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Reviews
Moonraker (1979)
Bond becomes Carry On James Bond in all-glitz travelogue
It started off promisingly with a great stunt and an atmospheric, original plot being set-up. Michael Lonsdale offers to be a superior bad-guy but early scenes in Drax's chateau and Venice are let down by a deterioration into silly chases and set-pieces. Jaws' return is a bad move in spite of his effectiveness in The Spy Who Loved Me, and the inclusion of a space laser battle at the end is completely at odds with the spy world of James Bond.
Great looking, a good start, but an empty middle and finish.
They Might Be Giants (1971)
Not a great film but a nice piece of something different.
The film has its faults. It's difficult, for instance, to share some of the humour when it takes place in such banal settings as a hospital corridor and a telephone operator's booth. But it's a lovely story so well performed by Scott and Woodward. Given that the team is the same team that brought us The Lion In Winter, it is no surprise that the dialogue is well written and the characters - and their conflicts - very well drawn. The charm of the film isn't really the Goldman-Harvey team's strength in character conflict, it is simply that it invites you to suspend your sanity and be crazy with these people for an hour. And when you do, the funny but sad side of delusion is deliciously portrayed.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Funny, sad, deeply involving character drama
Everything about this film says "great artists". Voight and Hoffmann turn in superb performances. Director Schlesinger interprets the novel with a unique pace and vision. Music supervisor Barry concocts a great musical accompaniment with particular insistence on "Everybody's Talkin'" and his own Grammy winning harmonica theme.
The subject may be difficult to take, certainly some of the disturbed people to be found, but using Schlesinger's pacing and Barry's music it plays as a kaleidoscope of New York fantasy.
Four in the Morning (1965)
Undeservedly overlooked kitchen sink drama
Strong performances and haunting visuals (such as the final shot of the Thames) paint an involving human drama. It's bleak, it's not fun, but it is a taut example of kitchen sink. A haunting early score by John Barry (Bond, Dances With Wolves) and a superb thespian performance by a young Judi Dench stand out.
The Ipcress File (1965)
Visually and musically expressionistic low-key spy movie
It comes from the same team as Bond (Ken Adam, Peter Hunt, Harry Saltzman, John Barry) at the same time as Thunderball, but forget Bond. This is the opposite. It's an art movie for a start, using expressionistic angles and shot composition (some of which can only be fully appreciated on widescreen editions). The halls of power are dreary and drab. The service is legwork, surveillance and paper pushing. And hero Harry Palmer wears glasses and hasn't seen a tux in his life. Basically he's ordinary. He only shares Bond's conquest of women.
To see the work of these Bond artists, bringing their Bond talents to this anti-Bond film creates a wonderful counterpoint to their own traditions, and the traditions of the spy film. OK, the plot is a little silly, but it works like a dream.
The distinctive music is based on the Hungarian Cymbalum.