Thanks.
Goldfinger, of course. The most famous Bond film for good reason. A woman killed by being painted gold, a Asian guy who kills people with his hat, that groin laser…what’s not to love? You can explain to him something to the effect of “this movie may be 40 years old, but it started the Bond phenomenon, and I’m sure you’ll be able to see why” and maybe something about Sean Connery and the fact that different people played Bond over the years. (Speaking of ten-year-olds, director Guy Hamilton commented back in '64 regarding the now-famous Pussy Galore, he was able to get the name past the censors because “if you were a ten-year old boy and knew what the name meant, you weren’t a ten-year old boy, you were a dirty little fucker.” Nowadays, I’m sure most ten-year-olds would get the joke.)
I think I may have to go with the Spy Who Loved Me. Although you may scar the boy by having him forever associate Bond with Roger Moore, it’s hard to beat the underwater Lotus Esprit. Or at least it was for me when I first saw it.
When I was a kid, it was You Only Live Twice that cemented my permanent love of all things Bond. One spececraft swallowing another, grabbing the chase car with a magnet and dropping it over the bay, Little Nellie defending her honor against the big, bad helicopters, the fake volcano and penetrating it with all the ninjas… awesome stuff for a young boy. It remains one of my favorites to this day. Plus, a fantastic soundtrack. One of Barry’s best.
All good; Goldfinger would probably be the best (although my 10-year-old wasn’t too impressed that Bond keeps getting himself captured). I’d also put in a word for the much-maligned Moonraker. Deadly poison! A centrifuge murder attempt! Space shuttles! Friggin’ Marines in spacesuits with lasers! The best waterborne combat scene of the whole Bond series! What’s not to like?
OK, OK, so it’s pretty farfetched. And it stars Roger Moore. And Lois Chiles couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag. But still…!
Goldfinger or From Russia with Love. The latter has a fantastic fight scene, maybe a little gritty though. The Man with the Golden Gun would be a good one too.
My son is 10 and he loves the Bond movies. I’ll ask him which is his favorite when he gets home. Also, FTR, he’s not yet seen the Daniel Craig Bond, violence is a bit too real and intense for his age, in my opinion.
The first one I saw was You Only Live Twice, when I was about 13 or so. It’d be good – at that age, especially if you haven’t seen one before, you either won’t pick up on how ludicrous it is, or you won;'t care.
One thing against Goldfinger is that it’s SHORT – only about 90 minutes, the shortest by far of the Bond films, and he might feel gypped. I’ll bet he’d appreciate length, and Thunderball is one of the longest and best.
Goldfinger, From Russia with Love, and You only Live Twice are all good choices.
But the one’s that I loved when I was 10 were Thunderball and Dr. No, so those are my picks.
Those are definately the superior Bond flicks but not for a 10 year-old. A 10 year-old is more apt to love Moonraker, Octopussy, Live & Let Die, For Your Eyes Only.
Thanks for the comments so far; please keep them coming. Although it has been a while since I saw most of these movies (and I know that I have not seen them all) , most of the comments echo my thoughts. My initial thoughts were Goldfinger or You Only Live Twice. Maybe the Man with the Golden Gun. I remember liking You Only Live Twice when I was a kid, but was wondering if maybe it would seem too silly now.
Someone said Moonraker. I just remember thinking that was terrible - the only time I disliked watching a Bond movie. (Sorry.)
My first Bond was The Spy Who Loved Me at age 11 (that and Star Wars made me fall in love with movies that summer), which as an 11-year-old I absolutely loved. I even liked Moonraker at 13, although the last time I saw it, it came off as too silly. I seem to recall that when I watched the ABC showings of Thunderball and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service I thought that they were too slow and kind of boring, although I’ve grown to appreciate OHMSS. As a kid my favorite Connery was You Only Live Twice. Now I’d go with From Russia With Love, but as a kid I was bored until they got on the train. Face it, kids love the goofy over-the-top evil villain lair ones, all of which seem kind of silly as a adult.
