goes:
This wraps up the 1st ten years of Bond films. The 1st 4 Bond films brought us memorable characters such as; Odd Job, Goldfinger, Pussy Galore, Rosa Klebb and Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw who would be immortalized for his role as Quint in Jaws). After that, the characters, mostly the villains seems to be the point I'm making I guess, wouldn't be as memorable until Jaws. The next post will cover the Roger Moore years. Thank you for your time and as always your comments & opinions are welcome & appreciated.
To start, there were 2 non-EON Bond productions, Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). Please don't confuse the 1967 version of Casino Royale with the nearly excellent 2006 version. Because it was a non-EON production (not to get to lenghty but basically it wasn't a Broccoli & Saltzman produced film) the film was made as a satire with a 57 y/o David Niven as James Bond. I saw this film nearly 30 years ago and was taken aback at how ridiculous it was and I've never gone back to give it another chance as an adult. Since it was filmed in 1967 there's a kind of trippy, psychedelic feel to it (which I may not have understood as a kid). Woody Allen has an appearance as Jimmy Bond, 007's nephew, who's also the bad guy. The film has an all-star cast but I doubt anyone took it seriously. Never Say Never Again was a remake of Thunderball starring Sean Connery and Kim Basinger. When I saw this in 1983 I thought it was kind of cool (not as good as Thunderball) but I came to find out later that since it was a non-EON production that's why they couldn't say certain lines are say the names of EON characters ("Q" was reffered to as Algernon for example). Though not a bad film it doesn't stand the test of time and Connery is pretty much there for the paycheck.
Suffice to say I will not count these films in the discussion to follow.
Sean Connery was the original James Bond (some say the best) and here are his films:
- Dr. No (1962)
- From Russia With Love (1963): Usually regarded as 1 of the 2 best Bond films ever.
- Goldfinger (1964): The second film regarded as one of the best.
- Thunderball (1965): My personal favorite, I love the underwater fight scene which won an Academy Award for SFX.
- You Only Live Twice (1967)
- Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Things start to turn south with You Only Live Twice. There are some good sequences but you can kind of see Connery start to lose interest in the character as he doesn't seem to have the same mean streak as he had in Dr. No through Thunderball. He seems more concerned about bedding the various women he's working with or against than anything else (except the mission of course). The 4 year gap is because Connery had had enough after You Only Live Twice, the next Bond Film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969 starring George Lazenby in the role of James Bond.
About Her Majesty's Secret Service, the movie itself isn't bad (probably better than You Only Live Twice), Diana Rigg (Mrs. Emma Peel from the tv series The Avengers) was great as the Countess Tracy Di Vicenzo and Telly Savalas was a competent Blofeld (certainly better than Donald Pleasence of You Only Live Twice). Which brings me to poor old George Lazenby. Lazenby, an Australian, was not the 1st choice to replace Connery but impressed the producers enough to get a 7 picture deal! However, Lazenby got his agent to reduce it to a one off as he felt that 007 wouldn't cut it in the 70's. The film did well at the box office but people didn't warm up to Lazenby (I'm going off of what I've read from Wikipedia and from talking to my parents & their friends about it since I was yet to be born in 1969). Connery was the original Bond & the franchise was very successful so it would have been difficult to replace him. I'd wager that it's an almost impossible situation (isn't there a saying that goes you don't want to be the guy that replaces a legend, you want to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaces the legend). This is also the film where Bond gets married but Tracy is killed by Blofeld after the ceremony in a drive by shooting. This would lead to Bond going back to treating women like disposable pleasures as he would never get too close to any woman again until the reboot in 2006.
Since Lazenby was only going to do the 1 film, the producers had to get someone else. Connery was not on speaking terms with Broccoli in 1967 but the producers were able to lure Connery back with a then whopping $1.25 million paycheck! That next film was Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Diamonds is by far the worst of the Connery Bond films. Connery clearly doesn't want to be in this film (much like Mel Gibson in The Patriot) and has no edge to him at all, much like the entire film as a whole. In fact most of the characters were pretty bland as well. Jill St John's Tiffany Case, although beautiful is pretty much eye candy with no depth to the character and Charles Gray wasn't a very good Blofeld. This is the film where we start to see a comic aspect to the villain's henchmen, for this film those henchmen were Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd.
Ranking Connery's Bond films is difficult because the 1st 4 are excellent and it comes down to personal preference but here it goes:
- Thunderball: What can I say? I really like the underwater fight scene.
- From Russia With Love: This is probably a lot of people's #1, the chase scenes after they jump off the train tend to drag out a bit for me.
- Goldfinger: Again a lot of people may have this as their #1.
- Dr. No
- You Only Live Twice
- Diamonds Are Forever
This wraps up the 1st ten years of Bond films. The 1st 4 Bond films brought us memorable characters such as; Odd Job, Goldfinger, Pussy Galore, Rosa Klebb and Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw who would be immortalized for his role as Quint in Jaws). After that, the characters, mostly the villains seems to be the point I'm making I guess, wouldn't be as memorable until Jaws. The next post will cover the Roger Moore years. Thank you for your time and as always your comments & opinions are welcome & appreciated.
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