Diamonds Are Forever - Weirdest Bond film?
Doctor Who
Posts: 62MI6 Agent
Don't get me wrong, I love DAF...But something feels very...almost macabre about it. It has a very gloomy, almost depressing atmosphere to it, which makes it somehow unwittingly spooky (as opposed to the calculated over the top spookiness of Live and Let Die). Unlike the next film there's no voodoo or supernatural powers to be found here, yet an ever present, sleazy, shady sort of gloom hangs over the film, a funereal and surreal atmosphere. It has an atmosphere unlike any of the other Bond movies, really.
Let's say we skip OHMSS for a minute and pretend DAF is more a direct sequel to YOLT - The differences become even more profound. YOLT is a truly epic film, the stakes are high, the locations gorgeous and exotic, Connery tan and looking his best if in slightly less than peak physical form, Blofeld is not the cold and calculating thug he is in From Russia With Love, but rather a truly mad diabolical criminal mastermind. Blofeld in DAF seems shoehorned into the plot and the casting of Charles Gray seems such an odd choice. His and Bond's relationship in the film seems more Sherlock and Moriarty than anything else. In YOLT, he seems not to think very highly of Bond and wants him dead; in DAF he seems almost amused - and not really even all that concerned - about Bond's persistence - it's a trifle to him more than any real thorn in his side. SPECTRE seems truly devastated - Bond's basically eliminated everyone capable and he's left with the sadistic and unhinged Wynt and Kidd.
The film just seems to reflect the faded sleaze of the 70s as compared to the glittering 1960s. Blofeld isn't pitting world powers against each other by playing international chess - he's making lasers using diamond smuggling. Bond goes from being the aggressive, seductive lover to laying in a Vegas bed with an ash tray on his chest after a round of lovemaking. Bond is puffy, greying, out of place in the 1970s but not a punchline - but he's clearly an over the hill 00 both physically and mentally it seems.
The whole film really is just surreal, jaded, and oddly depressing and yet at the same time intoxicating. It's silly and over the top - but it has an atmosphere that makes the silliness almost creepy.
Does anyone agree?
Let's say we skip OHMSS for a minute and pretend DAF is more a direct sequel to YOLT - The differences become even more profound. YOLT is a truly epic film, the stakes are high, the locations gorgeous and exotic, Connery tan and looking his best if in slightly less than peak physical form, Blofeld is not the cold and calculating thug he is in From Russia With Love, but rather a truly mad diabolical criminal mastermind. Blofeld in DAF seems shoehorned into the plot and the casting of Charles Gray seems such an odd choice. His and Bond's relationship in the film seems more Sherlock and Moriarty than anything else. In YOLT, he seems not to think very highly of Bond and wants him dead; in DAF he seems almost amused - and not really even all that concerned - about Bond's persistence - it's a trifle to him more than any real thorn in his side. SPECTRE seems truly devastated - Bond's basically eliminated everyone capable and he's left with the sadistic and unhinged Wynt and Kidd.
The film just seems to reflect the faded sleaze of the 70s as compared to the glittering 1960s. Blofeld isn't pitting world powers against each other by playing international chess - he's making lasers using diamond smuggling. Bond goes from being the aggressive, seductive lover to laying in a Vegas bed with an ash tray on his chest after a round of lovemaking. Bond is puffy, greying, out of place in the 1970s but not a punchline - but he's clearly an over the hill 00 both physically and mentally it seems.
The whole film really is just surreal, jaded, and oddly depressing and yet at the same time intoxicating. It's silly and over the top - but it has an atmosphere that makes the silliness almost creepy.
Does anyone agree?
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