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Bond 23

Started by CaledonianGonzo, November 02, 2011, 10:58:06 AM

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Revelator

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on January 09, 2013, 04:23:04 PM
The kilt's fine - it's the Seinfeld-esque puffy shirt that hampers the ensemble.

Bond's only excursion into puffiness, but hey, it was 1969 and fashions were slightly baroque. Plus the rest of the film looks fabulous, thanks to Michael Reed's cinematography.

On acting: Connery is an underrated actor who can give superbly moving performances (see Robin and Marian), so he could have pulled off OHMSS. But at the time he was sick of Bond, and in way Lazenby--who is never worse than bland--fits the picture. He's more of an everyman Bond, rather than a charisma-laden Superman; an ordinary man to whom extraordinary things happen. One critic has said that OHMSS closes the first cycle of Bond films...an intriguing idea, since the film attempts to re-ground the series and give Bond a near-send-off. Part of what makes Tracy's death devastating is that the film and its spectators know she must die if the series is to carry on. And so a heavy price has to be paid for our continuing entertainment. Genre fiction that depends heavily on certain conventions is at its most moving when it questions and foregrounds those conventions. OHMSS does all this while also including the usual Bondian lashings of camp and stuntwork, and does so with a much lighter touch than the Craig films. I'd say it's the best Bond film of them all, but that depends on having watched its predecessors first.

Dead kate moss

Quote from: Revelator on January 09, 2013, 04:57:22 PM
But at the time he was sick of Bond,

He shouldn't have done the movie then. If he took the cash he should have put some bloody effort in and looked like he was enjoying it. Miserable Scotch cunt.

CaledonianGonzo

Erm - he's discussing OHMSS.

kidsick5000

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on January 09, 2013, 03:52:34 PM
It's regarded by many hardcore Bond fans as the best of all of them but (fight scenes and last scene aside) I just can't get past Lazenby in the role. Seeing him in a kilt is a bit rubbish too. Would have been a superb end to Connery's time in the role though.

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on January 09, 2013, 04:23:04 PM
The kilt's fine - it's the Seinfeld-esque puffy shirt that hampers the ensemble.

Both pale compared to the awful dubbing job.
I'm with El Unicornio - Lazenby just doesn't look like Bond. I He looks too tall, and his features are already on the leathery side. His hair's annoying too. I should say, nothing against Lazenby himself, I put it down to the producers trying to find a facsimile of Connery rather than the winning decision of a different look.

I feel sorry for ol' George. Imagine the pain of constantly being told that your one big film was utterly perfect in every way - score, director, supporting cast, love interest, story, twists, everything - except you.

Dark Sky

Quote from: kidsick5000 on January 09, 2013, 05:41:09 PM
I feel sorry for ol' George. Imagine the pain of constantly being told that your one big film was utterly perfect in every way - score, director, supporting cast, love interest, story, twists, everything - except you.

Jesus, he needs to hang around in different social groups.

Dead kate moss

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on January 09, 2013, 05:27:57 PM
Erm - he's discussing OHMSS.

Oh yeah, Oops, I thought we were still discussing Connery's bored performance in whatver the one he was being accused of sleep-walking through. As you were. He's still a miserable bastard though.

El Unicornio, mang

He was definitely not interested in the role by the time he did Diamonds are Forever. He only did it because they promised him he could make two films, and also he got £2 million which, fair play to him, he gave to a Scottish kids charity. I quite like it though. It has a nerve-racking cable wire scene, Mr Wint and Mr Kidd, Bambi and Thumper, the beautiful Jill St John, a great elevator fight, and the lovely Plenty O'Toole



Jim_MacLaine

and one of those films was the taught The Offence as I recall. Excellent film.

Revelator

Diamonds Are Forever really starts falling apart after we learn Blofeld is Willard Whyte, and it leads to a lame climax on an oil rig (which only reminds the viewer that the previous film did a much better job with the storm-the-castle-by-helicopter trope). Moreover, the exposition of Blofeld's plan is so lazy and inocherent the viewer just doesn't care, and there isn't much at stake. And of course, by then Tiffany Case has devolved into the sort of bimbo Ian Fleming never wrote about.

But before then you have the still brutal pre-credits scene, with its near-fecal mud fixation and Bond sadistically shoving Blofeld into molten liquid ("Welcome to hell Blofeld!" smirks Connery with quiet satisfaction); you have the witty inter-cutting of lethal scenes of diamond smuggling into Sir Donald's lecture; you have the nasty, claustrophobic elevator fight between Bond and Franks; that terrifying scene of Bond trapped in a flaming coffin; the moon-buggy escape from Whyte's lab and the cop car chase; and the atmospheric sight of Bond calmly mountaineering about the Whyte House, along with Bond shooting fake Blofed in the head with a grappling dart. And even the end of the film slightly recovers with Bond taking out Wint and Kidd. But the overall effort just doesn't hold-up.
Watching the film made me take down the book from the shelf, and while re-reading various bits--like the first meeting of Bond and Tiffany, which is much sexier than the film's yet makes Tiffany a far more vulnerable character--I realized that while DAF is one of the weaker novels, it might have been a better movie than book had it been adopted properly, since its visuals are quite strong. 

