Most small scale Bond film?

DieAnotherDay

Aside from the obvious candidate - Dr. No, what film would you say feels the smallest in scope and scale? All of Guy Hamilton's films, with the exception of Goldfinger, all seem to have considerably lowers stakes and a real 'Made for TV' vibe about them. TMWTGG probably edges it for me but what are your thoughts?

Barbel

I think FRWL is the "smallest scale" film.

PPK 7.65mm

Licence To Kill is often said to look like lower budgeted movie and I agree. When you compare it to The Living Daylights or the other 1980's movies, it really does look it was made with a much smaller budget. The way its filmed it a bit on the bland side, and some have said the usage of the locations in the USA and Mexico looks pretty uninspiring when compared to the other exotic locations James Bond has visited before and after. Still I enjoy the film, despite the lower budget showing on camera.

Sir Hillary Bray

PPK 7.65mm wrote:

Licence To Kill is often said to look like lower budgeted movie and I agree. When you compare it to The Living Daylights or the other 1980's movies, it really does look it was made with a much smaller budget. The way its filmed it a bit on the bland side, and some have said the usage of the locations in the USA and Mexico looks pretty uninspiring when compared to the other exotic locations James Bond has visited before and after. Still I enjoy the film, despite the lower budget showing on camera.

LTK definitely gets my vote. Small-time villain, small-time locations.

CoolHandBond

Technically speaking it must be FRWL. But no Bond movie looks like a made-for-TV effort, some of the special effects are ropey, but in the grand scale of things most of the budget appears on screen and every movie looks good even if the movie is less than perfect.

SpectreOfDefeat

I'd agree with FRWL, both in terms of the relatively limited locations and the scope of the plot, which focuses on a single codebreaking device (the Lektor) and a SPECTRE threat to a single person (Bond). Golden Gun eventually develops a larger-scale plot in its third act of Scaramanga selling the Solex to the highest bidder, which does effectively increase the stakes and scale of the film.

Number24

LALD gets my vote, and I don't understand why some mention LTK instead. Most of LALD feels like a TV movie isn scope . no huge temples and truck chases there ...

hehadlotsofguts

Skyfall is mostly a small scale film,in terms of locations. It is largely set in the UK.

Matt S

hehadlotsofguts wrote:

Skyfall is mostly a small scale film,in terms of locations. It is largely set in the UK.

Very true, but the PTS is bigger than anything in TMWTGG.

Charmed & Dangerous

TMWTGG feels smaller-scale that FRWL to me. The latter has a certain grandeur, particularly in the scenes in Istanbul and the Orient Express train journey across Europe, with sweeping scenery, expansive photography and great user of extras to give the backgrounds a large-scale feel to them.

By contrast, TMWTGG seems almost to avoid much of the scenery, while the finale, with its largely unimpressive solar power plant guarded by a single guard, is IMO a pale shadow of the similar set-up in Dr No's lair twelve years earlier.

Thunderpussy

agreed {[] I always felt Golden Gun
Was done on a small scale.