The acting done by Connery is absolutely fantastic, this is the first film I have seen him in and now I understand why he should be the only Bond. He is silky smooth, quick witted and full of unshaken confidence. Although I found Daniel Craig's rugged version of Bond to be entertaining in Casino Royale and Skyfall, he becomes more of a soldier than a secret agent. Connery's Bond seems to prefer out smarting his opponents while Craig seems to use brute force. Connery's version just seems to fit the character of a secret agent much better than Craig's.
One of the only flaws is that the female lead, despite being very easy on the eyes is pretty brutal as an actress and her character is very poorly written. At point she hopelessly over acts her love for James, even though she met him a day ago. Then her character altogether is fairly weak and slightly dim witted which is a let down. Compared to Eva Green's character in Casino Royale who is perhaps more witty than James creates interesting dialogue and character development that is lacking from From Russia with Love.
The camera work is pretty much by the books but it works really well in the majority of scenes. For instance in the scenes involving the master criminal, we never get a look at his face only of his cat that he is holding in his lap. During these scenes they are on a boat because it allows them to have the shot tilt like a boat rocking in the sea. However, the tilted camera gives a subtle dutch angle to know that the plot is evil and diabolical. The only thing that would have made the scene better would have been more interesting lighting, because all of the actors are lit with the same amount of light.
Overall I enjoyed it, pretty entertaining, I give it 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5.
Interesting point about them being on a boat. My question would be, if they are all lit by the same amount of light and the only part of the master criminal we can see is his lap, can we only see everyone's laps? I also really liked how you compared all of your key points to the other Bond movies (some of which I have seen which gives me some perspective).
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, no. The camera shifts from the henchmen that work for the criminal. Where there would have been a close-up on someone's face during dialogue all we see is the lap.
DeleteI totally agree with the female references, some of the old James Bond movies especially make all the female characters more or less just sex symbols in the actual movies, I think that it might just be based off of the time era these films were created. Besides the lack of character development for the females I think the classic film flowed very well.
ReplyDeleteHenry,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE this movie, and Sean Connery is the bomb, I totally agree with you when you say you understand why he should be the only Bond. The thing I was most impressed with in this movie was the coolness and sexiness of the whole movie, which you alluded to earlier. Much of these new Bond movies include hardcore fight scenes but this reminds of how the elegant Bond is somewhat lost.
Henry, great work here. You've got a nice tone/voice throughout this review. It works well. You're spot on with your comments, too. As you suggest, and Andre mentioned, "the elegant Bond is somewhat lost" in today's portrayals. Connery certainly had the right stuff for the role. Good work, and keep it up.
ReplyDelete