53 replies to this topic

[sharpshooter]

YOLT is one of those movies I can put on and have it serve as visual/audio background wallpaper. The movie looks cinematic. It sounds great - a nice contrast akin to the calm reflective "Sun King" and downright doomsdayish "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" two years later. YOLT might not make sense sometimes, but I can't but help overlook these things because as Harmsway states, the madness is done in a grand fashion.

[Onyx2626]

I am a bit of a Japanophile and always rooted for YOLT. It has some serious Freddie Young/John Barry/Ken Adam magic - the overhead shot of the magnetized car is great, though probably second unit - and it feels sensuous like TB, but lacks...it's....ur....gen...cy.

I think you cut out the race-change op and the fake wedding and ta dah!

When Tiger tells Bond he's not finished with ninja training yet I feel like standing up and saying, "Can anyone say World War 3?"
Still though I agree with the "surreal spectacle" observation. The film has a visual appeal that holds up well today.

[Aston V8]

All I can say is that to a ten year old seeing his first Bond film in it's original release, YOLT was a thrilling moment and started me on a life long love of this series and movies in general. It's still a favorite, and some of the conventions of this film are the most iconic in the series. Donald Pleasant's Blofeld, whether you liked it or not, is the best remembered, and the volcano base is without a doubt the best remembered set in Bond history.

[Major Tallon]

I first saw YOLT on its original release in 1967, and I was blown away. Since then, I've come to recognize its many flaws, including many mentioned on this thread, but there's still something very appealing about the Japanese settings, the Little Nellie fight, and the amazing volcano set.

Having said that, I'll set out my own complaint about the film's logic. It took Bond and Kissy virtually all day to climb the volcano, and it was night by the time that Kissy set out to summon Tanaka and his men. She was able to climb down the mountain in the dark, swim across to the fishing village, call Tiger to assemble his assault force, and get back with the team in time to launch an attack, all before the sun rose. Obviously, they've got very long nights in Japan.

Despite the flaws, I find that the positives outweigh the negatives, and that the film is a pleasure to watch. 7/10

[Guy Haines]

I first saw YOLT on its original release in 1967, and I was blown away. Since then, I've come to recognize its many flaws, including many mentioned on this thread, but there's still something very appealing about the Japanese settings, the Little Nellie fight, and the amazing volcano set.

Having said that, I'll set out my own complaint about the film's logic. It took Bond and Kissy virtually all day to climb the volcano, and it was night by the time that Kissy set out to summon Tanaka and his men. She was able to climb down the mountain in the dark, swim across to the fishing village, call Tiger to assemble his assault force, and get back with the team in time to launch an attack, all before the sun rose. Obviously, they've got very long nights in Japan.

Despite the flaws, I find that the positives outweigh the negatives, and that the film is a pleasure to watch. 7/10

I agree with you. As I said earlier, I still like YOLT in spite of its flaws - to which I would add, from the scene you mentioned above, that while Kissy is breaking all records to get back to Tiger, Bond changes out of his fisherman outfit, has his commando suit on underneath, and - very conveniently - has some suction pads to hand, so as to climb around the inside of a volcano that he couldn't have known was anything other than a crater with a lake in it until he got there. Bond clearly applying the old Baden-Powell Scouting motto - "Be Prepared"!

(You know, I wonder if Roald Dahl was having a bit of a mickey take with the script? Not that it matters for me - the sweep of the film, Freddie Young's photography, John Barry's score - particularly the space music - and Ken Adam's volcano make up for it all!)

[Trevelyan 006]

I Can Honestly Say That You Only Live Twice May Be Connery's Least Gripping Bond Film, Yet Isn't His Least Memorable. A Scene That Always Stood Out To Me As A Kid When I Saw It On VHS, Is When Bond Disguises Himself As Henderson's Assassin, And Goes On To Fight The Henchman In Osato's Office, Knocking Him Cold With A Statue Over The Back, And Stuffing Him Away. I Can Also Say That You Only Live Twice Is More Watchable Than Some Others Within The Series For Me.

In Short, It's Not Perfect. If One Focuses On The Flaws Within YOLT, Then One Is Certain To Miss A Memorable Bond Classic.

Regardless If It Left Some Stirred, Not Shaken.

- That Was Right, Wasn't It ?

[Skudor]

Ah, YOLT. Oh so flawed, oh so iconic. Has any Bond film had this big an impact on the way Bond is perceived (hollowed out Volcano: check; bald, psychopathic, cat stroking villain: check). Perfect it may not be, but it does have one thing only six (and a half) Bond films can boast: Connery. That alone does it for me.

