The Golden Age of Bond Films...
maxzorin10
Posts: 6MI6 Agent
... I'm a Gen Xer and for me the golden age of Bond started with Spy and went on thru Moonraker, FYEO and Octopussy... four back-to-back Bonds that were never matched since then.
Those are the ones I don't seem to get tired of re-watching.
There was two very low points in the series in my opinion, 1st: Diamonds (a truly ridiculous movie) and 2nd: All the Brosnan era which culminated with an invisible car and Tsunami surfing (which makes the gondola scene from Moonraker look credible).
Thoughts ?
Max
Those are the ones I don't seem to get tired of re-watching.
There was two very low points in the series in my opinion, 1st: Diamonds (a truly ridiculous movie) and 2nd: All the Brosnan era which culminated with an invisible car and Tsunami surfing (which makes the gondola scene from Moonraker look credible).
Thoughts ?
Max
Comments
This thread might be of interest there's also a phase 2
And 3 thread too.
And also your Golden Age, meaning the time you grew up watching Bond movies. For me that's when I was a kid and a video store girl introduced me to the James Bond series. I wasn't around for Connery's movies in the theater. Nor the majority of Roger Moore's movies. So I had a wealth of Bond movies to watch. And that could be seen as a Golden Age of enjoying all those movies for the first time. Each one a different adventure and only going by the old VHS cover artwork. I can't remember which one the store girl picked first. But I remember being amazed by the artwork and excited about getting home with the tapes.
The 80's bond films were all directed by John Glen, my preferred director due to his style. Beginning with For Your Eyes Only, he wanted to take bond back to basics, realism, less focus on gadgets and more on his wits. All of his films took a darker approach (excluding Octopussy), were full of strong characters, action scenes, plots and villains despite being more low key.
Of the five he did, I would them:
For Your Eyes Only (my favourite bond movie of all time)
The Living Daylights (my third favourite bond)
Licence To Kill (my fifth favourite bond)
Octopussy (my eighth favourite)
A View To A Kill (my tenth favourite)
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Lazenby 5. Craig 6. Brosnan
1. The start of the Bond film series.
2. So many films made within one decade (6 films over the course of less than 8 years).
3. Connery's consistent, brilliant performances in his first four Bond films.
4. True Fleming Bond in the first four Bond films.
5. Bondmania during the time of GF and TB.
6. The start of larger-than-life Bond with YOLT.
7. The genius that is OHMSS
8. Countless Bond spoofs and knock-off films and series.
9. Ian Fleming was still writing new stories.
Bond ruled culture at that time like it never did again.
Plus each of these films exudes a particular 60s style that got lost as the series progressed.
The 80s is another strong age of Bond films, taking a more serious, back-to-basics approach to the material and character. FYEO, OP, TLD, and LTK are all strong films. AVTAK has some questionable casting choices (pairing an ageing Moore with a barely 20 year old Tanya Roberts) but is still an enjoyable film. You could also add Goldeneye to this sequence, since it was Brosnan's best and is one of the better films in the series.
8. TMwtGG 9. AVtaK 10. TSWLM 11. SF 12. LtK 13. TND 14. YOLT
15. NTtD 16. MR 17. LaLD 18. GF 19. SP 20. DN 21. TB
22. TWiNE 23. DAD 24. QoS 25. DaF
Tanya Roberts was actually 30 years old in 1985, but I still agree about the casting. Alison Doody was only about 19 at the time she played Jenny Flex, but she had to endure some cringeworthy puns from Moore about horseback riding.
Goldfinger and Thunderball are definitely the centre of this Golden Age.
You Only Live Twice was the Golden Age going decadent, but there were still a helluvalotta spy films, mostly parodic, being released in 1967.
No matter how much we like OHMSS, it was a failed experiment released during a time when audiences were more interested in the New Hollywood era.
the Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker were the first renaissance. EON was fortunate they cranked up the spectacle at the same time Lucas and Speilberg redirected the entire film industry towards bigbudget escapist spectacle.
But again, no matter how much we like the following John Glenn films, they were less relevant to the filmgoing mainstream.
Goldeneye might have been a second renaissance, it was certainly the first time I'd seen civilians so interested in the Bond fantasy since my youth, but the mainstream interest did not seem to last into the second film.
subjectively, I agree with you precisely. I got on board with ...Spy..., and had read all the books and seen all the old films (including Casino Royale) by the time Moonraker came out.
I was greatly pleased by the new true-to-Fleming approach of FYEO (whereas most of my friends thought they had suddenly forgotten how to make a proper Bond film), and then so frustrated with the silly final scenes in Octopussy I actually gave up on the series until the hype of Goldeneye a decade later!
The Craig era seemed like it would be a second Golden Age starting with the excellent Casino Royale, but the results have been mixed and there are huge gaps between the films.
I'd say the golden age was basically Connery & Moore even if it includes a couple clunkers. Dalton and Brosnan films feel like a more modern era, which are still excellent but not quite as "golden" Seeing Q in the 90's is like something that has been carried over from the golden age to the present.
Reading the list of credits on Moonraker, for example, and all those names to me represent the golden age. Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Maurice Binder, John Barry, Walter Gotell, Cubby Broccoli, Ken Adam, Peter Lamont, John Glen, Shirley Bassey ... etc
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
However, in my personal opinion I will also say the 80's with John Glen's directed Bond films. Besides A View To A Kill, these films are all very memorable, quite serious at times, follow Fleming's novels more closely and include less outlandish gadgets. For Your Eyes Only and both Timothy Dalton films really show these aspects, and in some ways, Octopussy.
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Lazenby 5. Craig 6. Brosnan
was the 2nd Golden age. Bond was everywhere. I think of that as My Golden
age for the films.
I was far too young for that 2nd Golden Age, but can still feel the Bondmania when I’m watching TSWLM and MR!
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK