79 replies to this topic

[B. Brown]

I'm going to say "The Living Daylights". The romance was well-balanced and seemed genuine.

The romance in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" came off as cheesy to me. Lazenby played a major part in that, I'm sure, too.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

I think he played the romantic scenes perfectly.

[darthbond]

This is a tougher choice than one might think. IMHO, I think every Bond film has a taste of romance. Some key Bond films that stand out are: OHMSS, Casino Royale, TND, Thunderball, Octopussy, and TSWLM.

darthbond

[Automan]

I know this one

On Her Majestys Secret Service

[DR76]

OHMSS is the obvious choice, but I think TLD is up there too, with the amusement park scene coming to mind immediately.

Oh, I forgot about that. One of the reasons why I love TLD so much was the chemistry between Dalton and D'Abo.

[MajorB]

OHMSS! Every time I see that falling in love montage with "We Have All The Time In The World" playing I get choked up.

I'm glad to hear you say that. I never paid much attention to that sequence because, at the time the film came out, romantic montages like that were already a little cliche, so my initial reaction--which I was never able to shed--was "Oh, here's another one." It's nice to hear that someone looking at it from a less jaded perspective was genuinely touched by it. Good show!

OHMSS is the obvious choice, but I think TLD is up there too, with the amusement park scene coming to mind immediately.

Oh, I forgot about that. One of the reasons why I love TLD so much was the chemistry between Dalton and D'Abo.

ITA. For me, the moment that "sells" the romance in TLD--although it might seem like an odd shoice--is when Bond and Kara are in the carriage and Bond says to her something like "You really care for [Koskov], don't you?" Almost as if her affection for Koskov is making him feel affectionate toward her. Dalton really sells that. He was always excellent at showing Bond's vulnerable side with women (which, as an aside, is why in my mind he may come closest to Fleming's Bond, who was always very sentimental about the women he encountered, for all Fleming's talk about his coldness).

[Qwerty]

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Living Daylights.

[Harry Fawkes]

For me it is Casino Royale

[jrcjohnny99]

I think it's hard to deny the top 3 are almost certainly OHMSS, CR & TLD;
after that, I personally think FRWL, TSWLM and YOLT.
I actually think MR has a lot of romantic elements, but that may just be the gorgeous score and romantic locations turning my head...

Least romantic? DAF is right up there, as is MWTGG, AVTAK and just about all the Brosnan's.

[Vauxhall]

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, followed by ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE immediately sprung to mind for me too. More curiously, so did LICENCE TO KILL, albeit entirely due to Bond avenging Felix and Della's shortlived marriage, plus the fact that Bond has Pam and Lupe both clamouring for his affections throughout the later portions of the film. It's certainly an odd one to come to mind admittedly.

[Bondgator87]

The most romantic film has to be OHMSS, though I think CR and FYEO could also qualify. MR and AVTAK are the least romantic.

[Professor Pi]

The Living Daylights always seemed like a good Bond date movie, especially the scenes at the carnival.

For Your Eyes Only has great scenes in Greece and Cortina. The fact that Bond turns Bibi down makes us feel for the character more when he meets Lisl and then helps Melina.

Traveling on the train in From Russia With Love was classic romance, even if the 'honeymoon' got violently interrupted.

The beginning of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the second half of Casino Royale, though Vesper's a less than honest character, as opposed to Kara. These two movies have unhappy endings, which makes TLD my favorite romantic Bond.

Ironically, no romantic Bonds for Remington Steele!

[tdalton]

I'd have to say that, for me, it's between THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and CASINO ROYALE as the most romantic of the Bond films.

[Peckinpah1976]

OHMSS had a courtship montage, then Bond running off and sleeping with other women, then BAM! marriage. A great film, but I think they could have done a better job with the romance angle.

The montage sequence is about Tracey falling in love with Bond not the other way around (hence her subsequent comment to her father that it "may come with time"). Early in the film Bond is using her to get the information he needs about Blofeld; hence why he doesn't think twice about sleeping with the other women (although this also is "For Queen and Country" ). His feelings for his bride to be only truly begin to develop when she helps him escape from Piz Gloria, making the ending even more tragic as he's only truly strated to fall in love just before losing her.

[Col. Sun]

OHMSS.

The first act is very romantic, then the middle section settles down to spy business, but as soon as Tracey returns, the romance takes centre stage again.

I saw the film last night on the big screen as part of the Park Circus re-release in the UK. It looked fantastic. Got a good audience too.

I took my best friend (who had never really given OHMSS much of a thought before) and his 12 year old son. Both loved it.
And my mate commented about how much better Lazenby was than he remembered - perhaps on the big screen all of his swagger and confidence comes through much more.

But his small scenes with Diana Rigg, particularly when he expresses his love for her in the barn, are really well played. Moore couldn't have pulled that barn scene off so well. Brozzy would have over-acted like crazy.

So OHMSS is my fav romantic Bond. The last third of CR of course is also very much driven by Bond's emotions toward Vesper, so that comes in second for me.

But no Bond film (to date) can beat OHMSS's brutal ending. The last moments leave you feeling ripped apart. No other Bond film has ever had such a strong, emotional ending.

[DAN LIGHTER]

OHMSS.

The first act is very romantic, then the middle section settles down to spy business, but as soon as Tracey returns, the romance takes centre stage again.

I saw the film last night on the big screen as part of the Park Circus re-release in the UK. It looked fantastic. Got a good audience too.

I took my best friend (who had never really given OHMSS much of a thought before) and his 12 year old son. Both loved it.
And my mate commented about how much better Lazenby was than he remembered - perhaps on the big screen all of his swagger and confidence comes through much more.

