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Yes, I need to fully check which Bond novel it appears in but I think it might be DAF.
The four year break did Connery good and that’s mainly why he’s back on form in DAF.Even if he wasn’t in the best shape,although I will still maintain the controversial opinion that the elevator fight is his best on screen scrap in the franchise.
Even better than the fisticuffs between Bond and Grant on the Orient Express in FRWL?
That is controversial.
It's a great film. If I washed up on a desert island and that was the only film available I'd be happy. But where does it rank in my list of Bond movies? Pretty near the bottom. It lacks any sort of serious edge, and as other posters have said, it is like a posh and superior version of a Matt Helm movie.
As for Connery, it really is alarming how a man can lose that much muscle tone in such a short space of time. I guess he was living the good life. But his swagger and line delivery is great, and sharper that in YOLT (though that could be the script).
Not sure any of what I have written is a controversial opinion, but thought I would leave these thoughts here.
Agreed, but it is preceded by Bond pretending to kiss himself, and succeeded by him announcing he's killed James Bond.
I will say this, when I was about 8 and the TV ad for the screening of DAF on TV was aired, they showed the 'You just killed James Bond' line. All I can say is that everyone in the play ground was talking about it and couldn't wait to watch the movie on TV that night.
This. You have to play to the film you're in.
It doesn't help that I prefer everything about the first four as well.
I don't know, I rewatched it recently and found it marred by comedy moments. The elbow breaking glass that triggers it, the foam, etc. I find it a tad too comedic and I'm always surprised when people compare it with the fight with Grant.
And on a side note, it seems this thread often becomes a DAF thread.
Thank you, @Thrasos. How kind of you.
I think that since it's a loathed film by many on this forum, the people that do enjoy it are shedding some positives that make it controversial. After watching some of it the other night, I do see some parallels from the novel. Bond is undercover as a diamond smuggler trying not to blow his cover and I think I'll retcon my statement from earlier about he doesn't really play James Bond, because up until Tiffany finds out who he really is, he's impersonating Franks. This isn't the same Bond from the first 4 films and that's understandable and probably why amongst other reasons that Connery came back.
In terms of fight choreography,and filming,I prefer the DAF fight.The Orient fight is very darkly lit and frenetic ( I get it,that’s the point ).The confined space of fighting in the lift I find very suspenseful and i think John Barry brings the fight music in at just the right moment ( When Bond looks like he’s going to get decapitated when the lift passes a floor ).
Also love the one liner when Tiffany asks “ Is he dead? “
Bond : “ I shinscerly hope sho ! “
Well here's my controversial statement: had they decided to go full French Connection with DAF and make it a low key, serious, straight crime flick, it would have been just as successful, as long as Sean Connery played Bond.
Good point but perhaps that's not what people wanted then. I wasn't alive in 71, so I am very unclear about the box office picture at that time.
That was always a big thing when I was growing up, anticipating what movie was coming on that weekend, or sometimes during the week, and talking about it the next day on the bus, at the lunch table or playground. Sometimes we'd even play scenes from that movie on the playground. Planet of the Apes was big with us. When I was a kid, it was before even cable was available in my area and we were at the mercy of the big 3 networks here in the U.S.
I think Connery already looks like he's already getting out of shape by YOLT. Not bad, but also not even near his TB look either, which wasn't near his initial DN look. There's a photo of the ninja training sequence where he's being instructed by a British special forces member and that guy looks a lot older but he is ripped compared to how Connery looked then.
I don't think he's too bad in DAF, but I've read accounts that Connery signed so late that he simply didn't have time to get into better shape before shooting started. Then again, he could've just said "Take me as I am" and they just wanted the man as is and the box office proved it didn't matter.
Isn't it also interesting how Craig wasn't that far off Connery's age in DAF when he started playing Bond and put a lot of emphasis on how he appeared physically?
Ironically I laugh more from many of the films that are deemed "gritty" or "more serious". I think I laugh more from the scenes with Q in LTK than I do in all of DAF, and I think Sanchez one line of "launder it" is more amusing than anything Grey's Blofeld says or does. And that's only one example.
Maybe they didn't want that, but I suspect they'd be happy with whatever movie they'd get, as long as Connery was going to play Bond.
I’m not a big DAF fan but it has some of the best lines in the series I’d say; the early 70s ones all had that in common.
I tend to think of Connery's physique in this film as the aftermath of Tracy's death. Bond has been in mourning off screen and let himself go a bit. By the PTS, however he's ready for revenge and ready to move on.
Very good point. I think Guy Hamilton's Bond films tend to play like the best Matt Helm films ever made while Lewis Gilbert's Bond films play like the best Derek Flint films ever made. Terence Young and Peter Hunt were the truest to Fleming's Bond IMHO.
Note this is not necessarily a criticism of Hamilton and Gilbert on my part as much as it is an observation. In fact I tend to prefer the Bond films made by the first 4 007 directors during the 1962-1979 period to the majority of Bond films that followed except for TLD, OP and CR.
Yes, they say so. I just don't get it... Do you have an example of lines you think are particularly good?
Personaly I think Thunderball has the cleverest puns. And as previously stated there are other great ones sprinkled across various "serious" films I think are better.
I see what you're saying. The broad comedy such as the elephant hitting the jackpot, Blofeld in drag, Wint and Kidd's antics, etc. do detract. But I think it's more about some of the double-entendres that come across - "There's something I'd like you to get off your chest," "You've caught me with more than my hands up," "Named after your father perhaps." DAF was my first new Bond film in a cinema when I was I was just a kid but I recall my family members giggling at these lines and others. Now I can see how some of those could be cringey now. But it was a thing of its time. I've always appreciated them.
If one can actually put aside the disappointment of not being an OHMSS direct sequel they'll find some nice dialogue between Bond and Blofeld and with Tiffany then it's fun to watch on that level. But I get it's not for everyone.
I laugh at LTK too, but it's usually when Talisa Soto tries to act.
It's a better written film than at least the three preceding Connery films. DAF has a very solid through line in the plotting. It moves from A to B to C to D in a logical way pretty much to the end of the film. Bond uses his wits in an undercover investigative role and it's brilliantly done, even if some of the characters and set pieces might be a little too off-the-wall for some (I think they're great).
Contrasting this film with preceding films, it's not hard to understand why Connery, referring to the script, thought it would be his best (at least beforehand). YOLT makes little effort to tie its nonsensical set pieces together. TB relies heavily on multiple coincidences, has two suspense-free battles even after the bad guys have lost, and seems to have been rearranged in editing. GF resolves its plot offscreen before the third act even starts and features a relatively incompetent and powerless Bond.
And the humor is wonderful. "Named after your father, perhaps". "More than my hands up". "Small world". "If we blow up Kansas the world may not hear about it for years". "Alimentary". "I feel much safer with this on"...there's loads. I don't mean to knock Thunderball, which I also like, but I think the fan love for dad jokes like "I think he got the point" is a little silly. Those are fine I guess, but if you really like them, I suggest investing in as many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies as you can get!
EDIT: I just remembered the bit I find to be the funniest moment in the movie: when Tiffany says "Hi, Ernst!" to Blofeld. It's hilarious. The deliberate self-satire in this movie is well done, and in also supplying a decent Bond story, I really think DAF manages to have its cake and eat it too.
Now that's controversial!