With all the high octane, gritty cop films in America at the time, I admit I'm a little disappointed that EON didn't follow that trend (only b/c most of the film took place in America). I'm not a fan of copycat films, but instead of the light side, i.e., big car pileups, I wish they'd have taken the darker approach. Of course I wanted to see the resolution to OHMSS, but I'm not even talking about that. I would have loved to see Bond try to get in with criminals, perhaps even drop his accent, and to see the realistic views of Vegas, as Fr. Conn. did with New York. Strangely enough, Bill Hickman (stunt driver in Bullitt, Fr. Conn., and the 7-Ups) was employed in DAF, but the car chase was only what it was. He must have been grossly underused.
I'm just rambling at this point, but I think DAF would have been a great movie if they'd stuck to the criminal angle and shown a somewhat burned out Bond being unafraid of getting killed on this assignment. I'm not saying he should have been Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan, but you know...as he was in the literary YOLT. It even could have afforded him a break before finding Blofeld in another movie.
You know, you've hit on the something there that's always bothered me. Fine flicks and TV shows have been set in Vegas. Depending on the context, it can be thrilling or trashy. Either way, done right, it can enhance the tale. But DAF was such a lazy and cynical exercise in Bondage that the trashiness of Vegas reflected on the filming rather than the film. Con himself, as Fat Elvis Bond, looked like the ultimate lounge lizard. And the car chase, as shot, was a drunk in a bar looking back on better days.
