"In loving memory of Albert R. Broccoli"
The end credits of Tomorrow
Never Dies (1997) start with the above message, a tribute to the man behind
it all. As the biggest Bond film ever, Skyfall
stages itself grandly across the globe this week, the piping excitement
amongst us Bond fans, gaping at the pantheon behind one of the longest running
film series (1962-2012) in cinematic history, leaves us awestruck and thrilled.
The tag of being the second highest film grossing film series ever, after the Harry Potter series, is just one of the
many snazzy accoutrements that James Bond films have tied to themselves at the
end of their 50 years.
Sean Connery set the ball rolling in the first film of the series
Dr No (1962) in the widely popular casino
sequence featuring Sylvia Trench, when he lights up a cigarette as the
camera pans on his assuredly pluck yet irresistibly desirable face and he introduces
himself as 'Bond, James Bond' - an irrevocable signature introduction that has
become one of the greatest quotable quotes in cinema history. Within the next
few seconds, Trench realizes that James Bond is that dangerously challenging
adventure of a man that is more than hard to avoid. Oozing an air of
gentlemanly suavity, Bond is a man with a purpose, almost ready for anything
that comes his way.
Made on a meager budget of $1million after being panned by
Hollywood studios, Dr No ushered in a
film series that boasts an audience of a quarter of the world's population have
seen at least one out of the 23 Bond films, along with a number of spinoffs,
spoofs, parodies, video game adaptations and two non-Eon Bond films. Fifty
years later, in a dimensionally changed entertainment landscape, who would have
thought that a fictional British MI6 spy agent, James Bond, would garner
millions of fans, who have come to believe that they can live their lives with
a bond-esque cinematic badassery and wait with humongous expectations to
witness another manifestation of Broccoli's vision, even he is gone for long?
We all know that ‘Cubby’ a.k.a Albert R. Brocolli is
responsible for triggering the idea of this super successful franchise with
team players Harry Saltzman and novelist Ian Fleming. Born in Queens, New York,
Broccoli was blessed with an Italian descent. Along with his partner Irving
Allen, he set up Warwick films in London and produced a string of films in the
1950s. It was in 1960 when Broccoli had the genius epiphany of taking up Ian
Fleming’s novels on James Bond and making them into films. He agreed to
co-produce them with Harry Saltzman, who already had the rights to Fleming’s
books. They set up their own production house, but more importantly, they lent
Bond a distinct character of his own as they witnessed his growth from low to
staggeringly high budget films, from Dr No to Goldfinger (1964) to
Thunderball (1965) to Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and until The Man With
The Golden Gun (1974). Broccoli defiantly waited 5 years to legally acquire
the rights of Thunderball, which he was convinced should be his first
Bond film, but anachronistically ended up making Dr No due to legal
issues. In the end, Thunderball turned out to be the highest grossing
Bond film ever, inflation adjusted.
On one hand, while Saltzman has continually running parallel
interests along with Bond, Cubby treated it like his own family business with
much moxie, dedicating every drop of his blood and sweat to it. When they fell
apart in 1975, Broccoli took on the hat of a solo producer, nurturing his baby
like a constantly evolving graphic novel. Saltzman’s exit posed little threat
to Broccoli;s independence even with the studios lurking around to cash in on
the success of Bond. In 1977, he produced The Spy Who Loved Me, which
was the first in the franchise to have no content borrowed from Fleming’s book.
From Moonraker (1979) to Octopussy (1983) to License To Kill
(1989) to Golden Eye (1995), he produced an array of Bond films,
until his death due to heart failure, that have emblazoned him as the single
greatest creator of the series. His company, Danjaq LLC still holds the
copyright and the trademarks of all Bond films, through their inhouse Eon
Productions, distributed by United Artists, which was later bought over by MGM,
which itself was later acquired by Columbia Studios (Sony Pictures
Entertainment). Danjaq is currently run by Cubby’s daughter Barbara and
stepson, Wilson, and them along with Columbia, have been producing fanciful episodic
adventures from much before the sequels and the comic book adaptations stepped
in.
23 films of James Bond. More than USD 5 Billion Gross. 6 lead
actors. Along with a legacy of excellence wafting in with guns and espionage,
Cubby had a raging predilection for keeping everything within the doors of his
family. With most films being shot at Pinewood Studios UK, Broccoli maintained
a strict loyalty to most cast and crew members, along with his characters.
Richard Maibaum wrote or co-wrote 13 of the first 16 films; Neal Purvis and
Robert Wade have written or cowritten the last five. Composer John Barry,
production designer Ken Adam and Maurice Binder, who created the swirling
opening-credits sequences, stayed with the franchise for a generation or more.
The character of M, as the head of MI6, always gives the assignment to Bond,
while Q is the guy who is largely reprehensible for all the gadgets and devices
used by Bond that makes us smile coyly. Only three actors have played M while
only two have played Q. Desmond Llewelyn was Q for 17 films. Most directors
have been British, as opposed to the slambang culture of franchises nowadays
with a new director stepping in for each sequel. Sean Connery (6 films), George
Lazenby (1 film), Roger Moore (7 films), Timothy Dalton (2 films), Pierce
Brosnan (4 films) and Daniel Craig (3 films) have been the only actors to play
Bond.
Riding high on his bevy of a crew, Broccoli produced more than
40 films in his illustrious career, out of which 17 were of the Bond franchise.
