Coincindence doesn’t exist, but I was planning to watch DAD on my free afternoon today. I already have the blu ray ready, and now I just read here that Tamahori passed away.
It’t not exactly the best Bond film, but it’s very enjoyable, and I thought Brosnan improved in the role with each film.
R.I.P. Tamahori.
RIP Lee Tamahori. While some of the decisions in DAD were questionable, that film never fails to entertain me. Very underrated entry (even if it’s nowhere near the top of my rankings).
He made one bad choice with that film but most of what he did was good. His casting was phenomenal and that sword fight, and the way he kept upping the pace was incredible.
Jinx’s dive was also not very good and a bad choice I think.
There was a unique visual style in DAD. Slow motion, speed ramping, black and white, more prominent CGI. At the time I wondered if that would be the modern template. CR was a reaction against DAD but elements did carry over. It’s a film the fans won’t forget in any case.
Indeed. What‘s offen hard to grasp today is, back then most of DIE ANOTHER DAY looked fairly up to date. Grisly CGI kite surfing apart, the remainder of the footage felt like typical action fodder in a vaguely Michael-Bay-ish way. Some fans no doubt expected the visual pretensions to carry on into the next few iterations (possibly with a director like Ang Lee). And the QOS dive from the spire for example ows a lot to Jinx‘ dive from the cliffs.
RIP Mr. Tamahori.
For all of its faults, DAD still has some of the more interesting ideas we’ve seen from a Bond film in a long time. If some of them had been taken in slightly different directions, there’s absolutely the foundation for a true classic Bond film in there had the film not needed to adhere to, as @Dustin said, the typical, Michael Bay-style action template and style of the time. I’d actually like to see more filmmakers take big swings with the franchise like Tamahori did, rather than copy and paste what had come before (sometimes, exactly what had come before).
One of the greatest filmmakers of my lifetime.
I watched the movie again, and the style is captivating. But the film still ruptures for me when Bond goes to bed with Miranda, while Jinx breaks into the hothouse. The narrative bifurcates, and when the strands rejoin, the film settles for the formulaic. Brosnan is quite good.
Agreed, but they are not interwoven in the narrative. They resemble raisins dotting the surface of a rice pudding–not mixed in, and easy to pick off. They ornament the dish, rather than flavoring it.
THIS! This is the best summation I’ve ever heard for the failings of DAD. The good aspects are there, but not integrated into the whole in any homogenous way that pulls these disparate good ideas together and solidifies them into an actual piece of effective cinema.
That is a great way to phrase it (which is what earned a 
from me–tacky to a post praising oneself).
Decades ago PBS ran a different samurai film every Sunday afternoon for an extended period, and thus my love affair with chambara films began. I distinctly remember how moved I was as a 10-year old to discover HARAKIRI, and as a result Tatsuya Nakadai. I have now seen HARAKIRI at least a dozen times and enjoyed Takashi Miike’s remake. But that remake didn’t have Tatsuya Nakadai and that was a huge difference. Such a great artist and actor.
I was slightly older when I first saw HARAKIRI, but also moved. Nakadai did fantastic work with Kobayashi, who gets neglected in my view. THE HUMAN CONDITION is amazing.
I saw Nakadai once at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, and he gracious and charming, and seemed amazed that a packed house was so enthusiastic about his work.
And three cheers for public television–we won’t know what we had lost until it is gone.
Yes, PBS served as my introduction to Kurosawa, showing SEVEN SAMURAI and THRONE OF BLOOD during their season of Sunday afternoon movies. My life was forever changed.
For decades German public tv used to show the entire run of classic Hollywood output, black series, dance/revue/screwball comedies, Westerns, crime and action as well as the New Hollywood output from Coppola, Lucas and their brethren. Plus, they started picking up their Japanese inspirers and paired SEVEN SAMURAI with THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN the next week. Films like RASHOMON and YOJIMBO were even shown in Japanese with German subtitles on our third channels.
On top, we used to have many French films, the classics of German filmmaking and the odd production from behind the iron curtain as a staple of our tv programming. Public tv until the mid to late 80s used to be a cineaste 101 class. Even as most of it was dubbed for consumption of an audience that rarely spoke foreign languages, it was nonetheless an incredibly varied and ambitious offering.
We really didn’t know how splendid we had it.
I had Cinema 13. During the summer, while other teenagers were outside, being athletic, getting tans, I cultivated in-house pallor, as every afternoon I watched another movie on Cinema 13 (they had the Janus Collection on tap).
It was a Friday when I first saw L’ECLISSE–shown letterboxed (I wondered what the black bars were). I still remember the fan in the opening scene–no film had ever presented a fan in just that way. A Saturday night brought L’AVVENTURA. Saturday night also brough SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE–the television version–9:00 p.m. in English and 12 midnight in Swedish (you know which one Mr. KW watched).
Then there was HOLIDAY by Cukor and other Hollywood classics. Add to this, The Million Dollar Movie; The 4:30 Movie; The Late Show; and various other screenings, and I had a great film education before I went to college.
And as you all know, I love the theatrical experience, with good prints and sound, but following Dave Kehr, I always say, even on that family room television set, I knew great artistry was present.
Udo Keir…
R.I.P.
Great actor