Dr No

As a James Bond fan, it's extremely difficult for me to review a James Bond movie without resorting to my natural opinions of the movies - the ones that I've had about twenty years to cultivate and grow into the "truth". Everyone has different opinions, but after all this time each person's opinion is the unquestionable truth and, of course, there are certain "facts" in the James Bond mythos that can't be questioned.

Timothy Dalton was the most Fleming Bond.

Goldfinger is the archetypal Bond movie.

The Spy Who Loved Me proved that Cubby Broccoli could make brilliant Bond movies.

Moonraker is crap.

However, in anticipation of "Quantum Of Solace" which will be released in November, I have decided to sit down and watch all twenty-three Bond movies, in order of release, and will attempt to review them without any past baggage. I will not make reference to any Bond movies that come after the one I am watching. This will be my fresh look at the movies. Are you seated comfortably? Then we'll begin...

It's really hard to imagine what it must have been like in the sixties when sitting down to watch Dr No. Unlike modern movies, sixties movies had title sequences, and title themes and so there's no surprise to get a roughly three-minute sequence as we go through the credits at the beginning of the movie (fair, given there's about thirty seconds of credits at the end of the movie). However, what is strange is how unique the title sequence is. A white dot across the screen, beeping like a radar, becomes a gunbarrel. A chap in a hat strolls along, jumps to one side and shoots at the gunbarrel, causing blood to seep down the screen. The beeps stop and cue a bombastic and instantly memorable theme. The guitar work is most noticable, and what is more interesting is that the theme itself is very sixties, but also timeless in some ways. The James Bond theme then gives way to "Three Blind Mice", a bizarre track that plays over the top of coloured silhouettes of people dancing, before our three blind mice appear.

What a title sequence. It's completely crazy and something that is nothing like what viewers had seen before. Maurice Binder was chosen to do the title sequence based on a crazy title sequence he had done before, but this is nothing like that, and nothing like anything else. It's so memorable.

As for the music...well, it's a bit of an odd one. The James Bond theme is loud, orchestral and bombastic, but the rest of the music is split into two sections - the stuff on Jamaica which is percussion driven, and the stuff on Crab Key which is electronic. Monty Norman, the composer, seems to have difficulty in trying to mesh the music together and the soundtrack, though recognisable is not memorable.

Into the movie proper, and it has strong ties to the novel in many ways. Oh, sure, Dr No no longer runs a guano mine - it's now a bauxite mine - and he's no longer working for SMERSH but for SPECTRE, but these differences are largely superficial. For the most part the movie is quite a faithful adaptation of the novel. It's tempting to say that the excesses of the movie can be laid at the feet of the screenwriters, but the truth is that's not the case. Arguably the most absurdly Bond moment - a reception in a prison (Who else is imprisoned there? And if it's not a prison, what on Earth is the reception area and guest suites for?) is surpisingly lifted almost word for word from the novel. No, the crazy (and strangely very sixties, which is odd because Bond was created a decade beforehand) world that Bond inhabits is from the mind of Fleming, not producers Harry Saltzman and Broccoli.

One of the things that the movie is criticised for is sexism, but surprisingly there is very little of this present. The women in the movie are all quite capable and competent, although some are out of their depth, but they show loyalty and bravery. Things like the hotel receptionist checking Bond out as he is leaving...well, I don't see that as sexist. The other night I went bowling with five girls in their early twenties who spent most of the time checking out the "hot" bowling guys (who were in their late teens, I might add...), so that hardly is sexist.

Surprisingly, as well, Bond himself is not terribly sexist. He's polite to women but never belittles them - until he discovers Miss Taro is setting him to be killed, then he patronises her quite a lot, but to be fair its clearly a game between the two as she pretends to be submissive in order to keep him around to be murdered, while he sees just how far she is prepared to go in order to fulfil her mission. One might argue that, given one man has committed suicide and one woman was happy to have her arm broken, both in order to obey Dr No, that Bond was just seeing how far Taro would go to please her boss.

Racism, on the other hand, is a little more prevalent. However, this is Jamaica in the sixties and so it's understandable why it is present, even if we can't condone it. Bond and Felix Leiter are more than a little patronising to poor Quarrel, and the only black seen at Bond's hotel are the service staff.

Bond. James Bond. What strikes me the most about Sean Connery in this movie is the absolute confidence he imbibes Bond with. James Bond is comfortable in a tuxedo gambling and flirting, but equally in a single-breasted suit fighting and pulling guns. He shows complete ease when he beats up the chauffeur, inviting Miss Taro on a date, gaining Honey's confidence or dealing with the treacherous Dent by shooting him in cold blood. Connery's Bond is a true spy - he coldly murders two people without hesitation, neither of whom present him with danger. He acts like a spy: putting his hat to his face when he is photographed; calling to ensure what is going on; leaving little signals to see if his luggage is tampered with. When you watch this movie there is no doubt in your mind that James Bond is a spy. Of note is the fact that Bond only drops one witty one-liner in the movie following a death.

The same vibe is carried on to Jack Lord's Felix Leiter. Lord is the only one in the movie that out-cools Connery. Leiter never gets his hands dirty, but is always there, lingering in the background. The other supporting cast are also excellent, from the eminently likable Quarrel, to Miss Moneypenny and her easy flirting with Bond, and the wonderful Bernard Lee as "M" who is the only cast member to out-class Connery, making him appear like a schoolboy in the scenes they share together, especially when "M" takes Bond's beretta away from him.

There are, of course, two other cast members that should be mentioned - Joseph Wiseman as the titular Dr No, and Ursula Andress as the gorgeous Honey Ryder. Wiseman, surprisingly, only appears in the last twenty or so minutes of the movie, mostly to get the best lines of the movie as he describes Bond as a "stupid policeman", and urges him not to attack a guard with a bottle as it would be a terrible waste of Dom Perignon '55. Andress is barely in the movie for much longer, but she creates one of the most memorable scenes in the entire movie when she comes out of the ocean dressed in a white bikini and pauses to look at the shells she has just gathered on the beach.

There's so much in the movie that can be commented on for its utter uniqueness (especially for the times) that it's hard to know where to start or finish: Ken Adam's amazing set design (can you imagine the scene? "Uh..Harry, Cubby...that interrogation scene...I've worked out the set." "Oh yeah, Ken? What you come up with?" "Well...it's gonna be a room. A big room." "And?" "And that's about it. Oh, there'll be a chair in it.""A chair...in a room?""With a ceiling panel...natural light...")Maybe Peter Hunt's fantastic editing style (there's a scene that is in the movie that lasts just long enough for someone to tell Bond to meet Quarrel, and then just fades into the next scene...it's jump cutting thirty years before its time)Ted Moore's amazing cinematography (and in the new, remastered versions of the movies, how lush does Jamaica look?).

However the one person that does deserve single praise for this movie is director Terence Young. Never has a movie seemed so consistent. No actor seems to drop out of character at any point, particularly Sean Connery who was reputedly taught by Young how to be Bond. The action is brutal and nasty, and the dialogue delivered with accuracy and efficiency. What Young does is to create a world where there are no holes in it, nowhere you can point at the movie and say, what's with that??? It's a consistent, gritty world that introduces us to a character who is nothing more than a charming assassin.

How could this movie possibly fail?

"A+"