But there is more to him than his assuring consistency. Classy tales of
espionage, nerve-wrecking action and relentless plot featured in all of the
Bond films, but it is the resplendent motifs envisioned and strung together by
Broccoli that liven Bond films even today, long after the material is no longer
derived from Fleming's novels. Broccoli being a horse-racing enthusiast, along
with Saltzman, was the man who grated the first of Bond films with these
nuances, leitmotifs and themes. Monty Norman's ridiculously famous James Bond
theme, Maurice Binder's crackling gun barrel sequence, the pre-title and the title
sequence, the lascivious seductiveness of Bond girls, Rolex watches, Savile
Row suits, relentless number of sleek cars, fancy aircrafts and sharp guns, the
blatant tongue-in-cheek humor, the devastatingly megalomaniacal villains or the
unfathomably visceral locales - most of these elements have been
quintessentially remnant in all the 23 ventures, albeit in slightly modified
forms. While the pre-title sequences have matured to show full chase and fight
sequences, the title sequences still reflect the underlying theme of the film.
The gun barrel sequence is perhaps is the most riveting sequence which has also
been in many Bond posters. Norman’s 007 theme has had many composers playing
with it, including the latest one by Adele in Skyfall, who mashes it up to produce a crackling track, keeping the
heart intact.
Soaking them in formulaic patterns never devoid them from
growing over time with the contemporary zeitgist of the industry or
exponentially whetting the trendsetting production scales. The themes of Bond
movies have graduated from hallowing Russian mafia and menacing Cold War
hangovers to challenging terror threats and revengeful counterintelligence and
much more. The Queen’s secret service agent cadre, led by Agent 007, has risen
to save the country from all contemporary adversities with a gung-ho attitude
and cutting edge equipments.. While in earlier films, the Russian spy syndicate
SMERSH was known as SPECTRE Film nerds credit Cubby for indefatigably thinking
ahead of his time at all instance, mostly with the jaw-dropping gizmotic
technologies that Bond used. Goldfinger was the first film that captured
the use of a menacing laser in a film scenario, while it also marked the debut
of Bond’s most famous car, the grey Aston Martin DB5. While Bond only uses a
Walther pistol, his cars have been equipped to fire guns, missiles, rockets, lasers
or just swimming under-water like the Lotus Espirit in The
Spy Who Loved Me, mostly anything to fight his adversaries. In Skyfall (2012) , his Walther PPK/S is
customized to his palm prints. Other gadgets that have been used by Bond are
bug detectors, dagger shoes, a garrote watch, a bowler hat, a waterproof burial
bodybag, dentonite toothpaste, mini-nuke bomb and tons of other fancy stuff. A
high dose of class with the innate killer instincts is a rare combination that
Bond always pulled off with much ease.
Broccoli wasnt perturbed by the notion of portraying Bond girls
as sex objects with double entendre names such as Pussy Galore or Kissy Suzuki
or just by having more than one Bond girl in a film. Bond girls created the
maximum rivulets in the media for years as the famously indispensable component
of each film, even when they were central to the plot or not. They may be
victims rescued by Bond, or else ally agents, villainesses, or henchwomen.
Cubby's idea was to show Bond girls as desirable, while Bond himself was more
desirable to them. From the sultry Ursula Andress in Dr No to the sensuous Halle Berry in Die
Another Day (2002), Bond girls have sizzled the screen with more than just
their oomph.
As Bond trots the globe, he is continuously working on his
mission and his relationships can only be temporary and dont take time to end.
However, the character of Moneypenny recurs as an ally who is his female
companion on this journey many a times. Bond’s humor is sarcastically glib as
he flirts with Moneypenny, while she doesnt appear in films where Bond falls in
love such as with Vesper Lynd in Casino
Royale (2006). One of Bond’s allies is Felix Leiter, who is a CIA agent and
is mostly underplayed as someone of lesser significance in the world of a more
efficient British spy. The adrenalin administering high points consisted of
racy chase sequences, stunning meeting with villains, the imperfect martinis or
just another befuddling turn in the tale only add to this delectable affair
with adventure. Broccoli was awarded the 1981 Irving G.
Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards for all his contributions to
cinema.
Despite being a rousing stretch of eye candy, not all Bond
films became the favorites of critics. However, no other film series from
Hollywood have reveled in success of a parallel stature with the audiences,
striking the chords of their hearts with a fillip. Bond films have provided
fodder to hundreds of films across the globe ever since their inception, but
more often than not, these furtive efforts provide some fleeting loveliness
instead of lasting greatness. From integral plot points pattern to the blithe
personality of secret agents to the action and chase sequences, Bond films
inspired more than a generation. The Bond franchise second to only the Harry Potter
film series in its overall Box Office Worldwide Gross, another British venture
which outpaces Bond in just 8 films. While Harry Potter is adorned with the
spandex of a completely fantasy premise, Bond walks the thin line between
nerve-wrecking reality and the cinematic leap of faith. It would also be
fatuous to not consider the effects of inflation on the Box Office recently,
considering Harry Potter is a newer franchise with a run time of 10 years.
In 2006, Eon decided to reboot the Bond series with a makeover.
The new Bond was no more the martini-sipping classy assassin wearing a tuxedo.
He became the ruthless thug desirable for removing his shirt. He appeared
onscreen with a rugged brawn, more like a brute and vicious fighter, stripped
off his technical virtuousity, but doused with gritty intents. The Bond girl
has taken the role of the classy one now. In Skyfall, the 23rd venture from Eon, Daniel Craig suits up in a
tuxedo, drives an Aston Martin DB5, but also goes back to his action hero roots
as he fights his new enemy, Silva, more by his intellect and skill than by his
jaw-dropping gizmos. Broccoli’s family business has outgrown its limits,
adapted seamlessly to the changing times and still curated a flavor of Bond’s
original assemblage without forgoing originality. With Skyfall, Eon and
Sem Mendes pull off a fitting tribute to Cubby, right on Bond’s 50th
anniversary. I guess that is how you become a legend, Sir Albert Broccoli.
Originally published for Long Live Cinema here
Originally published for Long Live Cinema here
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