Now that a director has been confirmed for Bond 25, we take a look back at the men who made 007.
By Paul Bradshaw | |
- Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
- Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
- Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
- Share on email (opens in a new tab)
| Comments count:0
This article comes from Den of Geek UK.
Directing a James Bond movie is pretty big deal.Bond 25was thrown into chaos when Danny Boyle dropped out, and the news that Cary Fukunaga signed on to replace him has made headlines around the world. But it’s only recently that anyone actually cared who was behind the camera on a 007 film.
Partly because big name “auteurs” don’t often make franchise movies, partly because the Bond producers have always aimed for a kind of stylistic consistency to stop anyone putting a particularly big stamp on it, and mostly because 007 has always been more about a dozen other things that don’t have anything to do with the camerawork – most of the men (and they are all men) that made the other 24 films have been largely forgotten.
The current trend (possibly started by theMission: Impossibleseries, and continued by Marvel, DC, and Star Wars) to hire named A-list directors to big studio franchises seems to be working well for everyone – but Bond built a lasting legacy on the back of journeyman filmmakers who knew how to handle action better than most.
Ad
Ad – content continues below
You might have had to hunt for their names on the poster, but these are the men who made 007.
Terence Young
Dr. No(1962),From Russia With Love(1963),Thunderball(1965)
The man who made the very first James Bond film deserves a lot of the credit for everything that followed. WithDr. No(1962), Young established the tone that would roughly stay in place for at least the next fifty years – finding a balance between wit, charm and brute force that influenced a decade of imitators.From Russia With Love(1963) followed directly on – with Young asked back to manage a bigger budget in 1965 withThunderball.
Young was actually a former intelligence officer himself (attached to an armoured division that saw heavy fighting in Normandy during WWII), and he reportedly became Sean Connery’s inspiration for the character – famously coaching him how to eat, drink, dress, and walk like a gentleman spy. Without Young, we wouldn’t have a big-screen Bond.
Unfortunately, after three 007 movies, one classy horror (Wait Until Dark) and several completely forgotten duds, Young madeInchonin 1982, which is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made. More turkeys followed, and he died in 1994 with a bit of a mixed history.
Guy Hamilton
Goldfinger(1964),Diamonds Are Forever(1971),Live And Let Die(1973),The Man With The Golden Gun(1974)
SeeingGoldfinger,Live And Let Die,andThe Man With The Golden Gunon his credit list, it’s easy to see Hamilton asthequintessential Bond director – the man who made three of 007’s best films. Arguably though, whatever makes those films great is more down to Connery and Moore (and Christopher Lee), with Hamilton leaning into campy comedy and steering the series away from its cooler, more stylish roots. This is, after all, the man who inflated Dr. Kananga over a shark tank until he exploded…
Hamilton played an important part in shaping the “fun” side of Bond – and of defining his whole early ’70s style – but his true legacy is as a director who was always one step away from greatness. Assisting John Huston on the set ofThe African Queen(not exactly an easy job), Hamilton directedThe Colditz Storyin 1955 andThe Battle Of Britainin 1969. If he choseThe Great EscapeandThe Dam Bustersinstead, things might have been a bit different for him…Almostdirecting bothSuperman: The MovieandBatman– his biggest success is stillGoldfinger, and in giving James Bond a knack for sexual innuendos.
Ad – content continues below
Lewis Gilbert
You Only Live Twice(1967),The Spy Who Loved Me(1977),Moonraker(1979)
Gilbert made two very important Bond films – refining and solidifying the characters that both Connery and Moore were working towards, and arguably giving both their best 007 films. PutYou Only Live TwiceandThe Spy Who Loved Meside by side, and you get they best of Connery and Moore – making it all the more remarkable that they came from the same director. Clearly, Gilbert was a man who understood character (even he forgot it all by the time he madeMoonraker).
Outside of MI6, Gilbert focussed on other character driven classics – making his name (and getting the Bond gig) withAlfiein 1966, but also turning in weighty, worthy dramas likeReach For The Sky,Carve Her Name With Pride,Educating Rita,andShirley Valentine.
