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November 28, 2008
JUST LIKE THE MOONRAKER FLIES
Here's something to tide over the post-Thanksgiving Tedium
---- ANDY RANKS THE BOND MOVIES -----
22 DIE ANOTHER DAY
21 A VIEW TO A KILL
20 FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
19 THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
18 QUANTAM OF SOLACE
17 LICENSE TO KILL
16 OCTOPUSSY
15 THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
14 LIVE AND LET DIE
13 GOLDENEYE
12 THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
11 DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
10 CASINO ROYALE
9 TOMORROW NEVER DIES
8 MOONRAKER
7 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
6 THUNDERBALL
5 THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
4 DR. NO
3 GOLDFINGER
2 ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
1 FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
--- ANDY RANKS THE TOP 10 BOND SONGS -----
10 THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN - Lulu
9 TOMORROW NEVER DIES - Sheryl Crow
8 LIVE AND LET DIE - Paul McCartney
7 FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE - Matt Monro
6 DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER - Shirley Bassey
5 THE SPY WHO LOVED ME - Carly Simon ("Nobody Does It Better")
4 MOONRAKER - Shirley Bassey
3 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE - Nancy Sinatra
2 GOLDFINGER - Shirley Bassey
1 ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE - John Barry (instrumental)
--- ANDY RANKS THE TOP 10 VILLAINS (NOT HENCHMEN) -----
10 Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance), YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
9 Karl Stromberg, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
8 Eliot Carver, TOMORROW NEVER DIES
7 Emilio Largo, THUNDERBALL
6 Hugo Drax, MOONRAKER
5 Scaramanga, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
4 Dr. No, DR. NO
3 Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
2 Rosa Kreb, Grant, Kronstein, Blofeld, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
1 Auric Goldfinger, GOLDFINGER
--- ANDY RANKS THE TOP 10 BOND GIRLS (THIS LIST IS ENTIRELY SUBJECTIVE AND POSSIBLY MISOGYNISTIC) ---
Vesper Lynd, CASINO ROYALE
Wai Lin, TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Pam Bouvier, LICENSE TO KILL
Holly Goodhead (ha!), MOONRAKER
Pussy Galore, GOLDFINGER
Kissy Suzuki, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
Honey Rider, DR. NO
Tracy Di Vicenzo, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
XXX, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
Tatiana Romanova, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
A few thoughts:
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is not only my favorite Bond movie; it's one of my favorite movies. It may be the best USA v. Russia spy movie, and its premises / villains / Macguffins make it unrelentingly suspenseful. Back in the old days of the James Bond marathons, I taped three movies off TNT - one of them was RUSSIA. However, the tape ran out as Bond and Tatiana were escaping on a train. So I did not get to see Bond's infamous fight with Grant (played by Robert Shaw, who later become an icon in JAWS) in the compartment of the train. My Dad told me about it, and it made me so excited that I had to rent it. This movie has gypsy fights, nerve gas, boat chases, train fights, a briefcase, a guy who escapes through a woman's eye, catacombs, an evil chess genius who is plotting the demise of the world, a lesbian with a knife in her shoe, a wonderful macguffin of a decoding machine, a base where bad guys train to become badder guys, an obstacle course where the object is to kill James Bond . . . amazing.
I recently rewatched THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and found it on many levels to be a perfect action movie. But (as with all the Roger Moore efforts) it lacks the urgency of the Connery movies. In his recent biography - which I really want to read - Moore said that he conceived the character of Bond as a "giggler and a lover." I can see that, and I think Moore plays that giggler well; he's a fit rogue, good with a cigarette lighter and impeccably tailored suits. I've always seen Roger Moore was a poor man's Richard Burton. But in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, Scaramanga accuses him of being a psychopath, and that just doesn't stick to a guy who giggles as much as more.
Regarding QUANTAM OF SOLACE . . . I don't know. I didn't do a whole lot for me, even though I was really excited about it. Its villain was all bark, little bite. There was a subvillain who existed solely so the Bond girl could have a reason to exist. The action was straight out of a Rube Goldberg cartoon.
Daniel Craig looks constipated most of the time he's playing Bond, or like he's thinking really really hard, which I translate as humorless, but most read as cool (For Timothy Dalton, this was a problem; for Craig, an asset). These movies have completely appropriated the aesthetic of the BOURNE identity movies, and to a lesser degree the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE series, except they still have to have Bond being Bond: wearing a tuxedo, cracking wise, and sleeping with impossibly good-looking attaches. Craig's grand idea (a smart one, apparently) is to have the archetypal, suave Bond be the act, while the ferocious, acrobatic Bond is the reality. In other words, a 180 from Roger Moore . . . this is the direction I think the series would have gone if George Lazenby had continued the role.
The story was uninteresting, but at least it snapped along quickly. As you can tell by my top ten villains list, I like a villain with a plan that involves somehow taking over the human race, and this guy just wanted to cause a drought. It ends with a pretty exciting fight in a hotel, but there's no real stakes. Unlike THE DARK KNIGHT, which deepened and made more relevant an old franchise, the latest Bond is passable entertainment.
| By Andytown | 10:19 AM
Comments
Andy,
Good list. How about listing your top 10 opening scenes from Bond movies. I would love to see where THE SPY WHO LOVED ME ended up on that list.
Posted by: Harvey at November 28, 2008 5:51 PM