That unmistakable 60's 'feel' to the Bond movies...
chrisisall
Western Mass, USAPosts: 9,062MI6 Agent
Clearly, all of the 60's Bonds had that undeniable feel to the, because hey- 60's!
IMO this 'feel' lingered a bit into the 70's with DAF, LALD & TMWTGG to different degrees.
Then the 70's took over, then the 80's, and it was more or less gone.
The Dalton two revived it briefly, TLD a little more so than LTK (mainly because of Barry vs. Kamen).
GE had a small bit of it with the car chase, the casino scene, & the Alec dialogue at the statue graveyard, but then IMO it was pretty much gone again for a while.
SP finally revived it again mainly by Craig's performance & reactions to things, despite being hampered by a score even less reminiscent of the 60's than GE.
Thoughts on this?
IMO this 'feel' lingered a bit into the 70's with DAF, LALD & TMWTGG to different degrees.
Then the 70's took over, then the 80's, and it was more or less gone.
The Dalton two revived it briefly, TLD a little more so than LTK (mainly because of Barry vs. Kamen).
GE had a small bit of it with the car chase, the casino scene, & the Alec dialogue at the statue graveyard, but then IMO it was pretty much gone again for a while.
SP finally revived it again mainly by Craig's performance & reactions to things, despite being hampered by a score even less reminiscent of the 60's than GE.
Thoughts on this?
Dalton & Connery rule. Brozz was cool.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Comments
I agree on the rest of this, though I would have to say SF had a certain 60'ies feel to it in some parts as well. Maybe the part of Craig visiting Macau in the boat, or the rivival of the DB5, not really sure
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My beef with Dalton aside, I underatand what you mean with a 60s vibe until OHMSS but I can't find it in any of the later movies.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I think the last one to have a sixties vibe equals OHMSS. The woman's fashions with 'the Angels of death' are superb. True sixties London fashion. Those frills and hairstyles. You only Live Twice follows the same styles. Funny how you can follow the time by keeping an eye on the fashions of the women
Diamonds are Forever is bending towards the seventies. Particularly Tiffany's fashions and every male wears a necktie. I love the switch from sixties fashion to seventies
Live and Let Die is very much a seventies film.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
The suits in SP have a bit of a retro flare, but Jany Temime said for SF she wanted a look "iconic for 2012". The fit of the suits in SF and SP is going for something extremely modern, but they do have some things in common with Lazenby's 60s suits. Lazenby was the only Bond to truly wear 1960s suits, whilst the suits Connery wore were rooted in the late 1950s with the occasional 60s detail.
In terms of things like suits and props and such, there are elements in later films. But in terms of music, acting, writing, direction, cinematography, and the like, not really.
The films after those of the 1960s that capture some of those qualities are Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Never Say Never Again, but even these are rooted in the eras in which they were produced.
Craig's last two Bonds certainly capture a bit more of the 60s vibe than his other two -- and Craig himself is something of a retro figure in that he looks more like a rugged 1950s or 1960s lead than a 1980s fashion model -- but all of the films past, say, Live and Let Die have the same general contemporary vibe.
The 60s Bonds are iconic for a reason. They were produced at a time when films in general were just better and more grown up. Sure, they couldn't just show everything, but that's what made them work harder to get the same point across. Much of the stuff afterward was pretty juvenile and plastic by comparison to the predecessors.
Oh! The way the baddies look especially in Venice look retro too!
Anyone agree?
I think the thoroughly modern feel and style of the film is one reason why I don't like it. I don't see it at all like the films of the 60s.
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Yes, I think Spectre is a very retro movie with a 1960s feel. It's the only Craig film I see that way at all. I'm surprised they went with a score so far removed from the feel of the old Bonds since everything else tries to go back to the old style. But it keeps the film from feeling overtly retro.
I always thought the intention from CASINO ROYALE onwards was to show the evolution of Bond from raw agent to the polished spy we all know & love. To that end SPECTRE succeeded. Craig is much more debonair now than he was in 2006.
Excellent point, and one which I think has been lost on many {[]
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
SP still has the feel of a 60s film, just like I think LALD still had much of a 60s feel. LALD was a film with 70s themes, but I agree with chrisisall that it still had a 60s feel. The camp in LALD is thoroughly 60s, though it's campier than 60s Bond. I'm a big fan of 60s spy films and television shows, though the Americans an British took much different approaches to their spy films and shows. The 70s Bond films are like 60s American spy films. I think SP has a lot in common with both the American and British spy films of the 1960s, making comparisons beyond just the Bond films.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Indeed, which is why it's disappointing that it didn't find more uniform acceptance in places like this...but then, it does have some issues (but don't they all?). Taken as a whole, though, IMO it's a blast :007) I'm ready to put the BluRay on my Bond shelf -{
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I see what you mean about THUNDERBALL. To me it felt a bit like THE SPY WHO LOVED ME without the sight gags. SKYFALL felt '60s because of its structure - no big set-pieces, more character stuff, the big action saved till last. SPECTRE has more 'bumps' as Broccoli called them - sequences that build up to mini-climaxes. Though much of Bond is clearly based on repetition I can understand Sam Mendes' desire to do something different to SKYFALL. I feel he was right to go down this route.
If one film typifies the seventies it Live and Let Die
The pimp costumes, the heroin use, the race relations, smoky and the bandit...
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[list=*]
[*]* Melodic music
* Strong striking charismatic female leads
* A well-rounded Bond actor who can charm and kill
* Lots of colors and exotic locations
* Minimalism, generally shorter film length, less filler
* A sense of suspense rather than constant action
* Some fantasy within a degree of believability
* Comedy elements but not too much camp
* Good action but a restraint in violence[/*]
[/list]
Later films have modified all of these elements to either intensify certain aspects. Sometimes, this has resulted in success and at other times not so much. But the 60's generally had all these elements in the right balance.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
I watched "the day of the Triffids " the other day ,I think the mother -in -law is in it
was in hospital ,after having an eye operation ,so at that point in the film ,he couldn't see ?? he asked the nurse to light his cigarette for him ,whilst he was laying in his hospital bed 8-) how 60s is that
I wouldn't say that it feels like there's anything sixties about it; it feels closer to the forties with a noirish tone and moral ambiguity, although still obviously quite modern. Also, the violence (particularly the interrogation scene) does reflect a more adult approach; the early Bond films managing to push the boundaries of violence and sexuality (might look tame now but with film censorship, a lot of films were heavily bowdlerised).
SP feels very sixties but then that may be because it fits the Spectre puzzle piece back in to the series. SF starts the move back towards camp with Raoul Silva but the overblownness of SP does hark back to the Connery films. Madeleine Swann may not have an innuendo-based name but it's obvious that her surname has significance. It might not be specifically the sixties that the film is harking back to- more like the sixties as portrayed through Bond.
But yes love the 60's feel to the movies. And do agree it went to LALD. Alot of good elements in the 60's