But his small scenes with Diana Rigg, particularly when he expresses his love for her in the barn, are really well played. Moore couldn't have pulled that barn scene off so well. Brozzy would have over-acted like crazy.

So OHMSS is my fav romantic Bond. The last third of CR of course is also very much driven by Bond's emotions toward Vesper, so that comes in second for me.

But no Bond film (to date) can beat OHMSS's brutal ending. The last moments leave you feeling ripped apart. No other Bond film has ever had such a strong, emotional ending.

I second that Col. Wonderful film and I think the most romantic.

[Colossus]

But no Bond film (to date) can beat OHMSS's brutal ending. The last moments leave you feeling ripped apart. No other Bond film has ever had such a strong, emotional ending.

I agree. Not even CR which i wasn't so emotionally involved in that ending considering the relationship i thought didn't feel that genuine and felt rushed.

[dee-bee-five]

Has to be OHMSS, CR and LTD in that order for me. TB deserves a nod, though; it might be my least favourite Eon Bond film, but one of its definite plusses for me is its romantic air. And if Claudine Auger's Domino hadn't been so insipid and dreary, it could have challenged LTD for third slot.

As for least romantic, I think it's a toss-up between Goldfinger (so chilly) and YOLT. And while I can see where people are coming from in nominating QoS, I think there was something anti-romantic (which, perveresly, I think is actually quite romantic)in the non-consummated relationship between Bond and Camille.

[Safari Suit]

Surely the least romantic Bond film is TMWTGG? The women in this film are slapped, have their arms pulled break on threat of breakage, stashed in car boots, forced to wait in cupboards while another woman gets to have sex, insulted as exceedingly ignorant and incompetant and can't even bend over without setting off an explosion.

[dee-bee-five]

Surely the least romantic Bond film is TMWTGG? The women in this film are slapped, have their arms pulled break on threat of breakage, stashed in car boots, forced to wait in cupboards while another woman gets to have sex, insulted as exceedingly ignorant and incompetant and can't even bend over without setting off an explosion.

Fair point. When you put it like that, it sounds not so much unromantic as misogynistic.

[Safari Suit]

I think it's arguably misogynistic, I think it's definitely not romantic.

[sthgilyadgnivileht]

While the obvious answers for the most romantic Bond movie are going to be OHMSS and CR, I think TLD is the most romantic. It actually has Bond slowly romancing the Kara where in both OHMSS and CR is just sort of happens.

In The Living Daylights there's a lot more scenes of just Bond and Kara and they had good chemistry. I adore the amusement park scene, it's adorable and Tim had a great passionate side that I don't think he gets nearly enough credit for.

Agreed. I think TLD is the most romantic in the true sense of the word.
Not sure of the least romantic Bond, but there are a few contenders where Bond really dispenses with romance and just gets on with it.

[jrcjohnny99]

Surely the least romantic Bond film is TMWTGG? The women in this film are slapped, have their arms pulled break on threat of breakage, stashed in car boots, forced to wait in cupboards while another woman gets to have sex, insulted as exceedingly ignorant and incompetant and can't even bend over without setting off an explosion.

Fair point. When you put it like that, it sounds not so much unromantic as misogynistic.

I think it's fair to say that ALL the Bond films have a streak of misogyny about them, that comes directly from the books...MWTGG may well be the most guilty tho DAF and AVTAK may not be too far behind...

[Safari Suit]

I can't think of anything particularly misogynistic in AVTAK. Stacey Sutton is no feminist icon, but I don't think that makes the film misogynistic.

[dee-bee-five]

I can't think of anything particularly misogynistic in AVTAK. Stacey Sutton is no feminist icon, but I don't think that makes the film misogynistic.

I'm not actually sure any one of the films is misogynistic, to be honest. The Bond films may be many things, but they never strike me as hating women.

[double o ego]

OHMSS easily.

[baerrtt]

I can't think of anything particularly misogynistic in AVTAK. Stacey Sutton is no feminist icon, but I don't think that makes the film misogynistic.

I'm not actually sure any one of the films is misogynistic, to be honest. The Bond films may be many things, but they never strike me as hating women.

It's funny how the Bond films aren't really given credit for portraying a wider range in it's female characters by it's detractors.

Take TMWTGG which gives us Goodnight and that willing slave Anders on the one hand and yet has a scene where two Asian schoolgirls beat up an entire school of male martial artists. Likewise AVTAK may have had Sutton but it also has Grace Jones' Mayday one of the most intimidating characters in the franchise's history.

Indeed I don't recall many mainstream films having scenes where women were shown to (man)handle men in fights until the Bond films regularly.

[Judo chop]

TWINE

Seeing what a pansy James Bond has become fills me with an ever greater sense of my own vigorous virility, which subsequently leads to thoughts of ravaging my wife’s body, which, it is true, may or may not ever come to be physically realized. But the process is very romantic.

[byline]

For me, the top three most romantic Bond films are:

1. "Casino Royale"
2. "The Living Daylights"
3. "For Your Eyes Only"

I may have to give "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" another try. For me, the film did not feel romantic (though that last scene made up for much of what I felt was seriously lacking earlier in the film). It felt to me like a film trying hard to be romantic, but not really being romantic. May just be a case of different takes on what "romantic" really means.

[singleentendre]

I think the most romantic scene out of any Bond movie is LTK's finale. But that's just me. OHMSS seems like the obvious choice as far as the entire movie goes.

But no Bond film (to date) can beat OHMSS's brutal ending. The last moments leave you feeling ripped apart. No other Bond film has ever had such a strong, emotional ending.

Until the Bond theme starts blaring.