Rediscovering FRWL and Fighting Bond Burnout

antiamadeus

Sometimes I get so caught up with the miscellanea of the Bond series that I lose sight of the films, themselves. Take FRWL, for instance. I've read the book many times and started thinking it was way better than the movie, particularly because I'd taken to heart criticisms of the film like that voiced by Robin Wood in Hitchchock's Films (he thought the helicopter attack [a sequence not in the book] was pointless action ripped off from North By Northwest); I refused to take the film seriously. I just finished watching the actual movie for the first time in probably 10 years. And I've been pleasantly surprised. You see, with a lot of the Bond films I have a habit of watching large swaths of the films with the commentary track on. This is (almost) a lose-lose. The film is less compelling, and I have the film's plot structure and visuals drilled into my brain, making the film, itself, less enjoyable when I finally watch it for real once more.

I had forgotten that Bond deliberately tells Tanya he'll rig the explosion at the Embassy for the 14th, only to execute his plan on the 13th so Tanya, if she's a double-agent, can't spring a trap on Bond. That kind of detail gets obscured when the commentary's running. Also, when Grant is matching Bond movement for movement at the train station, and Bond feels he's being watched, but doesn't spot Grant in the train windows shadowing him, the tension of the moment is dissipated because one can't hear the great Barry score. In fact, the very rhythms of the film, even the editing, seem defeated by the commentary. Maybe this is why Spielberg never allows a commentary track on his video discs.

Additionally, I've found that my enjoyment of the films has decreased as I learn more about how they are made. It's fun to have the commentary because it's like talking to a friend about a great movie, sharing the fun. But the surprises are lost, and the bloopers and mistakes become more apparent.

Sometimes I think the Bond commentaries, documentaries, and making-of books are doing little to make me a bigger Bond fan, and are actually turning me into a Bond academic.

superado

The paradox I suffer from, is that I'll read books about the films to death, having a several next to my bed and a couple in the bathroom, that I neglect to watch the actual movies! As a Bond fan, I think I transcended beyond the movies themselves, zeroing in to the metaphysical aspects of a particular movie to feed my unquenchable curiosity and fascination about the film series...and yet, I feel that I've barely scratched the surface and that there's some Illuminati quality of secret information about the Bond film series that's waiting to be unearthed. The same goes for the Bond books, primarily of course with the original novels and stories, and of course about Fleming, his life and career.

Gassy Man

I'm always intrigued by the process as much as the finished product, but I usually only watch a DVD with the commentary on once, and then only after having seen the film at least once before. Sometimes the commentaries are interesting, and sometimes they just seem like filler. I'm most interested in what the director has to say and least interested in what a producer has to say. Sometimes the actors are interesting.

But we have to remember, too, that we're still not seeing the films as they were originally projected on a screen in a movie theater in the time periods in which they were made. The digital experience only approximates what we would have seen, and in some cases, in an altered way. Commentaries on or off, we're not getting the complete experience.

heartbroken_mr_drax

^ Raise some great points about being a Bond fan - or for that matter - a fan of anything.

How much would you be prepared to pay to watch all the Bond films for the first time again?

superado

heartbroken_mr_drax wrote:

^ Raise some great points about being a Bond fan - or for that matter - a fan of anything.

How much would you be prepared to pay to watch all the Bond films for the first time again?

I've often wished that, to undergo some kind of memory-cleansing process before watching a beloved movie like when I re-watch TSWLM on the screen later in the month.

Napoleon Plural

Yes, but would that work? I mean, often we want to watch the film for the first time as we were back then, as kids. The pts is less of a surprise after the parachute stuff of later films, so you'd have to erase them.

I'd like to do a memory-cleaning process after watching a film like DAD...

superado

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Yes, but would that work? I mean, often we want to watch the film for the first time as we were back then, as kids. The pts is less of a surprise after the parachute stuff of later films, so you'd have to erase them.

I'd like to do a memory-cleaning process after watching a film like DAD...

I don't know about you, but Madonna's singing had me thumping and jittering in glee on the edge of my theater seat )