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Just watched 'You Only Live Twice'


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#1 DamnCoffee

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 03:15 AM

I've always had a kinda love/hate relationship with You Only Live Twice. It's the Bond film I've probably avoided the most, so you know, I decided to stick it on tonight. First time in two years. I thought my opinions of it might have changed regarding it. Maybe I could embrace it more. Oh dear.


1. It's boring.
2. It's a complete and utter half assed rehash of what's came before it. It even has the same ending as Thunderball, for christ sakes.
3. What part of Bond getting married is beneficial to the plot? I get him trying to blend in and stuff, but does he really need to get married?
4. "When doesh the countdown start?" - "Tonight. Midnight." - "WE'LL LEAVE IN THE MORNING!" Um...
5. Just love how Osato screams "KILL HIM!" before Bond has even left the room.
6. Honestly adore the CCTV footage of space. What the hell? Where's it coming from? Is there just an Astronaut with a video camera just hovering about in Space with a live feed direct to the United Nations?


I honestly feel that this is Connerys worst Bond. Diamonds Are Forever isn't far behind it, but atleast it's a nice feel good film. This is just, I dunno. It starts off great, but completely loses it half way through.

#2 Matt_13

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 03:25 AM

Yeah I watched it recently and was surprised at what a disjointed, soul crushing bore the film is. It does have its moments (the rooftop fight is still quite the set piece) but on the whole it's a rather drab affair with poor projection work, a lethargic Connery, and a complete misuse of Pleasance as Blofeld. Still, it exists.

#3 Mr. Blofeld

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 04:25 AM

I think I'll just leave this excerpt from a lovely post I found about YOLT on IMDb, here; found it a few years back, and it still matches my feelings about the film perfectly:

The fact that Bond's enemies never take the opportunity to immediately kill him when he's at their mercy is funny and part of what makes the movies fun; up to a point, that is. This movie went way overboard once Bond was in the volcano's command center:

Blofeld has the suspicious astronaut brought to his command center. It's Bond.
Common sense: "Well just shoot him!"
Blofeld: "Nah; I want to make him watch as I blow up that American ship, rub it in his face, and all that."
Common sense: "Fine, whatever."
Blofeld: "Oh crap, Bond just shot one of my henchmen with a cigarette; now, dozens of ninjas are streaming in and killing everyone."
Common sense: "See? You've spared him for half a minute and he's already foiling your plans! SHOOT HIM ALREADY!"
Blofeld: "Eh... no. I'm sure my guys will totally pwn these ninjas, and I REALLY want to make Bond watch as I start World War III."
Common sense: "Man, you are so VAIN..."
Blofeld: "Oh hush. I can have a little fun on the -- ACK! My command center is falling apart because of those lousy ninjas. I better evacuate."
Common sense: "What about Bond?"
Blofeld: "Who?"
Common sense: "That guy that caused all those ninjas to show up? The guy who's foiled your attempts at world domination, like, three times already?"
Blofeld: "Oh, him; what about him?"
Common sense: "You can't force him to watch you take over the world if your command center is shot. Why not shoot him?"
Blofeld: "I... err... uh... no; I don't think so. Come on, Bond, let's take a walk with this useless businessman Osato and my stereotypical big mute lunk of a bodyguard..."
Common sense: "What? You're taking Bond on a walk with you? What for?"
Blofeld: "Because I'm escaping; those ninjas are really kicking my guys' butts."
Common sense: "BUT YOU HAVE NO REASON TO KEEP BOND ALIVE ANY MORE. WHY ARE YOU TAKING HIM--"
Blofeld: "La la la la la! I can't hear you! I'm walking! Walkies walkies with Bond!"
Common sense: "Man you are so bloody retar--"
Blofeld: "Hey, Hans, hand me a gun. Hey look at this! I'm pointing a gun at Bond now! See, I'm going to shoot him!"
Common sense: "About time. Now hurry up and do it!"
**BLAM**
Blofeld: "Ha ha! I just shot Osato! Boy, you should see the look on your face! Sucker! Come on, Mr. Bond, follow me."
Common sense: "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? Why didn't you shoot Bond too? You... wait... I get it. You've got a thing for Bond, don't you? You're planning on taking him with you to your escape pod and back to your other secret fortress, where you're going to oil him up and--"
Blofeld: "No! NO NO NO! YOU'RE WRONG! I'll prove it? See? Now I'm at my escape monorail! Now I'm really, REALLY going to shoot Bond? See? Here goes... OW!"
Common sense: "Ha ha! Bond's Japanese buddy just sunk a shuriken in your arm! Bond's getting away, you loser."
Blofeld: "Oh well. I guess I should have used one of those nine hundred opportunties I had in the last ten minutes and shot Bond then... but I've learned my lesson, you can rest assured! I'll pull this lever, and they all go BOOM!"
Common sense: "Guess what, bonehead: They can still get out."
Blofeld: "From where? Those caverns under my lair are full of poison gas, remember?"
Common sense: "Not according to movie logic..."
Blofeld: "Oh, fu--"


