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You Only Live Twice
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Adam H. Kerman
Aug 20, 2017, 12:09:29 PM8/20/17
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I've got the big DVD box set of Bond films. I'm sort of watching in order,
but I did watch some Moores after his death. Back to Connery tonight.
You Only Live Twice is the weakest of the Connerys, in my opinion, although
plenty of people dislike Diamonds Are Forever (which has a similar plot
except the industrialist was kidnapped instead of being a conspirator).
It's just such an absolutely gorgeous movie. Freddie Young's cinematography
is breathtaking, especially flying over the "inactive" volcanos. Ken Adam
went, literally, above and beyond in set design. The volcano's interior,
which must have been the tallest set ever built for a movie production
up to that time, is just fabulous. The thing must have been 100 feet high.
Why should anyone walk anywhere inside the volcano when one can ride
the monorail? I always loved those stainless steel floating staircases.
There were no bannisters anywhere, which was absurd (especially since
the astronauts had to walk down to get to the elevator to reach
the capsule) in their space suits, but they looked damn cool.
The title song was one of my favorites of John Barry's, despite
Nancy Sinatra's little voice. Well, she's on key and she conveys
the necessary emotional level. She's just not Shirley Bassey, but
she wouldn't have been right for the song either.
The plot is formulaic, deliberately so, because Roald Dahl thought
he had to hit specific milestones at specific times. It really
hurt the movie. However, Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) is simply one of the
best Bond Girls ever along with Honor Blackman (not dubbed!), Ursula Andress,
and of course Mrs. Peel. It's just unforgiveable that Dahl killed her
off half way through the movie. Kissy (Mie Hama) has little to do beyond
looking fantastic in the bikini she wears for most of her action scenes.
The actress didn't speak English.
Sean Connery beds a famous Hong Kong actress and model, the lovely
Tsai Chin.
They try to recreate the Morzeny-Klebb dynamic in From Russia With Love
with Osato and Miss Brandt, but it doesn't work because Osato (as Bond
observes) was always a figurehead. It was never his plot. Miss Brandt
never comes across as especially evil. The rigged board in the airplane
to hold Bond in place as the plane crashed was never going to work.
The over-the-top Little Nellie flying sequence shooting down multiple
enemy aircraft does work, and it's the best sequence of that type in
a Bond film.
Blofeld's pet piranha scared the living daylights out of me the first time.
Donald Pleasance was just ok as Blofeld. I don't know why he had the
badly scared face. It wasn't in the novels. He didn't need a mask to
create the character, so it was a lousy choice.
Sigh. Tanaka's plan to infiltrate with ninjas was loads of fun but he
was essentially using most of them as cannon fodder. What was he
thinking? Also, Blofeld had automatic weapons to prevent infiltration
through the top of the volcano. Somehow they spotted the ninjas
but Bond and Kissy, no one noticed. Huh? Given that it was the moment
the stolen Soviet capsule was landing, it was critical that there were
no witnesses.
Rewatching it again, it bothered me that Bond freed the American
astronauts but didn't bother to free the Soviet cosmonauts. There's
no excuse at all for this because the UK was trying to prevent a hot
war from flaring up between the US and USSR. They needed living cosmonauts
to prove to the world that the Americans never attacked the Soviet
orbital launch.
Sean Connery had gotten fed up with Bond by this point, and it showed in
his tired performance in the movie. He'd leave the series to be replace
by an Australian fashion model who just didn't work out, even though
it's an excellent movie. He'd be back one more time in Diamonds Are Forever,
then make the deal with McClory to make the Len Deighton script which
Brocolli prevented from going into production, and would remake Thunderball
(Never Say Never Again).
but I did watch some Moores after his death. Back to Connery tonight.
You Only Live Twice is the weakest of the Connerys, in my opinion, although
plenty of people dislike Diamonds Are Forever (which has a similar plot
except the industrialist was kidnapped instead of being a conspirator).
It's just such an absolutely gorgeous movie. Freddie Young's cinematography
is breathtaking, especially flying over the "inactive" volcanos. Ken Adam
went, literally, above and beyond in set design. The volcano's interior,
which must have been the tallest set ever built for a movie production
up to that time, is just fabulous. The thing must have been 100 feet high.