Peter R. Hunt
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service(1969)
Peter Hunt only made one Bond film, but that wasn’t really his fault. Swap out George Lazenby for literally anyone else andOn Her Majesty’s Secret Serviceis one of the best 007 movies ever made – and definitely one of the most visually interesting until the modern era.
Hunt was already a Bond veteran when he made the film – having editedDr. Noin 1962 and served as a Second Unit director on most of the others since – butOn Her Majesty’s Secret Servicewas his first film as director. He made a couple of slightly forgettable gung-ho Roger Moore films afterwards (Gold,Shout At The Devil), along with two Charles Bronson revengers (Death Hunt,Assassination) and one awful sequel (Wild Geese II) before retiring the late 80s.
John Glen
For Your Eyes Only(1981),Octopussy(1983),A View To A Kill(1985),The Living Daylights(1987),Licence To Kill(1989)
The director with the most Bond credits to his name, John Glen made every 007 film of the ’80s – resulting in some of the worst entries in the entire franchise. This was the woolly jumper wearing, eye-brow raising, sluggish Roger Moore era that saw the likes ofA View To A Killbecome almost everyone’s least favorite film (including Moore himself, who later said “That wasn’t Bond, those weren’t Bond films…”).
further reading: It’s Time for the James Bond Franchise to Return to Absurdity With Love
Ad
Ad – content continues below
On the up-side, Glen went on to makeThe Living DaylightsandLicense To Killwith Timothy Dalton – ushering in the harder, grittier, more bombastic Bond era that spent the next 20 years trying to keep up with the Hollywood action trends. He didn’t really do much after 007 – although he did make a brilliantly odd turkey calledChristopher Columbus: The Discovery, starring everyone from Marlon Brando and Tom Selleck to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Benicio Del Toro. Seek it out, if you can find it.
Martin Campbell
GoldenEye(1995),Casino Royale(2006)
Martin Campbell resurrected James Bondtwice, which is quite the achievement. Starting out making cheeky British sex comedies in the ’70s (including one starring Christopher Biggins) before slowly clawing his way to the mainstream (via the Ray Liotta and Lance Henriksen classic,No Escape), Campbell directed the first, and best, Pierce Brosnan film inGoldeneye.
A big step away from Dalton at the time,Goldeneyewas the first in the series that didn’t hang its script on a Fleming story, and it ended up feeling like the reboot everyone needed. TwoZorrofilms followed for Campbell, and he was asked back again in 2006 to reintroduce Bond for a second time with Daniel Craig’sCasino Royale.Smarter, darker, more sensitive and less quick with a quip – the sixth 007 felt like the biggest reinvention yet – leading us right up to whereverBond 25is taking us.
Edge Of Darkness,Green[cough]LanternandThe Foreignerfollowed for Campbell, with a long gestating adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’sAcross The River And Into The Treesrumored for the next few years.
Roger Spottiswoode
Tomorrow Never Dies(1997)
Back to Brosnan, Roger Spottiswoode helmed his second-best Bond outing (they get worse) marking the mid-point of one of the most varied careers around. Starting out as Sam Peckinpah’s editor onStraw DogsandPat Garrett And Billy The Kid, he went on to write48 Hrs.for Walter Hill before making his directorial debut with the Nick Nolte and Gene Hackman thriller,Under Fire, in 1983.
After that, he tried pretty much everything from Robin Williams comedies (The Best Of Times), Tom Hanks classics (Turner And Hooch), harrowing war epics (Hiroshima), Arnie sci-fis (The 6thDay), family adventures (The Journey Home) and festive British pet biopics (A Street Cat Named Bob).
Ad
Ad – content continues below
Michael Apted
The World Is Not Enough(1999)
Michael Apted was arguably the first really interesting choice of director for the Bond series – already acclaimed for television documentaries like the Up series, and for films likeCoal Miner’s Daughter,Gorillas In The Mist,Class Action,andNell. Known for his insightful work on the British class system, his ear for dialogue and his eye for stately, intricate drama, it was a bit of a shame when he came to Bond and madeThe World Is Not Enough.
