I watched the very first Bond film for the very first time last night. Yes, I know I’m a few decades late. Funny thing is, I thought I had seen it before. Then when it began, I realized nothing seemed familiar. I was fully expecting Dr. No to be a very stereotyped Chinese man with creepily long fingernails and was mildly confused when he was not. Turns out I was remembering the Get Smart villain Dr. Yes! D’oh!
Anyway, my weird selective memory aside, this was a really interesting viewing experience. The script was fairly tightly plotted and moved forward at a decent pace. Sean Connery’s performance as Bond is, of course, above reproach. In some ways, this felt like watching the pilot episode of a long-running TV series – the character as we know him was *almost *there, but was further refined in later installments. Given that he had no other performances to springboard from, as did every subsequent Bond, I think he did a remarkable job bringing 007 to life based only on the printed word.
The thing is - and this is not necessarily a criticism of this film - movies looked a lot different in 1963 than they do today. I think audiences then were more forgiving of things like unrealistic sets, mis-matched reaction shots, obvious blue-screen, or using the same shot three different times during a chase scene. It’s all in service of the story, so it all kind of works. It’s unfair to judge this against recent Bond films on its technical merits.
Having said that, I’m honestly not sure how intentionally campy this was supposed to be. The reactor room set, in particular, seemed like the inspiration for the '60s TV Bat Cave, with its oversized control panels and giant block-letter signs describing every piece of equipment. Oh, and the bad guy was dispatched far too quickly and easily in the end, by modern standards, anyway.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Good, cheesy fun.
