Came across this today. Digital Spy are click bait heavy generally, but it got me thinking as i personally think Goldfinger is Sean’s best but Thunderball is where he gives his best performamce. So what is Connery’s best?
@MrKiddWint should i just put you down for DAF now?
Goldfinger.
This is a hard one …
His best as a movie FRWL
His best performance Thunderball
His best ‘Bond movie’ Thunderball
His Best to the general public GF
The one i watch repeatedly DAF
So scientifically @MrKiddWint is correct its…DAF
I am predictable.
GF. But for me FRWL is a close second. Never really got the love for TB (I think, like the film, he is strutting his stuff too overconfidently. DN is pretty great for a first attempt (the dinner scene with Dr. No makes him shine), YOLT is more or less a weird hodgepodge of going through the motions and being amused about what is happening around him.
DAF, of course, as I have learned and been educated by the DAF-defender No.1, has Connery for the first time really all in on the joke, being amused at the film and himself, so… at least my favorite No.3.
i think the first four films are still the measure of all things to come for every actor who has to be Bond…
Please do. Thank you so much for your consideration.
I encountered a similar situation this weekend. I watched THE SONG OF SONGS (1933), the film Dietrich made with Mamoulian, while taking a studio-mandated break from Sternberg.
I think I like it better than any of the Sternberg Dietrichs, and if I need a Dietrich fix would go to it before most of them, but is it the best movie Dietrich was ever in? And is it Dietrich’s best performance?
Sometimes the pleasure a person receives from a film is neglected/sidelined when discussions of “the greatest” or “the best” come up. With my own aesthetic, I have gotten to a place where if a film continues to hold my interest and provide pleasure, then there must be something about that touches on “the best.” It may require a particular aesthetic approach or (at minimum) an affinity with one, but I think measuring against a Platonic ideal of “the best” or “the greatest” is a limited approach at best.
Goldfinger perfects the “formula” and thus is arguably the most “important” Connery Bond, and the most obvious pick if one could only recommend a single film to someone who wanted to know what the series was all about.
That said, FRWL is IMHO easily the best film in the series, let alone Connery’s tenure and the one most capable of standing on its own merits as a film without the rest of the series hovering in the background as either baggage or a crutch.
But that’s the thing about opinions; everyone gets one and mine is no better than anyone else’s. Other than it being the correct one, of course.
This undoubtedly holds true for a big part of the fanbase and the general public alike. Even people who are no Bond fans usually have seen a Connery-Bond and often agree that he was the template, the masterclass.
Perhaps that’s why I haven’t watched his films a lot in recent times (and was astonished to learn what a mess THUNDERBALL is and how willingly I used to ignore its shortcomings).
Now to pick the ‘best’ Connery-Bond is difficult for the reason above - ‘Connery is Bond!’ as the marketing claimed - and because it’s debatable what measure to apply. Performance, fun, cinematography?
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE is a fantastic, perfectly bonkers piece of 60s fun - but it broke the camel’s back and Connery is mostly not having fun, delivering his part between bored and incredulous annoyment about the bizarre circus.
GOLDFINGER in contrast sees Connery at home in his role. But the film itself isn’t such a revelation, its iconic imagery by now larger than the substance. Bizarre to think this is probably the Bond film most people on this planet are familiar with.
And which one would Connery choose? Probably ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE because that one paid him handsomely two years later and financed THE OFFENCE.
As you see, I simply cannot pick one ‘best’ Connery-Bond. 
That is an interesting and very true observation.
Which might also apply to the other actors´ tenures. At least one film will always become more iconic than necessarily great.
Not counting Lazenby´s one shot (which actually was pretty good), Moore´s most iconic imagery might be the Union Jack parachute, the Lotus going underwater, Stromberg´s spidery lair and Jaws.
Dalton? Much more difficult to say. Parachuting out of the exploding army vehicle? Torching Sanchez? Weird that so little right now springs to my mind.
Brosnan? Well, the bungee jump and the tank chase, easily.
And Craig? The parkour chase, the card game, the torture chair. And probably the “Take the shot”-sequence.
Bearded beginning and the invisible car.
Your left out Dou Dou!!
Not so bizarre when you consider all the many, many callbacks – some subtle, others less so – in subsequent entries. Nick Nack is a miniature Oddjob (who even dresses largely the same), MayDay is arguably a female Oddjob and even Jaws seems designed with the intent of providing an Oddjob-caliber icon for the Moore era. Supercars come and go with varying degrees of success but always as a nod to the Aston Martin until finally they give up and just bring back the DB5 itself ad freaking nauseum. Strawberry Fields is covered in oil in an obvious nod to Jill’s demise in gold paint. And so on. Much of the history of the franchise has been about trying to recreate, nod to, outdo or invert Goldfinger. Just as several of the lead actors have made careers out of post-Bond roles that either call back to or pointedly play against their 007 image, much of the series itself is dependent on the '64 film to define them; whether the approach is “This is like Goldfinger on steroids!” or “This film boldly breaks the Goldfinger template,” they need GF there as a lodestone. For better or worse, it’s the film that defines the whole series. Anything gets to be"familiar" if you repeat it enough.
That said, I think it’s entirely possible that some folks haven’t even seen it but are still “familiar” with the imagery (golden girl, laser torture, deadly hat, supercar), just as there are probably people who know the Wizard of Oz has a yellow brick road, a wicked witch and a tin man without having seen that film.
Many subsequent villains are variations on Auric Goldfinger–megalomaniacs with fantastic schemes for power and domination.
Plus there’s all the times when early versions of scripts for various films included Goldfinger’s “brother.” It’s obvious that regardless of how endeared or not the average moviegoer was to GF, it was always the high water mark as far as the producers were concerned. Constantly recycling elements from it comes across not so much as a lack of imagination on their part as a concerted and persistent effort to remind us “this is the series that brought you that great cinematic landmark back in 1964!” I honestly feel like they were more attached to it than we were.
I agree with you on your takes although for Dalton I’d say it was either the parachuting out of the exploding army vehicle or tilting the 18-wheeler tractor-trailer up on nine wheels. Hanging onto the cargo net out the back of the Hercules plane was iconic too.
As for the best Connery Bond that is a tough one:
Best acting performance – From Russia With Love
Best/most cinematic Bondian performance – Thunderball
Best film – Goldfinger
Best story – From Russia With Love
Most iconic – Goldfinger
My favorite film – Goldfinger
Overall, I’ll go with the best Connery Bond as Goldfinger but you can’t go wrong with any of them.
The first six films are such a solid foundation for the series. DN and FRWL with their down to earth, detective style. GF and TB with their blockbuster cool. YOLT being an extravaganza that was the template for Gilbert’s other two outlandish epics, and OHMSS in my opinion being the overall best film of the decade.
As for what film is Connery’s best, I’m going with FRWL. It adapts the book pretty well (I like what it adds too) and has a strong performance from Sean. It’s still hard to choose though, because you can make a strong case for most of his films.
Goldfinger.
Thunderball makes me drowsy.
It’s very true, for example I’ll watch the Big Sleep over The Maltese Falcon but what’s the Bogart picture I really love to watch repeatedly…Dark Passage.
So will I.
A pinnacle. Delmer Daves (an underrated writer/director) was born in San Francisco, so he gives the film a deep feeling for place. Irene and Vincent’s embrace on the dance floor at the end of the film is the most satisfying finale in all of film noir.