Hello readers

Now for a while i have been promising a post in which i do not seemingly rant and rave for the entirity and instead have a more lighthearted post. Well now i shall duly deliver on that promise with a post dedicated to one of the things i have grown up watching since i was a little boy and the best series of films, in my opinion, that have ever been made……James Bond.

Now throughout the seemingly short period of time, compared to the series length, that i have been watching Bond, I have watched the seemingly invincible Bond transfer from the cool, calm, collected secret agent battling the evil SPECTRE organisation that was brought to our screens during 1962 in the film Dr No to the more ruthless and the more deadly Bond we witnessed in Die another day which was released in 2002, an incredible 40 years after Dr No was first released which is the first piece of evidence in establishing that Bond is a worldwide phenomenon.

So what gives James Bond so much appeal? Is it;

• The Storylines
• The Characters
• The Gadgets
• The Girls
• The Songs

Well over the next few posts we will see just what it is that has taken me in so much but on with the post at hand.

In fact i believe that it is all of these put together which make Bond such an appealing attraction for audiences over the world. Let’s take a look in more detail about the things which i simply cannot help but love about the James Bond phenomenon.

First and foremost, the actors are what I like most. In every film there are at least 2 or 3 starring performances which are a mantle of the high class acting that Bond films are renowned for. But who for me are the best actors in my opinion? Well let’s start no further than the 5 men who have played the great secret agent themselves;

• Sean Connery- For me an inspired selection to be the first James Bond. In 1962 audiences were first presented to Bond. And what better way for them to be introduced to him by meeting a secret agent who in every way fitted the job description. They were introduced to a man who was as said before cool, calm, collected. A man who was unafraid of  any job given to him, unafraid of any enemy (unless you count the tarantula put in his bed in which case i also would need some new sheet covers so i don’t particularly blame him), and whose taste for luxury, gambling, and beautiful women was unmatched by any other. It took only until those first epic words of ‘My name is Bond…….. James Bond’ to realise that Connery fitted the James Bond boots perfectly and over the course of the 6 films he starred in (or 7 if you want to count Never say never again but i don’t), this view went from strength to strength with a series of brilliant performances.
• George Lazenby- Stepping into the boots of Sean Connery was never going to be an easy task for any actor, especially one who had never actually done any acting before. Cue the appearance of George Lazenby, an Australian model who had never before done any acting which rubbed even more salt into the wounds of those still hurting from Connery’s departure. But despite the lack of acting, despite the lack of a big name, his one and only appearance as James Bond was in the film that I acclaim to be my most favourite of the series, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Fair enough he lacked the majority of the aspects that Connery had used to such effect whilst playing the role, but he brought with him one thing that Connery never had the chance to give Bond……emotion. In this, the 6th film of the series, we are reminded for perhaps the first time that Bond is still truly human. I am of course talking about the final scenes of OHMSS when Bond is cradling his dead wife in his arms after she is shot dead by Blofeld, the arch enemy of James Bond. For the first time we see Bond almost crack under the weight of emotion from the death of a loved one, and Lazenby plays the part to perfection. In fact the chemistry between him and Diana Rigg, who plays the doomed wife, throughout the film is the best example you will see of Bond’s human side and this is why i liked Lazenby’s performance so much as it showed there was indeed life after Sean Connery. I just hope other people give him credit for what he did in face of the challenge he undertook.
• Roger Moore- My favourite James Bond. Coming to the role in Live and let die which was realeased in 1973 and he was the longest serving of all the Bond actors, totalling 7 films by the time of his final appearence in A view to a kill ,released in 1985. Moore was a refreshing boost to the series after the Bond crowd hadnt taken well to George Lazenby which i found a little harsh as his performance seemed to have been overlooked by the people wanting Sean Connery back in the role who didn’t give him a chance. Roger Moore though came into the role and turned Bond into his own character and thus getting the crowd back on side and not thinking about Connery. Gone was Connery’s image of Bond and in it’s place was Moore’s intellectual agent who relied just as much on wit and humour to get himself out of sticky situations as he did his Walther. But most importantly he managed to keep the realistic features of Bond like his survival abilities and the realistic belief of the character itself, in other words he was’nt too far fetched. He, like Connery, looked every bit the part of a secret agent and was just want the Bond series needed to keep it going. But it was his combination of humour mixed with proffesionalism that was the clincher for him been my favourite Bond actor. My favourite Moore film was The spy who loved me where he is truly at the peak of his Bond performances. Well worth a watch.
• Timothy Dalton- Now if George Lazenby thought he had a problem filling the boots of Sean Connery, imagine how Timothy Dalton felt been asked to fill the retired Roger Moore’s. Well in truth he did it very well over the next two films in which he starred, starting with The living daylights in 1987. Now unlike Connery, Lazenby, and Moore, Dalton introduces us to a new side of Bond. His Bond is dark, ruthless, manipulative, basically everything you would associate with a cold war agent. He delivers two powerful performances, both of which rank up near the top of my favourites, and he re-installs some of the belief in Bond been a real agent which sadly was lost during the last Roger Moore film i hate to admit. I woulk liked for him to have carried on doing more of the films but sadly with the 6 year gap between Dalton’s last film License to kill, and Goldeneye, he was not prepared to wait which was understandable but such a great shame.
• Pierce Brosnan- Last, but certainly not least, of the Bond actors. After been snubbed for Timothy Dalton back in 1986, he was over the moon to be given the chance to fill Bond’s boots in 1995 with Goldeneye. And yet again the producers found a hit Bond actor as he was the first since Connery to define every aspect of Bond the way he wanted it. This Bond had a serious humour about him and Brosnan himself was a very commanding screen actor which together created the ideal Bond character. His performance in Goldeneye was very impressive and showed that the right decison had been made to cast him. What let Brosnan down though was not his acting but some of the storylines he was given. A good example of this is Tomorrow never dies in which he yet again delivers a great performance but stopping a media mogul from taking over the airwaves? Not exactly what you would expect on the mission board at MI5. This aside though his acting is top notch and he is well deserving of his role of Bond.