[BoogieBond]

YOLT remains Classic, and has several memorable scenes and is very entertaining for the first hour. It really drags for me though during the second hour up to the assault on Blofeld's lair. I like it though, and prefer it to say Dr. No for entertainment and popcorn fun. It also has that bit of silliness and extra humour to push it along. I like an Epic ambitious Bond film, it does not present any new ground by now, but the rehash is wonderfully packaged and has so many great elements(Sean, John Barry, Ken Adam etc) that it works as a decent Bond Film. Pity that ,for me, that it was just surpassed in quality with its immediate predecessor(TB) and successor(OHMSS)

[Fiona Volpe lover]

Stil ties with TB and OHMSS as my favourite Bond movie. Forget GF, those three movies to me represent the highpoint of the Bond series. I will admit, the flaws in YOLT do become more apparent, but I still adore watching it, a wonderful, lush, ridiculous, almost dreamlike film experience. It makes no sense, it's not Fleming, but it's wonderful. Then again I like MR almost as much!!

[Mark_Hazard]

Can't find anyone having answered this

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?

so: I can't remember where I heard or read it, but as I understand it, 007 had to accompany the local agent (female) to the local Amma (?have I got that right?) village, but their morals wouldn't allow an unmarried couple to live under the same roof, hence the marriage.

Regards the film, the same as others, I saw it on its initial release and thoroughly enjoyed it - still do - and I love Little Nellie.

[The ides of Mark]

I saw this movie tonight after many years. My girlfriend noticed Blofelds cat totally freaking out (103 mins) after some explosions in the crater. Pleasence bearly manages to keep the animal in his arms in this moment LOL. I actually had to rewind that moment to see it myself, Could be quite fun to eagle eye this little sequence.

[DaveBond21]

You can see why this would be such a spectacle in 1967 - there are so many things that cinema audiences were seeing for the first time, and it is such a futuristic looking movie, based around technology, that we sometimes forget that looking back 48 years on.

 

Things that would have had the audience rapt would have been:-

 

- Japan in general, and Japanese characters, seen in a mostly good light

 

- a safe cracker

 

- a car with a TV in it

 

- Tiger Tanaka's underground train

 

- the space scenes - the effects were good in 1967

 

- the volcano - an amazing set by Ken Adam, including the monorail

 

- Little Nellie and the helicopter fight - was there ever a helicopter battle in a film before this movie came out?

 

 

Also this time around, I found Connery's performance fine - actually reminded me of Daniel Craig's performance in Skyfall. This movie also features Craig's favourite 007 car - the Datsun.

Also there are palm trees in certain parts of Russia, eg Sochi.

[Admiral Messervey]

When I first watched it in 2002, I loved it. Now, I rated it a 7 mostly in part to it being the very first of many films that would divorce itself from the source material for the majority of the next decade until FYEO.

 

Whatever did Roald Dahl have against the Garden of Death?

[Vauxhall]

I've always had it bobbing around the bottom of my list since I started being a Bond fan, but now I can hardly remember why. It's got a lot of strong elements, once you put the space-based plot to one side, and it had the best Bond cinematography until SKYFALL and a very competitive score. Not so bad.

[DamnCoffee]

Re-watched this a few weeks ago. It's actually pretty decent until Bond acquires Little Nellie, then it does a complete u-turn and descends into chaos. As beautiful as Ken Adams sets are it's all just a bit stupid really.Badly written and just a bit of a snooze fest. Aki shouldn't have died. Introducing Kissy is all just a bit pointless in the grand scheme of things. Why does Bond have to get married? He doesn't need to go off the grid at all. It's all pointless padding that could be used in more inventive ways. It's just one big dip in quality. No wonder Connery looked a bit bored. I don't blame the man. The script is awful. 

[hilly]

Ah. The wonders of dvd and the internet forum. It allows us to pull apart any film and examine it's narrative flaws, exposing them as HUGE HIDEOUS ERRORS.

YOLT is wildly illogical, utter fantasy and tons of fun....but, if you drill down, so is any Bond film. I imagine, however, that, when seen for the first time on the big screen, it would have fulfilled the main criteria set by the producers- to entertain on a grand scale.

So.

Set aside any "why didn't they use this or that from the novel?" thoughts. They didn't, so there's no point stressing about it.

Stop looking for continuity errors. There are plenty. Who cares? Too late to do anything about it now.

We all know that Connery was barely on speaking terms with the producers by this stage and was bored stiff- but does it matter? He still looks great.

 

Instead, just take in the cinematography, the music, the sheer size of that volcano set ( and, as a Bond fan, be smug at the thought that they actually built that thing from scratch back in 1967, rather than take today's CGI route) and the chutzpah of the whole thing.....and enjoy it for what it is.. Fun.

