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Comments
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 10
2. Use of Bond Theme – 9
3. Style – 10
4. Romance – 10
5. Excitement – 8
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 8
8. Iconography – 7
9. Epicness – 8
10. Timelessness – 9
Final Score - 87%
It was the end of an era and Barry's score reflected that. There are callbacks to all of the previous films and yet DAF still manages to have it's own unique vibe as it ushered in the 70's. I love the variety of sounds here. While it's probably not his greatest achievement, I think it might be his most creative.
The Bond Theme and 007 take us back to Connery's early adventures. Some of the big, brassy moments and of course Shirley Bassey herself remind us of Goldfinger. The beginning of "To Hell With Blofeld" is reminiscent of Thunderball when the divers jump into the water. There are also some more atmospheric tones that make me think of TB as well. 007 And Counting is an evolution of the Capsule in Space. I can also see the connections to OHMSS in both the romantic and suspenseful numbers.
Whatever faults the film may have, the score is not one of them.
pachazo's picks
1) YOLT - 93%
2) OHMSS - 92%
3) DAF - 87%
4) TB - 83%
5) GF - 82%
6) FRWL - 73%
7) DN - 52%
On Her Majesty's Secret Service – 95.08%
You Only Live Twice – 89.72%
Goldfinger – 86%
Diamonds Are Forever – 85.4%
Thunderball - 85.08%
From Russia With Love - 77.5%
Casino Royale '67 - 70.87
Dr. No - 51.45%
Just squeaking in between Goldfinger and Thunderball!
See you later for the next 'un.....
James Bond will return, in Live and Let Die..
Live and Let Die, 1973
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 9
2. Use of Bond Theme – 9 (Bond goes funky!)
3. Style – 9 (what can I say, I really dig this style)
4. Romance – 8
5. Excitement – 8
6. Brass – 7
7. Suspense – 8
8. Iconography – 9 (the theme song alone makes it fairly iconic)
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 7 (funk screams 70's. Also that music when the movie opens up in NYC for the U.N conference, dates it)
81/100
royale's Rankings -
On Her Majesty's Secret Service – 98%
You Only Live Twice – 94%
Goldfinger – 94%
Diamonds Are Forever 90%
Thunderball – 89%
From Russia With Love – 83%
Live and Let Die – 81%
Dr. No – 69%
Casino Royale, '67 – 62%
Hmm, I expected LALD's score to beat FRWL. But not so. I kinda like Martin's score.
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 8
2. Use of Bond Theme – 8
3. Style – 10
4. Romance – 7
5. Excitement – 9
6. Brass – 9
7. Suspense – 7
8. Iconography – 8
9. Epicness – 8
10. Timelessness – 8
82/100
1. Theme Song – 8
2. Use of Bond Theme – 9
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 6
5. Excitement - 8
6. Brass – 7
7. Suspense – 8
8. Iconography – 7
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 7
75%
Tanaka123 Rankings
You Only Live Twice - 89%
Goldfinger - 86%/ On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 86%
Thunderball - 81%
Diamonds Are Forever - 79%
Live and Let Die - 75%
From Russia with Love - 74%
Dr. No - 52%
1. Theme Song – 8
2. Use of Bond Theme – 7
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 7
5. Excitement - 9
6. Brass – 7
7. Suspense – 7
8. Iconography – 7
9. Epicness – 8
10. Timelessness – 7
Overall: 75%
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: 97%
You Only Live Twice: 93%
Thunderball: 85%
From Russia with Love: 78%
Diamonds Are Forever: 78%
Goldfinger: 77%
Live and Let Die: 75%
Dr. No: 49%
1. Theme Song – 10 (LALD is a great song, both Macca's original version and the forgotten gem that is B.J. Arnau's alternative performance on "Fillet Of Soul". George Martin even creates a couple of 'Bond Themes' by himself).
2. Use of Bond Theme – 10 (A couple of covers by George Martin, including a rousing version for the car chase in New York).
3. Style – 10 (it's been praised by quite a number of Blaxplotation fans as a fine effort, and more being from a man that had little - did he produce Billy Preston in his stay in England? - to no background on funk. IMHO, though, it sounds a lot like did Santana on that time, rather than purely R&B or funky).
