faces in the bond spectre film opening credits

Faces in the bond spectre film opening credits movie#

Faces in the bond spectre film opening credits movie#

Yeah, yeah–we know that’s the symbol of the titular criminal organization, but watching said tentacles feeling up a shirtless 007 is more unnerving than sexy.James Bond movie theme songs are the cinematic equivalents of paperback book-series covers - they suggest familiarity and course with the promise of a compelling new adventure for Western culture’s most unkillable pop icon. As it stands, it’s almost as if Eli Roth hijacked the movie for four minutes to do a training run for Hostel.Īre these the opening credits to a Bond movie or some XXX-rated hentai erotica? The disturbing emphasis on octopus tentacles sure has us thinking the latter. True, the notion of 007 falling into enemy hands instead of making a daring escape is the only innovative thing about Die Another Day, but the filmmakers would have been wise to fast-forward past the punishment he receives. Hey, here’s a great idea: let’s watch a musical montage of James Bond being horrifically tortured! Said no one ever. Related: 50 Years of James Bond Red-Carpet Premieres It’s more of a half-hearted shrug than a thought-out sequence. At the same time, that’s the most dynamic element in a musical montage that otherwise consists of lots of static images of women lying around with rippling water effects washing over their bodies. Maurice Binder’s absurdly lazy sequence takes the movie’s title all too literally, repeatedly thrusting a golden-tinged gun into the frame. Take the shot of the lit match that fades into the face of a black woman with a flame flickering above her head, a squirm-inducing nod to the movie’s absurdly dated voodoo theme. Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” is deservedly celebrated as a great song and not just a great Bond song, but boy, does it accompany some risible images in the film’s title sequence. It’s stylish and sexy, without a trace of the self-serious somberness that drags down the opening credits of so many other Bond movies. So much neon, so little time! The members of the Bond title sequence dance troupe glow in green, orange and hot pink, while writhing, shooting guns and…skiing? The latter is actually a brilliant touch, as we’ve seen these silhouettes twirl and leap through the air before, but never with skis strapped to their feet.ĭon’t hold the largely terrible movie against this terrifically kinetic title sequence, in which the camera zips across a digitally-created desert landscape like its been fired out of Bond’s gun. Meanwhile, footage from the Sean Connery-era movies are superimposed in the background, perhaps to reassure viewers that this is still a James Bond movie even if Bond himself looks a little - make that a lot - different.

Taking its cue from an oft-repeated line in George Lazenby’s sole outing as 007 - “We have all the time in the world” - the OHMSS title sequence is dominated by objects that measure hours and minutes, from clock faces to hourglasses. It resembles early MTV as much as it does Bond, and, in fact, For Your Eyes Only arrived in theaters two months before MTV launched.Ħ) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) In a departure from a longstanding Bond tradition, the singer - in this case, Sheena Easton - actually appears on camera crooning the title track, while images of flowing and/or bubbling water ripple across the screen. The muted tone of this “back to basics” Roger Moore-era Bond, which followed the plus-sized space spectacle, Moonraker, is effectively set by this low-key credits sequence.

It’s a mishmash of styles to be sure, but the roots of what’s to come are clearly visible. After that we see silhouetted figures grooving to a Calypso tune, followed by three men strolling across the screen to “Kingston Calypso,” a little ditty that appropriates the children’s rhyme “Three Blind Mice” and applies it to the henchmen of the titular villain. So much so that designer Maurice Binder (who went to create 14 of these) divides the sequence into three distinct “movements,” beginning with the then-new, now-familiar James Bond theme playing in time over a field of blinking multi-colored circles - a direct nod to the gun barrel that has Sean Connery’s Bond in its sights before he blows the unseen shooter away. You can’t not include the very first 007 feature on this list, even if the art of the franchise’s title sequence is very much a work in progress at this point.