#4 freemo

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 04:41 AM

I've always enjoyed the first half of the film, particularly Bond traipsing around Toyko at night, meeting contacts, following leads, stealing documents from safes. The Sumo bout, Aki, Henderson's, Tanaka, etc.

Gets less interesting for mine as it goes along, though John Barry's score and Freddie Young's cinematography help alot. Lovely to listen to. Lovely to look at.

Some of it's wonderful. Some of it's mad. Some if it's wonderfully mad. The CCTV footage from space? Bless their hearts.

#5 blueman

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 05:50 AM

Going from TB to OHMSS works just fine. ;) Even works for Blofeld not recognizing Bond in OHMSS. :)

YOLT takes the whole 60s spy zeitgeist thing too far, big misstep by Cubby and Harry but they made their $$$ so I guess they were satisfied with it.

#6 Guy Haines

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 07:50 AM

I like YOLT in spite of itself. It was one of the first I saw as a kid, so I suppose I have rose tinted memories of watching it at the flicks, and it was around at a time when the space race - which has always been an interest of mine - was at its most intense.

That said, I'm not blind to its faults. The space scenes "in space" are handled well, but it does beggar belief that Blofeld is able to watch CCTV coverage of his spacecraft intercepting the second US Gemini (sorry "Jupiter"!). And the stock footage got a bit muddled. Anyone notice that the shots of the Russian spacecraft launch clearly show palm trees in the foreground? - as they would because the director used footage of a Gemini launch from Cape Canaveral!

Also, the SPECTRE rocket launches and the re-entry scene - at night, you couldn't miss either from the ground, surely? Yet the islanders had no idea what was going on?

On reflection it might have been wiser to have followed up TB with OHMSS, and then save YOLT for either a fully fledged version of the Fleming novel - or as a "space epic", but with a bit more thought involved. But we are where we are.

#7 Harmsway

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 12:26 PM

Bond has always privileged images and moments over logic and narrative, even in Fleming. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE takes that about as far as the Bond franchise has ever gone. The results are splendid: a surreal, dreamlike blockbuster with some of the most striking imagery ever produced for a Bond film.

#8 agent

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 12:42 PM

i found the score most pleasing barry did a good job

cinematography wise it was all very lucious and pleasurable to see japan shot in a very informative way

#9 col_007

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 03:16 PM

The thing with villains not killing bond is rather obvious isn't it though as the films would not have lasted nearly 50 years if some one did ;)

#10 Jim

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 03:57 PM

A product of its times (although they all are, I know - but this seems to encapsulate period excess and spectacle). It must have been quite an extraordinary thing to witness at the cinema, such an exotic departure from its predecessors. Unless one's tv is massive, I doubt television does it proper justice (and probably means one pays more attention to the flaws rather than let it all wash one over). All incredibly ambitious and wild - some of it doesn't quite pay off but at least they tried.

#11 Mr_Wint

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 04:17 PM

YOLT looks and sounds great, but it is certainly not up there with the best Bondfilms. Like the volcano, it is a little bit hollow, but I do not know who we should blame for that. Gilbert's direction is way ahead of its time and the writing is pretty good overall. But the characters are not very interesting and I just don't feel any chemistry between the actors. Perhaps the casting could have been better. Like most Bondfilms, the first and the second act is much stronger than the final act. All in all, it belongs somewhere in the middle (TSWLM did it better).

