With the new Bond (Yes, Skyfall) out in the cinemas, I decided to do a tour back into the abyss of history of other Bonds.
George Lazenby was a one-time James Bond in this Swiss poem of a plot to eradicate humanity (oh, yes Telly Savalas).
This is one James Bond who falls in love (doubtfully yet conveniently) and gets married (yes, really). Lazenby did not have it easy to pick up the role well established by the seasoned Sean Connery. It surely took a lot of courage to try and fit into so much bigger shoes. (On a second thought I am not convinced that Daniel Craig had it any easier – like what? A blond Bond? – remember back in 2005?).
What I like about Lazenby’s take on Bond is he knows he has nothing to lose and therefore creates a young almost pleasant character to start with. Setting the plot aside, he was not such a bad Bond (character, not film).
OHMSS is sentimental – showing the virgin beauty of the Swiss Alps with almost no tourists, with empty pistes, with pristinely white snow. However, this is not enough to make a good Bond movie. Perhaps there isn’t enough of the intrigue, perhaps too much happens in an enclosed golden cage of a mountain-top spa, perhaps there are too few obstacles. This is not a good James Bond movie, but George Lazenby was not that bad of a James Bond.
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