4. Romance – 8 (some sweet pieces, but nothing to write home for)
5. Excitement - 10 (it always manages to acomany the action: eerie, sweet, funny or suspenseful, Martin shows a Barry-esque sense of action)
6. Brass – 9 (not as flashy as DAF, but it's everywhere, especially the flutes)
7. Suspense – 9 (not in the Barry levels, but does a fantastic job)
8. Iconography – 8 (a fine Blaxplotation piece, but it's not Shaft, Superfly, Trouble Man, Coffey, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off or Two Tough Guys)
9. Epicness – 7 ("exciting" does not mean "epic", but it does its job nicely)
10. Timelessness – 7 (hip as fuck! But a bit dated nowadays)
Another 88/100 %. A product of its time, not the most original score you'll hear, but it works fantastically for this kind of film.
BLM's Rankings
DN: 35 %
FRWL: 79 %
CR'67: 81 %
DAF: 84 %
TB and YOLT: 86 %
DAF and LALD: 88 %
GF: 91 %
OHMSS:99%
1. Implementation of Theme Song – 10
2. Use of Bond Theme – 10
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 9
5. Excitement - 10
6. Brass – 6
7. Suspense – 6
8. Iconography – 8
9. Epicness – 8
10. Timelessness – 7
82%
Great score.
MayDay's score ranking
DN- 42%
FRWL- 78%
GF- 91%
TB- 78%
CR'67- 62%
YOLT- 92%
OHMSS- 98%
DAF- 79%
LALD- 82%
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 10
2. Use of Bond Theme – 8
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 8
5. Excitement – 9
6. Brass – 7
7. Suspense – 8
8. Iconography – 8
9. Epicness – 8
10. Timelessness – 7
Final Score: 81%
vzok ratings:
OHMSS - 93
Diamonds - 89
You Only Live Twice - 84
Live And Let Die - 81
From Russia - 76
CR67 - 75
Thunderball - 75
Goldfinger - 73
Dr No - 56
1. Theme Song – 7 (It's good, not great though, at least IMO)
2. Use of Bond Theme - 6 (One of my least favorite renditions of the Bond Theme)
3. Style – 6
4. Romance – 6 (Mediocre)
5. Excitement - 8 (Some good moments)
6. Brass – 9
7. Suspense - 5 (few)
8. Iconography – 5
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 2 (outdated before it was released?)
61%
DD's Rankings
Dr. No – 57%
Live And Let Die - 61%
Casino Royale '67 - 66%
From Russia With Love - 77%
Goldfinger - 82%
Thunderball - 83%
You Only Live Twice - 85%
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 89%
Diamonds Are Forever - 93%
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 10
2. Use of Bond Theme – 9
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 8
5. Excitement – 9
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 8
8. Iconography – 7
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 6
Final Score - 80%
Bring the funk! What a great score. Clearly one of the finest non-Barry efforts. Yes, it's extremely dated but I enjoy that aspect of it in a long running series such as this. Both the theme song and the Bond theme are interwoven effortlessly into the mix. I sure miss that attribute in today's Bond scores. Thankfully, this one is exciting, exotic and full of soul.
pachazo's picks
1) YOLT - 93%
2) OHMSS - 92%
3) DAF - 87%
4) TB - 83%
5) GF - 82%
6) LALD - 80%
7) FRWL - 73%
8) DN - 52%
On Her Majesty's Secret Service – 95.08%
You Only Live Twice – 89.72%
Goldfinger – 86%
Diamonds Are Forever – 85.4%
Thunderball – 85.08%
Live and Let Die - 79.6%
From Russia With Love - 77.5%
Casino Royale '67 - 70.87
Dr. No – 51.45%
There you go. LALD is just ahead of FRWL, but several points of the big hitters. A worthy effort from Mr. Martin nonetheless.
See you later for the next 'un...
James Bond will return in The Man With The Golden Gun...
