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Not to mention OP has some of the best stunts in the series. I think the only thing from TSWLM that could measure up is the Union Jack parachute moment.
I think it balances both, and that's why it's one of my favorite.
LALD seems to be getting a lot more love these days too.
It's essential to OP.
The funny thing is that my favourite Bonds of both types would be MR and FYEO respectively.
There isn’t a single film that captures everything Moore brought to the series, IMO.
That’s because it’s great!!
Personally I think Kananga is the best villain of the entire Moore era.
I don't think there's an enormous world of difference to him slapping his tie away from Sandor on the edge of that building to kicking the car over the cliff in FYEO. He also shoots Stromberg about five times in cold blood, and no quip after.
I've always found Stromberg's an odd death, as if emotionally it is meant for Blofeld and is a holdover from the many drafts.
We also get a strangely bloodthirsty Bond in GE and TND, but I chalk that up to the '90s action hero tropes of the time.
Good observations. Maibaum being back for TSWLM and Wood worked better than Dahl. YOLT just seems the most off of the classic '60s era.
You're right about Connery looking less than his best in YOLT and that only adds to my frustration with the film. There's a nice shot of him sweating after defeating the assassin in Osato's office as he's breaking into the safe that makes sense. But you can tell he's gained weight and the clothing he wears throughout isn't especially flattering. The best look he has is the Naval officer's outfit in his briefing with M. The heat of Japan couldn't have helped.
Yeah 'low key' isn't quite right but I couldn't think of a good way of summing it up! :)
You're right about Connery of course but I must admit I find the differences in Roger's Bond between directors more stark. He even gets a little more cuddly and 'new man'-ish with Glen.
It also puts pay to the lie that Roger Moore could only act in one way: he didn't even play Bond in only one way.
Yes, agreed; it is a bit out of nowhere. Bond seems genuinely angry with him (which is fine of course, he tried to blow up the world) but it almost feels personal, and yet for no reason.
Yeah, Bond murdering all of those innocent Russian soldiers in St Petersburg in GE is a hard one to reconcile. Imagine all of the years of diplomatic talks needed after that.
Consider if Roger's Bond had breezed through the streets of San Francisco in AVTAK happily mowing down police officers with a machine gun- it would be no different! :)
I think it was about dialing things back to an extent after DAF had Blofeld hijacking a space laser satellite. They wanted to start off Moore on a smaller scale mission no different than how Connery originally did with his first films. The aspect ratio reflected that scale. So once they got to TSWLM it felt right to finally give Moore a mission that broadened the scales, thus returned to a wider aspect ratio.
Personally, I don't think wider aspect ratios really make things more "epic". It doesn't matter what aspect ratio a film is so long as the filmmakers can still make it feel grand. After all, are all the square aspect ratio films from the first 50 years of cinema are "less" cinematic?
Is that what they've said? Seems a bit mad and not really like the Bond producers to think that way. Their mindset over the years has always seemed to be to make the next Bond film like it might be the last and throw everything at it. 'Biggest Bond Ever' and all that.
It would seem odd if they actually planned some stepping stones films before big ones. I thought Spy was bigger than its predecessors because that's the one where Cubby got sole control and he made it like he thought it should be made.
Well yeah, I think they are a bit.
Depends on how strict you're keeping your definition of 'cinematic' I guess.
We see that with Bond all the time through the years. Whenever the series gets too big we see it scale down. Like MR to FYEO. DAD to CR. In the instance of DAF to LALD, they returned to the narrower aspect ratio, and didn't go back to the wider one until it was called for.
As with so many stooopid things in these (and other films), a quick and easy revision of the script would take care of it.
LALD -- give Bond a high pressure hose, with helium (for whatever reason but say so along the way), which he gets into the villain (one end or the other) and it does the rest. Could even show it work on a shark first, and then two guys battle it out for who gets to blow up -- literally -- the other.
OHMSS -- if Bond goes back and sees Blofeld is not there, you'd need some reason that Bond leaves regardless of not seeing Blofeld's body. That's not easy. He cared about getting the guy. Could have Bond see the body drop from the branch, quite dead-looking, perhaps sees a spray of blood. Bond gets swept away by a pair of emergency medical folks into an ambulance to be checked. Maybe even have Bond ask the medical people "what about that guy ?" and a med person kneeling over the fallen body of Blofeld shakes his head, as if to say, "too late for this guy."
SP -- Bond is using a boat left by other MI6 folks. Have the boat equipped with a powerful automatic fire rifle of very large caliber -- and have that set up and described earlier. So THEN when he shoots a helicopter down, with both the chopper and his own vehicle in motion, from a distance, he gets off more than a shot or two, and not from a handgun.
Of course, I also would ensure each film ends on or in the water, as they did at first -- including GF which messed that up !
Those ones aren’t really smaller scale though, just different in tone. There is something about those first two Rogers which feels slightly less ambitious at times. The rather small and unpopulated villains’ lairs for example, both having Bond-less PTS…
TMWTGG and AVTAK.
The first one is really atmospherical and introduces the villain and his weapon expertly. Also love the blatant Tabasco ad that's been squeezed in :)).
The second one is Bond behind enemy lines, which is always a treat. Great stunts and score. Love the Iceberg sub too. Wouldn't mind taking that one for a spin, or uhm float/dive.
Yes, the LALD Mr Big death is genuinely the only moment in the series that I am embarrassed by. (Maybe also the scene in OP - which I otherwise love - when Bond points the camera at the lady's cleavage. Horrible). Big's death is cartoonish, and doesn't go with the rest of the film. It completely takes the viewer out of the narrative and looks quite frankly f****** stupid and completely incompetent from a filmmaking perspective. When I saw this on the big screen people burst out laughing, and not in a good way. Embarrassing is the only word I can use. The nonsense science behind why he elevates is the least of the problem!
With OHMSS I suppose they wanted the surprise of the post wedding attack. If we had seen Blofeld had escaped audiences would have anticipated the attack. When I saw this on the big screen those people who hadn't seen the film previously were completely shocked and silenced by the ending. It really had an impact. But yes, it doesn't make sense for nobody to check the lack of body.
As for the end of SP, it's always been utter rubbish. And as has been stated many many times, Bond's small calibre bullets would have been lucky to even touch the helicopter, let alone shoot it down.
That actually is fairly controversial liking the AVTAK opening, but I’m absolutely with you! I think it’s brilliant fun.
I like the AVTAK PTS. I feel like if the original score was edited in and the California Girls music was removed, it would be appreciated a lot more.
Yes because the score is great other than that. I think it's a really great PTS personally.