Voting closes September 10.
This is a murderer’s row group here with four of my top 10 favorites. Anyway, here is my ranking:
Been choosing Mr K over Mr B for rather a lot of these. I may need to change my username.
Binder’s titles used to be groundbreaking at the time, belly dancers, golden girls, volcanoes and lava, diamonds. But ca. around TSWLM/MR the whole idea peaked and afterwards his approach to mirror the film’s themes just didn’t work that well any longer. His latter work profited hugely from the songs and falls flat if you watch them with the sound off.
It’s particularly obvious when we compare the GE, TWINE or CR titles to Binder’s output around TLD/LTK. Yes, the approach is a lot different and hugely helped by modern CGI/animation techniques. But these titles also don’t rely solely on the female shape any more and are visually much more diverse. A valid critique is how, from CR onwards, titles focused on CraigBond. But they are nonetheless distinctive and belong to their respective films the way Binder’s early entries did.
Completely agree. From GE onwards, each sequence was a notable step up in being thematically distinctive and self-contained. That they achieved this while still calling back to the Binder era is remarkable.
The titles tend to be the only element where the more recent entries generally beat the older ones, for me. Doubtless this is largely due to technology: the effects in the older ones seem clumsy and crude by modern standards. More than any other element, they’re what you have to make allowances for and grade on a curve, as in “well, for the time, they were great.” I think the classic era peaked with TSWLM’s titles, and it’s awesome seeing Roger participate, but even with that one, there are “glitches” and awkward effects when viewed through a 21st century lens. Then when AVTAK rolled around and the same shots of Roger were still being used – bell-bottoms and all – you could tell Binder was running on fumes. LTK in particular seemed totally phoned in and half-hearted, like an economy, TV movie imitation of a Binder title sequence.
In the old days, for me, the titles were a mildly diverting intermission between an awesome PTS and the main event. In the Brosnan and Craig eras, that relationship was reversed: the pre-titles were rarely as awesome as the title sequences. CR’s titles in particular were a revelation, and SF’s were, to me, the highlight of the film. But it’s not a clean sweep, as QoS misfired.
Generally speaking, I skip the titles when I watch the older entries on disc, but I’ve been known to fire up the player to watch the SF or CR titles in isolation. Not sure if that’s praise for the more recent titles or criticism of the films they were attached to. Maybe a little of both.
I think all of the 1962-1969 sequences are works of art. Even the simplicity of the coloured dots against the black background in Dr. No is visually striking. After the 1960s my interest drops off, even though I like elements from some others. If NTTD was the end for Kleinman he didn’t put a foot wrong. He’s set the standard now.