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What are the essential Bond movies?

Rimbo

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Rimbo

Rimbo 26052

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Just bought the collection in HD for the purpose of furthering my son's classical education, and also so he can see all the moves of his Lego 007 Aston Martin in action.

So naturally, we just finished off his first Bond movie, featuring said car, Goldfinger.

What are the next three movies he should see?

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Patrick Bateman

Patrick Bateman 3919

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The next 3 movies he should see are:

Thunderball

You Only Live Twice (optional)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Diamonds Are Forever

Technically you should probably see You Only Live Twice, but it's so outwardly racist and the premise unbelievably ridiculous (This isn't Connery's best work as he wants more money), it's for only the biggest Bond fans, but if you're going to do the SPECTRE thing, you should watch it after Thunderball.  

 

 

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Rimbo

Rimbo 26052

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Surprised to see Thunderball! listed a couple of times here. I found it forgettable for some reason. But I forget why. (See?)

I think You Only Live Twice is a must-see, because of the absolute bizarreness of Roald Dahl's script.

Goldeneye is the best of the Brosnan films, which is like being the tallest midget in the circus.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service has gotta be in the top five for sure.

Surprised that no one has recommended Casino Royale. I still think it's the best of the lot... but definitely not the first movie to share.

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17743

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42 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

The first four, in order.

 

This.  With Dr. No and From Russia With Love as standouts.  They stay closest to the books, and I'm a fan of Ian Fleming's Bond.  A bit grittier, more plot with better dialogue and less reliant on gadgety stuff.  

Do I love the whacked out late 60s craziness of You Only Live Twice?  The 70s excess of the Spy Who Loved Me?  For sure.

But the first four are where the essence of Bond reside.

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Rimbo

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1 hour ago, Chad Fuck said:

This.  With Dr. No and From Russia With Love as standouts.  They stay closest to the books, and I'm a fan of Ian Fleming's Bond.  A bit grittier, more plot with better dialogue and less reliant on gadgety stuff.  

Do I love the whacked out late 60s craziness of You Only Live Twice?  The 70s excess of the Spy Who Loved Me?  For sure.

But the first four are where the essence of Bond reside.

So, let me start off with: This is a good recommendation. Especially the part I bolded above.

I've read a few of the books, including From Russia With Love. I've also read the autobiography of Sir Patrick Dalzel Job, who Fleming claimed was the inspiration for Bond. Job's response to that was that Bond was much more based on the guy that Fleming wished he was. ;) The drinking and womanizing were more based on Fleming himself, at least.

Anyway, the point is... I'm not sure that tracking the book is necessarily a plus. The books are horribly dated in ways that weaken them. Klebb's unwanted advances on Tatiana, for example, were probably meant to make her seem perverse and evil, but today just make her look pathetic and desperate instead. The fight between the Roma women is painfully obvious exploitation. Them hooking up with Bond afterwards is almost cringe-worthy Mary Sue-ness, a bit too far above the bar for the usual "He's handsome and women find him hard to resist."

And I gotta add... the scene with the nurse in the shower in Thunderball is the sort of thing only a Baylor University BOR member would approve of.

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17743

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All these things are true, Rimbo.  It's a glimpse into another era's ideas of masculinity.  I read all the Fleming books one summer between 5th and 6th grade.  So I'm sure all that stuff whizzed right by me.  But Tatiana made me feel all tingly.  Still does.  

But I still love those movies, camp included.

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Rimbo

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17 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

In addition, I agree with the proposal above to watch them in the order they were released.  There are some references from one to the next that you won't get otherwise, especially as you move into the Roger Moore era.  

Well, we already watched Goldfinger out of order, but only because of the car. But there's definitely sense in doing the rest of the first four in order. Those movies were all good, and the entire two-dozen movie franchise was built on them.

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Brandywine

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If you only had the first Bond movie for each Bond, you would have a good collection. Dr. No, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Live and Let Die, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye, Casino Royale. The producers seemed to pull out all the stops when introducing a new Bond. However, my favorites are Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Casino Royale and Skyfall. I could watch those 4 all day long. Over and over. They’re great stories, locales, music, women, villains, the full package. Of course, Connery is still the gold standard but I wouldn’t say all Bond movies by Connery, because Diamonds are Forever is a cartoon that pretty well became the Roger Moore Bond film template.

I love talking Bond.

