OHMSS & FYEO

zebond · December 2006

I just so happened to watch both of these movies last night at the request of my brother. (He wanted to watch Bond films close to the novels.) And I'm not sure if it was simply my mind playing tricks on me or if I was truly on to something. It seemed that FYEO had many, many things in common with OHMSS. I don't mean just the obvious things, such as Bond visiting Tracy's grave, or him dispatching the "mysterious bald man." But smaller things like Bond on the beach with a countess, a fight on the beach, Bond and Columbo talking about men with "guts" (ala "He had lots of guts!) Bond's ally being killed in both, elements of skiiing, Bond and his ally raid a warehouse (FYEO) and Piz Gloria (OHMSS) and even the bomb that Bond attached to the man underwater (FYEO) looked very similar to the bomb used to blow Piz Gloria. There were many others my bro and I counted, but I cannot recollect them at the moment.
What do you think? Did they do this on purpose, accident, or am I just drawing absurd connections?

edit: I almost forgot one of the most humorous connections I'd found: Bond walks past a midget janitor in both. On his way to see Draco (OHMSS) and on his way to see Q in the church (FYEO)

) Had to pause the film I was laughing so hard. . . (but then agan I have an odd sense of humor. . .

Hank · December 2006

Damn, good pick-up. I never noticed all the similarities before.

JennyFlexFan · December 2006

Even the score has this odd OHMSS-ish feel. Don't ask me why... and on an off-topic note, Bill Conti's Rocky 6 score was pretty amazing just like the FYEO one!

Hardyboy · December 2006

No coincidence. During the 1970s, many Bond fans began to recognize OHMSS's qualities and they voiced their opinions on the film to Albert R. Broccoli. When he decided to bring the series back down to earth after the sci-fi hijinks of Moonraker, he took the fans' opinions into consideration and modeled FYEO somewhat after OHMSS. Broccoli even approached Peter Hunt to direct, but he was unavailable, so the job went to OHMSS's editor, John Glen.

Steed · December 2006

Yes I think this was very much a conscious decision. I said on another thread that it was probably the Casino Royale of its day in terms of bringing back to earth a series that had become increasingly bloated, even though I find CR to be the better and more consistent film.

Double 0 Zero · December 2006

Another similarity is between the criminal yet helpful Columbo and Draco, both of whom are echoes of FRWL's Kerim. Zukovsky in the Brosnan series is yet another character in that tradition.

zebond · December 2006

Double 0 Zero wrote:

Another similarity is between the criminal yet helpful Columbo and Draco, both of whom are echoes of FRWL's Kerim. Zukovsky in the Brosnan series is yet another character in that tradition.

Ah, true. I hadn't caught that one. Each character was somewhat the same as far as personality traits went aswell. I also thought, when seeing Bond over the body of the dead countess, that it was somewhat like what Moore would have done had he been cast in OHMSS. A touching, yet very brief moment.

Mark65 · December 2006

Well spotted zebond. I hadn't noticed quite so many similarites but as was hinted above there can be little doubt that John Glen, who was directing a Bond film for the first time in FYEO, was deliberately aiming to recapture the spirit of OHMSS.

FYEO is often some way down the list of fans' favourite Bond films. Recently I've been revising my opinion and moving it upwards. I imagine I'm far from alone here.

Merry Christmas,

Mark

zebond · December 2006

Tracing it back farther, I realized that the editor of FRWL was Peter Hunt. I'm not entirely sure it was the same Peter Hunt as directed OHMSS, but it would make sense if it was. I see alot of FRWL in OHMSS; the plot follows a very similar path in that there isn't over the top action, and the movies are very much dialogue driven.

So perhaps Peter Hunt was inspired by his work in FRWL, and after the "far outness" of YOLT, decided it was the perfect time to take Bond back to a much more grounded, realistic, human story and style of film. This further inspiring Glenn to bring Bond back to the same roots with FYEO.

(of course I may be in far left field if this isn't the same Peter Hunt, but I'm not sure - anyone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

)

Hardyboy · December 2006

Yes--Peter Hunt was the editor of the first five Bond films, and he's one of the people responsible for making the cinematic Bond who he is. The producers promoted him to director with OHMSS, and he was interested in bringing the series back to reality after YOLT.

Firemass · January 2013

attn: James Suzuki

In case you were feeling that FYEO wasn't getting enough attention... I found this thread about the similarities between OHMSS and FYEO was particularly interesting.

Here's a link to an almost identical thread but with some different viewpoints: http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/27825/fyeo-ohmss-parallels/

cheers

OHMSS & FYEO

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