Interesting! But why do you rate the Dalton era so low?
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- Licence to Kill
- The Living Daylights
- From Russia With Love
- For Your Eyes Only
- Casino Royale
- Dr. No
- Quantum of Solace
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
- Skyfall
- GoldenEye
- Octopussy
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- A View to a Kill
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Moonraker
- You Only Live Twice
- Goldfinger
- Diamonds Are Forever
- The World Is Not Enough
- Thunderball
- The Man With the Golden Gun
- Die Another Day
- Live and Let Die
- No Time to Die
- Spectre
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It does help compartmentalise your feelings towards certain films.
I think I might look at drunk Bond watching
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I never liked Dalton in the theater and it never changed. He wasn’t charismatic enough and/or tough enough in my eyes. He didn’t seem to have much personality. It didn’t help that Licence to Kill didn’t seem worthy of a Bond plot.
I want to say I may have come around had Dalton stuck around for a couple more movies but I like Lazenby enough with just one movie.
All that said…I love the Russian in the pipeline sequence in TLD a LOT.
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Stealing Stbernard’s idea of descriptions and SAF’s groupings, and always recalling Dustin’s wise metaphor of EON dumping out the Bond movie components at the start of each production, I will also add a brief preface:
You all know I am a film geek par excellence, so when I rank Bond films, the quality of the film as an art object comes first–does it hold together as a movie, no matter the Bond content included. With that said:
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DAF–surprise! A quintessential 1970s film right at the start of the decade. Belongs in the pantheon beside its 1971 classmates: KLUTE; THE FRENCH CONNECTION; PLAY MISTY FOR ME; A CLOCKWORK ORANGE: THE DEVILS; SHAFT. A Bond movie that is aware that it is one, DAF is so time-specific that it has become timeless (a trick Hitchcock knew a lot about). Hamilton was never happier or better than in 2:35 AR.
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SPECTRE–With The Orphan Trilogy concluded, Bond can be expected to do a little work as a state-sanctioned assassin. His awakening to a consciousness prior to his conditioning resonates for me, and I am unbothered by both Blofeld being Oberhauser, and a handgun bringing down a helicopter. I love Stb’s idea of SP as horror film–Bond is Frankenstein’s monster; M is the good doctor; and Q is Igor. Look forward to my next viewing with horror in mind.
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MOONRAKER–a star vehicle for Sir Roger, and he is flawless in every scene. Lewis Gilbert’s finest two hours–with a great deal of help from Ken Adam, John Barry, Jean Tournier, and Michael Londsdale. Jaws may collapse the circus tent, but the movie never deflates.
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GOLDFINGER–Hamilton sets the (cynical) template, and his understanding/handling of cinematic space (in 1:66 AR) defeats Hunt’s editing scheme (fruitcakes at Christmas were not exchanged between these two). The rape of Pussy is horrid, but I console myself that she didn’t stick around after they were rescued.
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TMWTGG–Hamilton said he should not have made it. Barry disliked his score. Moore did not like Bond’s cynical template, but played him as written. Maibaum re-writing Mankiewicz was the wrong order. Sheriff Pepper should never have taken that vacation. Yet it works in a more than adequate, if less than very good or great, way. Christopher Lee is a huge help. It is the Bond film with the most flaws that I still like.
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OHMSS–One of the most famous one-offs in cinema history, the movie is the 1960s to an almost shameless degree. Telly Savalas is a fine Blofeld, and Diana Rigg is never not a pleasure, but I know we are just two years away from Bondian sublimity, so I get a tad impatient.
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FYEO–John Glen’s first and best outing. Moore navigates his aging with finesse.
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QoS–the briefest Bond, and a nice idea. Not fully realized, but its brevity keeps it from overstaying its welcome.
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TSWLM–Lewis Gilbert gives birth to Commander Bond, and improves on his previous outing. Moore looks more comfortable than ever.
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YOLT–for Connery’s job-action-as-performance and Ken Adam. Connery’s yellow face almost kills it for me.
11-13. OCTOPUSSY; TB; FRWL–There are moments, and I list OCTOPUSSY first since I do like the clown sequence. But at this point, I am enjoying portions/aspects of a film, and not its entirety.
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SF–snazzy cinematography, but maybe too self-conscious, and the reach for pathos falls short. The treatment of Severine is abhorrent, and Silva as deranged gay is in hilarious, repugnant taste.
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CR–nifty new Bond, and I love the car flipping over. A touch maudlin, and Vesper leaves me cold.
16-17. TLD & LTK–The Dalton Dyad. Dalton is always watchable, no matter what he is asked to do, or who he is surrounded by (both elements varying in quality, sometimes within the same film).
