When Tiers cause you tears at Christmas, watch old Bond movies! Less of a fan of this one because we're back to old school sexist Bond ala Goldfinger. The plot hardly matters - everyone is trying to dupe everyone else. There are steam trains! Women are strangely depicted in this movie - a besotted sexy Russian spy who may defect; her dubious minder; everyone has spikes in the toe caps of their shoes! Bond has gadgets and more throw away one liners (still not very funny though), and the Russian spy needs a bigger daytime wardrobe, although not really for what she had in mind.
It's more like a Le Carre novel, with spies leaving plans in compacts in the Hagia Sofia and a lot of lurking in the shadows and in and out of railway carriages; dubious filming behind two way mirrors and blackmail; Bond trying to smuggle a decoding thingie across the East European border to the West, and an education - I was sceptical about the Roma camp in Turkey and the belly dancing, but Wikipedia tells me this is so; there are Roma people in Turkey, including some famous belly dancers.
Really this film should be called Boobs - the film titles are projected onto a belly dancer at the beginning; Turkey seems to be a dangerous place to be as there are frequent bomb explosions with down the cleavage shots, and the Roma camp involves a clawing cat fight between two booby women, plus the sexy besotted Russian spy only has a piece of velvet ribbon to hide hers, or a lot of nightwear. Some are even shoved in Bond's face by the writhing, spangled belly dancer. As a woman, it's just uncomfortable and roll on Roger Moore and his infamous eyebrows, or even the 1990s!
I do love the old school technicolour film - it just pops! Istanbul and the Hagia Sofia look amazing, so shadowy and vast moving through into the pops of the bazar; the arching Belgrade railway station and it all goes a bit 39 Steps as Bond is pursued by a helicopter across Scotland aka Yugoslavia! But good news the flowers on the lorry survive impeccably. Venice also looks wonderful and the speed boat chase to Venice is amazing - the tight camera shots really capture the movement of the boats, and made me think how great this would look in 3D.
It's Robert Shaw who makes this movie as the tall blonde villain and double agent who turns all BBC announcer and riles Bond by calling him 'old man'. The tightly choreographed fight in the train carriage is quite something; you don't know who is going to come out winning.
Again, Austen Powers has done for me - things which shouldn't be funny have me giggling; the stroking of the white cat in the swivel armchair; the kicking to death by poisoned shoe blade of the failed agent; the sweating discomfort line-up of no 3 before no 1 as they are given their mission and then fail it; that a stabbing disguised spy dressed as a maid can be stopped by being pinned to the wall by a chair!
Noticeably Miss Moneypenny is 'one of the boys' as they listen to an unfortunate recording of Bond's escapades; suggesting she is more than just a secretary...Other women though are unfortunate characters as they are just there for sex and to look pretty with aforementioned boobs all over the place.
Less shaken and more stirred by this movie, hoping for better things in the future with less sexist Bond!
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