Much debate has gone towards ascertaining who played James Bond the best. Many will say that Sean Connery was the one, and others will cite Roger Moore as the classic bond, or others might say that Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig mastered the role of the best known fictional secret agent. Until a few months ago, I would have agreed with one of those fine choices. They all have their finer points and lack thereof. I will commit a sin in the eyes of the popular culture and say that I now prefer George Lazenby in the roll.
John Barry - "We Have All the Time in the World (slow strings)"
[*Spoilers ahead*]
"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) did something with James Bond that went against the radical ideas of the sexual revolution that James Bond helped to embody and spread. It was the movie where, in spite of the philandering and liability involved in his lifestyle, James bond falls in love and gets married. It is by no means a goliath of the cinematic arts that critics would hail as a masterpiece, but it works on many levels. If taken as a re-imagining of the character, it explained why Bond is the way that he is in the following films. Why he never settles down, falls in love, is not giving much to sentimentality, and is so dedicated to his work that the man does not exist outside the spycraft. John Barry did a fantastic job with the score, and the theme "We have all the time in the world" as a theme ties into the crescendo where plot and music meet).
As the newlyweds make a quick stop on the side of the road. the music plays, as one is led to believe that the idea is that they have all of the time in the world to live happily ever after. Bond exits the car to remove the floral decorations from the car. He gives one to his wife, and he continues to remove the decorations. That is when another car driven by Blofeld passes by as the passenger shoots up Bond's car and kills his wife. Bond rushes to his wife only to find that she is dead, and he realizes that they did not have all of the time in the world. Then James Bond does something that is out of character for the suave man of action; as he holds her dying, he weeps after saying "we have all the time in the world." The only thing that ruins it is that the classic Bond theme starts playing out of nowhere.
It is one of the few moments in cinema that can bring me to the point of tears, and it is beautiful. It explains why Bond is overly dedicated to his job, romantically distant, and never falls in love, even while bedding exotic women from around the world. They are not his lost love, and those evildoers must pay for their sins; they took her. It is a notion that was quite removed from the highwater mark of the sexual revolution and a time when tradition itself was seen as outmoded in the arts. His dream was to wed his love, start a family, and slow down. The dream of James Bond is to be like the guys that dream about being James Bond.
This movie gives the audience a look at what motivates James Bond, and it explains why so much of the incredible things and people that he encounters in his travels never seem to register with him or make the impact on him like they would with most other men. He had what impressed him, and the world that he was a part of took her from him, and no amount of sex, cars, money, gadgets, adventure, heroism, or personality would ever bring her back.
It sheds a different light on the character, as his whole Motus Operandi changes into one of a heartbroken warrior, that shields himself with his work and bravado. He goes on missions to save the world as we know it, having sex with beautiful women that remind him of her along the way, and with all the class and debonair that one man can exude. However, he is empty and masking his heart in booze, fornication, and a sense of duty. He is empty, and George Lazenby does in two minutes what every actor seeks to do in a lifetime. He finds, uses, and shows his motivation. The mighty James Bond wanted what so many take for granted. He wept for her as the camera focuses on the bullet hole in the windshield, and the James Bond theme blares to cover the pain and assure everyone that James Bond would return for action, and those that did this would pay for their sins. The audience is forced to do what James Bond does every day; they are to focus on the next mission and try to forget the death of what mattered most to him. This is why he has dehumanized himself and why he lashes out at women and is more emotionally complex than people might think.
This is why James Bond is never seen as religious, nor is he an atheist by any means. Religion is depicted as something higher and serious because James secretly believes that God could never forgive him for his sins, chiefly that his wife became a pawn in the larger spycraft that rules his life. She died on his watch because he believed that he could have that which he thought was not available to someone in his line of work. The film does not express it fully, but one can assume that this was Bond leaving his spycraft behind. He could not remain the swinger/hard-living/man of action that could operate like he did before. He was going to put that all away to become a respectable family man in an office job high up in the British Government. Eventually, he could raise children, grow old with the love of his life, and eventually make his peace with God and have rest for his soul.
That was not to be. If one watches all of the Bond films, one will notice the casual attitude in which Bond operates, and how little strong emotion the man expresses. It is all part of the job for him, and no matter how attached to the new woman he ends the story with, it is always shortlived, and he is back to work. He is a slightly numb to the job and does what he needs to do so he can go on to the next. With his wife now dead, he only has revenge.
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