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NTTD–Well-done and overdone simultaneously. Bond can do nothing but be killed at the end. Weak villain, and gaming’s first influence on a Bond film’s mise en scene.
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AVTAK–A (Golden Gate) bridge too far.
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DN–it started it all. For that we are grateful.
21-24. GE; TND; TWINE; DAD–The Brosnan Quartet. Each film has some element or elements I like, but the point has been reached where the dross outweighs the gold.
- LALD–James Bond in Harlem is an idea that should have been drowned in Cubby Broccoli’s swimming pool. Barring that, EON should have hired people who had some relation to the Blaxploitation genre that is being invoked. Hamilton is too cynical (giving Moore the ultimate in non-direction direction: “Don’t be Connery”), and Mankiewicz too naive/obtuse to get it, thus leaving a hot, buttery, racist mess behind them. Rosie Carver’s “feet-do-your-stuff” routine may be the series’ nadir (though it has competition). As Yaphet Kotto later said: “How did Mankiewicz expect me to say this stuff?” Indeed.
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My rankings haven’t changed much, but I will break them into segments:
THE GREAT
- Licence To Kill
- Octopussy
- For Your Eyes Only
- GoldenEye
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Casino Royale
- Goldfinger
- The Living Daylights
THE GOOD
- Diamonds Are Forever
- Live And Let Die
- Thunderball
- From Russia With Love
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
THE ENJOYABLE
- Die Another Day
- The World Is Not Enough
- You Only Live Twice
- SPECTRE
- Skyfall
- Moonraker
- Dr. No
THE SO-SO
- Quantum Of Solace
- A View To A Kill
- The Man With The Golden Gun
- Never Say Never Again
THE DISAPPOINTING
- No Time To Die
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Thanks for explaining. Although I cannot understand Dalton not being charismatic or tough enough… 
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Beautifully commented - but FRWL… such a low place for you? Can’t… compute…
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I wouldn’t call Dalton physically tough like some of the other Bond actors, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It can give his fights (even though he actually doesn’t have that many) a feeling of real world humanity.
When he says “stuff my orders” you know from the get-go he’s more than willing to do whatever it takes, no matter what anyone around him thinks. Dalton’s main weapon is his strategic, uncompromising mind.
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I think Dalton’s advantage in the role is that he’s giving us a look at what Bond might look like towards the end of his time as an agent. He’s tired, both physically and of the politics, red tape, and other nonsense that gets in the way of him actually accomplishing his objectives. I think this comes through in a lot of the scenes in his two films and also allows for those lighter moments to hit a bit different because they come across, at least to me, as someone who is tired and cynical about what he is doing finding a moment of enjoyment in the middle of all of the nonsense that is going on around him.
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I adore Dalton’s work, i just think the audience wasnt ready for it after the Moore charm train. Craig got aclaim for doing the exact same thing, but the audiences were more okay with it.
I can see why Eon are taking their time. Even writing that was hard.
Personally think Regé-Jean Page back on the charm train is whats needed…
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I think the charm train is the way to travel. I just think, after seeing Page in other films and shows I don’t know anymore whether he is as good as he was in “Bridgerton”.
@sharpshooter: regarding Dalton, you’re absolutely right. But I always thought of Bond being more of an endurance specialist, someone who can use but never wants to resort to violence. Maybe that’s why I never thought Craig being pumped up was a good idea. Why would Bond be able to maintain that physique anyway? He is strong but lean, not a wanna be action hero bodybuilding fitness gym-regular.
Tone it down for the next guy, EON. He will be grateful, too.
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That’s a great example of how 2 people can see the same thing very differently.
I was always fine with Craig being a gym goer because Fleming, very early on, described Bond as liking solitary pursuits that challenged him (I believe golf and gambling were the examples). I always saw him building his body up as a modern day equivalent of that.
As a single guy, I do the same thing - I workout not to look like the action hero but it’s a solitary pursuit and I like something that gets me off the couch and pushes me. When I see Craig built up, that’s the facet of the character I’m seeing.
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I see - but as a Mi6 operative, would he really have the time to keep training that much, eating only healthy alternatives, forget the drinking?
I can only see someone like Dalton actually be the realistic Bond, keeping fit but not doing more than necessary.
Fair, qutting Bridgerton was not a good career choice, but i do think the series needs to go back to the charm train. I love that harder edge, but i think Craig did it brilliantly (the second he picked up the toy, Bond is dead)
More importantly, i think Bond needs to now go in the comfort food direction
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I think he has time to train BECAUSE he’s an MI6 operative. Maybe not if he was an analyst behind a desk but as a field agent it’s reasonable to call it part of his job. Especially when CR established him as former SAS.
