119 replies to this topic

[Jim]

General Koskov (22 May, 2002 06:14 a.m.):

Jim (16 Apr, 2002 07:13 a.m.):

Still maintaining my view that Dr. No works better in black and white.

In black and white? Please explain.

Feels and looks sharper, harder, grubbier, grittier. The lighting and the sets do not suffer for it. Plays like Key Largo on mind-bending drugs. Only thing that doesn't really work in black and white is the title sequence, unless you have a fondness for grey dots dancing before your eyes which haven't been brought on by excess alcohol.

[Blue Eyes]

How did you manage to get to see it in black and white Jim?

[General Koskov]

How about we put short reasons for the rankings? I mean, reading lists is all great, but after a while: 'Yawn'.

Plus, reading Goldfinger at the top of more than half of 'em just makes me madder! ;D

[Blofeld's Cat]

Been a little while since I've seen Dr. No, but as I remember it, it was not all that colourful anyway, except for the opening credits as Jim points out.

The film stock looks almost monochromatic, which if shown in black and white, would give the appearance of looking sharper and crisper.

[Jim]

Blue Eyes (22 May, 2002 07:50 a.m.):
How did you manage to get to see it in black and white Jim?

Turn the colour down; may not work for all televisions, but on DVD the monochrome is quite crisp

[General Koskov]

This is really interesting. I'll have to watch other Bond films in monochrome and see what happens...or have you done this already, Jim?

[Jim]

From Russia With Love and the Bratislava to Tangiers first hour of The Living Daylights work well in black and white. Licence to Kill works better in black and white than it does in colour, albeit that's rather like saying having your dog die is better than being poked in the eye with a sharp stick.

The Roger Moore films don't work in black and white at all, for some reason.

Best of the lot are the underwater sequences in Thunderball; black and white adds a new dimension to them. They look very dark and threatening. Very atmospheric.

[Blue Eyes]

That's really interesting Jim. I'll have to give it a try sometime.

[Connery 007]

1. From Russia With Love
2. Goldfinger
3. Thunderball
4. Dr. No
5. You Only Live Twice
6. Diamonds Are Forever

[Bondpurist]

1)From Russia With Love
2)Goldfinger
3)Thunderball
4)You Only Live Twice
5) Doctor No
6)Diamonds Are Forever
7)Never Say Never Again

[Loomis]

1. GOLDFINGER
2. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
3. DR. NO
4. THUNDERBALL
5. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
6. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Hard to rank the first three Connery movies: should "From Russia With Love" be number one? If I counted "Never Say Never Again", I'd put it at 6, behind "You Only Live Twice". For me, "Diamonds Are Forever" is Connery's worst Bond movie by a very wide margin.

[Evil Doctor Cheese]

1) Goldfinger
2) From Russia With Love
3) Dr No
4) Thunderball
5) You Only Live Twice
6) Diamonds Are Forever

BYW on the subjects of films that look better in black and white. Have you ever watched Gus van Sant's 1997 remake of Psycho... pain stakingly recreated with exactly the same shots but with different actors the only difference being it's shot in colour. It works better in black and white.... which makes the whole exercise of colourising a classic absolutely pointless. I bet FRWL would look good in black and white... but as Jim said the titles sequences are just too great to put in black and white.

[WarBird]

1. GF
2. DAF
3. TB
4. FRWL
5. YOLT
6. DN

[007.5]

Goldfinger: no argument

From Russia With Love: a good old-fashioned Cold War Thriller

You Only Live Twice: rather grandiose but good fun

Dr. No: good for its time, still stands up well

Diamonds Are Forever: camp and full of silliness

Thunderball: underwater documentary with fancy gadgets-boring

[Sir James]

Well I think that they are specks of dust compared to the Brosnans but the Connerys are classics:

1. Goldfinger: This was an icon of the 60's. It put 007 on the map, and while it cannot be proven, i do not believe Bond would exist today without it.

2. From Russia With Love: Connery gives his best performance here, (in GF he was overshadowed by all the energy of that film) along with the second best assembled cast in the series. the fight on the train is one to remember. The only reason why this is number two is becuase it did not have the magical flair that keeps Goldfinger so high.