And whilst it is the main character who rules the screen, no film would be complete without back up actors and James Bond is blessed with a sizeable score of these.

There are superb good guy performances;

• Desmond Llewelyn (Q)- An icon of the Bond series with an arsenal of weaponry to embarress any major world power. Possibly the best actor of the series as he starred in the most films. Always grumpy but screenplay with Bond makes for some memorable moments. Plays the role as Tech genious immaculately and will never be matched in that role (sorry John Cleese)
• Tetsuro Tamba (Tiger Tanaka)- Appears in You only live twice. Tanaka is head of the Japanese Secret service and assists Bond when he comes to foil a plot that involves stealing rockets in space. Tamba delivers a great performance, helped by the fact the film is shot in his native Japan so he can fit straight into the role. Tanaka is something of a one off in which the head of a country’s secret service actually goes out and helps Bond on assignment so he gets plenty of screentime and it is the chemistry between him and Sean Connery which makes his performance even better.

And where would we be without the bad guys too;

• Richard Kiel (Jaws)- If you were asked to choose one distinguishing feature of any Bond bad guy, i reckon 99% of people would agree with me in saying Jaws unique set of metal teeth that can bite through just about anything. Jaws is a superb character and is done justice by the performance of Richard Kiel who is a perfect fit for the role. He is very tall and his huge frame serves to give Jaws that sense of menace and destruction which is so well portayed in the films. Indeed Jaws is such a success that he gets the chance to appear in 2 James Bond films. An almost impossible feat for any enemy of 007 which just shows hows deadly and hard to kill this man is. However it was a neat twist in which towards the end of his final outing he changes allegiance to help Bond and protect the girl he loves which also shows Kiel’s depth in acting to be much more than just the cold hearted bad guy. There are very few other villains who can match the exceptional quality of Jaws .
• Robert Davi (Franz Sanchez)- A cold hearted, ruthless drugs baron, Sanchez is in my opinion Bond’s greatest villain. His ability to mercilessly torture people without feeling a thing  is unmatched by any other. He personally attacks Bond as well by seeing to Felix Leiter and his wife. Robert Davi’s performance is in the same league as that of Richard Kiel as one minute he can be the perfectly amicable man (to his friend’s only mind), then next he is the ruthless killer which shows again the strength in depth of the actor’s abilities. Just everything about Davi fits the role of the villain and it is the ability of the films producers to match actor with villain that does the film a great service.

These are but a few of the great actors who have graced Bond’s film set but I would be here for day’s if i was to write down them all. Anyhow i have decided in the course of writing this that i will split this down into several posts as this as gone on too long as it is so I will be back again soon with the backdrop on Bond’s girls, gadgets, and the rest of the formula that make up the James Bond special.

Until next time readers