As for Connery's performance, it's no worse than Roger Moore's in the next two films, which were also scripted by Tom Mankiewicz, a writer with a gift for funny dialogue but not plotting, and an ugly penchant for writing in bimbo characters (Plenty O'Toole, Tiffany in DAF's second half, Rosie Carver, Mary Goodnight). The Bond films are deeply sexist, but the women in them are not and should not be idiots.

CaledonianGonzo

All that and no mention of:



I must admit I like a lot of things about Diamonds Are Forever - it's the one that hooked me as a toddler - but the Moon Buggy chase is maybe the worst action sequence in the whole franchise.

Well, tidal wave surfing aside.

Revelator

Oh God, now I have to scrub that image from my mind...

I didn't see anything objectionable about the moon buggy--it was plausibly introduced, and it makes sense that it would handle well in a desert landscape.

Dark Sky

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on January 09, 2013, 08:11:47 PM
Well, tidal wave surfing aside.

I love that bit so much.  God, I love that film so much.  So funny.

Blumf

Quote from: Revelator on January 09, 2013, 08:03:40 PM
that terrifying scene of Bond trapped in a flaming coffin;

Heh. That scene scared my gran so much when she saw it on release she's now adamant that she doesn't want to be cremated, just in case.

I think it's the one time, in all of the films, when you really felt Bond was truly trapped.

El Unicornio, mang

His "escape" is a big cop out though. "Oooh how is Bond going to get out of this? With one of his gadgets?....Oh some bloke just turned it off"

Kane Jones

True, that moment is absolutely fucking shit.  Apart from a few shining moments, Diamonds Are Forever is pretty terrible really.

Blumf

I like the 'escape', it slaps you in the face with it's abruptness, and who needs gadgets when a bit of forward planning can save your skin?

Kane Jones

Quote from: Blumf on January 10, 2013, 01:20:24 PM
who needs gadgets when a bit of forward planning can save your skin?

not a Bond fan then, Blumf?

Revelator

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on January 10, 2013, 12:28:36 PM
His "escape" is a big cop out though. "Oooh how is Bond going to get out of this? With one of his gadgets?....Oh some bloke just turned it off"

What sort of gadget from 1971 could possibly rescue Bond from a coffin being torched in a crematorium? Even if it allowed him to escape from the coffin, he'd emerge directly into a roaring fire and get incinerated. The movie's solution--having Bond give the baddies fake diamonds, leading them to rescue Bond to demand the real ones--might seem disappointing at first glance, but it's the best way out of an impossible-to-escape deathtrap and ultimately clever.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Revelator on January 10, 2013, 04:06:02 PM
What sort of gadget from 1971 could possibly rescue Bond from a coffin being torched in a crematorium?

Well, that's up to the filmmakers! Maybe a cigarette case that sprays concentrated foam and then some sort of mini missile device to break the bottom end of the coffin.

It was luck that they got to him in time, so not really that clever, and certainly not foolproof. It's not like he was thinking "I'll give them fake diamonds so that they'll definitely rescue me from a burning coffin in time". That just makes no sense.

Revelator

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on January 10, 2013, 04:11:50 PM
Well, that's up to the filmmakers! Maybe a cigarette case that sprays concentrated foam and then some sort of mini missile device to break the bottom end of the coffin.

It would have felt more like a cheat if Bond just happened to have those perfectly selected gadgets on him (and it's doubtful the amount of foam contained in a cigarette would be effective enough). The filmmakers went with the best solution possible. And it's good to see a situation where Bond is totally helpless and dependent on chance.

QuoteIt was luck that they got to him in time, so not really that clever, and certainly not foolproof. It's not like he was thinking "I'll give them fake diamonds so that they'll definitely rescue me from a burning coffin in time".

He didn't, and it was definitely luck that they got to him in time, which is part of what makes the sequence nerve-racking. But the screenwriters gave the bad guys a good reason to rescue Bond, and that's what counts.

Blumf

This guy gets it!

Bond isn't about the gadgets (well until Moore, maybe), it's about a cool, smart dude who knows his way around a vagina.

Thomas

Quote from: Blumf on January 10, 2013, 04:44:00 PM
Bond isn't about the gadgets (well until Moore, maybe), it's about a cool, smart dude who knows his way around a vagina.

A trendy gynecologist?

CaledonianGonzo

Bond should have been wearing a special jacket that ballooned out into a fire-retardent dome when he pulled a cord so as to protect him from the flames, like the one Brosnan conveniently happened to be wearing when he was avalanched in The World Is Not Enough.