I have been watching On Her Majestys Secret Service a few hours ago, and all this perspective and newly inspired vision has occurred to me to reconsider my view upon the film. There are far more intriguing facts (some of them are not yet proven) than you had ever realized. Sure, there also are differences between the source material (Ian Flemings novel) and the film itself, but the plot, the motivations, and the execution remains the same, aside from the atmosphere which still maintains the construction of the Sean Connery era. As Connery decided to quit the role, producers began hunting for a new Bond, which eventually came to embrace George Lazenby in the credit, becoming the fascinating and ever tremendous Secret Agent Codenamed 007. James Bond. Lazenbys portrayal, to be honest, shares too much of similarities with Connerys own than it does with Flemings interpretation of the literary character he created with his first novel in the franchise. To be more fair, Lazenby portrays Bond as if Fleming wrote Connerys Bond instead of his very own, which highlights 007s vulnerability in this one. However, to say he was vulnerable, does not mean he was sensitive. Oh no. George Lazenbys James Bond comes off as very fearless, master of disguise, incredibly confident and self-assured man who sees his mission as a matter of importance than what his superior tell him to. Following the orders of your superiors blindly do not make you a good covert operative in the slightest, unless you can reform the file you have been given to execute. Lazenbys Bond has no problems with doing so. Flemings character, however, lacked the sense of humour in the books, which was reverted and changed when Terence Young and Sean Connery modified the role for their own convenience in Dr. No. Lazenby never failed to deliver a straight-out one liner and have you entertained with his act. I understand some people classified his acting performance as wooden, to which I couldnt help but heavily disagree. The mans acting performance was absolutely brilliant, yet this one was his very first gig in this choice of career. His physicality and ability to fight off the thugs before is certainly unbeatable and outstanding, to which I could say he would knock out the great Sean Connery in a fair fight. Id tell you that. His athletic abilities are quite to be admired, as well. Being able to climb over a wire and move forward for probably 30 feet without letting himself go is something not every man is capable to pull off, knowing that to reach the ground downwards is probably a two thousand feet distance vertically. Hell of a drop! Lazenbys Bond doesnt quite have handful of gadgets such as garrote watch, or a poisonous knife hidden in a shoe, or a cigarette that fires bullets that should send a man off to his own demise. BUT! This Bond creates his own gadgets while thinking on his feet rather than developing a strategy for later confrontation. Making gloves out of his pockets, using a rubber to place a piece of metal within, in order to avoid electrocuted while encrypting the secret of an electronically controlled automatic door that opens only with the push of a button. He also does not rely on luck or miracles to happen like the other Bonds (Sean Connery, Thunderball, Domino suddenly showing to killing Largo before he pulled the trigger locked on Bond? Hell of a luck, 007!), but instantly reacts when he finds the proper moment of doing so. In other words, to all these paragraphs Ive written without taking a simple breath, George Lazenby is an ALPHA ONE PLUS James Bond! For the villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, I couldnt think of anyone else but Telly Savalas being the very best to portray the character than anyone else. Physically strong, very intelligent, criminal mastermind, megalomaniac, brutal, threatening, intensive and very stylish. This man is indefinitely a newer interpretation of Aaron The Moor. A villain who knows hes evil. And embraces it. That is what SPECTRE stood for, all the time. Speaking of the other Blofelds, Donald Pleasance, I should say, even though leaving a mark on the pop culture that collects all the villain in a book, comes off as a spoofed character rather than actually sinister. He is sinister, but somehow in a half-comic way, if you know what I mean. Charles Gray, however, as much as I like him and appreciate him as Blofeld, also strikes a resemblance to being cartoony. But, he was charming and able to win a womans heart. Probably he did that in Tiffanys case, anyway. Thats however another story. One intriguing point I noticed in the storyline is that there are resemblances to Bram Stokers Dracula. In there, we had Jonathan Harker sent to work for some aging Count in Transylvanian castle on a high cliff, while in here, we had Bond being sent out as Sir Hillary Bray to discover the ancestral blood of Count De Bleauchamp, Blofelds new name. Another thing was that Blofeld was able to control the minds of various girls in his clinic, just as the vampire lord was able to control the minds of his brides and other girls he wanted to make his own. And then, Dracula had Harkers wife kidnapped, while Blofeld had Tracy imprisoned in his headquarters. And both the protagonists from their own fictions leaped over to terminate threat and rescue the damsels. Quite impressive on the writers account! Even though, this isnt proven. Back to Savalas, this version of Blofeld is very passionate about what he does, always having back-up plans and behaving as if the world owes him, and he holds grudge with them. His anger can be detected in the words he utters when he explains his motivation to Bond after scratching off the mask the latter was wearing. How shall I say? He is the best Blofeld, with no absolute doubt. The action sequences are beautifully directed. The raid on Piz Gloria, the ski chases (both the night and morning chapters), the fight and stunt coordination, the suspense, the romance, all done quite perfectly. Fleming, I say, would have proud. Special thanks to Richard Maibaum for writing all these terrific scripts. The conclusion of this discussion will have you told, that On Her Majestys Secret Service is more than just a brilliant film!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:15:39 +0000
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