[JCRendle]

When I first watched it in 2002, I loved it. Now, I rated it a 7 mostly in part to it being the very first of many films that would divorce itself from the source material for the majority of the next decade until FYEO.

 

Whatever did Roald Dahl have against the Garden of Death?

 

I believe that they scouted for locations, castles etc, for a Garden of Death type scene - but they were unable to find anywhere that was suitable, so it wasn't that Roald Dahl was against it, they just couldn't make it work.

[Jim]

Well, it sort of is there, with Helga getting dipped into the pirhanas and some Adamesque space-age shrubbery knocking about. A "loose" translation, within the spirit of the rest of it. Admittedly, it's not particularly major and the motivation and use behind the whole idea of it is obviously different. But it's a nod.

[Admiral Messervey]

 

When I first watched it in 2002, I loved it. Now, I rated it a 7 mostly in part to it being the very first of many films that would divorce itself from the source material for the majority of the next decade until FYEO.

 

Whatever did Roald Dahl have against the Garden of Death?

 

I believe that they scouted for locations, castles etc, for a Garden of Death type scene - but they were unable to find anywhere that was suitable, so it wasn't that Roald Dahl was against it, they just couldn't make it work.

 

 

Hopefully Babs and Mike will bring it to life for either Craig's final film or for his successor

[glidrose]

Well, it sort of is there, with Helga getting dipped into the pirhanas and some Adamesque space-age shrubbery knocking about. A "loose" translation, within the spirit of the rest of it. Admittedly, it's not particularly major and the motivation and use behind the whole idea of it is obviously different. But it's a nod.

 

 

A nod is as good as a wank.

 

Seriously, tho', Dahl loathed the novel. Thought it was IF's worst. Also thought his own screenplay was crap. Take the money and run was his motto.

[Invincible1958]

4. "When doesh the countdown start?" - "Tonight. Midnight." - "WE'LL LEAVE IN THE MORNING!" Um...

 

It's already after midnight when this dialogue takes place. So when it's 1 a.m. and they say "Tonight. Midnight." it means, that they still have 23 hours time.

 

But otherwise: yes, the movie is a bore.

[Guy Haines]

Connery's least gripping film, but not his least memorable is a good way of describing YOLT on the part of Trevelyan 006. And some of the most memorable bits don't even involve Bond. Around the time of SF's release the online version of a certain national newspaper was doing a "Favourite Bond film" item, with correspondents writing about a certain movie. Inevitably there was an item about YOLT. In the reader's posts underneath people quoted the opening scene involving the US spacecraft and its doomed spacewalker and the SPECTRE intruder missile. They were even quoting lines from it "It's another spacecraft" - "The front is opening up!" - "Chris, get back in!" - and so on.

 

YOLT has some memorable scenes in it even if the sum of the parts doesn't always hold together. More like a greatest hits compilation than a coherent story, based around;

 

DN (Mad villain in secret lair, hoards of dispensable henchmen, agents on the mainland trying to bump off Bond, chief mainland agent a supposedly respectable type - for Dent read Osato)

 

GF (Again, mad villain and bonkers plot, well built heavy though nowhere near as much in evidence as Oddjob, gadget laden vehicle for Bond, air rather than land based)

 

and

 

TB (SPECTRE, hijacking of spacecraft rather than an aircraft, femme fatale - Fiona, sorry Helga seemingly more in charge than Osato, brief underwater scenes, Q in the field again!, big battle at the end, and Bond/girl ending very similar)

 

We even get a little of FRWL when Osato and Helga are summoned by Blofeld to account for the fact that 007 isn't dead after all, and one of the two is executed for failure.

 

The late John Brosnan called TSWLM a "greatest hits" Bond film and you could also argue that YOLT was something similar ten years earlier - right down to having the same director, Lewis Gilbert.

[dtuba]

Loved it as a kid. I mean, LOVED it. As an adult, I can now see how silly it is, but it is (like MR) a beautiful, well crafted bit of silliness. Aki is still one of my favorite Bond girls ever, and I find myself losing interest in the film after she dies.

 

And man, was Lois Maxwell at her hottest in that Navy uniform or what???

[Guy Haines]

YOLT is on the big screen not far from my part of the world, on Sunday 8th March. The Savoy Cinema in Worksop, the Nottinghamshire town where Donald Pleasence was born, is running four movies, starting at 2 pm, each starring the actor, and the first shown will be YOLT, followed by the Roman Polanski directed film Cul-De-Sac, then the science fiction film THX1138 and culminating late at night with the horror movie Deathline.

 

It is organised by a Hull based film society called "KinoKlubb", and the whole event is called "PleasFest" The website for this is www.kinoklubb.com/pleas-fest-programme