The Early 1970s Era

[Count_Lippe]

What are your opinions of the Bond series in the early 70s?

I think most fans will agree that this was not one of the high points of the series, although for some reason Live and Let Die (1973) is a favourite for many fans.

What one can say for sure is that the more parodic and lighter feel of the Moore era started already with Connery's comeback in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), it wasn't something that was introduced when Moore took over.

Another thing is that these Bond films were heavily influenced by other popular action films of the same period, American car chase movies, blaxploitation, kung fu.

These three Bond films also don't have the scope and grandness of the Bonds of the mid to late 1960s. LALD and TMWTGG weren't even shot in scope, making them look even smaller.

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) was the last Bond film Harry Saltzman was involved with, leaving Cubby Broccoli as sole producer from then on.

Of course they all had the same director as well, Guy Hamilton of Goldfinger fame.

[The Saint 007]

Live And Let Die has a decent cast of villains, good action/stunts, and the title song and score is one of the better non Barry efforts, in my opinion. Moore looks younger than Connery, despite being a few years older, and gives a cool and confident performance for his first Bond outing. I thought the boat chase went on for a bit too long, however, and the final part at Kananga's lair seems rushed. I would have loved to have a better fight between Bond and Baron Samedi. It's a pretty good film, but I just don't find it quite as enjoyable as Moore's other Bond films.

I prefer The Man With The Golden Gun a little more to Live And Let Die. Christopher Lee as Scaramanga is one of my favourite Bond villains, and Nick Nack is kind of an interesting henchman in a bizarre sort of way. I like the more exotic feel of the film, as well as some of the great dialogue/witty one-liners. The classic dinner with the villain scene is one of my favourite moments of the film and the Moore era, and the final duel between Bond and Scaramanga, although not perfect, I thought was still better than the final in Live And Let Die. The whole concept of Bond versus Scaramanga could have been better executed, but overall, I still find it to be the most enjoyable out of the early 1970s Bond films. Some people prefer Moore's first two outings because he's less jokey and more aggressive, but I personally like Moore's style from 1977 through to 1985 better.

Although I think Diamonds Are Forever is the weakest of the early 1970s Bonds, the silly tone of the film still makes for an entertaining watch. I like the henchmen Wint and Kidd, and Barry's score for this is one of my favourites. Overall, I think the film suffered from the amount of cash it took to get Connery back.

[Blowfeld]

I have a theory on why the 1970's Bonds were so different. If I can compose a coherent theory I will post it here.
Part of the disparity has to be Cubby and Harry's feeling the better days were behind the series. OHMSS was not the colossal flop as some imagine however it was as step backwards from Sean's 007 where money was concerned. Begging Sean to come back for DAF did not significantly change the BoxOffice from OHMSS, with the exception TSWLM & MR the 007 Attendance numbers never had the explosive success Sean had in the hight of popularity a decade earlier.

I believe Cubby and Harry were floundering trying to find a new voice for 007 after the startling success of the initial series, eventually parting ways, leading to more drastic changes in the manner the movies were made.

Personally I enjoy Roger's movies, there were big part of my world while I hate to admit there were not the best effort EON's part, Roger himself was rather good as 007, to bad he gets bogged down in the trapping EON surrounded him with which had nothing to do with him as an actor playing a role.

[Count_Lippe]

Wasn't TMWTGG especially weak at the box office, and it took some time before they started production of TSWLM ?

Another thing worth mentioning is that during the early 60s the Bond films were very daring for the times when it came to sex and violence.

In the 70s many other action films became far more violent and gritty, tough cop thrillers like Dirty Harry, blaxploitation films with lots of violence and nudity, extremely violent martial arts movies from Hong Kong.

The Bonds on the other hand went in the opposite direction and became almost family entertainment in the 70s.

The influences the Bond films got from these other action films were on another level and not in terms of violent content (that's why Live and let Die seems so silly when a true blaxploitation film is supposed to be violent and tough).

Why did this happen? Why didn't the Bonds become more violent and tough as well? Was it that the secret agent era of the 1960s was over and all the filmmakers could do now was send up the genre?

[Omega]

Maybe because of the counter culture of the time? Peace love dope


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[Kristatos]

Maybe because of the counter culture of the time? Peace love dope


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That was more of a '60s thing. It was the reason Lazenby gave for walking away, saying Bond was an anachronism. The '70s was the era of The Sex Pistols and 2000AD. And yes, TMWTGG's box office performance almost killed the Bond franchise.

[Veronica]

I think most will agree that Magnum Opus of the series were Connery movies. As for the early seventies LALD was a big box office hit and is easily the best out of the three. TMWTGG feels like a missed opportunity. The story of world's greatest assaissn chasing James Bond js exciting and simply brilliant. Sadly,they added some solar device plot and the movie becomes a bit of a mess. Also,the idea that Scaramanga mirrors Bond is brilliant and they somehow wanted to point similarities between Scaramanga and Bond-the problem is Moore couldn't really handle these aspects. They obviously wanted to make him more ruthless and in the scene were he treatnes to break Andrea's arm you can see how Moore is uncomftorable with the idea. I actually find the idea that Scaramanga is counterpart for Moore's Bond fascinating. Moore is definitely the most refined,elegant Bond and Scaramanga is too. The problem is Moore ultimately wasn't brilliant with the more darker aspects of the character that were kind of questioned in this movie. I think that if they concetrated on the story between Bond and Scaramanga the movie would have been more successful-this way it's a bit of a no man's land really when it comes to the plot.
While I'm not a big fan of LALD it has a couple of things going for it-Moore is in his element,the song is iconic and is there a more beautiful Bond girl than Solitaire?
DAF is pretty much...irrelevant...so to speak. It's not a good movie and obviously the camp started here not with Moore but since Connery has five classics before this one so who cares?

