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Background
The side entry is the right place to begin. We'll avoid the crowds that come in from the front, looking only for the rides that mostly make up Bond films.
There's a stretch we need to pass through first. The Field of Meditation. The guard gives us two squirts with an air-hose--PSSSSSST! PSSSSSSST!--to clear away the cobwebs that may blind us to the pleasures:
--Laz only made one film, so he couldn't have been a good actor.
--He never succeeded afterward. So he couldn't have been any good.
Let us medidate for a brief moment. For half a minute, become Lazenby. You're still in your twenties, a former chocolate salesman with no real experience. But you're a big strapping youth, good with your fists, and you've got both stones and chutzpah to spare. Mocked by almost everyone who's heard you want to act, you're going after the plum of all roles--and you're out to topple a king. An icon. A superstar who owns James Bond. Against all odds, you screw up your considerable courage and gall...buy a brand new Rolex...get a suit from Connery's tailor...have your hair styled like Connery. Then you storm into the interview and dominate the room. You blow them away in the fight scene and break a stuntman's nose. By God, you get the part--and then...
Meditate. Meditate. The proudest and happiest time of your life becomes a living nightmare. You've landed the most demanding Bond script so far--nothing will come close to it until Casino Royale. The director, a perfectionist, treats you like a lump, subjecting you to endless takes with none too subtle impatience. Your leading lady treats you even worse. The director isolates you from the rest of the crew, not explaining why. The stunt men? By God, you'd better watch your back, having busted up one of their fellows. Payback could be any day. And day after day after day, you work brutal hours, often going directly from long action sequences into dramatic scenes. !2-days. 15-hour days. And not a single minute of respect from anyone.
But you refuse to give an inch. You could take any one of them and you will if you have to. For now, at least, you are James Bond. And Connery's a fat old man who can kiss your butt as well.
End of meditation: Halfway through the film, maybe, you find yourself staring at the big fat contract that tells you how to walk and breathe and behave through every minute of every single day. You've been offered a seven-film contract that may have you in chains for the next fifteen years, while guaranteeing you enormous riches and fame. Your decision is most likely already made: you will shine in this one film. And you will topple that fat, wicked king. But after that? Screw 'em, you say, about forty years before Craig.
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The rides.
We can see them now. And they're towering, breathtaking beauties: the smashing fight scene on the beach...the hotel fight scene, twice as good...the elevator fight--unbelievably brutal and nasty...the magnificent quiet suspense of that seven-minute sequence wherein Bond has to beat the clock and raid the safe before Herr G returns...the escape from the gear chamber in the Piz Gloria--agonizingly suspenseful as Bond desperately way down along the cable, hand over hand, as an upcoming ski lift approaches and the wheels come within two inches of his hands before he drops precipitously down to the car...the bobsled chase with the snow and the ice in our eyes and Blofeld smashing Bond's helmeted head against the ice bank...
And, of course, the greatest ride--faster than a speeding Bullitt, hotter than the French Connection. After all these years, the ski chase still holds up as the greatest of its kind. With the screech of Blofeld's cat and the horns of the fabulous score, Bond is off. From two skis to one, it's all splendidly done.
The art gallery
There are some breathtaking scenes throughout, as good as any in any Bond film: the reflection of the word Casino in the pool...Bond shown briefly framed in a painting...
the Cool Hand Luke homage, with Blofield back-lit by a blinding sun, addressing the doomed climber...various shots of Tracy, shot so romantically you can see the light gleam off her teeth. And, oh yes, the greatest single shot in any Bond ever: right after Tracy's capture, Bond is seen standing before a window in M's office. It's a four-pane window. His face appears in the top left pane while a memory-image of Tracy being hauled away flits across the other three panes.
The theater
Laz may have lacked the polish or experience of the others. But, while he was tackling a king, he brought something vital and lovely to the role: a rebel's defiance and passion, along with a young man's heart and engaging clumsiness. Far from being a Johnny One-note, he shows us impressive range. For your consideration:
--The Line is delivered twice in the film. The first time is a shockeroo, when Bond leans over Tracy on the beach. Laz doesn't even try to rival Sean's patented delivery. He almost chirps and urbles "Bond. James Bond'--as if he were saying 'Jesus, you're a knockout. I'm James Bond, I really am and I just saved your life. Don't I look terrific!' But...the second time he delivers the line--on the phone with Draco, after Tracy's capture--his delivery is as solid as that of any other Bond, including Daniel Craig.
--Laz portrays a Bond who prone to anger, especially if his pride has been stung. When M takes him off the case, watch this Bond's face quite closely. He's ready to blow. He's the one and only Bond who looks ready and willing to lay M out cold.
--In the scenes with Tracy, Laz progresses convincingly from a jock who sees something he fancies...to a man who's ready to slap her in frustration, then empathize with her plight...to a budding lover who may be willing to use her to get to Blofeld...to a full-fledged, tender lover who really does adore her.
--As Sir Hillary, though his voice was dubbed, Laz successfully transforms his posture and faciak expression.
--In the Piz Gloria, surrounded by willing young beauties, we see a ladies' man who actually loves the company of women. Boy in a candy store.
--Laz lacks Craig's ablity to show multiple emotions at once. But then again so do all the previous Bonds, including Connery. And Laz shows remarkable range for an inexperienced actor, regarded as a lump. The emotions he goes through include: wounded pride, anger, compassion, tenderness, steely resolve, deep love, playfulness, inconable grief.
--Once, near the end, he approaches Craig's complexity. Check out the scene at the wedding when he locks eyes with Moneypenny: delight in being married, fondness for Miss M, nostalgia and a sense of loss.
The echo chamber
It has also been argued that Laz is unimportant because he had no influence. As you re-study OHMSS, here are a few suggestions to consider along with Craig's documented remark that he watched and studied all the other Bonds.
--Laz's fight scenes are remarkable. And the trademark feature, for me, is the explosive burst of energy: from positions of relative stillness into whiplash blows and throws. After the PTS, we see Craig braced against a building, talking on his radio. When the villain's on the run, Craig explodes into action.
--When Tracy sleeps with Bond to repay her debt, she slips out the following morning--after leaving Bond with what she owed in chips. Laz's bemused, puzzled, intriqued and respectful expression is very mirroed by Craig's on the train after Vesper's told him off.
--Laz's visible, profound grief after Tracy's death was unparalleled by anything in Connery's films. This certainly helped pave the way for Craig's Bond's grief for Vespert.
--Bond in love was also an innovative thing at the time of OHMSS. Laz's playfullness and tenderness were also there for Craig to use.
--Laz, on the run and all out of options, slumps in pure despair by the skating rink. There's more than a little resemblance to the beaten Craig slumping over the card table in CR.
--Princess K has pointed out how the structure of the two films form a mirror image. OHMSS saves most of the heavy-duty action for the second half, while CR does just the opposite.
--David Arnold has acknowledged his debt to the OHMSS score. And, in emulating it, he did his best work yet. In each film the Bond anthem is saved for the end credits.
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Oh well, an hour's passed. And I hope you don't feel this adventure has been a waste of time. Long, long ago a young revolutionary set out to topple a king. If he'd cared to continue he could have. But the very qualities that make his Bond so special--the passion, the impetuousness, the emotional quickness of youth--caused him to follow a far different star. I tip my hat to Lazenby and treasure the one gem he left us.
Edited by dodge, 26 February 2007 - 03:14 PM.
