Bond gets a new face today in
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, in which Bond must once again track down Ernest Blofield, head of SPECTRE, to thwart his attempt at holding the world at ransom by threatening to destroy all agriculture using bioengineered bacteria delivered by brainwashed women under Blofeld's control.
Sean Connery returns for one more Bond in tomorrow's installment, but here we have George Lazenby taking his one and only turn as 007. This was also Lazenby's first major acting credit, having only worked in modeling and commercials prior. I enjoyed Lazeny's performance more than I thought I would! He has a similar bearing to Connery and doesn't try to do much unique, resulting in a somewhat vanilla but overall effective performance. Only 29 at the time of filming, he (like Connery) looks older than his years, but brings pretty good energy to the physicality of his performance. This Bond, even more than Connery, throws a MEAN uppercut.
As the villain we have Ernst Blofeld again, also played by a different actor. This Blofeld is a bit more well-rounded and energetic than the version we saw in You Only Live Twice (while also looking like a slightly chonky Jeff Bezos). The movie plays realllly coy about the whole "new face for both Bond and Blofeld" thing. At times it seems to hint that these are the same characters we have seen in previous installments, with no changes (such as Bond mulling over memories associated with specific items from past missions he finds in his briefcase), but other times it feels like there has been some sort of passing of the torch and this this is another man taking up the mantle of Bond. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter too much either way. There is continuity in this franchise, but I'm already seeing the wisdom of not getting too caught up in the details and just letting the stories tell themselves.
Plotwise, Blofeld's at it again, holding the world for ransom in a different method (threat of biological warfare) for slightly different motives (amnesty for past crimes, a noble title, etc). Either the movies are getting better and better at pacing or else I'm getting more adjusted to their dynamic. With a running time of two hours twenty minutes this is one of the longest films in the series, but it clips along pretty efficiently. Very little is "new" in this movie, just "different" - a new location/setpiece for Blofeld's operation, a different henchman, new ways of hitting some of the same usual beats. But the beats work, by and large, and the execution is steady, and that's all I can ask for. It keeps me entertained and so I have no complaints.
Observations
- With a plan involving modified vaccine treatments, and with this version of Blofeld looking like Jeff Bezos' older cousin - perhaps this is a more relevant Bond movie for today than any of the other early features -
- Is this a Bond Christmas Movie? It absolutely is - with at least a good bit of the climactic action taking place around the season in Switzerland (nice to see Blofeld keep his place decorated for Christmas and give presents to his brainwashed women) - add this to Die Hard on your list of non-traditional holiday movies.
- What a shame that Lazenby gets to be the first Bond to wear a kilt (while undercover, true) - Now I'm hoping that Connery will get to don one in his last appearance.
- This movie has a really good blend of Bond on the hunt and Bond being hunted - that provides some really nice variety for scenes that move location. It takes a good 1/3 of the movie for the bad guys to even show up, as Bond spends a large chunk of time proactively figuring out where to look for them (even before any nefarious plot is introduced)
- The car-chase-within-the-car-race scene is some of the best car work to date in the movies, with some bold and daring camera work to really make that scene pop.
- Bond gets married at the end to his love interest for this one, only for her to die in his arms in the final seconds thanks to a post-wedding drive by shooting by Blofeld and henchwoman. The first Bond movie to end in tragedy - although it doesn't really land emotionally since this is just one Bond love interest out of many. I would have loved to see something where Bond's girlfriend from the first two movies was carried along and worked with him and they got married and then she died in this way after a real multi-film emotional connection - that would have really meant something - but it's still a nice change to have such an unusual jolt to close out the movie.
- You want to talk about real tragedy though - talk about the look between Bond and Moneypenny at the end of the wedding scene when Bond gets in his car to drive away with his new bride. You can hear Moneypenny's heart breaking. This scene was far more emotionally wrenching to me than his wife actually dying. I remain firmly on Team Moneypenny.
Thanks, George Lazenby, you handled this pretty well. We get one more crack with Mr. Connery tomorrow before we really graduate into a new era of Bonds next week!
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