SeanPaulMurphyVille: My 10 Favorite James Bond Films

Thursday, November 7, 2019

My 10 Favorite James Bond Films

Sean Connery, my favorite James Bond

Bond, James Bond.

No other film character sends the "woke" culture into such conniption fits.

Misogyny. Patriarchy. Racism. Imperialism. Rape Culture. You name it, Bond is guilty of it. And he even has a license to kill! Talk about toxic masculinity! James Bond defines it single-handedly.

Still, the PC crowd has had no more success canceling him than Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger, or Emilio Largo or even Blofield himself. James Bond seems to be forever. Why?

I think James Bond epitomized the male Id of the late-fifties and early-sixties. He was the embodiment of the manly virtues that the West imagined in itself. James Bond was tall, dark and handsome. He was also intelligent, erudite, loyal and quick-witted. He killed -- certainly-- but he wasn't a brute. Nor did it bother him. He did it for Queen and country. He never doubted the mission or the righteousness of the cause. And his way with the ladies was just icing on the cake. The Russians never had a chance against him.

What man wouldn't want to be James Bond in 1962? The Ian Fleming novels got a huge boost in the United States when President John F. Kennedy put one of them on his Top 10 reading list. And why wouldn't he? If JFK was a spy, he'd be James Bond.

Of course, James Bond evolved over the years to suit the changing taste of the audience. Sean Connery brought the original swagger. Roger Moore often downplayed the violence for laughs, especially as he aged in the role and action became a tad less convincing. Timothy Dalton swung the pendulum back toward a dour seriousness. Pierce Brosnan restored the sex appeal. Daniel Craig finally rounded out Bond as a three dimensional human being, displaying more doubt and angst than all the previous Bonds combined -- yet still managing to bed beauties, shoot bad guys and drive really cool cars just like the Bonds of old. (I didn't include George Lazenby, or Barry Nelson, who originated the role on a British TV show, because they didn't linger long enough to influence the series.)

I was actually a late-comer to Bond. When I was young, I didn't seek out the films. I saw Diamonds Are Forever and Live And Let Die at the Arcade, my beloved neighborhood theater. That automatically earns them each a place on the list. The next film I saw in the theaters was Moonraker. I was not impressed. I didn't catch another one of the films in a theater for many years. I didn't truly become a fan of the series until I started watching the periodic James Bond marathons on TNT. That's when I got hooked. Later I always scheduled the Bond films when I was running the The Baltimore Film Club. They were always well-attended screenings. They were events. Still are.

So, without further ado, here are my ten favorite Bond films:

(10). CASINO ROYALE, 1967

Directed by Val Guest, Kenneth Hughes,

John Huston, Joseph McGrath and Robert Parrish

Written by Wolf Mankowitz & John Law & Michael Sayers

Suggested by the novel by Ian Fleming

Aged James Bond, played by David Niven, is called out of retirement to deal with the evil organization SMERSH, which has been killing spies all around the world.

There are probably Bond fans reading this list who are groaning at the inclusion of this film. It is usually on the bottom of other people's lists. This is not even considered a canonical Bond film by the purists. The producers, who owned the rights to this single Ian Fleming James Bond novel, felt the world was ready for a spoof of the previous films. Of course, some would ask was a spoof necessary with Dean Martin's Matt Helm and James Coburn's Flint already mining that vein.

This unorthodox comedy features different segments by different directors. The film was panned upon its release as disjointed and unfunny. I will concede the first point, but I have always found this film very funny. Woody Allen as James Bond? Peter Sellers as James Bond? Count me in.

Plus, I always loved the Burt Bacharach soundtrack. Soundtracks and theme songs are always very important in this franchise.

(9). THUNDERBALL, 1965

Directed by Terence Young

Screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins and Jack Whittingham

Story by Kevin McClory & Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming

James Bond takes on the eye-patched Number Two of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Emile Largo, to recover two nuclear warheads the organization is using to blackmail the United States and Britain.

