Deathmatch 2022: Main Titles - Semi-Finals

Voting closes September 21

  • Casino Royale (2006)
  • OHMSS

0 voters

  • Goldfinger
  • The Spy who Loved Me

0 voters

I went with:

Casino Royale over On Her Majestyā€™s Secret Service
The Spy Who Loved Me over Goldfinger

Have to go with two of my top three main titles sequences.

1 Like

Casino Royale over OHMSS (Itā€™s hard to compare the classic era Title Sequences to the modern ones because of the evolution or the use of technology, so thatā€™s actually the advantage of Casino Royale, itā€™s technologically advanced in terms of VFX compared to OHMSS, but both are great).

The Spy Who Loved Me over Goldfinger (more creative, more artistically advanced, the combination of different colors and more creative than Goldfinger, again GF is iconic but thereā€™s no other things about it other than the Projection of the scenes on the Golden Girl, unlike TSWLM where thereā€™s a story inside the title sequence, thereā€™s a lot of designs).

2 Likes

This is a doozy. CR and OHMSS are my two favorite title sequences and picking one would be like picking a favorite son or daughter. I went with OHMSS because it was first, and remains to me one of the most perfect melding of music/visuals in the entire franchise. But CR remains Kleinmanā€™s masterpiece and I donā€™t see him ever topping it.

TSWLM over GF - Man, I do love me some Margaret Nolan. But a Binder sequence (especially this one) will always, with the exception of CR, top a non-Binder sequence for me.

2 Likes

I think the GF sequence works well as a metaphor: images projected on an objectified gilt female formā€“a canvas/screen upon which a narrative is projectedā€“in this case, a male narrative represented by Goldfinger, whose image is the first and last we are shown, and whom the audience is explicitly warned about/against in the lyrics of the accompanying song. The film itself plays out the theme of the objectification of women with the scenes with Dink, Bondā€™s actions resulting in the deaths of the Masterson sisters, and the assault of Pussy Galore. As the song goes: the heart of Goldfingerā€“man and movieā€“is cold. The film is fascinating in that it exalts Bond and his values, while at the same time undermining them, without overthrowing them. Hamilton left enough space for plausible deniability.

TSWLM sequence seems more straight up objectification sans critique, with female figures doing erotic gymnastics on phallic gun barrels and toppling over at Bondā€™s touch.

3 Likes

Watching OHMSSā€™ titles without the sound made me realise how they use an awful lot of former footage but are not that much more impressive for it. Sounds adds another dimension here. So I have to go with CASINO ROYALE here.

Likewise with GOLDFINGER; the idea of the golden body is fantastic, but itā€™s not then doing much with it, the projected footage is the star. Therefore, for me itā€™s THE SPYā€™s titles winning here, especially the nicely ironic Moore lowering his gun and just pushing over the platoon of ā€˜soldiergirlsā€™.

2 Likes

Iā€™ve always been wondering about those lyrics - they make Goldfinger sound like some magnetic sex god whose ā€˜golden wordsā€™ women fall for. But in the film itā€™s Bondā€™s words (and deeds) they have to worry about.

Agreed. GF is, in some ways, a weird movieā€“a template film that is cynical about its own template.

1 Like

Maybe itā€™s a reference to Jill, who must have been lured into being Auricā€™s ā€œgirlfriendā€ by the promise of being surrounded by wealth, and indeed ended up suffocated by it. But that negotiation, if it happened at all, happened off screen before the movie begins. In the course of the film, he doesnt really ā€œsweet talkā€ any females, though one does get the impression heā€™s still holding out hope that Pussy will eventually take to him.

Thunderball is the one that confuses me: the title is obviously a reference to the A-bomb, but the song lyrics imply that the ā€œThunderballā€ is Bond himself.

1 Like

Absolutely, Thunderball is Bond - and a very different ā€˜lyrics Bondā€™ than From Russia With Loveā€™s where the text doesnā€™t at all describe Bond as we know him.