Friday Open Thread [10.5.12]
The James Bond Edition. Today is the 50th Anniversary of the film creation of Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR, spy icon by Sir Ian Fleming. Dr. No was the first movie, starring the always amazing Sean Connery and establishing a formula for (mostly) fascinating movies that have been watched and obsessed over for a half of a century. Yes, these movies (especially the older ones) are sexist, politically incorrect, but I’m a fan anyway. Happy Anniversary, Mr. Bond! Hope you all will join me in having a martini (vodka — shaken, not stirred) in Bond’s honor today.
CNN posts up this video with the Best Moments of Bond:
NPR works on a few theories as to why Bond prefers his martinis shaken, not stirred. This video is a bunch of shaken, not stirred vignettes from the movies:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUUq5mRCimo[/youtube]
A new documentary on the Bond franchise supposed to be showing this weekend — Everything or Nothing:the Untold Story of 007
Or how about this? The very amusing stop-motion Battle of the Bonds:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKUQtFPbJSk[/youtube]
The next Bond movie, Skyfall, is due to be released around Thanksgiving and has a just-released theme song from Adele. Can’t wait to see this movie.
Are any of you Bond fans? Tell us what movie, what Bond Girl and what song you like the best in the comments.
And also use this thread to post what else interests you today.
I actually prefer the older bond movies. I want my Bond dripping with camp. Girls with hilariously sexist names, villans petting cats, and crazy gadgets. I think the best ones are the ones that have atinge of humor to them. That was one of the reaons I liked Pierce Brosnan too. He seemed to be in on the joke.
Daniel Craig is smokin’ but if I want spy thriller grittiness, I could go watch the Borne movies.
That being said Adele BRINGS IT.
I was shocked this morning to learn that Ian Flemming also wrote “chitty chitty bang bang”? WTF I choked on my coffee and ruined my net book.
because Ian Flemming is amazing. that movie is ALSO priceless.
Huge Bond fan here and I can’t wait for the next flick. Downloaded Adele’s theme song today. Not a huge fan of her, but this song is dripping with Bond themes of past. I love it.
I was trying to search for local showtimes of the documentary “Everything or Nothing.” Couldn’t find anything. Hoping one of the local arthouses will show it. I’d love to see it.
Your assessment above is dead-on, cassandra. Sexist and politically incorrect those old flicks are, but I love them.
I can’t wait for “Skyfall.” It’s been four years. I was terribly disappointed with “Quantum of Solace.” It really lacked the cohesion and thrill that “Casino Royale” re-injected into the series. Seeing the previews and hearing some advance buzz for “Skyfall” (not to mention I’m almost peeing myself in excitement to see Javier Bardem play the bad guy), I’m thinking this one will be a huge step over “QoS.”
As far as my favorite Bond movie? Ugh…too hard. My top six:
1) The Spy Who Loved Me
2) Licence to Kill (amazingly underrated)
3) From Russia With Love (far superior to Dr. No, IMO)
4) Goldeneye
5) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (probably would have ranked higher had Connery been in it and not the obnoxious George Lazenby)
6) Casino Royale
Coincidentally, one movie from each of the six official Bonds.
Favorite Bond girl? Probably a toss-up between Carey Lowell in Licence to Kill, Diana Rigg in OHMSS, and Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only.
Live and Let Die. All the camp, humor, and political incorrectness along with the Paul McCartney theme music.
I think one of my posts may be caught up in the spam filter?
Diamonds Are Forever: Same as above with Shirley Bassy singing the theme. Also the two gay assassins almost stole the movie.
I was shocked by waterpirate’s comment too. Wow.. but that might explain why the book was better than the movie. I’ve seen every Bond movie, but have yet to read one of those books. I do remember being rather taken with the book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I no longer have it, but I do remember wishing for a long time that my parent’s vehicle could both zip through air and across water. I think it was pretty well written now that memories of it are flowing back; at least to a youngster with a mechanical mind…. I can see how imagination-steered-towards-technology that was so Bond, was incipient in that children’s book.
Got your posts out of the spam filter, Mike.
Derek Flint had it all over Bond. He could talk to dolphins.
OK, now that I’ve got my martini — my favorite Bond Movies in no particular order:
From Russia With Love
Diamonds Are Forever
License to Kill (I agree it is under-rated)
Casino Royale
Goldfinger
I’m definitely a Sean Connery fan, although I liked Timothy Dalton’s work to find some interiority to the Bond character. Daniel Craig also works at finding some emotional core to Bond, but I like how his 007 is basically a guy with a brutal job. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was a *great* story, but definitely needed Sean Connery to manage the edge. Goldeneye is in runner-up category — I’m not a big Pierce Brosnan fan, but this one was more engaging than I expected.
Miss Shirley Bassey singing Diamonds Are Forever is my favorite Bond song. (For completists only — there is a CD called Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project, which is a covers/remix project of a number of the iconic songs. My favorite is one from the Propellerheads, who did a killer remix of the theme from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This remix mixes portions of the themes from From Russia With Love, OHMSS and You Only Live Twice. Awesome.
The books are different from the movies. Some movies are nothing at all like the movie of the same title. The books are also older than 50 years.
I read them all as a teenager.
Oh… and if you have a teenage boy you’re trying to get to read more, these are good books to throw at him.
“Oh… and if you have a teenage boy you’re trying to get to read more, these are good books to throw at him.”- thanks for the tip. Always looking for books for a 17 yr boy old who does not like to read. The book has to grab him right away. I think he has enjoyed two books ever. The Outsiders and The Giver.