007 – Sean Connery 6-Film Collection

Directors: Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert
Years: 1962-1971
Country: UK

Picture the man: charming but cold; dark, rather cruel good looks; knowledgeable about food and drink (“Red wine with fish?”); equally at home in Jamaica, the casinos of the continent or the gentlemen’s clubs of Mayfair. Now imagine he writes a novel, how much of him will seep into the pages?

Ian Fleming’s James Bond was a cocktail of wish fulfilment, “of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war”, most particularly Fleming’s idolised brother, Peter. For all the writer’s initial claims that Bond was a dull man, a ‘blunt tool’, it’s hard for not to project a little when your fingers are on the typewriter keys. It’s hard not to dream.

Fleming had a strong sense of who Bond was – of who he wanted to be. He pictured songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (an air-brushed, moodily lit, Ian Fleming in other words). Having sold the film rights, he gave a very clear description of the sort of man who should play 007. It wasn’t Sean Connery. “I’m looking for Commander Bond, not an overgrown stuntman.”

Ex-Navy, tattoos to ‘Mum and Dad’ and ‘Scotland Forever’, lorry-driver, lifeguard, artist’s model and body-builder. Connery swapped football for footlights and found a limited, but functional career in film and television. Fleming’s girlfriend thought he had sex appeal. Producer, Albert Broccoli’s wife, Dana, agreed.

Director, Terence Young, took Connery under his wing. He got his tailor to dress him, taught him what to order in restaurants, took him gambling… A butch Eliza Dolittle, learning how to smoke as if it were sex, move as if it were sex, shot a gun as if it were sex… It all ended up onscreen, sizzling.

1962’s Dr No was successful. The follow-up, From Russia With Love even more so. Then, Goldfinger in 1964 had the Midas touch taking nearly the sum-total of the previous films’ box-office. Guns, girls, gallivants and Gert Fröbe (Orson Welles was approached, imagine!) The movie fixed the novel’s plot hole (actually stealing the gold isn’t remotely practical) and, more lucrative still, created a template that built a franchise.

Thunderball brought sharks, scuba-fights and litigious loopholes an ageing Connery would be able to walk through in 1983’s Never Say Never Again. 1967’s You Only Live Twice offered Roald Dahl, space rockets and Donald Pleasance. It also brought an increasingly disillusioned Connery, tired of a role that was choking him.

A sidestep (and not in the set, obviously)  – George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a film that has thrived long after it initially froze – and then Connery was back for the tongue-in cheek Diamonds Are Forever. Las Vegas, Charles Gray, Wint and Kidd and Bond handling those cubes like a monkey handles coconuts.

Connery, cinema’s most charming bastard, owned sixties action cinema. To my generation, growing up in the eighties, he was the previous regeneration, a prickly Pertwee to Roger Moore’s affable, affected, punchline punching Tom Baker. To popular culture he became the definitive article, he was the embodiment of  Goldfinger’s explosive decompression of a finale, alternative screen spies starved of oxygen for decades to come and sucked into oblivion. If you raised a gun in the name of your country, there was only one man you would be compared to.

RESTORATION
Is it worth buying the films again? Well, yes, sorry, I’m afraid it is.

All six films have been restored from the original camera negatives, carefully and very much with an eye on preserving the original look of the films. The colours are rich (but accurate), the blacks are detailed (with the obvious caveats for murkiness in the original nighttime shooting). Essentially: this is by far the best the films have looked and a properly tangible step up from the blu-rays.

Sound is also great, with a choice between remixed Dolby Atmos tracks and original theatrical mixes. Your sound set-up (and your affinity for being strafed by the ghosts of seventy year-old helicopters) will lead you to what provides the best experience.