The first one I saw was GoldenEye, and it hooked me on Bond at around 12. Lots of explosions & high tension moments that represent the series, but it’s not iconic. I don’t remember anything being too intense or too risqué.
I know, I know, not a classic, but maybe a slightly more modern Bond will appeal to him, and then you can introduce others. It’s a bit more watered down than the older ones, more of just a sassy action movie.
I think you should show him one that you really enjoy, though, because you’ll be able to connect on why he likes or dislikes it much better than if you show him one that you don’t care for and he loves it, or vice versa.
That’s true. I remember seeing You Only Live Twice on TV when I was a kid. The opening scene, where Bond’s murder death is faked, he’s “buried at sea” from the fantail of a British warship, and his “body” is picked up by frogmen and taken to a concealed submarine, just blew me away. And it only got better after that. 
I’d go with For Your Eyes Only– it’s got Moore in top form, Carole Bouquet, one of the most beautiful (and the most gravely serious) of all the Bond girls, and the silly figure skater Lynn Holly-Johnson, surely a more accessible crush interest for a ten-year-old boy. The teaser sequence (Bond trapped in Blofeld’s remote-controlled helicopter) is terrific and will fire the imagination of anyone who plays with RC toys. There’s a talking parrot, a funny car chase through [Greek?] olive country and a scary feeding-Bond-and-girl-to-the-sharks sequence. And the plot is uncharacteristically realistic and plausible, grounded in a British naval/intelligence tragedy (and sea mines are always cool), played in an atmosphere of realpolitik, opportunistic third parties and detente (explicitly referred to, leaving you an excuse to explain to the kid afterwards what detente meant), and is fleshed out with interesting secondary characters.
Seconded. GoldenEye was my first Bond (though I was 16) and it instantly hooked me. I proceeded to watch all of the rest soon after (even the pathetic 60s Casino Royale spoof) and I’ve been a Bond junkie ever since.
Whatever you do, don’t make the new Casino Royale his first Bond flick. IMO it’s one of the very best (and I love Daniel Craig’s bond), but WAY too violent and intense for a 10 year old (Especially the torture scene).
I’d probably also have to say Goldfinger.
Let’s take this from the other direction and list some not to show him for a while:
**
–Diamonds Are Forever.** The “strangling a girl with her own bikini top” scene is no way to introduce a 10-year-old boy to a generally dubious role model like Bond. Plus, this one has the least-credible bad guys of any Bond film ever! Even Nick Nack was scarier than the two bumbling assassins, Putter Smith and Bruce Glover.
**
–On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.** One word: Lazenby! I otherwise quite like this movie, but that one hurdle is a big one.
–A View to a Kill. The scene where Bond is chasing the bad guys in a hot air balloon is the perfect metaphor for everything wrong with the Bond franchise in the 1980s. Roger Moore should’ve retired after Moonraker.
–License to Kill. Any movie that makes a 26-year-old Carey Lowell look dreary and unattractive has to be doing something horribly, horribly wrong.
–Dr. No. This isn’t really a Bond film yet; it looks too much like the Cary Grant drawing room mystery it was originally intended to be. It has some fine features, but as an introduction to the franchise, it’s not ideal.
Personally, I’d go with one of the Pierce Brosnan movies. They’re recent enough that the special effects wouldn’t strike a ten year old as creaky or hokey. Plus, these have some of the best scripts and acting of the whole lot.
I’d second the nod for The Spy Who Loved Me - the best by far of poor, unfairly maligned Roger Moore’s outings as 007. Lots of fun and humor, lots of big action, Jaws, the submarine Lotus, and what 10-year-old boy doesn’t love a villain who drops his henchmen into a shark tank? It’s my earliest clear memory of watching a Bond movie, and when I was ten, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why everyone said that Sean Connery was better than Roger Moore (and at the time, those were the only choices). I’ve…uh…revised my opinion a bit since then.
I’d agree that Goldfinger is probably the obvious choice among the Connery outings, though Thunderball (there’s that feeding-the-henchmen-to-sharks bit again) and You Only Live Twice would probably be good, too.
And don’t forget that Thunderball has the rocket pack!