Phase 1 (Connery/Lazenby/Moore) - Reviewing Bond's original run
Jimmy Bond
Posts: 324MI6 Agent
So, my buddy and, this time, my girlfriend too, underwent the bigger marathon - the Bond films from 1962 to 1985, covering the 15 films led by Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Roger Moore. I wanted to introduce the series to my bud with the Dalton/Brosnan era, then went into Craig because of its recent-ness, but more to the point, I wanted to give him a taste of what modern Bond has been like, before going back to the earlier entries because of his untowards feels about the anything pre-1980. My girlfriend, of course, knows my Bond love, and she'd seen the Craig entries, and some of the older films for my sake, but this was the first time we saw the older run in sequence.
Liberties we took, however: I posited Diamonds Are Forever prior to OHMSS, for I wanted to distinct the transition from Connery to Lazenby to Moore, and because quite frankly, sans the pre-title sequence, nothing in DAF declares it as a post-OHMSS story, and given how it opens in Japan, the setting of the majority of YOLT, I'm more inclined to consider it in that position, and pretend that, ultimately, Blofeld in DAF was another "clone" of his that went rogue (hence no SPECTRE reference, although Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd coulda been SPECTRE agents). Plus, Blofeld in FYEO is actually a cripple, or semi-that, and that could only had happened at the climax of OHMSS. So, there.
And, also, I posited 1983's NSNA after AVTAK, both to showcase the Moore era in full, and to allow NSNA to stand on its own, disassociated from its contemporary OP, and of course because its one that would most obviously serve well as a closing story for this run of Bonds, as it certainly is for Connery's. I also subjected to them my Conservative Cut, of which you can read about here. Basically, it really is the same film, but without Blofeld in it, with a gunbarrel, pre-title sequence made out the action scene but without the Lani Hall song over it, a title sequence with Phyllis Hyman's song over it, and the Bond theme playing in some already-silent areas of the film (thus keeping the otherwise awful score). No other scenes cut, really.
So, with the above in mind, how did it go?
Liberties we took, however: I posited Diamonds Are Forever prior to OHMSS, for I wanted to distinct the transition from Connery to Lazenby to Moore, and because quite frankly, sans the pre-title sequence, nothing in DAF declares it as a post-OHMSS story, and given how it opens in Japan, the setting of the majority of YOLT, I'm more inclined to consider it in that position, and pretend that, ultimately, Blofeld in DAF was another "clone" of his that went rogue (hence no SPECTRE reference, although Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd coulda been SPECTRE agents). Plus, Blofeld in FYEO is actually a cripple, or semi-that, and that could only had happened at the climax of OHMSS. So, there.
And, also, I posited 1983's NSNA after AVTAK, both to showcase the Moore era in full, and to allow NSNA to stand on its own, disassociated from its contemporary OP, and of course because its one that would most obviously serve well as a closing story for this run of Bonds, as it certainly is for Connery's. I also subjected to them my Conservative Cut, of which you can read about here. Basically, it really is the same film, but without Blofeld in it, with a gunbarrel, pre-title sequence made out the action scene but without the Lani Hall song over it, a title sequence with Phyllis Hyman's song over it, and the Bond theme playing in some already-silent areas of the film (thus keeping the otherwise awful score). No other scenes cut, really.
So, with the above in mind, how did it go?
Comments
Which ones were their favorites?
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
But faves? It's always been between On Her Majesty's Secret Service and From Russia With Love, for me. OHMSS basically has everything. From Vicky, it was between FRWL and NSNA (she didn't hate Moore, but she never "believed" him) whereas Bill was between FRWL, FYEO and OP (he preferred the later style, even if Connery was the better Bond). Bill also hated Lazenby and didnt like OHMSS.