20 replies to this topic

[TGO]

(I posted this originally on the AJB forums. Just posted it here in the "mecca" of all Bond forums to get some differing opinions.)

Sure the Bonds were campy in the 70's and early 80's, but they are the least mocked in spy spoofs. Let's go over the aspects one by one.

Bad Dubbing - EON was pretty damned good at dubbing after four Bonds, but something went terribly wrong here. Akiko Wayabashi being the worst.

Osato - Come on. Don't you just laugh when he says to Helga, "Kill him", and that short music piece starts to play?

Donald Pleasence - That voice. That face. You can't possibly keep a straight face during one of his scenes. Especially this one: Kill Bond! Now!

Blofeld's hideout - Enough said.

Blofeld's meetings - See Donald Pleasence

Pirahna Fish - "They can strip a man to the bone in 30 seconds." A woman in only 9.

The use of the word "Exterminate".

Bond "turning Japanese" - Trying to convert a Scotsman into a Japanese person is like Roger Moore playing Osama bin Laden in the next Stallone flick.

Death of Osato - I just can't take that seriously, when Blofeld says "This is the price of failure, Mr. Bond."

The volcano fight scenes - Who in the hell thought it would be a good idea to use trampolines in a fight sequence?

The color coded personel - I'm always trying to figure out what the white, the orange, and red guys work for.

The way that Bond meets his contact - Tell me that doesn't look rediculous. Bond walks across, and doesn't figure out when the girl just stands there that it isn't a trap, and goes through a network of shiny slides.

The villian's lair self-destruct button - Blofeld figures, if you blow up the volcano you launch space shuttles from, it never existed, and you cant get charged for war crimes.

The use of the line, "This organization does not tolerate failure."

And lastly...the cat - The cat was slick.

[Dr. Tynan]

I hope it isn't the case that you've mentioned this and I've missed it. My friend always thinks it's funny when at the end of YOLT, every order of Blofeld's is repeated (if I remember correctly about 3 times, though perhaps not).

Example: Blofeld "Close shutters"
Man 1 "Close shutters"
Man 2 "Shutters Closing"

It's a while since I've seen YOLT, so sorry if what I remember's wrong.

[TGO]

Originally posted by Dr. Tynan
I hope it isn't the case that you've mentioned this and I've missed it. My friend always thinks it's funny when at the end of YOLT, every order of Blofeld's is repeated (if I remember correctly about 3 times, though perhaps not).

Example: Blofeld "Close shutters"
        Man 1   "Close shutters"
        Man 2   "Shutters Closing"

It's a while since I've seen YOLT, so sorry if what I remember's wrong.

Yep, all of that is correct. How did I miss that? And what was that about exactly? And there are two guys that give orders...one with a subtle Japanese accent, and another with a British/Japanese accent. Even with the AP movies, this is still hard to take seriously.

[Dr. Tynan]

Originally posted by TGO (Edited)
Pirahna Fish - "They can strip a man to the bone in 30 seconds." A woman in only 9.

DT: I always think it's silly when the poison, kills Aki in (it seems) about 10 secs. Is there a really poison that strong?

And lastly...the cat - The cat was slick.

DT: Whenever the volcano battle is going on, at one point the cat looks kind of odd (I mean the bit when it seems to be struggling to get free of Blofeld)  

[Dr. Tynan]

TGO,

I hope you don't think I was trying to make it look like you said something you did not.

I was answering certain points, but I kinda messed up.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Originally posted by TGO
And lastly...the cat - The cat was slick.

I'll take that as a compliment.

[PaulZ108]

Not neccesarily the campiest, but the one that's been parodied the most and almost the most over-the-top (that honor goes to Moonraker).

[TGO]

Originally posted by Dr. Tynan
DT: Whenever the volcano battle is going on, at one point the cat looks kind of odd (I mean the bit when it seems to be struggling to get free of Blofeld)  

Because of all the explosions, the cat got scared, and relieved himself on Donald. Frankly I think he deserved it.

[Carver]

I reckon DAF is the most campiest Bond movie, Blofeld just plays it all down, and makes it seem as though he is Bond's gay uncle or something.

[Tedley King]

I agree Carver, DAF did seem the campest Bond, I blame it on Pleasance's presence, for me he was wrong for that role.

[IrishCrown]

I like You Only Live Twice. Yeah, I wish they hadn't screwed around by putting it before OHMSS and totally dropping the plot, but it's still pretty good. It has a gorgeous score by John Barry, a great fight with Little Nellie...but, how we can go from Donald Pleasance in this one to Telly Savalas beating on Bond in the next one to the fricking guy in drag in the one after that....Oh, my head hurts.

