I finally did it...I finally watched a Sean Connery James Bond movie. This is only my third James Bond movie. This is part of my father's legacy, as he didn't like James Bond, and therefore I grew up not having anything to do with Bond. He never forbade it, but since he had no interest in the films, I just never saw any of them. The first Bond film I watched was "Goldeneye" with Pierce Brosnan. I was in my 20's at that point, so I had waited quite awhile before my first Bond film. In that case, I couldn't understand the Bond fuss, though I had heard that the Brosnan Bond movies weren't the best ones. Fast forward to recently, when I watched "Casino Royale", and I actually reviewed it here on this blog. Click the movie title to go to that review if you wish. I was impressed by that movie, yet the two Bond actors who star in the most films (Sean Connery and Roger Moore) had still alluded me. So, last week, not only did I finally watch a Sean Connery Bond film, but the original one. "Dr. No" was the first James Bond film, and one can see many of the elements of the mythology coming together this early. I went into this movie expecting it to be a corny, cheesy no brain movie. Instead, I was actually pretty impressed with it, and I had a better idea as to why this film franchise can work pretty well. I say "can" work pretty well because even friends of mine who are Bond movie fans will readily admit that the quality of these movies varies a lot.
When I watched this movie, I saw an engaging spy caper. While Bond does cast off women with frightening ease, I still found a lot more substance to his character then I suspected I would. I have also always heard that one of the benchmarks of the best Bond films is the quality of the villain. While I have little to compare this villain to (the villain in "Casino Royale" was great), the villain Dr. No is great. The best decision the director made in this movie was to keep the villain off the screen for most of the film. There is one scene when all the viewer experiences is the menacing sound of his voice, as Dr. No deals with a subordinate who has not done his job properly.
In the center of it all, the essence of cool, is Sean Connery. One can see very easily why this film launched a franchise. His character is both macho but also vulnerable in his own way. I always thought that when I finally arrived at a Connery Bond film that he would be impervious to emotion and threats to his physical well being. Instead, we see a multi dimensional character here. As other Bond films follow, we come to learn why James Bond cannot afford to attach himself to any life or any woman. His job is so high risk that attachments are an impossibility. Of course this leads to a litany of buxom women which can't resist the man, but I digress.
The plot is somewhat standard. Dr. No is trying to dominate the world, and Bond is trying to stop him. Along the way, Bond has several people helping him, and some people who turn on him. This is all standard plot stuff, but it is done effectively and attractively. More than anything, I think what I appreciated about this movie was that it represents the Bond mythology at a high point. As I delve more into the Bond films, I'm sure I will be shown even more clearly why this one is so good. In any case, this was a good movie, and to see Sean Connery in this role that made him famous felt like a small rite of passage in my movie viewing life.