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Rimbo

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49 minutes ago, Brandywine said:

Live and Let Die

I'd say this is the one exception in your list. Judging the Moore-era movies for what they were -- campy fun -- this one only fails to be the worst (to me, and of a bad lot) because of the boring slog of The Man with the Golden Gun. The Spy Who Loved Me is fantastic. Octopussy and Moonraker are fun. The rest of Moore's films are for die-hard fans only, things you watch after you've seen a middling non-essential like Tomorrow Never Dies and are wondering what you might want to see next.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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8 minutes ago, Rabidhorn said:

Dr. No-First Bond movie

Goldfinger-Best of all the Bond movies

From Russia With Love-Second best of all the Bond movies behind Goldfinger.

Casino Royale-Craig's first and best of his Bond movies.

 

I'd put Dr. No and From Russia with love above above Goldfinger.

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Brandywine

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On 12/28/2018 at 2:52 PM, Rimbo said:

I'd say this is the one exception in your list. Judging the Moore-era movies for what they were -- campy fun -- this one only fails to be the worst (to me, and of a bad lot) because of the boring slog of The Man with the Golden Gun. The Spy Who Loved Me is fantastic. Octopussy and Moonraker are fun. The rest of Moore's films are for die-hard fans only, things you watch after you've seen a middling non-essential like Tomorrow Never Dies and are wondering what you might want to see next.

Excellent points. I personally never got into Moore as Bond, but I still watched them when they came out. The Man with the Golden Gun was a low point in Moore-era. Other low points: the southern police chief that chewed tobacco, Jaws, the alligators that lined up in perfect order for Bond to step on and escape in LALD, Moore as a circus clown. 

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Buzzrock

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I'd say this is the one exception in your list. Judging the Moore-era movies for what they were -- campy fun -- this one only fails to be the worst (to me, and of a bad lot) because of the boring slog of The Man with the Golden Gun. The Spy Who Loved Me is fantastic. Octopussy and Moonraker are fun. The rest of Moore's films are for die-hard fans only, things you watch after you've seen a middling non-essential like Tomorrow Never Dies and are wondering what you might want to see next.


I love A View To A Kill. Duran Duran and Christopher Walken! Cmon!
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chikin23

chikin23 384

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There are some great movies (and awful ones) throughout the series. However, I'll watch any of them when they are on.

My favorite by each actor:

Connery - Dr. No (the theme song and Bonds introduction are great).
Lazenby - duh, good movie but he had no chance being the guy after the guy.
Moore - The Spy Who Loved Me (always loved the pre title scene)
Dalton - The Living Daylights
Brosnan - Goldeneye (the rest of his took a nosedive)
Craig - Skyfall (enjoyed all of his except for Quantum of Solace)




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Frank Erwin

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Get your son a few of the Ian Fleming books to read. They may be dated, but they really establish Bond as a character. I enjoyed the silly humor of Roger Moore's Bond as a kid, but after reading the books, I saw that Sean Connery was the Bond that Fleming wrote (same case could be made for Daniel Craig)

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  • 4 years later...
Augustus

Augustus 3061

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I didn't want to create a new thread just for this, and I'm guessing the Skyfall thread would have been on Shaggy?  Couldn't find one here.

I'm also sure that someone--or several people--would've commented on this at the time, but I'm watching Skyfall right now and I was really kind of amazed by this.

They've just arrived back at Skyfall and Albert Finney's character Kincade is showing Bond the empty gunroom.  Then he tells him they sold everything to some collector in Idaho, except for his father's "hunting rifle."

He then hands Bond what is clearly a double barrel shotgun.

How in the blue fuck does a mistake like that get made?  Is it possible the Brits call a shotgun a rifle, as well?

That was really surprising to me.

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Chad Fuck

Chad Fuck 17743

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Chad Jr. and I started in order and we just finished "On Her Majesty's Secret Service."  He's taken the habit of counting how many women Bond hooks up with.  I was having a chuckle about that at a school parents party.  I got disapproving looks from several of the moms.  Gonna have to be more circumspect about which aspects of Bond I discuss amongst that particular group.  

We've watched a couple of the newer Craig ones out of order, but the modern angle kept his interest until he understood there's a continuum of movies and starting back at the beginning was a good thing.  Anyhow, 70s craziness of the Moore era awaits!

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Buzzrock

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Dr. No and Goldfinger are the quintessential Connery Bond movies.
Of Moore's I liked Live and Let Die.
And Casino Royale from Craig.

I’m partial to Thunderball in the Connery pantheon, and as bad as it is I have an affinity for View to a Kill. Christopher Walken and Duran Duran!
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