11 replies to this topic

[rafterman]

Who is your favorite? and who's your least?

best
Terence Young

worst
Guy Hamilton


thoughts?

[Blofeld's Cat]

I would also have to agree that Young was the best. In someone elses hands it would be debatable whether the Bond series would become....well, a series.

As for worst director, I can't actually pick one. I can't say that "this or that movie stank because of the director" because there wasn't one.

Hamilton did an exellent job with Goldfinger, which is recognised as the template for the continuing sucess of the series, so I can't knock him for DAF, LALD and TMWTGG.

Afterall, he did re-introduce Bond in the mold of Roger Moore, arguably the most sucessful incarnation of Bond.

[piotr007]

My personal best: Peter Hunt
On the second place: Michael Apted

[freemo]

I argee that Terence Young is the best, he helps make Bons what it is. Look at his doco on the Dr No DVD, everybody speaks highly of him.

As for the worst, I'm not sure, I think your being a bit rough by naming Guy, I know his three films in the 70's aren't always regarded highly, but I thought he did okay.

[JAWS]

Best: Young and maybe Campbell (GoldenEye) ((that name's right, isn't it?))
Worst (least favorite): Apted

Young being best, however, owes a lot to:
-Brocolli & Saltzman
-Connery
-Ken Adam's sets (gotta love 'em!)
-Peter Hunt's Editing
-Barry's themesong

Apted being worst owes to:
-boring action secuences
-a boring screen play
-poor female acting ("It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." hint-hint)

[Mister Asterix]

Best Director: The chap who did For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights

Worst Director: The chap who did Octopussy, A View To A Kill, and Licence To Kill

Funny, that they are both John Glen.

[Blue Eyes]

You know, reading Mr * comments, I really have this to say.

How can you say who the best and worst directors are?

Each Bond film has a crew list of about 1000 people. How can you possibly analyse parts of the film and credit them to a director? I don't think that's possible. You could look at one element and say that's great, but it could be a result of a camera mans suggestion and not the director.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Blue Eyes (05 Feb, 2002 09:24 p.m.):
Each Bond film has a crew list of about 1000 people. How can you possibly analyse parts of the film and credit them to a director? I don't think that's possible. You could look at one element and say that's great, but it could be a result of a camera mans suggestion and not the director.

I know what you mean, Blue Eyes, but surely it's the director's final decision to include the cameraman's suggestion or not.
It's probably the director's choice in choosing that particular cameraman in the first place.

In my opinion, it's the director that assumes most of the responsibility of what actually gets on film, good or bad.

I guess that's why the Best Director award at the oscars is the second most important after Best Picture.

[Friedrich Baxter]

I disagree. Especially the Bond films of Brosnan lack a good director. Perhaps it has to do, that the producers are assigning new directors for each Bond movie. But a treu fact is than the way of working of the director is reflected (more or less) in their Bond movies. John Glenn, and I said that, is maybe an exception, but you can recognize YOLT, TSWLM and MR easy, because they have the same structure: Blofeld 1, Blofeld 2 (Stromberg) and Blofeld 3 (Drax); the villains refugee IN the ground (volcano), IN the water (Atlantis) and IN space (the space station). Maybe you can call that 'typical Lewis Gilbert'

And what about GF, DAF, LALD and TMWTGG! They are both VERY light-hearted. They all have VERY bizarre elements. More bizarre than other Bond movies than for instance FYEO. You can think of 'the Gold painted girl', 'the two homosexuals' (for THAT time, a true taboe), 'Coffins used in very bizarre ways', 'a wax statue of 007'. Al these elements were ideas of Guy

[Friedrich Baxter]

Terence Young: HE directed the first Bond movie ever, so I don't have to say more. But......I thought that Thunderball wasn't exactly a Terence Young-directed movie, though it is!! But he introduced the Bond movies to us. CONCLUSION: A Bond director

Guy Hamilton: I liked him ;-) Not as much as Lewis Gilbert, but he introduced the typical 007 humour, which I liked very much. Maybe he made Roger Moore the most humoristic 007? The most bizarre elements of James Bond are in Guy Hamilton's Bond movies. CONCLUSION: A Bond director

Lewis Gilbert: He did the MOST excellent job if you ask me. I liked his tough on the Bond movies! Especially his extravagnt, larger than life style for the Bond movies. I especially like 'Moonraker'. But that's my opinion. His Bond movies are very good watchable and smoothly to follow. I say his movies are just perfect. CONCLUSION: THE true Bond director!!!

Peter Hunt: OHMSS was his true inroduction as leading director, and he should have done DAF. For instance the pre-titles of DAF should have been done by him, because only then you could have seen Sean Connery calling Tracy's name. Also his work on the previous Bond movies is excellent. CONCLUSION: A true Bond director

John Glenn: He MADE the Bond of the eighties. While all the other director's had their own 'trademark', John Glenn combined every aspect of a Bond movie very good. 'His' Bond movies are very good to watch. But some of his Bond movies cannot be compared very good. For instance FYEO is very different from LTK and AVTAK. So he made every Bond movie an individual Bond movie (ahem...can you still follow me??). Maybe he heared the public (Bond fans) a bit more? CONCLUSION: A true Bond director!

Martin Campbell: He only did one, and still a very succesful one. The Bond of the nineties, and still all the elements, combined with very good action scenes, which are made smoothly. There are also believable to watch AND they are not too long. CONCLUSION: If he had done more Bond movies, perhaps he would become a true Bond director. Don't ask me, why the producers did not hire him for GoldenEye??

Roger Spottiswoode: He can direct great action movies. But the actions are too long and are becoming a bit dready after the end. He should have made the end a bit more longer. CONCLUSION: Very good director for the (in my eyes) already destroyed franchise Mission Impossible, or other action movies like Lethal Weapon. But for Bond? Mr. Spottiswoode? Did you ever looked at the running time of your movie? Compared with other Bond movies you could have made some 10, perhaps 15, more minutes to make it a better Bond movie.

Michael Apted: You can see that he only directed drama's and other 'emotional' movies like 'Nell'. Why?? You can see that contact between Apted and the action 'directors' was very bad. The action scenes and stunts doesn't fit to the emotional, more characterised scenes. Therefore.........not a very good director. A good Bond director can make a very 'smoothly to follow' Bond movie. CONCLUSION: On the dramatic side a good Bond director, but Bond is not only all dramatics. Maybe he should have talked a little bit more with the stunt coordinators.

Lee Tamahori: We shall see....... I hope he will be the next Lewis Gilbert ;-) ;-) ;-)


A tip for the Bond producers: Don't use a different Bond director for every Pierce Brosnan Bond movie! Why?? You should give a director a chance to do a second (or even more) Bond movie. Only then he could become a true Bond director (that also counts for Roger Spottiswoode and Michael Apted), and that's a positive element for the future of the Bond franchise. MAYBE I'M OVERREACTING, BUT MAYBE NOT.......
And...........what happened with John Glenn and Martin Campbell ???

[Rolex]

Best Terence Young
worst Roger Spottiswood
enough said

[rafterman]

maybe I'm being hard on Guy, but aside from his work on Goldfinger I found his direction lackluster and disliked his choice for the aspect ratios of the films, but really it's his post Bond work that I don't care for, stuff like Remo Williams show that without good material he's lost, whereas someone like Peter Hunt followed up OHMSS with films like Death Hunt, that continue his unique visual style....