1964's Goldfinger, perfected the early Bond formula, and Thunderball rides it for all its worth with gadgets, one-liners, action, close calls and a bevy of beauties including France's Claudine Augur and Italy's Luciana Paluzzi. This film benefits from a number of underwater sequences, which were much rarer at the time. For me, it was a toss-up between this film and 1967's You Only Live Twice for this place on the list. I think I like the latter film better, but, if I included it, I would have to apologize for Bond's "yellowface" disguise. I didn't want to go there.

Plus, this film has a wonderfully overwrought theme song sung by Tom Jones. Can't go wrong with that.

(8). DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, 1971

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz

A diamond smuggling operation leads James Bond to Las Vegas where he uncovers an international plot led by his old nemesis Blofeld, who has stolen the identity of a reclusive Howard Hughes-style billionaire Willard Whyte.

Sean Connery handled over the keys to the Aston Martin after You Only Live Twice to George Lazenby for 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Because of various disputes, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman released Lazenby from his seven picture deal and paid Sean Connery the then exorbitant sum of 1.25 million dollars to reprise the role.

This film doesn't generally rank very high in the official canon. The production possesses a certain threadbare feel. Most of the action takes place in the United States as opposed to the more exotic locations one expects in a Bond film. It does, however, offer some surprising comic relief with a gay hit team played by Putter Smith and Bruce Glover. (Making fun of gay people was considered enlightened at the time, I suppose.) And, of course, Bond must rescue Willard Whyte from a crew of bikini-clad beauties.... The things one must do for England.

BTW, I think Tom Mankiewicz was the first American screenwriter on the series.

(7). THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, 1974

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz

Bond must recover an experimental solar cell from Scaramanga, a triple-nippled assassin who gets a million dollars per hit.

Objectively speaking, I think this is probably the best of the Roger Moore films. However, there is one that I always enjoy watching moore. This film features all of the exotic locations and action sequences one would expect in a Bond picture, despite the somewhat dubious reappearance of Clifton James, the comic relief redneck Southern sheriff from the previous year's Live and Let Die, as a coincidental vacationer in Thailand. Christopher Lee gives an excellent performance as the evil Scaramanga with the diminutive Hervé Villechaize as his henchman. The two of them turn their exotic island lair into a diabolical Fantasy Island.

One of my favorites!

(6). TOMORROW NEVER DIES. 1997

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

Written by Bruce Feirstein

Bond must stop an evil media mogul who is trying to trigger a war between China and the West for ratings and profit.

I always thought Pierce Brosnan was an excellent James Bond. However, I don't think the films themselves rose to his potential. I found the plots overwrought and overly-complicated. Granted, the Connery films were equally absurd at times, but the Brosnan films lacked the slight wink at the audience that made the other films work. Although they were lighter than the Dalton films, they were still a little too serious for my taste.

I think this film, featuring Jonathan Pryce as a formidable villain, came closest to getting that shaken but not stirred Bondian mix right.

(5). FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, 1963

Directed by Terence Young

Screenplay by Richard Maibaum Adaptation by Johanna Harwood

Based on the novel by Ian Fleming

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. hatches an elaborate plot to trick James Bond into stealing a Soviet encryption device for them with the help of a Russian beauty.

This film, the second one in the official canon, is perhaps the most straightforward spy thriller in the entire series. The plot is uncharacteristically realistic, with little of the exaggerated bombast associated with the series. The action sequences are also brutal and realistic, particularly the fight on the train between Connery and the cold-blooded S.P.E.C.T.R.E agent Robert Shaw. The series would not return to this degree of seriousness until Timothy Dalton took over the role in the 1980s.

Although James Bond would veer in a different direction with the next film Goldfinger, this film proves the series had potential on a different level.

(4). CASINO ROYALE, 2006

Directed by Martin Campbell

Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Paul Haggis

Based on the novel by Ian Fleming

James Bond takes on the banker of an underground network of terrorists in a game of high-stakes poker.

Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel finally becomes part of the official cinematic canon with this film, which features the introduction of Daniel Craig in the role. The announcement that Daniel Craig would take over the role resulted in surprise and outrage on the internet, but, after seeing 2004's crime film Layer Cake, I thought he would be terrific in the role. I was right, of course.

I am surprised I enjoy Craig as much as I do in the films. He plays a deadly serious James Bond, and I tend to enjoy the -- how can I say -- more exaggerated incarnations. However, Craig brings a great deal of physicality and charisma to the role, and not to mention more than a little soul searching. He is the perfect James Bond for his generation.

Bravo.

(3). LIVE AND LET DIE, 1973

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Written by Tom Mankiewicz

James Bond must contend with the Voodoo-obsessed leader of a Caribbean island who plans to take over the heroin market in the United States.

This film was the first one to feature Roger Moore playing Bond. From the tone, you can tell the series is trying to find its footing in the more cynical 1970's. The filmmakers also seem to be making a deliberate attempt to cash in on the then current Blaxploitation craze in the New York sequences. Additionally, this is the first Bond script credited entirely to an American.

The film benefits from a strong villain played by Yaphet Koto, and some memorable henchmen played by Julius Harris and Geoffrey Holder. Jane Seymour plays the fetching yet virginal fortune teller. The comic relief is provided by Clifton James as a redneck Southern sheriff. That character would prove so popular that he would turn up in Thailand in the following year in The Man With The Golden Gun. The icing on the cake is the terrific title song by Paul McCartney.

This is my favorite Roger Moore film. That said, it features some of the comic goofiness which would undermine his later films.

(2). SKYFALL, 2012

Directed by Sam Mendes

Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan

Characters by Ian Fleming

An aging and disillusioned James Bond comes out of hiding to save MI6 when a villain targets M for revenge.

On the 50th Anniversary of the James Bond franchise, Daniel Craig returns in excellent form after his weakest outing Quantum of Solace. This film is somewhat unique thematically in the Bond canon. Regardless of the incarnation, James Bond has always appeared fully formed. This film, which ends at his childhood home, is perhaps the closest we will come to an origins story for the character. One of the things that annoys me about the current superhero genre is that every time they recast the lead character, they retell the origins story. Fortunately, the filmmakers never felt the need to do so with every James Bond.

This film serves a classic example of the Bondian philosophy of filmmaking: Spend a lot of money and put it all up on the screen. While CG shots have become ubiquitous in high budget films, you still see a lot of practical stunts and effects in the James Bond films and I appreciate it. Great writing and direction, matched with excellent performances, enhance this entry. Javier Bardem makes a memorable villain and Dame Judi Dench finally gets to stretch a bit as M. Then there's Albert Finney in his final performance.... What's not to love?

Bond films are known for their opening title sequences and theme songs. I think this one surpasses them all. It is a tour de force of art direction with a terrific song by Adele. When it was over, I felt I had gotten my money's worth even if the film ended there. Check it out here.

It is a magnificent film. The best of the modern Bonds.

(1). GOLDFINGER, 1964

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Written by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn

James Bond tries the foil the scheme of a gold smuggler to render the gold in Fort Knox unusable via radiation in order to increase the value of his own holdings.

This is the film where all of the elements finally came together. Dr. No was a perfunctory introduction. Nothing revolutionary. From Russia With Love was a definite improvement, but a tad too dry and serious. It wasn't until this film that the attitude and tropes we associate with James Bond came to the forefront. The self-confidence bordering on arrogance. The gadgets. The quips. The over-the-top sexism. (Pussy Galore, anyone?) The monologuing villains. The ridiculous traps and escapes. The Ken Adam production design. Plus, we are treated to an irresistible theme song by Shirley Bassey. Perfect!

If you love James Bond, it's because of this film.

If you hate James Bond, it's because of this film.

This film IS James Bond.

The only misstep is the anti-Beatles quip. Come on, James, you're hipper than that. But I forgive you.