James Bond

Ha! Live and Let Die was filmed in my neck of the woods. Gotta love the coonass sheriff. Plus Sir Paul's song.

My favorite Bond is Brosnan because I grew up with seeing those in the theaters
Starting with Goldeneye when I was 7

What about Lazenby?

Deckard said:

Racist? I disagree. Now that scene in the barn w/ Honor Blackman where he all but rapes her to get her to kiss him, I could understand calling him sexist.

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No. quite racist. i'm not sure of the name of the movie, but there is a scene where connery, a bond girl, and a black man get out of a raft on an island and connery says to the black man, "Boy, you stay here." That is very very racist.

I think it's Dr. No

Ian Fleming was a huge racist. Ever read the books?

For Your Eyes Only: In the short story that shares the title with the book Fleming said the Cubans killed the English couple by firing their machines with their monkey hands. Later he says the Cuban women look like monkeys in their dresses. In Hilderbrand Rarity he calls fish ******fish. Surely, he knew the correct term for them.

Thunderball: ******fish again. There's also a passage when Bond and Felix are enjoyin the drink that says, "The barman walked away with Negro dignity". What the hell is Negro dignity?

From Russia With Love: Typical Russian stereotypes. That they are cruel cold people.

You Only Live Twice: Japanese people are so submissive and they need the help of the great English secret agent.

Live and Let Die: Anybody who read this book knows what I mean. The black Americans talk like Jamaicans.

Felix Leiter: He is made to look like he's incompetent compared to Bond. It's an allegory to make America look incompetent to Britain (Fleming, like most Britons of his time, thought the British were a race, only divided into tribes like Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh).


Here is a line from Live And Let Die:"the air was thick with smoke and the sweet, feral smell of two hundred Negro bodies"

James Bond is deeply flawed (although I don't know if Fleming would consider him to be so.) He's a womanizer, a heavy drinker, smokes like a chimney, racist, and at his heart he's a cold-blooded killer. He's self-loathing, torn between his hatred of his job, and the fact that it's the only thing he knows how to do. From the very first novel Casino Royale, he wants to quit his job, which is a recurring theme in the novels.

Raiders112390 said:

What about Lazenby?

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I like Lazenby but Connery could have pulled off OHMSS better if he had stayed. It's still my favorite Bond film ever. Best John Barry score and Diana Rigg was my favorite Bond girl.

If Connery had had the patience for one more film, OHMSS would have been his crowning achievement, IMO. I believe it was originally going to be made after Thunderball, but when they had trouble finding a location for Blofeld's mountaintop base, it was pushed back and You Only Live Twice was made instead, after which Connery had decided he'd had enough.

eroc said:

Ha! Live and Let Die was filmed in my neck of the woods. Gotta love the coonass sheriff. Plus Sir Paul's song.

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Ahhh, airborne motorboats and gator head hopping that was well before Pitfall Harry!

OHMSS - like Lanzenby, too bad he did only 1, cant really see how he would devlope

Goldfinger/Casino R. next

Thunderball
Live and Let Die
Diamonds are forever
you only live twice\

after that they are all equal to me.

Now if you want to talk about Action flicks better than Bond, lets talk Jason Bourne!

Just because Flemming may have wrote him as having racist tones doesn't make Connery racist tho. Its one thing if the character of Connery's Bond calls for it, but I doubt he is in real life. Plus Bond has been with all kinds of races of women.

And yea its definately Dr.No your thinking of w/ the raft and black guy.

Deckard said:

Just because Flemming may have wrote him as having racist tones doesn't make Connery racist tho. Its one thing if the character of Connery's Bond calls for it, but I doubt he is in real life. Plus Bond has been with all kinds of races of women.

And yea its definately Dr.No your thinking of w/ the raft and black guy.

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Is it racism or just the language and attitude of the day, what was accepted as perfectally ok.

I think I might even say Casino Royal and OHMSS are equal at #1

My favs in no particular order:

Goldfinger
Casino Royale
The Living Daylights
GoldenEye
For Your Eyes Only (love the Hockey scene)
Octop-u-s-s-y (The bond flick with the most hotties) darn censorship- I had to put hyphens in there.
A View To A Kill (anything with Walken is great, more cowbell baby!)
Dr. No (the one that started it and mmmmmm Ursula)
Live and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gun

It's funny, I got the original Casino Royale (with Peter Niven) in my DVD collection and I still haven't watched it.

