First, let me start by saying I'm a fan of the more literary Bond. So, Roger Moore's tongue in cheek performance generally irks the hell out of me. Bond in the books is ruthless, tough, and knowledgeable but not a walking encyclopedia. He wins because he's determined, he's tough, and he's lucky sometimes too. Bond in the vast majority of the films wins because (A) he has a gadget supplied by Plot...er...Q branch to get him out of JUST THIS SITUATION, (B) the bad guy is a moron (a la Doctor Evil), or (C) he's basically a cartoon character capable of literally anything. By the time we got to Die Another Day, things were SO over the top that Bond was driving an invisible ****ing car and hanggliding off a disintegrating glacier. To hell with that.
So, with all that in mind, here are my favorite moments and why.
- Doctor No -- "Bond, James Bond." He just comes across as SO badass in that scene. That's Bond right off the pages.
- Doctor No -- "That's a Smith and Wesson. And you've had your six." Let's be clear here. In this sequence, Bond ruthlessly kills an enemy agent. It's dirty work, and Bond comes across as ice cold. The line isn't a "quip" in the sense of "Not a very good way to GET AHEAD in life" or whatever. It's just Bond being ruthless and brutal.
- Doctor No -- the sequence where Bond plucks a hair from his head, licks it, and sticks it to the door. THIS is Bond. In this moment, he's not using fancy schmancy gadgets. He doesn't have a laser tripwire that'll drop adhesive webbing on the guy. He's just being smart and resourceful in a very low-profile kind of way. You know, LIKE A SPY WOULD BE.
- From Russia with Love - the fight on the train. To this day, still one of the most vicious fights in cinema history. Doubly so when taken in its historical context. Fights did NOT look like that back then. Shaw and Connery might as well have both REALLY been fighting for their lives the way that scene is shot.
- From Russia with Love - the sequence where Bond explores his hotel room. This scene is later mimicked stylistically in Goldfinger when he's shaving on the plane, only there it's played for comic relief rather than to underscore the clandestine world of espionage.
- From Russia with Love - When Bond is dodging the helicopter. Reminiscent of the crop duster sequence in North by Northwest (another favorite film of mine).
After From Russia with Love, the Bond films start veering into the campy. Granted, Doctor No's underground layer was pretty campy in and of itself. As was the introduction of SPECTRE. But after that, a lot of stuff starts getting played for laughs. what's more, Bond becomes far more of a cartoon character. He bangs EVERY girl. He knows EVERYTHING about this or that. He has a gadget that can do ANYTHING. It's all fun in its own way, but while I love the fully tricked out Aston-Martin DB5, and while I love the various commando attacks that become a staple of the late 60s Bond films (and some early 70s -- anyone notice that The Spy Who Loved Me is basically You Only Live Twice with Bond teaming with a Russian agent?), to me, they aren't the BEST moments. Again, that's because I prefer the literary Bond who is at once vulnerable and a cold blooded killer who simultaneously loves and hates his job.
- Goldfinger - when he cheats Goldfinger out of the golf game. I love it! Just Bond being clever.
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service - "She's just having a rest....we have all the time in the world." Man, what a heartbreaking scene. If Lazenby had been a slightly better actor (and I honestly don't think he was all that bad), this would've been one of the best moments in action cinema. I LOVE that this film shows the consequences of Bond's life. It's not all wining and dining. It's dangerous -- fatally so -- for those around him. Plus, the film is basically (with the obligatory commando raid aside) a straight lift of the book.
- For Your Eyes Only - When he Tosses the dove pin onto the one dude's palm and it causes the car to tip over. Doubly so because it was Pierce Brosnan's wife (in real life) he'd been banging, and who the guy had killed.
- For Your Eyes Only - not so much a moment as much as it's the entire plot of the film. I love the Cold War Bond films -- and not every film made during the Cold War was a Cold War Bond film, by the way. This film is -- at its core -- about espionage.
- The Living Daylights - again, pretty much the whole film. I love that it's primarily about espionage, rather than mad industrialists or SPECTRE.
- Casino Royale -- The entire movie. God what a breath of fresh air this film was. I was overjoyed at the direction of the new franchise. Yes, Bond was tough, but he wasn't invincible. Yes, Bond was knowledgeable, but he wasn't infallible. Yes, there was humor, but it wasn't tongue-in-cheek humor. What's more, Bond's character was complex again. He enjoyed aspects of his job, but it was clear that it took a toll on him. Such a shame the film was followed up by the largely incomprehensible mess that was Quantum of Solace. I REALLY hope that movie doesn't become the direction of the franchise...
Again, bear in mind, I'm a big fan of the Bond from the books. The Bond who is resourceful, fallible, frequently gets the CRAP kicked out of him, ruthless, brutal, and at times cruel. I love that Bond in the books is heartless at times but is that way because of the nature of his job. I love that he takes time to enjoy the pleasures of life (which is why he can spot this or that vintage of wine or whatever), primarily as a way to distract him from the soul-deadening nature of his job. I love that his job is primarily to act as a spy/detective and to KILL people, but ALSO that the books go to some length to show the consequences of his actions. I love that he doesn't rely on gadgets, but rather on HIMSELF to get out of a jam.
The biggest problem, in my view, with the Bond movies is that they take everything about the literary character and turn it on its head, emphasizing only the most obvious and simultaneously palatable-to-the-masses elements. Yes, Bond has a romance in just about every book I've read (Moonraker notwithstanding...). But he doesn't have girls lined up outside his room. Moreover, he's frequently doing it as part of his job, rather than because he's a ladies man. The gadgetry and inexhaustible supply of knowledge about the most minor things takes Bond out of the realm of believability and turns him into a comic book character. and while I love comic books too, I prefer the literary Bond because he's believable. He's heroic BECAUSE of his faults and vulnerability. He's heroic and INTERESTING because he's complex. Finally, I cannot say how irritating the one-liners and quips get in the films. In the 1960s, they stuck these things in because you couldn't get away with brutal violence on screen as easily. You had to tone it down, so throw a quip in and it lightens the mood. Ok, fine. But by the time we hit Die Another Day, it's non-stop one liners. What the hell? Is this a Bond movie or a Henny Youngman routine?! So, yeah, those are my favorites. I hope we get more of that kind of Bond in the next film and less of the "We're gonna top Bourne by making OUR ENTIRE MOVIE incomprehensible action sequences!"