Why should anyone walk anywhere inside the volcano when one can ride
the monorail? I always loved those stainless steel floating staircases.
There were no bannisters anywhere, which was absurd (especially since
the astronauts had to walk down to get to the elevator to reach
the capsule) in their space suits, but they looked damn cool.
The title song was one of my favorites of John Barry's, despite
Nancy Sinatra's little voice. Well, she's on key and she conveys
the necessary emotional level. She's just not Shirley Bassey, but
she wouldn't have been right for the song either.
The plot is formulaic, deliberately so, because Roald Dahl thought
he had to hit specific milestones at specific times. It really
hurt the movie. However, Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) is simply one of the
best Bond Girls ever along with Honor Blackman (not dubbed!), Ursula Andress,
and of course Mrs. Peel. It's just unforgiveable that Dahl killed her
off half way through the movie. Kissy (Mie Hama) has little to do beyond
looking fantastic in the bikini she wears for most of her action scenes.
The actress didn't speak English.
Sean Connery beds a famous Hong Kong actress and model, the lovely
Tsai Chin.
They try to recreate the Morzeny-Klebb dynamic in From Russia With Love
with Osato and Miss Brandt, but it doesn't work because Osato (as Bond
observes) was always a figurehead. It was never his plot. Miss Brandt
never comes across as especially evil. The rigged board in the airplane
to hold Bond in place as the plane crashed was never going to work.
The over-the-top Little Nellie flying sequence shooting down multiple
enemy aircraft does work, and it's the best sequence of that type in
a Bond film.
Blofeld's pet piranha scared the living daylights out of me the first time.
Donald Pleasance was just ok as Blofeld. I don't know why he had the
badly scared face. It wasn't in the novels. He didn't need a mask to
create the character, so it was a lousy choice.
Sigh. Tanaka's plan to infiltrate with ninjas was loads of fun but he
was essentially using most of them as cannon fodder. What was he
thinking? Also, Blofeld had automatic weapons to prevent infiltration
through the top of the volcano. Somehow they spotted the ninjas
but Bond and Kissy, no one noticed. Huh? Given that it was the moment
the stolen Soviet capsule was landing, it was critical that there were
no witnesses.
Rewatching it again, it bothered me that Bond freed the American
astronauts but didn't bother to free the Soviet cosmonauts. There's
no excuse at all for this because the UK was trying to prevent a hot
war from flaring up between the US and USSR. They needed living cosmonauts
to prove to the world that the Americans never attacked the Soviet
orbital launch.
Sean Connery had gotten fed up with Bond by this point, and it showed in
his tired performance in the movie. He'd leave the series to be replace
by an Australian fashion model who just didn't work out, even though
it's an excellent movie. He'd be back one more time in Diamonds Are Forever,
then make the deal with McClory to make the Len Deighton script which
Brocolli prevented from going into production, and would remake Thunderball
(Never Say Never Again).
edrh...@hotmail.com
Feb 7, 2019, 10:28:03 PM2/7/19
to
On Sunday, August 20, 2017 at 12:09:29 PM UTC-4, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Donald Pleasance was just ok as Blofeld. I don't know why he had the
> badly scared face. It wasn't in the novels. He didn't need a mask to
> create the character, so it was a lousy choice.
"Diamonds Are Forever," is fun. "You Only Live Twice" simply drags for me.
> Donald Pleasance was just ok as Blofeld. I don't know why he had the
> badly scared face. It wasn't in the novels. He didn't need a mask to
> create the character, so it was a lousy choice.
Most of the points you make are very valid.
According to the book "James Bond In The Cinema" (I think) Pleasance and the producers both came to the conclusion that, as a soft spoken actor, small in stature, it would be difficult for him to appear menacing. They tried a number of things, a hump, a clawed hand, before decided on the scar.
Lee McIlmoyle
Feb 19, 2019, 12:46:01 PM2/19/19
to
On Sunday, August 20, 2017 at 12:09:29 PM UTC-4, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
That's all I've got. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
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