3. Thunderball: IMO the last great Connery film. The score for this IMO is John Barry's best. This one preoved Bond was here to stay. No real weaknesess and the best title sequence of the Connery era.

4. Dr. No: While revoultionary at its time, compare to the films immediatelty after it, its quite average. it is quite balnd, and unbelieveably dated. But it is a cool plot, with a great villian, and Honey Rider, all I can say is wow!

5. You Only Live Twice: You do not know how many times I wished Connery and Lazenby had switched these films. It should have been an all time great but was destroyed by second rate acting, and this time Connery was apart of its failure.

6. Diamonds Are Forever: Connery is old, fat, and completely out of place. He proves my theroy that no actor should do more than 5 Bond films. Tiffiany Case has more bust that brawn which is too bad, becuase it is one of the series larger female roles. And Blofeld is drag well that did it for me! This is just totally uninspired and completley third rate. An enjoyable first watch but after that I just cant see it.

[brendan007]

my opinion always changes on connerys films. today this is how i feel
1. You Only Live Twice
2. Thunderball
3. Diamonds Are Forever
4. Dr No
5. Goldfinger
6. From Russia With Love

[cool guy]

Here's mine:

1. From Russia With Love
2. Thunderball
3. Dr. No
4. Goldfinger
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. You Only Live Twice

[BondNumber7]

1. From Russia With Love
2. Thunderball
3. Dr.No
4. Goldfinger
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. You Only Live Twice

I just realized that mine is exactly the same as the guy above.

[White Tuxedo]

These are simply by my tastes. I actually watched Dr. No through YOLT today with some friends.

1) From Russia With Love - Overall, my favorite Bond film. One of the very few genuinely intelligent Bond films. Red Grant is great, I love the way he says "um-hmm" when answering Bond on the train. And a great fight between the two! Much better than the fight with Jaws in TSWLM.

2) Thunderball - So many people say this one lacks, and I can understand that view. The underwater sequence sometimes gets confusing as heck. However, I love this one. Great class, great villain, and all-around the best caliber of Bond girls in the entire series. Great poster and song as well.

3) Dr. No - Say what you will about it, it's one one of my favorites. It's a wonderful start.

4) Goldfinger - Am I the only who isn't that huge a fan of this movie? Sure, Goldfinger (the villain) is great, and so are Pussy and Oddjob. However, when it gets to Kentucky (my home state) it just lags to me, esspecially the battle at Fort Knox.

5) Diamonds Are Forever - What a bizarre movie! This is actually one of my favorite Bonds films (to watch). It's truely a unique (and fun) ride. I love this movie! I really do! It's stupid as heck, but I can't bring my to hate it! It's odd really, if you did an evolution chart for Blofeld- (63-65): nothing but a hand a pu.. sorry, kitty cat (67) whiney little Donald Pleasance (69) Kojak (71) Charles Gray in drag. This film basically thumbed it's nose at the entire Bond franchise to that point. On top of that you have Wint and Kidd (whom I find very amusing) and Jimmy Dean the sausage king. Heck, Sammy Davis Jr. is one of the deleted scenes. Bizarre! Great score too.

6) You Only Live Twice - I'll just say it, I really don't like this movie. DAF was much, MUCH dumber, but at least it didn't take itself too seriously. YOLT gives me that impression. The plot just never goes anywhere to me. Plus, Bond never really goes anywhere, he always taken or lead somewhere. The Bond girls are also very unattractive. Nothing against Japanese girls, I've seen many attractive asian girls, but none of them are in this movie. Helga Brandt (IMO) seems "mannish" to me. I keep expecting Austin Powers to butt in and try to pull of her wig. YOLT is just boring to me. I have to say, however, that it has a beautiful score and title song.

I've only seen bits and pieces of NSNA, so I left it out.