[Tanger]

Donald Pleasence - That voice.Especially this one: Kill Bond! Now!

I must admit, I've always admired Pleasence as an actor, but that line has to be the funniest spoken by a villain. You can't help but laugh. Go bless him!

[Donovan]

It's interesting that the producers obviously had a hard time casting Blofeld. The previous four films had for the most part found actors that really looked as Fleming described them, Gert Frobe probably the best among them. And with "You Only Live Twice" plans were to finally reveal Blofeld, which at the time was like pulling Darth Vader's mask off. First they get Jan Werich, who (as Lewis Gilbert says) looks like Father Christmas. Werich was a pretty well-known Czech actor. They shot some scenes with him and decided it wasn't working. So he is replaced by Donald Pleasance, who played a pretty good villain in "Fantastic Voyage". But Pleasance is like hiring an actor to play Dracula that is better suited for the role of Renfield. I think that Charles Gray looks a lot like Fleming described Blofeld in "OHMSS", but the friendly demeanor in "Diamonds" undercuts any needed tension. Had Gray been hired as Blofeld in "YOLT" and his voice dubbed by Eric Pohlman, I think it would have worked much better. I like Pleasance as an actor. But his casting wasn't quite right. Efforts to add menace to his small frame by use of a facial scar and limp arm didn't help.

-Joe

[Jim]

Diamonds are Forever is one of the most furiously camp films in existence. Apologies in advance if the below innocently mixes "camp" and "homosexual". I know the two aren't the same, but that's probably a result of my Eton days. Sorry. (Details of my Eton days are available on another website, but you need to be over 18 and have a credit card).

Blofeld looks like he's been eating his lipstick, and that's before he dresses up as Widow Twankey. Wint and Kidd naturellement but perhaps also Bambi and Thumper? There's something going on there, albeit maybe only in my brain. All alone in that house, and they've locked up the only Willy. They then beat seven shades out of that monument to colossal virility, JB007. Hmm. Bond's pink tie (OK, so that's offensive, but so is the tie). Blofeld's cat with a diamond collar. Probably more lavatorial than camp, but there's an abundance of bog jokery, particularly Willard Whyte's repeated visits to the lavatory (what's that about?). The crappy special effects...

[TGO]

Originally posted by Jim
Diamonds are Forever is one of the most furiously camp films in existence.

Oh? I guess you haven't heard of a little known film called "Rocky Horror Picture Show." Which surprisinly has Charley Gray in it.

[Loomis]

I'm astonished that this thread has seen 15 posts about the "campiness" of "You Only Live Twice" without a single mention of Henderson. As played by Charles Gray, the effete English expatriate makes Wint and Kidd look like Liam and Noel Gallagher on a stag night.
For me, Henderson steals the movie even though he only appears in one scene. Clad in a kimono, he receives Bond (who looks increasingly uncomfortable the longer he remains in Henderson's presence) in his bedroom, which boasts an enormous, very out-of-place-looking four-poster bed as well hanging scrolls, shoji screens and tatami mats. "You'll have to forgive this rather odd mixture of styles," Henderson drawls in a manner Noel Coward would have envied, "but I refuse to go entirely Japanese." As an afterthought, he murmurs: "I'm very fond of some of these old things." When Bond compliments him on the vodka he has managed to obtain, Henderson says suggestively: "I get it from the doorman at the Russian embassy, among certain other things." Superb.

[Jim]

Originally posted by TGO


Oh? I guess you haven't heard of a little known film called "Rocky Horror Picture Show." Which surprisinly has Charley Gray in it.

"...one of..." was the clue. I've also found The Godfather very camp as well, but that's probably just me.

I'd forgotten about Henderson and that line about the doorman. Hmm. There might be a tradesman's entrance joke in there somewhere.

Still don't think that's the campest moment in Bond as a whole. The way Mr Brosnan sashays down the stairs in the pre-credits of GoldenEye is highly camp, but the "prize" is deserved by Roger Moore's devastating use of the word "kinky" in Golden Gun. Great swathes of the rest of the film may be cripplingly inept, but that moment is very probably art.

[Turn]

I've also got to agree that DAF is the most campy Bond film.

A better description for YOLT is the film that has the most elements worthy of parody. A good percentage of the fodder for Austin Powers jokes come from this film.

Of course, I'm sure they never set out to make it this way. They were just going over the top with the money pouring in and the demand for bigger and better. And a new writer and some other new technical people were in on the film. YOLT hasn't aged as well as its predecessors in this way. Though not nearly as bad as the '70s films in this respect.

[rafterman]

Austin Powers borrows most of its ideas from DAF and YOLT...

[Colonel Moon]

I like YOLT

[Colonel Moon]

He is one of my bests Bonds