The Man With The Golden Gun, 1974
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 7 (I dislike the theme song, but Barry used it well)
2. Use of Bond Theme – 7 (A bit too comic for my taste)
3. Style – 7
4. Romance – 7
5. Excitement – 6
6. Brass – 7
7. Suspense – 7 (apart from “In Search of Scaramanga's Island” and “Return to Scaramanga's Island”, not much to write home about)
8. Iconography – 6
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 8 (pretty good actually)
69/100
royale's Rankings -
On Her Majesty's Secret Service – 98%
You Only Live Twice – 94%
Goldfinger – 94%
Diamonds Are Forever 90%
Thunderball – 89%
From Russia With Love – 83%
Live and Let Die – 81%
The Man With The Golden Gun – 69%
Dr. No – 69%
Casino Royale, '67 – 62%
Not surprising as Barry only had three weeks to score the film.
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 9 (great and very memorable melody used in the film)
2. Use of Bond Theme – 7
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 5
5. Excitement – 8
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 6
8. Iconography – 8
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 8
74/100
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 8
2. Use of Bond Theme – 8
3. Style – 5
4. Romance – 6
5. Excitement – 6
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 7
8. Iconography – 5
9. Epicness – 6
10. Timelessness – 8
Final Score - 67%
There's a reason why Barry considered this his weakest effort. Not that it's bad, mind you. I'm not a fan of Lulu's title song and the jazz rendition isn't much better. The Fun House pieces, while intriguing, drag on for too long and lose some suspense in the process. All in all, there are some nice moments to be had here but so much of it is unmemorable compared to Barry's other contributions. Is that fair? Probably not, but there you have it.
pachazo's picks
1) YOLT - 93%
2) OHMSS - 92%
3) DAF - 87%
4) TB - 83%
5) GF - 82%
6) LALD - 80%
7) FRWL - 73%
8) TMWTGG - 67%
9) DN - 52%
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 9
2. Use of Bond Theme – 8
3. Style – 7
4. Romance – 5
5. Excitement – 7
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 10 (Scaramanga's funhouse)
8. Iconography – 7
9. Epicness – 6
10. Timelessness – 7
74/100
74%
MayDay's score ranking
DN- 42%
FRWL- 78%
GF- 91%
TB- 78%
CR'67- 62%
YOLT- 92%
OHMSS- 98%
DAF- 79%
LALD- 82%
TMWTGG- 74%
1. Theme Song – 3 (terrible song. Annoying and repetitive, and poor Lulu only makes things worse screaming her lungs up. She's great on soul covers (I like her covering my beloved Isley Bros.'s Shout) and bouncy kiddy party music like Boom-Bang-A-Bang or Nellie The Elephant, but this one wasn't for her. I'd rather would have taken the unoriginal but more listenable Alice Cooper's song. The instrumentals make it sound better, but... Nope, not my type).
2. Use of Bond Theme – 5 (there'a nice string-driven cover here... Pampered by the infamous slide whistle).
3. Style – 7 (yep, if you like jazzy scores, you can enjoy this one. And contains nice oriental touches, just not as fortunate and epic as YOLT's)
4. Romance – 6 (sounds good enough, but the title track is not the most romantic piece to work on to start up. And it's everywhere!).
5. Excitement - 6 (It's Barry, so excitement comes with the name, but it's a minor effort, and, in the middle of the best piece of action, he screwed up with the aforementioned slide whistle).
6. Brass – 10 (this one is a winner here. It can be uninspired, but very brassy)
7. Suspense – 6 (not bad, but not that suspenseful, and more coming by a master of this kind of music like Barry).
8. Iconography – 3 (dull score is dull. Nothing else to say)
9. Epicness – 6 (nothing special, seriously)
10. Timelessness – 8 (OK, another pro: this one is quite timeless. It would fit nicely on a film of the sixties, as it would on a film of the present decade).
66/100 % : Barry brings us a competent but otherwise poor and derivative score between two masterpieces like his soundtracks for DAF and MR. At least it's short.
