James Bond by the decade #1 - The 1960s

So. What say you? To parse the 50+ year history of the James Bond series I figured it would be easiest to break it down by decade.

So here are the best of the best of Connery and the underrated solitary outing of George Lazenby. What is your favorite and why?

I will start followup threads for the following decades.

I went with Thunderball. I like the plot (SPECTRE hijacking a nuclear missile then trying to blackmail the world) and plenty of action galore. I know a lot of critics adore Goldfinger (and rightfully so) but Thunderball is the one for me.

And I do agree, OHMSS is very underrated. It's actually a very important piece of the Bond lore.

I like'em all but c'mon, the winner has gotta be Goldfinger. The first two films are great but they were (mostly) grounded-in-reality spy thrillers. Goldfinger just made everything "bigger" - they cranked up the intensity, gave us the series' first larger-than-life supervillain (Dr. No was sinister, of course, but he wasn't bat-sh*t crazy like Auric Goldfinger!) and set the template that the franchise would use for decades to come.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I like'em all but c'mon, the winner has gotta be Goldfinger. The first two films are great but they were (mostly) grounded-in-reality spy thrillers. Goldfinger just made everything "bigger" - they cranked up the intensity, gave us the series' first larger-than-life supervillain (Dr. No was sinister, of course, but he wasn't bat-sh*t crazy like Auric Goldfinger!) and set the template that the franchise would use for decades to come.

Shocking, positively shocking.

Went with Goldfinger. But all of the first 5 Connery flicks are pure gold. But had to go with Goldfinger.

I went with Dr. No. That was the first Sean Connery Bond film that I saw and has been a favorite ever since. It's a nice change of pace from the overblown antics that would take over post-Goldfinger (don't get me wrong, I love the over the top antics, but there are a ton of those in the series, not so many straight spy stories). Those Ken Adams sets of Doctor No's layer is another highlight.

My second choice would actually be the most over-the-top of the lot, 1967's You Only Live Twice. Donald Pleasance as Blofeld, a giant underground rocket base inside a hollowed out volcano, a plot to steal orbiting satellites...what's not to love?

As for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, it's a lot better than many of the Roger Moore vehicles, it's a great Bond movie, has the best backstory for the character and also my favorite Bond girl: Diana Rigg. The only problem is Lazenby is as wooden as my desk.

It's funny; it's obligatory at this point to say Goldfinger because it's crafted so well and works like a charm. It really was the apex of the franchise.

However, the title I enjoy watching most is From Russia With Love. They really found their footing in that one. A snappy plot, our first peak of Blofeld, stunning actions sequences, Young's whole-frame direction, a smokin' Bond girl, and Connery's full-scope realization of his character. That train sequence at the end never gets old.

If I had to rank these from superior to flawed:

-Goldfinger
-From Russia with Love
-Dr. No
-You Only Live Twice
-Thunderball (don't get me wrong, I love this one, but it has the worst pacing of the entire franchise, really needed some tightening in the script and underwater sequences)

I haven't seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service in a very long time and honestly don't remember much beyond enjoying it ok.

OHMSS feels more like the 70s films would become, kind of a precursor to the Moore films. At least that's how I see it.

S.D. wrote:

I went with Dr. No.  That was the first Sean Connery Bond film that I saw and has been a favorite ever since.  It's a nice change of pace from the overblown antics that would take over post-Goldfinger (don't get me wrong, I love the over the top antics, but there are a ton of those in the series, not so many straight spy stories).  Those Ken Adams sets of Doctor No's layer is another highlight.

My second choice would actually be the most over-the-top of the lot, 1967's You Only Live Twice.  Donald Pleasance as Blofeld, a giant underground rocket base inside a hollowed out volcano, a plot to steal orbiting satellites...what's not to love?  

As for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, it's a lot better than many of the Roger Moore vehicles, it's a great Bond movie, has the best backstory for the character and also my favorite Bond girl:  Diana Rigg.  The only problem is Lazenby is as wooden as my desk.  

You only live twice is the first Connery Bond flick I saw, I still remember being blown away by Connery as Bond. I had only seen Moore's Bond at the point in my life and didn't realize there was this whole other Bond that created the character. Of course I was only 10 at the time, hence the lack of understanding of Bond history. And I still love that flick.

I think it was in 1980 that HBO played most of the Bond series, probably the same month they premiered Moonraker if memory serves. They played all the Connery films and all the Moore films up to that point. I don't remember seeing OHMSS at the time so it probably wasn't included. That series allowed me to watch all the movies in sequence and was the beginning of my James Bond fascination. I would have been 10 at the time, probably the perfect age to be bitten by the Bond bug..

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I think it was in 1980 that HBO played most of the Bond series, probably the same month they premiered Moonraker if memory serves.

Yep, I remember that. Moonraker was the first Bond movie I ever saw.  I was a Star Wars crazed 10 year old in 1980 and at that time I had no idea who James Bond was, or that Moonraker was part of a series of films that went back nearly 20 years - I just knew the bad guy had a Death Star and there were guys shootin' laser guns at each other in it, that was all I needed.

My Dad was a big fan of the Bond series (I remember him telling me once that he took his then-girlfriend to see Goldfinger at the theater when he was a young man) so when HBO started rolling out the rest of the 007's (if memory serves they "premiered" a new one every month for quite some time) I watched them all with him and got up to speed pretty quick. I've been a fanboy ever since.

My introduction to the Bond films was on the old ABC Movie Of The Week. When they would show those, my household watched them, no matter if we had seen it before. I have no clue which one was my first flick though.

Fat Freddy wrote:

(if memory serves they "premiered" a new one every month for quite some time)

I think it was one per week. It was over the summer break from school and made for an exciting weekly movie night. Of course I watched HBO 24/7 so I was watching basically whatever came on.

S.D. wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

(if memory serves they "premiered" a new one every month for quite some time)

I think it was one per week.  It was over the summer break from school and made for an exciting weekly movie night.  Of course I watched HBO 24/7 so I was watching basically whatever came on.  

You may be right about that, now that I think about it. Hell, that was 35 years ago. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning....

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Thunderball (don't get me wrong, I love this one, but it has the worst pacing of the entire franchise

The mere presence of former Miss France Claudine Auger more than makes up for any pacing issues Thunderball may have.

I prefer Luciana Paluzzi myself...





In case of emergency, Luciana may be used as a flotation device....

We should totally do a poll regarding favorite Bond girl. Decisions, decisions...

I went with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" because it is closer to the book than the other Bond films from the 60's. (Not that any were ever all that close) All of them are great films though.

007 wrote:

My introduction to the Bond films was on the old ABC Movie Of The Week. When they would show those, my household watched them, no matter if we had seen it before. I have no clue which one was my first flick though.

That's where I caught up on my Bond flicks too

I chose Dr. No. I have loved that movie since the first time I saw it more than 30 years ago now. Roger Moore is my favorite Bond but Sean Connery is a very close second and I think that Dr. No might just be my favorite Bond movie of them all.