Something to watch tonight: Thursday 12 December
The Sound of 007 (Whitecross, 2022)
Time is short today as I have some work commitments and at the time this lands in your inboxes I will be ensconced watching The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim so I can talk about it on the wireless tomorrow night.
So, we’ll try another attempt at a radio transcript, this one is from 16 December 2022 when Karyn Hay was still hosting RNZ Nights. It might make more sense if you listen to it …
Look I think it’s obviously just oozing nostalgia but, actually, this is the time of year when we do want to sit down and, you know, have something that’s not terribly difficult to watch, and not deeply emotional, but just reminds you of simpler times I suppose.
This kind of film is the kind of thing that might normally be a DVD extra – if you bought a Bond movie you’d find that there would be a little documentary about the history of the music. Where this sits apart from that kind of approach is how comprehensive it is.
It’s made during No Time to Die which was the most recent film, the last Daniel Craig Bond film. and they talk to everybody – well at least everybody who’s still alive, and they also have lots of archive interviews with people who are no longer with us. So literally everybody who’s ever worked on a Bond movie features somehow. Whether it's Marvin Hamlisch who wrote “Nobody Does It Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me or Paul McCartney of course, “Live and Let Die”.
But really the great musical hero of the Bond movies is John Barry who wrote the music for 11 Bond films and famously made the arrangement for the original James Bond theme (even though Monty Norman wrote the tune for it). It’s got John Barry's fingerprints all over it, that particular tune.
And, I mean, what a master arranger! It was his arrangements, and his compositions as well, that really gave Bond music its unique flavour. And you know when you hear “The Living Daylights”, that A-Ha wrote the theme song for, it was John Barry's arrangement that really elevated and made it a Bond song.
So if you’re interested in film scores and the theory behind what makes a particular piece of music work with a particular subject matter or a particular genre, it is I think a really interesting documentary.
It’s only 90 minutes long so it won’t take up too much of your time and it will make you want to go back to those films. So be prepared that you may end up finding yourself down a bit of a Bond rabbit hole as you're reminded of those films.
Also in that segment, Karyn and I talked about Andor, the Star Wars thriller that will get its own entry here before season two lands next year, The Little Drummer Girl (which has already been a recommendation here) and – as is my custom – a diversion into World Cup football.
Where to watch The Sound of 007
Worldwide: Streaming on Prime Video
Further listening
Last night I made an extra visit to RNZ Nights to chat with Emile about movie stardom – what makes a movie star and why some great actors don’t have what it takes. It was a fun chat.