EXTRAS

There are no new extras included in the set, just the lion’s share of pre-existing supplementary features. Personally – and I say this as someone who enjoys a sideline as a writer and talking head on commentaries and special features – there’s a limit to how many hours of side dish I need with my main meal and there’s more than enough here (and always had been) to thoroughly flesh out the story behind the films. You may disagree however, so I make it clear: if you own the previous blu-ray set, you have all of this (plus a smidge more):

Dr. No
• Audio Commentary – Terence Young, cast and crew.
• Declassified: MI6 Vault – featurettes “The Guns of James Bond” and “Premiere Bond: Opening Nights”
• Exotic Locations – retrospective about the locations.
• Mission Dossier – featurettes: “Inside Dr. No”, “Terence Young: Bond Vivant”, and “Dr. No 1963 Featurette”
• Ministry of Propaganda – trailers, TV spots, and radio ads.

From Russia With Love
• Audio Commentary – Terence Young, cast and crew.
• Declassified: MI6 Vault – featurettes “Ian Fleming: the CBC Interview”, “Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler” and “Ian Fleming on Desert Island Discs”, plus an animated storyboard sequence.
• Exotic Locations – retrospective about the locations
• Mission Dossier – featurettes: “From Russia with Love” and “Harry Saltzman: Showman”
• Ministry of Propaganda – trailers, TV spots, and radio ads.

Goldfinger
• Audio Commentary – Guy Hamilton.
• Audio Commentary – cast and crew.
• Declassified: MI6 Vault – featurettes “Sean Connery from the Set of Goldfinger”, “Theodore Bikel Screen Test”, “Tito Vandis Screen Test”, “On Tour with the Aston Martin DB5”, and “Honor Blackman Open-Ended Interview”
• Exotic Locations – retrospective about the locations
• Mission Dossier – featurettes: “The Making of Goldfinger” and “The Goldfinger Phenomenon” (55 mins)
• Ministry of Propaganda – trailers, TV spots, and radio ads.

Thunderball
• Audio Commentary – Terence Young.
• Audio Commentary – cast and crew.
• Declassified: MI6 Vault – featurettes “The Incredible World of James Bond – Original 1965 NBC Television Special”, “A Child’s Guide to Blowing Up a Motor Car – 1965 Ford Promotional Film”, “On Location with Ken Adam”, “Bill Suitor: The Rocket Man Movies” and “Thunderball Boat Show Reel”
• Selling Bonds – TV adverts for Bond merchandise
• Exotic Locations – retrospective about the locations
• Mission Dossier – featurettes: “The Making of Thunderball”, “The Thunderball Phenomenon” and “The Secret History of Thunderball” (62 mins)
• Ministry of Propaganda – trailers, TV spots, and radio ads.

You Only Live Twice
• Audio Commentary – Lewis Gilbert, cast and crew.
• Declassified: MI6 Vault – featurettes “Welcome to Japan Mr. Bond”, “Whicker’s World – Highlights from 1967 BBC Documentary”, and “On Location with Ken Adam”
• Mission Dossier – vintage featurettes “Inside You Only Live Twice”, “Silhouettes: The James Bond Titles”, “Plane Crash: Animated Storyboard Sequence”, and “Exotic Locations”
• Ministry of Propaganda – collection of trailers, TV spots, and radio ads.

Diamonds are Forever
• Audio Commentary – Guy Hamilton, cast and crew.
• Declassified: MI6 Vault – featurettes “Sean Connery 1971: the BBC Interview”, “Lesson#007: Close Quarters Combat”, “Oil Rig Attack”, “Satellite Test Reel” and “Explosion Tests”
• Alternate and Expanded Angles
• Deleted Scenes
• Mission Dossier – vintage featurettes “Inside Diamonds are Forever”, “Cubby Broccoli – the Man Behind James Bond”, and “Exotic Locations”
• Ministry of Propaganda – trailers, TV spots, and radio ads.

Finally, a note on the packaging: you can buy the set as a slender (single disc-case sized) set, with a slipcase and each film on its own separate spindle. Or you can buy a large set with the films in seperate steelbooks. The latter presents the films attractively and also can be used to stun an unruly horse, the former saves space (and money).