Time Capsule Bond

edited September 2013 in Bond Movies Posts: 2,483
One of the marvels of cinematic Bond is how well the films tend to capture the time and place in which they are set. They accomplish this feat because they are so fixated on aesthetics. Thus the camera dwells on the beauty and grandeur of exotic locations, the design (cars, for instance) of the era, the fashion and personal grooming. But some films pull this off more effectively than others.

To my mind, DAF is the ultimate time capsule Bond. It illuminates classic Las Vegas in its waning years. Alas, a Las Vegas that is no more. And through its otherworldly atmospherics, DAF captures the strangeness of the early seventies in the Western world.

Which Bond film is your ultimate time capsule?

Comments

  • Posts: 140
    Live and Let Die, the Bondsploitation film.

    "Get me a make on a white pimp-mobile!"
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited September 2013 Posts: 17,687
    TMWTGG- time capsule of the energy crisis, Kung Fu fighting, and Fantasy Island. :))
    Though I have to say, DAF was the strangest transitional movie, with roots in the 60's yet in a 70's motif.
  • Posts: 140
    DAF is arguably the weirdest of all Bond films, period.
  • Went straight away for On Her Majestys Secret Service. It brought to an end the 1960s (an era I can still just about recall often enough) and seems now a release of the times, from the opening beach rescue, through the alpine locations, up until the very end, just seems to encapsulate that time period. The sugar coated 1960s were just about at an end, and a new decade, and new Bond, would be on it's way, so retrospectively, I look back on that as one particular release
  • 00Ed wrote:
    DAF is arguably the weirdest of all Bond films, period.

    Benign Bizarre, I like to call it.



    ;)
  • Posts: 12,506
    I think DAF has to be the one too for me. Always brings a smile to my face when I sit down to that movie.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,730
    00Ed wrote:
    DAF is arguably the weirdest of all Bond films, period.

    Benign Bizarre, I like to call it.



    ;)

    Yes, and with extra lashings of the bizarre as a side salad. It must be a Guy Hamilton thing.
  • Posts: 14,800
    The early Connery ones I think encapsulated their time period perfectly. OHMSS in a way I find very contemporary, ahead of its time with its bacteriological warfare and threat on livestock.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,730
    AVTAK was a time capsule of the 1980s culture, it seemed to me.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Maybe FYEO, as Thatcher is in it?
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 23,449
    FYEO for me. The music, the way people dress, the political tension, ... I was born a year after the release of FYEO yet when watching the film it almost feels like I have consciously experienced those times. The music, however, is no more. People don't dress like that anymore lest they make a fool of themselves. And the politics have changed.

    But despite all that, I truthfully think that many Bond films work well as time capsules.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    60's YOLT. Pretty much the movie that other spy movies tried to imitate.
    70's MR: The movie that cashed in on the 70's sci fi craze.
    80's LTK: While good, it's compaired to generic 80's action flicks.
    90's TND: A big action flick with a touch of kung fu elements.
    2000's DAD: Early 2000's experimental CGI fest.
  • Posts: 1,817
    Well in terms of the political context, FRWL is a good (but fictional) representation of the Cold War, while LTK feels very contemporary to the rise of the drug lords. GE it's a natural mirror of the Post-War era, from the political point of view but also from the technological.
  • Murdock wrote:
    60's YOLT. Pretty much the movie that other spy movies tried to imitate.
    70's MR: The movie that cashed in on the 70's sci fi craze.
    80's LTK: While good, it's compaired to generic 80's action flicks.
    90's TND: A big action flick with a touch of kung fu elements.
    2000's DAD: Early 2000's experimental CGI fest.

    That's one way of looking at things

    1960s - You Only Live Twice (space exploration, set a kind of bar for others to follow on, as mentioned)

    1970s - Live and Let Die (blaxploitation, rise of narcotics, surreal voodoo element)

    1980s - The Living Daylights (Russians in Afghanistan, European culture, Bond becomes serious once again)

    1990s - Tomorrow Never Dies - (the rise in technologies, cell phones, computer hardware, China is big business, change in industry)

    2000s - Casino Royale - (even more advanced technologies, a real feel of the 21st century, global escapades)
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