#12 Jim

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 08:38 PM

Consider the UK in 1967. Wilson government. Foot and mouth rampant. Pound devalued. Torrey Canyon. All a bit miserable and yet out there, seeking to entertain, someone is making a film in which a man with a face like a cracked boiled egg drops dolly birds into pirhanas, hides rockets inside a volcano and great chunks of it are filmed, with all the logistical cost that comes with it, in a country nuked twice just over twenty years beforehand which is totally alien to most of the potential Western audience, or could generate bad wartime memories. That's entertainment.

They must have been off their heads. Just as well they were.

#13 Napoleon Solo

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 09:16 PM

A product of its times (although they all are, I know - but this seems to encapsulate period excess and spectacle). It must have been quite an extraordinary thing to witness at the cinema, such an exotic departure from its predecessors.


I saw it, I think, three times in the theater before it came on television. The first time, I saw it at a drive-in, so the screen was even bigger.

#14 Mr. Blofeld

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 09:52 PM

Just because it was audacious doesn't mean it was good; you could have a huge pair of cojones and still not have a brain in your head -- this film, unfortunately, is a well-endowed Scarecrow of Oz.

#15 MarkA

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 10:41 PM

Bond has always privileged images and moments over logic and narrative, even in Fleming. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE takes that about as far as the Bond franchise has ever gone. The results are splendid: a surreal, dreamlike blockbuster with some of the most striking imagery ever produced for a Bond film.

Sums it up perfectly. I was there! I saw it on its original release. It was my first Bond. For a little boy mad on the space race it was astonishing. Japan, action, explosions, spacecrafts, a hollowed out volcano, the music. Yes, not logical, not the best Bond but a spectacle the like that had not been witnessed on a cinema screen up until that point. It blew my seven-year-old mind and made me a Bond fan for life. Vastly superior to it's overrated remake, The Spy Who Loved Me. I think you had to be there to appreciate it in all its magnificence.

#16 Matt_13

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 10:50 PM

Consider the UK in 1967. Wilson government. Foot and mouth rampant. Pound devalued. Torrey Canyon. All a bit miserable and yet out there, seeking to entertain, someone is making a film in which a man with a face like a cracked boiled egg drops dolly birds into pirhanas, hides rockets inside a volcano and great chunks of it are filmed, with all the logistical cost that comes with it, in a country nuked twice just over twenty years beforehand which is totally alien to most of the potential Western audience, or could generate bad wartime memories. That's entertainment.

They must have been off their heads. Just as well they were.


This is fair. A solid observation/argument for the film's quality.

I will never call into question the class of the cinematography, nor the score, as both of these aspects of the film are (beyond question) some of the best in series, but the film itself, at least for me, falls a bit flat. It probably plays better on the big screen as you all have suggested, the epic nature of the film trumping any shortcomings in story and character, but that isn't something I've experienced. Interesting discussion.

#17 Royal Dalton

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 03:18 AM

You Only Live Twice is absolutely superb. And easily the best-made Bond film by quite a wide margin.

#18 d21089

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 04:47 AM

The lipstick on the pig is particularly nice, however it is still a pig
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#19 AMC Hornet

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 05:17 AM

I was totally blown away when I saw YOLT at a retrospective showing in '72, at the tender age of 13. It was slick, audacious, high-tech (then), exotic, exciting, classy, sexy...it was a BOND movie!

It ranked highly with me until, one fateful day in the mid-eighties, I read a review of the series where the critic described the film as a "gaudy but effective spectacle."

I let that critique effect me until recently, when I realized that most of my favorite Bonds were produced between 1965-1977 (Thunderball - The Spy Who Loved Me) - with the exception of YOLT. Then I thought, why exclude it? Why should I let one critic's opinion influence me so? Sure, the CCTV in the space and 'drop in the ocean' scenes made no sense; sure, Connery looked about as Japanese as I do; sure the space technology remains SF to this day, but so what? There are worse things than being a "gaudy but effective spectacle" - such as being a gaudy and ineffective dud.