[walther]

GF
FRWL
YOLT
DAF
DN
TB

(I would have put NSNA last, but that movie is so inferior that it doesn't even deserve to be put up with the others)

[YOLT]

1)FRWL:A great Cold War film
2)YOLT:Its just wonderful except the last 20 minutes:)
3)GF:I dont know something missing
4)DRNO:I think it is racist but a good film
5)TB:too much water but it is OK
6)DAF:watched only once
7)NSNA:never watched

[BondChick4ever8]

1. Dr. No
2. Thunderball
3. Goldfinger
4. From Russia With Love
5. Diamonds are forever
6. You only live twice

[stromberg]

this is something that depends on my mood, but normally it goes like
1.: FRWL
2.: GF
3.: TB
4.: DN
5.: YOLT
6.: DAF
5415856.: that "thing" he did in '83

Comin' back to the b&w topic: I guess I've seen any Bond film up to GE that way, because I had a small b&w TV-Set in my room for years. Older movies (not only Bond) work fine on b&w, that is because the people who made the movies actually learned their business on b&w. In the old days, they had to make colours look good in b&w, using sharp contrasts, clear shapes, bright light. That's what they took over to the colour movies, they couldn't get away from the old style.
Take any Michael Curtiz, John Ford or Alfred Hitchkock colour movie. They all work in b&w. Try it with TND: no way.

[Adam]

1. From Russia with Love
2. Goldfinger
3. Thunderball
4. Dr. No
5. You Only Live Twice
6. Diamonds Are Forever

I would place Diamonds are Forever higher, except Blofeld's desire for cross-dressing and Tiffany Case & Plenty O'Toole's annoyingness really deplete it

FRWL & GF are more like a tie for first; Tatiana and Red Grant are just such classy characters though, I had to give it the edge.

[Spectre001]

1) Dr No
2) FRWL
3) TB
4) GF
5) YOLT
6) DAF

[jeff319]

1) Dr. No - The best Connery Bond ever, a fine adventure film.

2) From Russia With Love - Excellent, but the pace lags in the gypsie scenes.

3) You Only Live Twice - Awesome, grand scope and great action.

4) Goldfinger - Overrated, but a fantastic film. Love the opening teaser.

5) Thunderball - So close to perfection.... the underwater stuff is too dull, however, and spoils the excitement of the climax.

6) Diamonds Are Forever - The campiest Bond film ever made, and also the worst. Too many things to hate about this film... but hey, it was the 70s.

[Dr Shatterhand]

Okay my ranking of the Connery Bonds is as follows:

1) FRWL - Best Bond ever? Could well be.
2) Goldfinger.
3) Dr No.
4) Thunderball - but those underwater scenes drag on a bit don't they?
5) Diamonds Are Forever - this camp classic above YOLT? Well, er, yeah. Sorry but I just find it more enjoyable.
6) YOLT.
7) NSNA - I know it's not "canon" but it still beats Octopussy and AVTAK in my humble opinion.

[David Somerset]

1 DN,FRWL,GF,TB,YOLT (just cannot seperate these 5)
2 DAF
3NSNA

[Neil S. Bulk]

Goldfinger
From Russia With Love
Dr. No
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds are Forever

Neil

[1q2w3e4r]

From Russia With Love: Great characters, well paced, thriller. It an OHMSS feel like they've got the most heart.

Thunderball: It isn't the highest grossing Bond film in history for nothing. Connery IS Bond here, cool, on the ball and tearing through locations. Good direction from Terrance Young and the underwater segements are better than what people are filming today. They should have won an Acadamy Award.

Goldfinger: Classic Bond, Guy Hamilton really should have stopped at one, he could never have topped this. Pussy and Goldfinger are lifted right out of Fleming's novel.

Dr No: Another series entry, Connery nails Bond first time out. No one else managed the panache and ruthlessness first time out. Dalton comes close.

You Only Live Twice: The series began to take a dive here. Feels like a little self parady when watching this one. Ken Adam's Volcano set is awesome. But Connery's walking through this one....While he's asleep.

Diamond's Are Forever: Connery is sleeping in this one. He looks like he's having fun for about five minutes in this one. Most likely when he had a golf game that afternoon. The plot's absurd and Connery even thinks so the way he plays it. But it lead for a good transition to Roger.