 Still frame from You Only Live Twice, 1967. The guy in the picture uses the keypunch equipment to move a surveillance camera around. If you haven't seen this Bond movie lately, check it out. It's set entirely in Japan, and the '60s Zen moderne interiors are amazing. Great dated tech stuff like this Burroughs machine. An electromagnet dangled from a helicopter picks up a car full of bad guys and dumps them in the ocean, demonstrating "the efficiency of Japanese technology." Assuming you can laugh at period sexism, the movie's practically a love letter to the Patriarchy ("In Japan, men come first, women come second," observes a Japanese agent as he introduces Bond's personal retinue of scantily-clad masseuses). John Barry's sumptuous, starkly emotional score is way better than this entertaining trifle deserves, however.
Purists often cite either "Goldfinger" or "From Russia With Love" as the all-time best Bond movies, with a nod toward "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as having the best Bond girl (Diana Rigg) and the best screenplay. I will not argue with these people but I would point out the "You Only Live Twice" was perhaps the last great Bond movie, the perfect synthesis of blatant machismo and cool gadgets (which was one of the reasons Connery left the series, feeling he was being upstaged by the high tech toys), not to mention the beautiful locale and, as you mentioned, a score so powerful it was literally lifted and judiciously applied to future Bond movies. And don't get me started about the brilliant casting of Donald Pleasance, one of the meekest actors to grace the silver screen, as the villian to end all villains, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This movie may not be a masterpiece but it is still a whole lotta fun.
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Still frame from You Only Live Twice, 1967. The guy in the picture uses the keypunch equipment to move a surveillance camera around. If you haven't seen this Bond movie lately, check it out. It's set entirely in Japan, and the '60s Zen moderne interiors are amazing. Great dated tech stuff like this Burroughs machine. An electromagnet dangled from a helicopter picks up a car full of bad guys and dumps them in the ocean, demonstrating "the efficiency of Japanese technology." Assuming you can laugh at period sexism, the movie's practically a love letter to the Patriarchy ("In Japan, men come first, women come second," observes a Japanese agent as he introduces Bond's personal retinue of scantily-clad masseuses). John Barry's sumptuous, starkly emotional score is way better than this entertaining trifle deserves, however.
- tom moody 12-29-2003 10:07 pm
Purists often cite either "Goldfinger" or "From Russia With Love" as the all-time best Bond movies, with a nod toward "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as having the best Bond girl (Diana Rigg) and the best screenplay. I will not argue with these people but I would point out the "You Only Live Twice" was perhaps the last great Bond movie, the perfect synthesis of blatant machismo and cool gadgets (which was one of the reasons Connery left the series, feeling he was being upstaged by the high tech toys), not to mention the beautiful locale and, as you mentioned, a score so powerful it was literally lifted and judiciously applied to future Bond movies. And don't get me started about the brilliant casting of Donald Pleasance, one of the meekest actors to grace the silver screen, as the villian to end all villains, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This movie may not be a masterpiece but it is still a whole lotta fun.
- Kevin (guest) 12-30-2003 4:59 am