129 replies to this topic

[Red Barchetta]

I surprised no one has mentioned that damned pink tie!!! Who does wardrobe for the Bond films?

DAF has everything that I don't want in a Bond film-

An out of shape Bond, with toupee and all!

Cheesy chase scenes

Cinematography that looks more at home on ABC, than on film.

Lame bad guys (if I want to watch lame bad guys I'll watch The A-Team)

Plot holes wide enough to drive a moon buggy through

The moon buggy


I'm sure I can think of some more, but that's it for now.

[Mister E]

I can pefefctly accept the camp of DAF because it was out be a serious Bond film, it was just fun and accomplished that goal. Also those who say that Connery did not care need to watch the film again, he was relying on his witticisms instead of trying make a dumb film serious. DAD was just a lazy effort of cobbeling together the past twenty films and Brosnan was just as annoying as ever. That whole thing about being captured by the koreans was a gimmick !

[Mr. Blofeld]

As a stand-alone campy thriller, it's amusing, if unremarkable. As a Bond film it's downright awful. I liked DAF, the novel. So did Raymond Chandler, incidentally. It was a damn good thriller with a couple of terrifying hitmen that get brutally dispatched. Tiffany Case is the traumatised victim of a gang rape, who eventually allows herself to develop feelings for Bond (and, indeed, lives with him for a year until they split up shortly before FRWL.) Fleming's book is intelligent and gripping. It appears that, with DAF, the producers and Connery had lost all respect for the material. DAF is the first film that was 'churned out.'

It's a bit sad, too, as DAF was the novel Ian Fleming first proposed to Xanadu Productions when they approached him to do Bond films back in the 1950s.

[Mister E]

As a stand-alone campy thriller, it's amusing, if unremarkable. As a Bond film it's downright awful. I liked DAF, the novel. So did Raymond Chandler, incidentally. It was a damn good thriller with a couple of terrifying hitmen that get brutally dispatched. Tiffany Case is the traumatised victim of a gang rape, who eventually allows herself to develop feelings for Bond (and, indeed, lives with him for a year until they split up shortly before FRWL.) Fleming's book is intelligent and gripping. It appears that, with DAF, the producers and Connery had lost all respect for the material. DAF is the first film that was 'churned out.'

It's a bit sad, too, as DAF was the novel Ian Fleming first proposed to Xanadu Productions when they approached him to do Bond films back in the 1950s.

Even if they relied on the novel faithfully, it still wouldn't have been that good. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER is a pretty boring read. Now a loyal adpation of MOONRAKER in the 1950's would have been awesome.

[[dark]]

Diamonds Are Forever is a real oddity insofar as its elements are so polarising. It's a middling film, but everything in it either works or it doesn't.

On the one hand, Connery delivers one of his best performances as Bond. It's evident his heart isn't in it, but ironically, it works in his favour. No, we're not watching the literary Bond - that much is evident from the beginning. But as the star of such a lighthearted entry in the series, Connery's droll, carefree turn works a treat, especially in light of some genuinely amusing dialogue - witness his reaction after being told that his intruder "didn't know there was a pool down there".

Likewise, John Barry's score is superb. Some of the action cues have dated somewhat (the moon buggy track springs to mind), but the lush, brassy Vegas cues are brilliant. And Shirley Bassey's song is an undeniable Bond classic.

It has some cute set pieces, such as Bond's global hunt for Blofeld (imagine how awesome that would be if it wasn't played for laughs), his conversation with Klaus Hergersheimer and an underrated "How will he get out of this?" moment as Bond faces live cremation.

Unfortunately, these are offset by an equal number of elements that aren't pulled off. Charles Grey is totally miscast as Blofeld (especially so close to his appearance in You Only Live Twice) and Tiffany Case, while lovely to look at, is possibly the first bimbo Bond girl; witness her handle the machine gun at the film's climax (though Jill St John's portrayal is otherwise sassy).

The moon buggy chase is naff (aside from the neat gag with the golfing astonauts) and the oil rig climax clearly tacked on for the sake of a big finale.

The complete ignorance of the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service is understandable, but unforgiveable. There were plenty of other ways to overlook Lazenby's one-off film while still delivering a payoff that the SPECTRE saga deserved (amazing that they blew it again with that cheesy For Your Eyes Only pre-titles sequence).

Overall, it's fun, but wildly uneven (like Die Another Day, to answer the original question). And sadly, it's the first of a trifecta of similarly patchy films that ultimately proved Guy Hamilton was a one hit Bond director.

[Mister E]

And sadly, it's the first of a trifecta of similarly patchy films that ultimately proved Guy Hamilton was a one hit Bond director.

One thing I liked about Guy Hamilton, even though the decline in his work was obvious, was his love for the manly, politicaly incorrect Bond. No matter how bad the script was, he made sure Bond could be an hole. Connery is an obvious example but also look at Roger Moore's first two outings under Guy, he wasn't afraid to be dirty in order to get information or get out of trouble. Like in TMWTGG in karate school scene or smacking around Andrea Anders to find out about Scaramanga. Also Guy had a wonderful knack for filming great closed quater fights. The fight with that thug in the Goldfinger PTS, The elevator fight in DAF, and the fight with those thugs in the belly dancers' dressing room.

Edited by Mister E, 19 June 2008 - 08:56 PM.

[[dark]]

And sadly, it's the first of a trifecta of similarly patchy films that ultimately proved Guy Hamilton was a one hit Bond director.

One thing I liked about Guy Hamilton, even though the decline in his work was obvious, was his love for the manly, politicaly incorrect Bond. No matter how bad the script was, he made sure Bond could be an hole. Connery is an obvious example but also look at Roger Moore's first two outings under Guy, he wasn't afraid to be dirty in order to get information or get out of trouble. Like in TMWTGG in karate school scene or smacking around Andrea Anders to find out about Scaramanga. Also Guy had a wonderful knack for filming great closed quater fights. The fight with that thug in the Goldfinger PTS, The elevator fight in DAF, and the fight with those thugs in the belly dancers' dressing room.

Great points, Mister E.

The other thing is that, on Goldfinger, Hamilton was working from one of Fleming's most cinematic novels. A raid on Fort Knox - it's so filmable!

Of Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, only Live and Let Die comes close to Goldfinger in terms of (for lack of a more eloquent way of wording it) filmability - and the film Live and Let Die is, accordingly, the best of the three. Admittedly, this comes down to the scripting as much as Hamilton's direction.

There's something about the latter three films that also feels more American than Goldfinger (despite how much of Goldfinger is set stateside), though I understand that was a conscious decision to try to crack the US market.

[DaveBond21]

Amazingly, Leonard Maltin gives this ***1/2 - the equal highest he gives any Bond movie!

And yes, the style of DAF continues into LALD and TMWTGG.

[Turn]

I can pefefctly accept the camp of DAF because it was out be a serious Bond film, it was just fun and accomplished that goal. Also those who say that Connery did not care need to watch the film again, he was relying on his witticisms instead of trying make a dumb film serious.

Exactly, and that's how people should take the film. I never agree that he was lazy and wasn't into it, which far too many people believe. By all accounts he was relaxed and had a good time on DAF.

So what if you didn't get your OHMSS follow-up revenge film. To paraphrase CR '67's trailer line "Join the DAF fun movement!"

[Mister E]

So what if you didn't get your OHMSS follow-up revenge film. To paraphrase CR '67's trailer line "Join the DAF fun movement!"

You know it's funny, whenever I finish watching OHMSS I curse EON for not making a proper follow up film. Then I watch DAF and I don't care.