BLM's Rankings
DN: 35 %
TMWTGG: 66 %
FRWL: 79 %
CR'67: 81 %
DAF: 84 %
TB and YOLT: 86 %
DAF and LALD: 88 %
GF: 91 %
OHMSS:99%
1. Theme Song – 7 - when did this become 'the implementation of the theme'?
2. Use of Bond Theme – 7
3. Style – 7
4. Romance – 6
5. Excitement - 6
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 7
8. Iconography – 5
9. Epicness – 6
10. Timelessness – 7
66%
Tanaka123 Rankings
You Only Live Twice - 89%
Goldfinger - 86%/ On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 86%
Thunderball - 81%
Diamonds Are Forever - 79%
Live and Let Die - 75%
From Russia with Love - 74%
The Man with the Golden Gun - 66%
Dr. No - 52%
I want us the rate the Bond scores, out of ten, on all these key elements -
1. Theme Song - Implementation of the theme song
2. Use of Bond Theme - not how much the Bond theme is in the movie, but does the film use the Bond theme effectively and succinctly.
3. Style – Bond scores are meant to have the élan, sophistication and danger of the man himself.
4. Romance
5. Excitement
6. Brass – what is a Bond score with out the big brassy sounds, implemented by the great man himself, John Barry?
7. Suspense
8. Iconography – when hearing the score you know it is a Bond film, with a capital “B”.
9. Epicness – does the score wow you with its scale.
10. Timelessness – does it feel dated, or just as fresh when it was first released?
1. Implementation of the Theme Song – 6
2. Use of Bond Theme – 6
3. Style – 7
4. Romance – 6
5. Excitement – 7
6. Brass – 9
7. Suspense – 6
8. Iconography – 6
9. Epicness – 6
10. Timelessness – 8
Final Score: 67%
vzok ratings:
OHMSS - 93
Diamonds - 89
You Only Live Twice - 84
Live And Let Die - 81
From Russia - 76
CR67 - 75
Thunderball - 75
Goldfinger - 73
Golden Gun - 67
Dr No - 56
I have a few questions:
To 1: So is it not the theme song itself, but how it is used by the composer in the film. What if the composer does not use it? Is it a 0/10?
To 2: Again. What if the composer (mainly Barry) does not really use it in the film? I think of some films when it is not really used because Barry prefered the main theme of the film instead. I also think the Bond theme is rather used too often in some films (Dr No, FRWL). OHMSS also has one of the most misplaced use of it in the end after Tracy's death. I still think it is not necessary to have the Bond theme in the film as long as there is no iconic Bond moment (parachute opens in TSWLM).
2. Depends on your point of view, either you love the "Bond Theme" playing over everything, or you prefer it more subdued, rank it according to your preference.
Okay. Good to know.
The Bond theme should just play over everything in every Bond film.
1. Theme Song – 7
2. Use of Bond Theme – 7
3. Style – 8
4. Romance – 7
5. Excitement - 8
6. Brass – 8
7. Suspense – 8
8. Iconography – 8
9. Epicness – 9
10. Timelessness – 7
Overall: 77%
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: 97%
You Only Live Twice: 93%
Thunderball: 85%
From Russia with Love: 78%
Diamonds Are Forever: 78%
Goldfinger: 77%
The Man with the Golden Gun: 77%
Live and Let Die: 75%
Dr. No: 49%
In a previous job, I was a forklift driver at a warehouse, and would play the Bond Theme full blast on Spotify while getting pallets from the shelves. They were high up, so the stakes were Bondian enough. High price Italian tiles.
I think it was the fridge. I could not stop laughing. It's in hin FRWL review.
1. Theme Song – 8 (underrated IMO)
2. Use of Bond Theme - 8 (I think Barry made better use of the Theme Song here than in some of the previous instalments.)
3. Style – 7
4. Romance – 6 (I like the theme song reworked but it never does get very romantic)
5. Excitement - 8
6. Brass – 9
7. Suspense - 8 (The Funhouse moments... I think they are very suspenseful!)
8. Iconography – 7
9. Epicness – 7
10. Timelessness – 7
75%
DD's Rankings
Dr. No – 57%
Live And Let Die - 61%
Casino Royale '67 - 66%
The Man With The Golden Gun - 75%
From Russia With Love - 77%
Goldfinger - 82%
Thunderball - 83%
You Only Live Twice - 85%
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 89%
Diamonds Are Forever - 93%