Last week I celebrated the pending 50h Anniversary of Dr. No by featuring the original James Bond theme as the Watercooler Musical Interlude. I’m still on a James Bond kick so let’s go ahead and run my all time favorite Bond opening theme: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by John Barry. Off the top of my head, I think it’s the only purely instrumental main theme in the whole franchise. Dr. No mainly featured the famous Bond guitar riff, but it ultimately gave way to the lyrics of “Kingston Calypso.” Majesty’s did have a vocal number, Louis Armstrong singing “We Have All the Time in the World,” and that tune was used throughout the quieter moments of the picture, but this is the official theme and it is repeated in one form or another during the exciting chase sequences.
For those of you keeping score at home, OHMSS is now officially my favorite Bond flick as well. It grows in my estimation every time I watch it, but it has always trumped by From Russia With Love until this last time I watched them both. Sean Connery is still my favorite Bond incarnation and George Lazenby has his limitations, but the latter is much better than he’s ever really been given credit for. He’s got a convincing athleticism that Connery never quite had, but he also does well with the softer, more emotional moments which underpin this film and which make it better than any of the others. Given time, I think he would’ve gotten even better. As it is, I’d still rather watch Lazenby than Roger Moore.
Anyway, that’s all from me this week. Now it’s your turn. Has anyone seen anything worth talking about since last time? Lay it on me.
Filed under: The Watercooler
Another gem from Barry! Geez, I have really been overdosing on Barry as of late even aside from the Bonds! But great stuff! I also think Connery is the best Bond of all, and this film is in the upper-tier!
Lucille and I (with the kids in part for all engagements) saw four films in theatres this week:
Wake in Fright (1970) **** 1/2 (Friday night) Film Forum
Frankenweenie **** 1/2 (Saturday afternoon) Regal Cinemas, North Bergen
Wuthering Heights **** 1/2 (Sunday afternoon) Film Forum
End of Watch ** (Saturday night) Ridgefield Park multiplex
Andrea Arnold’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS, which opened in the U.K. in 2011 and USA theatres this month is a brooding weather-swept impressionistic tapestry that plumbs the sexual and emotional depths of the Bronte story is as sensory as any recent film, and like the work of Scottish director Bill Douglas, it allows you to ‘feel the textures.’ The exceedingly gifted Ms. Arnold runs astray of Bronte, but all to a different focus, one that leaves you shaken and ravished. The story, strictly subservient to the visuals, sketches Bronte with a kind of emotionally frenzy. END OF WATCH is advertised as a pulsating police actioner, but it’s deceit wears thin after the first third, and the one-dimensional dialogue is strictly stock. I’m not sure what the viewer is supposed to admire here. WAKE IN FRIGHT director Ted Koecheff was as pleased as pink to introduce and conduct an after-screening Q & A for his 1970 Australia feature that has developed strong critical and cult status in recent years. The film shows severe moral regression brought on by the corruption of drinking, sex and gambling and a terrifying kangaroo hunt that Koecheff later explained did not harm a single animal in the making. There’s a level of hillbilly trash in the character lineup, and it’s all executed as a kind of fever dream, but in the end it’s atmospheric, disturbing and unforgettable. Gary Bond, Donald Pleasance and Chips Rafford are terrific too! FRANKENWEENIE has Tim Burton back on track with a stylish and moving film about the lost of a dog and the segue into grief that brings in elements of James Whale’s Frankenstein and Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery with some beautiful black and white cinematography, voice work and sublime score by Burton alumni Danny Elfman. Yeah, it received tremendous reviews. So what? They’re right!
In any event, three of four movies at 4.5 is quite incredible. I don’t think I overrated one, but I’m bias! Ha!
Glad you caught Wuthering Heights, Sam. I’m holding my review for this week since it doesn’t open in LA until Friday and to be honest I’m rushing to catch up with the book for comparison’s sake since I haven’t read it since high school.
Also, I’m not quite sure what I want to say about it yet. I really really really admired it, but I haven’t pinned down my reasoning. There was something so ethereal and hard to pin down about it, which is part of it’s intense charm, but very hard for me to quantify.
Surprised to hear End of Watch wasn’t so great as I’ve heard some solid things about it. Then again, the same online types shit themselves over The Grey earlier this year and I can’t imagine that they even saw the same movie I saw. Just goes to show you!
Sam, I’m quite curious to see if I agree with you about Wuthering Heights, as it’s one of my favorite books and as I’ve never much warmed to the adaptations. I used to read Wuthering Heights about once a year. It’s the unabashed dark swirling romantic atmosphere that gets me, and the characters, so it could be that this visually rich rendition will be the best yet. I’m warily optimistic about it. Look forward to your review, too, Craig. Hope you like Bronte.
Finally saw The Master this weekend, which was about 97% breastier than I’d anticipated. Gosh. It was all so gorgeously shot (not just the boobs), and the acting was uniformly over the moon. I wasn’t enraptured the same way I was with There Will Be Blood, and I don’t know that I want to see it again anytime soon, but it sure was well done. Now let’s see PTA do a rom-com.
The shaky cam is what’s kept me from going to see End of Watch. Back in Fort Smith, our police department was featured in the Police P.O.V. series on Tru TV, with the point-of-view cams on officers’ headpieces, cyborg-like. We watched quite a bit of that, since it was interesting to see our small town that way on national TV. But the visuals were disruptive to me rather than immersive and tended to make me a bit seasick. End of Watch seems like they just fictionalized that show with a smartish genre screenplay and good actors. Not a bad thing, but not terribly enticing to me.
Jenny—
In view of what you say here, I’d have to conclude that the odds on you liking this are high. Ms. Arnold wasn’t really going for WUTHERING HEIGHTS here per se (like other adaptations) but rather for something completely different, using the basic situations and characters as a springboard. The focus is feral and impressionistic. I’d definitely be quite interested in what you make of it.
Jennybee, from what I remember of the book (and based on your description of it), the new Wuthering Heights departs quite a bit. That’s not to say you won’t like it, but if you go in hoping for a perfect realization of the novel, you might be disappointed. Arnold was definitely very focused on her own interpretation.
We’re kind of on the same page with Master. I’m finding myself more admiring of it than passionate about it the way I had been the previous two PTA flicks.