[carl stromberg]

I like them all. DAF is very colourful, LALD is slightly different, and TMWTGG is a fun adventure with a memorable cast.

[mcbride007]

Count_Lippe

These three Bond films also don't have the scope and grandness of the Bonds of the mid to late 1960s. LALD and TMWTGG weren't even shot in scope, making them look even smaller.

LALD and TMWTGG are very memorable with Scaramaga's island, the crocodile jump and soforth.


]

[ml94]

TSWLM is best 70s BOND movie.

[Veronica]

TSWLM is best 70s BOND movie.

Agreed. Definitely

[ml94]

BEST BOND MOVIES.

60s: GOLDFINGER
70s: TSWLM
80s: FYEO or TLD
90s: GOLDENEYE
00s: DAD

[Veronica]

BEST BOND MOVIES.

60s: GOLDFINGER
70s: TSWLM
80s: FYEO or TLD
90s: GOLDENEYE
00s: DAD

Of course that DAD is the best of the 00s since it's the only Bond movie..

60s best for me would FRWL.
70s TSWLM definitely
80s FYEO...although this is the only period that doesn't have downright incredible Bond movie(imo of course)
90s GoldenEye...although as I already repeated for about 100 times TWINE had a huge chance to be a showpiece of a Brosnan era(hell,maybe even the series)and somehow missed it...like it was on purpose...

[Count_Lippe]

It wasn't just the Bonds which were influenced by blaxploitation and kung fu in the early 70s, it was actually the other way around as well.

You probably all know that Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973) was in many ways like a Bond film.

There was also the two blaxploitation flicks Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975) that had some Bond influences, the latter one was even influenced by both Bond and kung fu.

[Veronica]

Bond was copied,parodied and admired for 40 years...
There are commercials for Erste Bank that are in Bond style...totally cool. I will try to post link here later...

[Count_Lippe]

This thread is about Bond in the early 70s if you haven't noticed, please post it elsewhere on the forum Victoria.

[Omega]

Since lazenby was involved in the Kung fu movies I wonder what his movies would be like if had had not quit


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[Count_Lippe]

Since lazenby was involved in the Kung fu movies I wonder what his movies would be like if had had not quit
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Lazenby did some kung fu movies in the early 70s after he left the Bond role because he couldn't get any other film work.

Had Lazenby stayed I don't think there would have been any more kung fu movie influences than there were with Moore as Bond, but perhaps the fight scenes would have been a bit more like martial arts.

Fact is in The Spy Who Loved Me Moore does what is meant to look like some karate chops and kicks, but since he wasn't a real martial artist it doesn't look very convincing. Check out the fight between 007 and the two Russian agents by the pyramids.

[commander0077again]

TMWTGG had a great premise. You couldn't ask for a better Scaramanga than Christopher Lee. The break-away pistol was a distraction. They should've just shown him killing people with great 'craft.' The fun house was equally silly; again, he should've had really top-notch guys ... the mob guy definitely doesn't fit the bill, he's just a comic deese and doz henchman from Goldfinger. Instead, they should established Scaramanga with him targeting the top 'special operators' in the world. And then he zeros in on Bond. Instead, we only have Lee's presence to establish the 'backstory' and that's somewhat adequate, because he's CL! I was recently watching a newer edition: the special features has interviews with the filmmakers. 1/ After watching Moore, for the next film they opted to change his character away from the darker Bond; and I think Moore was agreeable 2/ Saltzman was in a deep financial pool, and that's why he walked away.
LALD is among my favorites, a blend of Bond as funny but also taking (most) the action seriously; the beautiful and fine actress Jane Seymour; the many excellent, engaging villains and sub-villains; the music; one of my favorite scenes where Bond may lose his pinkie finger .... note Moore is playing this seriously, plus great music. DAF: yes, I liked this one as Bond lite, with Connery with unshaved eyebrows... the weakest part is the entire oil rig sequences ... one of the strongest is the final dinner with Wint and Kidd; there, we can compare Roger with Sean, and there is no comparison, although I do like Roger much of the time. As for Lazenby and kung fu, he met Bruce Lee very shortly before his death and were planning to do at least one or two films together. Lee, of course, was scheduled to appear in TMWTGG as the Lt. Hip character ... he would have overshadowed Sir Roger.

[Barry Niven]

(Bruce) Lee, of course, was scheduled to appear in TMWTGG as the Lt. Hip character ... he would have overshadowed Sir Roger.

Excuse me, commander0077again, but where exactly did you come up with THAT little factoid? Because I don't believe any of it for a second, thanks to a useful little thing I call common sense that wins out over this trend of wishful thinking that I'm seeing far to much of on this Board lately. So unless YOU have an actual reference link to verify this as an actual FACT rather than just a wish, I'm just not interested.