Watching YOLT makes me feel like a kid again, as do the others I mentioned above. That's not a bad thing. Now that I have a 32" flatscreen I can again see the film in the ratio it needs and deserves. For some movies, especially ones employing John Barry and Freddie Young, bigger is better. To deliberately misqoute Mr. Blofeld, "just because it was audacious doesn't mean it wasn't good."

My partner loves me despite my flaws. I should be able to extend that courtesy to a film I've known and loved for a hell of a lot longer.

My favorite Bond films were all produced between 1965-1977.

Period.

Edited by AMC Hornet, 11 November 2011 - 05:22 AM.


#20 Mr. Blofeld

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 06:38 AM

Even Thunderball right before it had more sense than this movie; it's not all just about spectacle, but coherent entertainment that won't insult your intelligence.

Any film where the main villain petulantly shouts "KEEEEE BAAAHND!!! NAAAWWW!!!" is no classic; even Peter Hunt knew this. I really prefer films with intelligent references and plot developments, instead of "Bird no make nest in bare tree" faux-aphorisms and the world's dumbest volcano guards not knowing when to leave Bond in his gyrocopter well enough alone.

"Nothing here but volcanoes", only in this instance, aside from the lush score and beautiful cinematography, there's nothing here bright or original, either.

#21 MarkA

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 08:05 AM

Even Thunderball right before it had more sense than this movie; it's not all just about spectacle, but coherent entertainment that won't insult your intelligence.

Oh sorry, I am so glad your intelligence is way above me. I am so sorry for liking YOLT. How stupid of me. EVEN Thunderball had more sense. Damn another of my favourites. I must learn.

#22 hilly

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 09:15 AM

Even Thunderball right before it had more sense than this movie; it's not all just about spectacle, but coherent entertainment that won't insult your intelligence.

Oh sorry, I am so glad your intelligence is way above me. I am so sorry for liking YOLT. How stupid of me. EVEN Thunderball had more sense. Damn another of my favourites. I must learn.


Well said.
I can do the chin-stroking " fanboy" stuff with the best of them ( as my wife will wearily and eye-rollingly confirm). However I think it's a bit rich to assume that, in this age of "rebooted" so-called "serious" Bond films, that we're now not allowed to enjoy the extravaganzas such as YOLT.
Like it or not, it was the big-budget spectacles such as this that hooked a lot of us on Bond in the first place. It seems a little unfair that we're now supposed to dislike them in favour of cooing over how "Fleming-like" and back to basics the plots are, and how we get a sense of Bond's dark side etc etc. The series is constantly evolving. Just because the current vogue is for Daniel Craig to be a more "serious" Bond, it doesn't necessarily follow that it will stay that way. The Broccoli-Wilsons don't make films purely to keep the hardcore fans and chatrooms happy. These films are mass entertainment cash cows. It's the fun OTT elements ( in ALL of the films) that entertain the masses. The fun, for me, of Bond films, is that, for 50 years, the movies have been ( to paraphrase Roger Moore) the same story told differently. Sure I have my favourites and some that are not, but I would never dismiss any of them as being " not really a true Bond film", merely because it doesn't fit in with the current popular view of what constitutes one.
YOLT is what it is. It is fun and it is entertaining. After the increasing budgets, scale ( and profits) of Goldfinger and Thunderball, Harry and Cubby merely followed their own trend. I personally think that, if they'd filmed anything akin to the source novel, it would have died on it's [censored] and Bond films would never have made it into the 1970's

#23 Harmsway

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 11:55 AM

Even Thunderball right before it had more sense than this movie; it's not all just about spectacle, but coherent entertainment that won't insult your intelligence.

Whether or not a film "makes sense" isn't always the most important thing. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE is, as said before, a kind of mad film. But that kind of madness offers its own delights, particularly when this brand of madness is so elegant and grand.

#24 David Schofield

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 12:02 PM

See the old guard prefer it to the young .Well, you guys are entitled to your opinions and to derive your enjoyment. But to me, its still total rubbish. Beautiful looking and beautiful sounding. But nonetheless total rubbish.