Look at Skyfall where we saw all that gym equipment in the temporary MI6 headquarters and how they needed him to pass the physical tests. The deleted scene from the trailer showed him on a run through the park. In NTTD we saw a large punching bag at his house. It’s how he challenges himself, much like him fishing with a speargun in retirement.
If Fleming’s Bond had the time to pursue solitary leisure activities like golf and gambling then I can absolutely see Craig’s Bond putting in 45mins a day to keep the blunt instrument strong and ready.
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… I’d say it was - I have lost interest since season 2, but maybe I was not the target audience anyway. The idea of a romantic comedy within those historic re-imaginings I thought interesting, but repeating that now in every season is, for me, tiresome.
Of course, if Page did it once he can do it again. Only his choices since then were not giving him the best possibilities to shine.
I envy you. I’m happy to do 30 minutes once a week. And I’m soooo proud if my posture is a little bit better… until I hunch over my desk for the rest of the day.
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I’ll tell you the secret - I have 2 dumbbells hiding under a table in the TV room. I roll them out 3 days a week, get on the floor, and go to work while watching a show.
When you do it that way it becomes something you don’t have to make time for because you would’ve been sitting around watching a show at that time anyway. Chug a protein shake after and do it consistently and you’d be surprised at the results.
It needs to be said too that it depends on what version of the character you’re talking about. Fleming’s Bond did some sit ups and push ups every morning but he would never go past that (not to mention the drinking and smoking). Higson’s Bond drinks kombucha 
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Interesting question, how would Bond‘s ordinary workday look? ‘Moonraker‘ made it sound like mostly reading files - without any discernible action after the lecture - interspersed with weekly close quarters combat and shooting. It sounds like a mix of Fleming’s own NI work, files, with that of the RNVR officers attached to the various Commando branches Fleming came in contact with.
It has the sound of authenticity and is intriguing for the reader who’d rather take the hour of judo training by an instructor or shooting hell out of a cardboard target than sit for hours on end in PowerPoint presentations. Sadly, it also doesn’t seem very realistic.
If Bond was indeed in any field work at risk of getting caught by opposition he’d likely not sit 230 days each year reading top secret files about the most sensitive topics. He’d be briefed specifically for each job with the bare essentials - and everything he knows would be considered compromised, from the Freudenstein affair to the escape routes out of Iron Curtain countries, once he disappears off the radar.
On the other hand, for somebody whose role in the Service is so specifically defined as ‘troubleshooting’ one hour of small arms and close quarters combat training each per week seems ludicrously little preparation to fight an armoured flamethrower buggy and an obstacle course against death.
Actually, Bond’s missions nowadays would be only loosely attached to intelligence work - and the ones they call in when they need them are consequently special forces: Rangers, SAS, Sayeret Matkal, Delta Force and the like. I dare say SIS could save a significant part of their budget if they scratched the 00-section and just let their military take care of things.
But let’s just say funds are no concern for HMG and they like to have SIS have its own little special in-house force. How would that likely spend its days? Very probably along the lines of all the other special forces: rigorous training divided into three stages of intensity, six days per week focused on endurance, speed, weight, coordination and agility, weapons and tactics drills tailored to specific roles (snipers, paras, divers, support so on so forth).
That would likely go on for three weeks on a lighter level, two weeks on the highest level, then again taking it easy for two weeks for rest and recreation as well as debriefing/strategic planning and advanced education.
Details would depend but are likely broadly similar to that of high performance top athlete’s training schedules. Bond wouldn’t spend a lot of time at SIS-HQ. Rather he’d be holed up at Fort Monckton (or wherever SIS sends their dark artists to mingle and have fun with the likes of SBS).
But the biggest difference to literary/film Bond would be that this entire special forces stuff is a team sport. These people work together in close knit units for many days, sweating through drills, evaluating improvements, planning new and devious routines to further their expertise. They rarely work alone for the simple reason that, if one operative goes belly-up, the mission would be botched if it was the only operative. Bond would have to be a team player - with his field colleagues, not with the top brass at HQ.
A word on Craig’s physique. I think in CASINO ROYALE and subsequent films he looks very capable, which is what you want when an action production goes for all kinds of physical shenanigans. Is it in line with the supposed special forces background?
These people have to take a lot of use and abuse - but those you see in authentic footage are not usually bodybuilding types, or at least not in the Rambo/Conan school. Training emphasis is on endurance under stress, strength will always come in handy - but pulling 20 extra pounds of muscle up a rope isn’t hugely helpful in a tactical situation. I suspect most special forces personnel on average would be physically closer to mountain climbers than to weightlifters.
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