Leaning back towards the cheeky humour and stuffiness of the worst parts of the Moore era, the film set Bond back a few decades when it tailored its entire final set-piece around keeping Denise Richards in a wet T-shirt.
Luckily for Apted, he brushed it off pretty quickly and went back to doing what he does best – making a documentary about Isacc Newton before he was even finished with Bond, and moving straight on to better films likeEnigma,Amazing Grace,andThe Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. Next up, he’s currently prepping the landmark63 Up, due for release in 2019.
Lee Tamahori
Die Another Day(2002)
IsDie Another Daythe worst Bond film ever made? Probably not, but it’s definitely up there. Whatever went wrong with the film (the over use of CGI, the bit when Bond fights a load of laser robots, the confusing plot about gene therapy face swapping, the invisible car…), it probably wasn’t all Lee Tamahori’s fault.
Getting a lot of deserved attention for his Maori social drama,Once Were Warriors, Tamahori made the excellent film noir,Mulholland Falls, the decent survival adventure,The Edge, and the okay-ish thriller,Along Came A Spider.
After Bond, he moved ontoXXX: State Of The Union(which was exactly the kind of film most critics accused him of trying to turnDie Another Dayinto), the awful Nicholas Cage sci-fiNext, and that film when Dominic Cooper tried to play an Iraqi (The Devil’s Double). In other words, he fizzled out. Thankfully, he went back to his roots in 2016 and made another brilliant Maori social drama withMahana.
Latest Movie reviews
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare Review – A Bonkers True Story That Didn’t Warrant a Documentary
Smile 2 Review: It Leaves You Frowning
Anora Review: Mikey Madison and Sean Baker Leave You Cackling
Ad – content continues below
Marc Forster
Quantum Of Solace(2008)
Marc Forster was already very much a name by the time he madeQuantum Of Solace– the slightly patchy, occasionally brilliant, opinion-dividing chapter of Craig’s Bond career.
Getting noticed for his indies, Forster helped Halle Berry to her Oscar win forMonster’s Ballin 2001, before scooping dozens of nominations himself forFinding Neverland,Stranger Than Fiction,andThe Kite Runner. With no track record of handling action scenes (or big budgets), the producers took a gamble on Forster forQuantum Of Solace –and paved the way for him to makeMachine Gun PreacherandWorld War Z. This year’sChristopher Robinhas seen him back on quieter, more sentimental ground, with a drama about the formation of Greenpeace, and a Ewan McGregor led WWII epic, to follow.
Sam Mendes
Skyfall(2012),Spectre(2015)
We all know who Sam Mendes is, and that’s sort of the whole point – with his appointment to Bond meant to make us think the Broccoli family were handing over the reigns to someone with a real vision. Sure enough, bothSkyfallandSpectrehad visual flair to spare – exhibiting the kind of auteur flourishes that aren’t usually found in a Bond movie. The tone started to wobble across both movies (possibly prompting whatever new idea Boyle had, that Cary Fukunaga now has to reinterpret), but you can’t fault the way they look and feel.
Initially more famous for his work in the theatre than cinema, Mendes won an Oscar for his first film,American Beauty, picking up handfuls of awards for pretty much everything else since (Road To Perdition,Jarhead,Revolutionary Road,Away We Go). Leaving Bond in Fukunaga’s capable hands, he’s now prepping an ambitious WWI film called1917for Spielberg’s Amblin Partners. Expected out in the same year asBond 25, it’ll be interesting to see where Fukunaga takes 007 next…
Further reading: The Acting Legacy of Every James Bond Actor
Latest Movie reviews
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare Review – A Bonkers True Story That Didn’t Warrant a Documentary
Smile 2 Review: It Leaves You Frowning
Anora Review: Mikey Madison and Sean Baker Leave You Cackling
- Share:
- Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
- Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
- Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
- Share on email (opens in a new tab)
|
Comment:
Comments count:0
Tags: ActionJames Bond
Written by
Paul Bradshaw
Read more from Paul Bradshaw