James Bond Ultimate DVD Collection

Bond Movies (Click below for details)
Dr. No (1962)
From Russia With Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Live And Let Die (1973)
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Moonraker (1979)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983)
A View To A Kill (1985)
The Living Daylights (1987)
Licence To Kill (1989)
GoldenEye (1995)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Die Another Day (2002)
Casino Royale (2006)
Quantum of Solace (2008)

James Bond Movies

Film traditions
The series has its cinematic traditions which date from the first film.


Gun barrel sequence
Main article: James Bond gun barrel sequence
Since Dr. No each film has begun with the gun barrel sequence, which was created by the title sequence director Maurice Binder. Filmed through a rifled gun barrel's perspective, the view is of James Bond walking from right to left, then quickly turning to his left and shooting. The gun barrel reddens with his enemy's spilling blood, and then lightens to a white circle. Casino Royale was the first Bond film without the gun barrel sequence opening the film; it occurs after the pre-title sequence instead. There was a minor difference in the Die Another Day sequence: the bullet flies towards the viewer, which did not happen before. George Lazenby was covered by the opaque red colour in the gun barrel sequences of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, whereas all other films have simply had Bond tinted red. A new rendering of the gunbarrel and the blood was introduced in Casino Royale. It is the first to show Bond in a "real world" situation (rather than walking across a white void) and the first sequence to begin with Bond facing away from the camera. According to liner notes on the CD release of the soundtrack album for the non-EON film Never Say Never Again, a version of the gunbarrel sequence was planned for that film and a musical score composed, but was not filmed.


Pre-title sequence
After the gunbarrel sequence, every film excepting Dr. No begins with a pre-title sequence teaser. Some of them (like those in Live and Let Die and Moonraker) pertain to the film's plot, but most others (like Goldfinger and Octopussy) feature Bond completing a separate mission. The World Is Not Enough (1999) contains the longest at more than fifteen minutes, as compared to the six- to eight-minute sequences in the other films.


Opening credits
Title credits from GoldenEye depicting the collapsing Soviet Union and the end of the Cold WarThe title sequence is both a trademark and a visual staple of the James Bond film series. The visual elements in the sequence often reflect themes and elements of the film's plot, such as a golden gun in The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond cavorting with female Russian spies in The Spy Who Loved Me, girls demolishing Communist statues and symbols with sledgehammers and the two-faced girl reminiscent of the Janus syndicate in GoldenEye, oil in The World Is Not Enough, rouennais playing card motifs, with duochrome silhouettes of men fighting in Casino Royale, as well as a computer screen registering Bond as 007, since the film depicts his first mission.

The opening title sequences of From Russia with Love and Goldfinger were designed by Robert Brownjohn; they feature credits and footage projected on models. Maurice Binder was the creator and designer of the credits for fourteen of the films from 1962 until 1989. Since 1991, Daniel Kleinman has designed the credits and added computer-generated images to them. During the sequence, the film's title song is sung by a contemporary artist, although instrumental opening credits were used in From Russia with Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, while Dr. No opens with a medley of instrumental and vocal music. The titles of all films except Dr. No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Octopussy and Casino Royale are stated in the lyrics of the respective opening themes.

In Die Another Day, Bond is tortured in a North Korean prison during the opening credits making it the only time the credits have directly contributed to the film's plot (though they have shown events in other films, for example in Casino Royale the opening sequence shows James Bond becoming a 00-Agent).


Countries James Bond visited in the films
"Bond, James Bond"
Bond's famous introduction, "Bond, James Bond", became a catchphrase after it was first uttered by Sean Connery in Dr. No. On June 21, 2005 it was honoured as the 22nd historically-greatest cinema quotation, by the American Film Institute in their 100 Years Series. In promoting the release of Tomorrow Never Dies, preview trailers featured James Bond Pierce Brosnan saying, "Bond. You know the rest." GoldenEye, in 1995, similarly drew on the public's familiarity with James Bond; its promotional teaser poster reads: "You know the name. You know the number." The theme song of Casino Royale is "You Know My Name". CIA agent Felix Leiter is the first man to whom James Bond so identifies himself in the novels. From Russia with Love , Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice are the only films in which Bond does not give his trademark introduction.


Bond girls
A Bond girl is a character portraying Bond's love interest or sex object. In most films, Bond girls are victims rescued by Bond, ally agents, villainesses or henchwomen; some, such as Honey Ryder, solely seduce the secret agent and have no direct involvement in his mission. Two of them - Gala Brand and Vivienne Michel - appear only in the novels and have been excluded from the films.

Sylvia Trench is the only recurring Bond girl, while Swedish actress Maud Adams has played two different Bond girls in two films, The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy. Bond has fallen in love with only Tracy di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, but both of them die at the end of the respective films.


Vehicles and gadgets
In most films, Q designs a variety of automobiles that are useful in Bond's missions, with the models of Bentley, Aston Martin, Lotus, BMW and Ford being driven frequently. Bond also shows his taste for aircraft, like a gyrocopter in You Only Live Twice and an Acrostar Jet in Octopussy, as well as marine vehicles such as a Lotus Esprit that could convert into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me and other submarines resembling an iceberg (A View to a Kill) or an alligator (Octopussy).

Originally, in the novels, gadgets were relatively unimportant. However, they took on a higher profile in the film version of From Russia with Love, and their use has continued ever since (with the notable exception of Casino Royale, in which Bond was given few gadgets in an attempt to make the film feel more 'gritty' and real). In each film, Q would present and demonstrate Bond several tools assigned for the mission, and every device would be indispensable to Bond's success.


Drinks
In many novels and films, Bond displays a connoisseur's knowledge of various drinks including champagnes and brandies, understanding both their manufacture and the correct way to serve and enjoy them. He is most well known for his preference for the "vodka martini, Shaken, not stirred", which was first stated in chapter 14 of Dr. No. The cocktail's style of preparation is first recited on screen by Bond's room service waiter in Jamaica in Dr. No. Later, Dr. No himself recites it in persuading Bond to accept the proffered drink. This catchphrase is honoured by the AFI as the 90th most-memorable cinema quotation. The film and the book Casino Royale feature a cocktail recipe of Bond's own creation, named "Vesper" after Vesper Lynd, the main Bond girl. In You Only Live Twice and Licence to Kill, Bond drinks a "stirred, not shaken" martini. In Casino Royale the in-joke is James Bond's "Do I look like I give a damn?" reply to a bartender's query of "shaken or stirred?"


Endings
So far only two Bond films, Casino Royale and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, do not end with Bond kissing the main Bond girl, making love to her, or implying that he will do so. A recurring incident is Bond being either disturbed or noticed by his superiors. Their view is then immediately cut off, usually by Bond (once he disconnected the camera they were watching him through).

Every film except Dr. No (1962) and Thunderball (1965) has either the line "James Bond will return..." or "James Bond will be back" in the ending credits. Until Octopussy (1983), the next film to be produced also used to be named. Over the years, the sequel has been incorrectly stated three times. Firstly, the 1964 film Goldfinger announced in early prints that Bond would return in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, Thunderball was released next, and the credits were corrected accordingly. In 1977, the credits for The Spy Who Loved Me stated that For Your Eyes Only would follow, but it is widely believed that Albert Broccoli decided to take advantage of the success of the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and release Moonraker, whose plot was changed to involve outer space. However, unlike Goldfinger, the credits of The Spy Who Loved Me were not corrected. Thirdly, Octopussy incorrectly declared the next film as being From a View to a Kill, the original literary title of A View to a Kill.

Information courtesy of Wikipedia