David Schofield. Age 46 and a half. (Must have first seen this - probably as part of a double-bill rerun together with THUNDERBALL - in the early 70s)

;)

#25 MarkA

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 01:27 PM

See the old guard prefer it to the young .Well, you guys are entitled to your opinions and to derive your enjoyment. But to me, its still total rubbish. Beautiful looking and beautiful sounding. But nonetheless total rubbish.

That may be. As I said not the best, in fact the least of the 60's Bond's. But it had its own special mad beauty that has nothing to do with plot or logic. Mainly supplied by Ken Adam, Freddie Young and John Barry. Three professionals that were at the top of their game and had proven it beyond the Bond stable. I would love to see this mad gloss supplied to a new Bond (something we have not seen since these people moved on) but I am not sure there are individuals around that have their unique genius. The film can be ripped apart for sure. Attack the film, not the individuals that like it, which some above seem to do. We all have our guilty pleasures.

#26 MrKidd

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 03:34 PM

YOLT is probably my fave Bond of the lot. Now granted, I haven't seen it for many moons and I don't think I want to revisit as I'm sure I'll find it dated and, well, a bit rubbish. I do recognize there are cringe-worthy moments (but as Jim said above..product of its time etc). However with that said, if I had to justify why I was a Bond fan it would be:
1. rooftop chase sequence - boy, that is cool. Real cool.
2. Little Nellie sequence - never has the Bond theme been used so execessively and daftily. The sublimiest moment of Bondesque coolness known to Man.
3. 'Keeeeeeeeeeel Bond.. Now'. Oh yes - now THAT is a villian who'd knick a fiver from his own grandmother.

#27 Miles Miservy

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 05:19 PM

i found the score most pleasing barry did a good job

cinematography wise it was all very lucious and pleasurable to see japan shot in a very informative way


I blame Goldfinger. If he'd finished what he started on the Swiss Laser table, It'd be a whole different story now, wouldn't it?

#28 delfloria

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 05:40 PM

If Bond is attacked while training as a NINJA then I think Spectre knows he's there disguised as a Japanese. There fore none of the rest of the plot works. There are several things like this throughout the film. Spectre sending choppers after Little Nelly when all they to do was stay hidden, How many tourist took photos of the Ning Po and were killed, Killing the men in the car by dropping them in the ocean instead of bringing them in for questioning, Bond trying to get himself shot in to space (to blow up the ship and himself with it?, Camera's in space, No one seeing the space ship launches or returns, Bond being taken up in a plane only to try and crash it with Bond inside (I wish I had a budget like that) and more. I'm amazed that OHMSS was EON's next film and were able to create a classic.

BTW is saw YOLT first run at the Chinese Theatre and was blown away as a kid.

#29 DaveBond21

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 09:17 PM

It has some great moments - the PTS, the dock fight, a car picked up by a magnet and the sumo wrestling scene but it is all a bit drab.

#30 Lachesis

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 10:49 PM

After the leisurely pace of TB I find YOLT quite a bit tighter pacing wise so boring is an odd term to apply. Lewis Gilbert brings a tremedous eye to the locations and a rich quality that puts every penny up on screen his three entries are the most sumptuous it has seen.

It's too easy to forget the period, the threat of the cold war and its relationship to the space race. This was one year before man walked on the moon, it was a tremedous technological experience but an even greater politcal coo. The pace of development did forsee an ongoing development and progression and tbh the only thing that stopped it was money so the plot was ironically far less far fetched in the 60's than perhaps it seems today.

The current mood is anal pretention and emo wallowing which leaves some of the older more extravagant films out on a limb, YOLT and GF seem most under siege but I'd happily take either over any post GE film because that raw sense of escapism and adventure was at a creatvie peak, the cliches that we now bemoan exist because the film was so successful and so entertaining, but as ever time has its influence, unless, that is, you have the character to rise above it and accept it for what it unashemedly aims to be and in that case its tremendous fun.

Edited by Lachesis, 11 November 2011 - 10:52 PM.