Michael24 said:

If Connery had had the patience for one more film, OHMSS would have been his crowning achievement, IMO. I believe it was originally going to be made after Thunderball, but when they had trouble finding a location for Blofeld's mountaintop base, it was pushed back and You Only Live Twice was made instead, after which Connery had decided he'd had enough.

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Totally agree, OHMSS was pretty good even with Lazenby, but I reckon it would have been amazing with Connery... pity he passed on it only to come back for Diamonds Are Forever...

Goonie said:

It's funny, I got the original Casino Royale (with Peter Niven) in my DVD collection and I still haven't watched it.

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It's Peter Sellers and David Niven actually, but yeah I watched it a couple of times already. Be careful though, liking James Bond, certainly doesn't mean that you will necessarily like this movie. I like it, especially the part with David Niven in Scotland, but it took me a while to get into it.

Having said that, I count The Living Daylights, From Russia with Love, Casino Royale (2006), On her Majesty's Secret Service, Thunderball and The Man with the Golden Gun to my favorites. I also really like "Never say never again", the Thunderball remake.

Flannery10 said:

It's Peter Sellers and David Niven actually, but yeah I watched it a couple of times already. Be careful though, liking James Bond, certainly doesn't mean that you will necessarily like this movie. I like it, especially the part with David Niven in Scotland, but it took me a while to get into it.

Having said that, I count The Living Daylights, From Russia with Love, Casino Royale (2006), On her Majesty's Secret Service, Thunderball and The Man with the Golden Gun to my favorites. I also really like "Never say never again", the Thunderball remake.

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I like Never Say Never Again too because A) It's Sean Connery, and in this one he looks much better than he did in DaF. He's tan and ready for action, whereas in Diamonds he was pale and looked tired.
B) It has at least a semi-realistic take on Bond, with him becoming older and still being ready for action. I like all of the films, but I think that they all exist in different universes. At least, that would explain the change of actors and the character never truly aging. Not the best, though, I'd say it was worth of a rating of C+ or B.

Flannery10 said:

It's Peter Sellers and David Niven actually

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Yup, I realized my blunder after. I was typing too fast. lol

Great poster. Great movie.



Nice Ebert review!

Hey, just found this old thread and thought I'd throw my rankings of the Bond films in. I'm a huge Bond fan!
1. From Russia With Love
2. The Living Daylights
3. Goldfinger
4. Goldeneye
5. The World is Not Enough
6. Licence to Kill
7. Casino Royale
8. Octop.u.s.s.y
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Dr. No
11. The Spy Who Loved Me
12. Tomorrow Never Dies
13. Thunderball
14. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
15. Die Another Day
16. You Only Live Twice
17. Live and Let Die
18. The Man With the Golden Gun
19. Diamonds Are Forever
20. A View to a Kill
21. Never Say Never Again
22. Moonraker

As for the argument about who is the best Bond, it often seems to boil down to who the first actor you watched in the role was. For me, that was Pierce Brosnan, but he actually is not my favorite.
1. Timothy Dalton
2. Pierce Brosnan
3. Sean Connery
4. Daniel Craig
5. Roger Moore
6. George Lazenby

I think it's unfair to say Roger Moore brought nothing to the role. For his time period, he was probably the perfect Bond, because his style suited the 70's. I don't think you have to play Bond straight out of Fleming's novels to play it well. The movie Bond sort of took on a life of his own anyways. That being said, I think Dalton best matches the Bond of Fleming's books and gives the deepest portrayal. Pierce doesn't lag that far behind as far as being able to portray the emotion of Bond, but he was handcuffed by poor writing for the most part in his films.

I'm surprised how many people like OHMSS so much. I think the fast cut editing was poor in that film and that Blofeld's motivation for his scheme is ridiculous. Lazenby really isn't that bad, but his lack of acting experience showed.

robisindy said:

Hey, just found this old thread and thought I'd throw my rankings of the Bond films in. I'm a huge Bond fan!

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What surprises me is to see TWINE that high.

Okay, perhaps it would be in the top half, but Denise Richards just ruins that one for me. Can't stand the character. Having a twentysomething nuclear physicist in a tank top just felt like jumping the shark... even for a series that's detached from reality anyway.

Denise Richards made the movie for me.

Okay, not really, I just found her incredibly attractive. Her acting sucks and it was a ridiculous character, but she looked good. I feel that's what matters.