John Barry / Bond Soundtrack Bargains - how late do I go?

Posted by: throbnorth on 05 October 2003

Rejoicing, as any sensible person would, to find virtually all of the remastered soundtracks in the HMV sale at £4.99, [N.B. Virgin - £6.99, play.com £8.99 - don't ask..] I've splurged on the more obvious ones:

From Russia With Love
Thunderball
Goldfinger
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service [crap film, astonishing soundtrack - and now doubled in its magnificence!]
Diamonds Are Forever
Moonraker

...and in a blind sticker-driven frenzy, also George Martin's Live & Let Die and Marvin Hamlisch's The Spy Who Loved Me, stupidly forgetting that John Barry was a tax exile at that period.

The question is, how many of the ones I haven't got are any good? Barry especially of course, although I can imagine that David Arnold manages to hit the nail on the head. The unknowns are:

The Man With The Golden Gun
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
A View To A kill
The Living Daylights
Goldeneye

I've noticed that The Ipcress File is now available, also [with a bit of hassle] Lion In Winter [possibly my all time favourite Barry Soundtrack], but where are The Quiller Memorandum and Seance On A Wet Afternoon? Any others you would recommend?

throb
Posted on: 07 October 2003 by JohanR
Throb wrote:
quote:
On Her Majesty's Secret Service [crap film


Now, this 'the film must be crap because George Lazenby made an ass of himself during the shooting' is quite tiresome. And that these ideas is still around after 35 years don't make them less silly. OHMSS is the best Bond movie. Period. It not only has excellent action scenes it also manages to actually have a plot. Something that can't be said about most of the other films in the serie (you know, 'we shoot a couple exciting action scenes in as different environment around the globe as possible and then we package them together and call it a movie'). That it follows the book (also excellent) closely is another bonus not taken lightly by this author.

JohanR
Posted on: 07 October 2003 by throbnorth
JohanR,

'the film must be crap because George Lazenby made an ass of himself during the shooting'

Did I say that? My main reason for saying it's a crap film is that the poor man just can't act, which for a leading man is often an advantage, and the franchise is only as successful as the guy playing Bond.

In my opinion, the early films in the series are engaging period pieces, the middle ones don't hold up that well, and the last few have been a bit dull. It's not the films themselves I'm that keen on, it's the soundtracks - which I'd still like some advice on!

throb
Posted on: 08 October 2003 by Pete
quote:
Originally posted by JohanR:

Now, this 'the film must be crap because George Lazenby made an ass of himself during the shooting' is quite tiresome.


I had no idea of that when I first saw it, and I simply didn't think much of it because the leading man wasn't really leading man material. Which in a film series dominated by its leading man's charisma is a fatal flaw.

quote:
It not only has excellent action scenes it also manages to actually have a plot. Something that can't be said about most of the other films in the serie


Plot is irrelevant to the Bond series. As is the usual criticism that they're more or less all the same. Of course they are, but that is why a lot of people like them. Style over substance is not a problem if you like the style a great deal, and a lot of people, me included, do. Remember the first trailer for Goldeneye? PB in regulation tux saying, "you know the name, you know the number", and that sums it up nicely. Bond is reassuringly the same, and I don't want him to change any more than I want Rush to change direction into Country and Western.

Pete.