Director: Guy Hamilton
Year of Release: 1971
Should you watch it? Nope
Why?
After the underwhelming performance of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the band got back together. Connery is back. Guy Hamilton, the Goldfinger director, is back. The racism, in full force, is back. The sexism, in full force, is back. While the Lazenby film was flawed in many ways, watching this film for the first time in fifty years felt secondhand embarrassing. The lone highlight of the film are these two nitwit assassins, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, who felt very different from what we usually got from Bond up until this point and very modern in their presentation. Everything else about this was tired and pathetic.
How is the Bond?
For the first time, Sean Connery looked truly bored and disinterested in the role of James Bond. The only thing of real note was that the film seemed more honest about the function of the James Bonds in the world. In this film, the government has agents like Bond in order to protect profits from extremely racist diamond mining company in South Africa. That is the setup to get this film going.
How is the Bond Woman?
Tiffany Case is neither particularly interesting nor the pure and complete insult that so many Bond female characters were. She does not really stand out in any way. She is merely there.
How is the Bond Villain?
Blofeld is still the fucking villain of this goddamn film! They even fucking tease you that Bond dispatched of him in the cold open. But no. He is still fucking alive and once again the goddamn villain. He is the scourge of this era of Bond.
Does the film irresponsibly present the West as the hero of the world and thus promote imperialism and colonialism as inherently positive?
Yes.
The Reel World 