Director: Lewis Gilbert
Cast: Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Tetsurō Tamba
Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure.
Did I Like It: And yet, beyond <Dr. No (1962)>, <From Russia with Love (1963)>, and <Goldfinger (1964)>, I make a suspicious habit of not keeping Connery’s other three (official, and unofficial, for that matter) outings as Bond on regular rotation.
People might complain about Connery’s performance in the role, as he felt like he was at the end of his time in the role (he skipped out on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)), but I don’t see it. There’s something so singular about Connery in the role that even while Daniel Craig unassailably did more with the role than anyone else, I still picture Connery (even with his series of weird hairpieces) in the role before anyone else.
The plot is fine—it’s no sin for a Bond film to feel just a wee bit interminable, I love them, but the vast majority of they are a slog in the middle—and there’s scarcely better casting for a Bond villain in general (and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, specifically) than Donald Pleasance. It’s an exotic travelogue, the theme song (from Nancy Sinatra) was an absolute banger, even before Mad Men made it the stinger of their greatest season.
Is there anything else one needs from a Bond film? I’m racking my brain as I type this to quantify why this is one of the also-ran Bond films. It shouldn’t be. It’s just weird enough (and, for that matter, just early enough in the saga) that it doesn’t fall into the occasional problem Bond films have where some entries so, desperately want to be Goldfinger (1964) in every measurable way.
I guess that means You Only Live Twice is actually one of the all-time greats… That’s the thing I’m realizing as I watch some of these for these reviews: some of the entries I have spent this whole time discounting have been my favorite this whole time.