Action/Adventure/Thriller
2 hours
Rated: PG
Written by: Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz
Directed by: Guy Hamilton
Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman
Cast:
Sean Connery
Jill St. John
Charles Gray
Lana Wood
Jimmy Dean
Bruce Cabot
BOND IS BACK - Sean Connery is BOND
It's not surprising that many list Sean Connery's name when asked who played James Bond best. As the man who first put on the tuxedo and wielded the Walther PPK - he was the one who truly breathed life into the character. While Ian Fleming had his reservations about Connery playing James Bond - even he too came around to accept that Sean Connery was the man born to play his iconic character. And despite all their differences, Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman knew this as well.
After the Bond series saw disastrous, but unfair, box-office returns with the exceptional 1969 George Lazenby Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Broccoli and Saltzman began to wonder where they went wrong. To find answers they turned to the past and noticed OHMSS, as far as the story was concerned, was the most serious Bond film that they had made to date. They also took notice that Goldfinger was the first in the series to give them enormous success. It was therefore decided that the next Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, must return to the formula set in place by Goldfinger.
And who better to carry out this mission than Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton? Hamilton with his input had essentially created the successful Bond formula. He carries that exact same formula through again here in Diamonds Are Forever, although not as successfully. Also, returning from the Goldfinger fold are composer John Barry to provide the excellent score and Shirley Bassey to sing what would become one of the more iconic Bond theme songs.
The film's script is a jumbled mess. The plot jumps from here to there and by the time we end up there we wonder how we ever left here. Starting as a mission to stop diamond smugglers from stockpiling and ending up with a full on weapon of mass destruction story, it's complete madness, but nevertheless it remains entertaining. Bond is given more punchlines in the way of dialogue than in any of the previous films in the series, and in many regards this set the overly-comedic tone of the 007 films to follow during the Roger Moore era. (One could easily argue that the first Roger Moore Bond film is actually Diamonds Are Forever). It's really these humorous moments, and Connery's and St. John's excellent abilities to deliver them, that help make Diamonds more entertaining and less of a mess.
The cinematography and editing are handled both expertly well as is often the case with Bond films. Less expertly handled is the set design. Ken Adam, who had offered some of the most spectacular Bond sets in previous films and would go on to offer more in later ones, hardly delivers one set worth mentioning. The most impressive set wasn't even designed by Adam, but rather was a location found in pre-production! Perhaps the enormous amount of money given to Connery for his return to the role caused funds to be pulled from Adam's department.
Diamonds' action sequences are incredible and many of them standout in the annals of Bond history. This is largely due to Connery's physicality within the role, and his willingness to perform most of his own stunt work. The hand-to-hand fight sequence between Connery and Joe Robinson set in a tiny glass elevator is amazing to behold. Watching these six foot two inch giants go at it in the moving glass cage is more entertaining than any cage match ever offered on television. A car chase through the Las Vegas strip is also wonderful to behold, even if it does produce possibly the most blatant continuity error in cinematic history. Less impressive is the film's oil rig-set climax. The sequence is much shorter than most Bond climaxes and offers little more than a few explosions here and there. Even Bond plays no significant role in it, and dispatches maybe only two bad guys.
As stated previously, Connery and St. John deliver wonderful performances that charm and have us believing in their characters all the way through. Jimmy Dean - the sausage king - is surprisingly no different. It's entertaining to see this country-boy take on a Howard Hughes billionaire character. It allows Dean to go over the top in circumstances and scenes that normally wouldn't call for it, and still get away with it. Less inspired a casting choice is Charles Gray as Bond's archenemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Gray already has the disadvantage of not looking anything like the two previous actors - Donald Pleasance and Telly Savalas - who played Blofeld, but his main issue is he just isn't menacing. This is a character that is pure evil, has killed many of Bond's cohorts - including his wife - and Gray foolishly turns up the charm and goes for the humor, probably based on the direction of Guy Hamilton. A bad call that only adds to the film's over-the-top campy tone.
Despite being a lower ranking Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever still manages to deliver the goods: exciting action sequences, humorous - if albeit sometimes ridiculous - dialogue and double entendres, and of course brilliant performances, especially by the man born to play the role of James Bond 007: Sir Sean Connery.
6.5/10
Ranking among other Bond films: 19 out of 26
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