Welcome back to my continuing series on the James Bond films, broken down by decade. Last time, I started considering how they’ve aged, how they influenced me, and what remains timeless in them. I also got into how these films both reflected and influenced the times they were released in.

I ended up talking about how the societal changes of the 60s would end up influencing the films to come. Today, we’ll talk about how that happened

Here are the James Bond films of the 1970s:

1. Diamonds are Forever (1971) – Sean Connery
2. Live and Let Die (1973) – Roger Moore
3. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) – Roger Moore
4. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) – Roger Moore
5. Moonraker (1979) – Roger Moore

You’ll see that Sean Connery returned for one film and then left the series again, bringing the end of one era and the start of another.

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Diamonds are Forever

Story: After a worldwide hunt to avenge his wife’s death, James Bond finally manages to kill Blofeld. He’s then tasked with taking down a worldwide diamond smuggling network. He ends up in Las Vegas where he discovers that not only is Blofeld not dead, he and SPECTRE are behind the smuggling and are using the diamonds to terrorize the world with a giant space laser.

Highlights: The pre-title sequence features Bond going around the world looking for Blofeld. And we see this:

It’s the first time that the Bond films toyed with showing nudity. You’ve got to give it up to the producers. They realized that sex sold in the 70s and adjusted the films accordingly. Also, the very first time we see Tiffany Case, she is in her underwear in her Amsterdam apartment. First as a blonde, then as a brunette,

and finally as a redhead. And then, there were Plenty O’Toole,

Shady Tree’s Acorns,

and Bambi and Thumper:

Apart from the near-nudity, the film also featured a memorable car chase scene through Fremont Street in Vegas:

Fun Fact: I’m old enough to have actually driven through that street before it became “The Fremont Street Experience”. Have I stayed at a hotel on that street and been witness to multiple illegal activities? You make the call!

The elevator fight scene was also pretty good:

Diamonds Are Forever also had some great quotes:

That’s quite a nice bit of nothing you’re almost wearing.

James Bond

I’m afraid you’ve caught me with more than my hands up.

James Bond

As you see, Mr. Bond, the satellite is at present over… Kansas. But if we destroy Kansas, the world may not hear about it for years.

Blofeld

What a pity. Such nice cheeks too. If only they were brains.

Blofeld

Lowlights: Felix locks up James and Tiffany in a hotel room in Vegas and has guards making sure they don’t leave. What’s up with that?!?

Speaking of, I always disliked the scene where the black girl turns into a gorilla. As a kid, it kinda scared me. As an adult, I’m wondering if it’s not more than a little raycess…

Random Observations: The film makes it a point, through the diamond discussion speech/montage at the beginning, to show how when the English (or authority figures in general) think they have everything under control, the reality is very much the opposite.

Jimmy Dean did a great job as Willard Whyte. I highly suggest watching this movie with some breakfast sausage and eggs. Yes, it’s the same one.

The Whyte House, which was the Vegas hotel where Blofeld was running his operation, was actually the Las Vegas Hilton with some special effects thrown in to make it look bigger. The exterior of the elevator, though, is from the Landmark. All the hotels used in the film were owned by Howard Hughes, who was the inspiration for the Willard Whyte character.

Influences: I have been to Las Vegas more times than I can actually remember. I have actually been to and stayed at the Circus Circus because of this film. I remember seeing the performers in the air like they appear in the film.

The concept of Bond as a modern-day Renaissance Man is reinforced in the beginning of this film. As I mentioned in my previous post, this portrayal encouraged me to learn as much as I could about as many different subjects as possible.

Moose will appreciate this:

If you win at the craps table, you should always tip the staff. I learned how to play craps because of this movie and I still tip when I win.

Overview: Connery had left after You Only Live Twice because of a creative and financial dispute with the producers of the Bond films. Meanwhile, the George Lazenby experiment had not worked out as well for the producers as they’d expected. While On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was still successful financially, it brought in only slightly more than half the revenues of Connery’s last film.

To bring Connery and his box office drawing power back, the producers offered him the money he requested and got the studio to greenlight two of his “passion projects”. This brought him back, but only for one movie. By then, Roger Moore, who had been busy playing The Saint on TV, became available and was slated to become the next Bond. Word was that Moore had always been the producers’ first choice, but TV commitments had prevented him from taking the role.

The movie itself made some significant departures from earlier films. For one, it featured a gay male couple, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, as assassins working for SPECTRE. The books had always included homosexuality as being part of the spy world but this was a first for the films. BTW, did you know that Pussy Galore was a lesbian in the books? It’s never mentioned in the film.

All in all, the portrayal of the gay characters wasn’t really that bad. Yes, they were killers, but they held hands after bombing a helicopter and walked off into the sunset. That’s kinda romantic.

Joking aside, it really was a big deal to have a gay relationship “normalized” in a Bond film. It’s only because of the social changes of the 60s and the increasing acceptance of nontraditional sexualities that this was possible.

Another giant departure from the earlier films was the inclusion of China as a victim of SPECTRE instead of a co-conspirator. When Blofeld is firing his laser, he targets missiles in the US, the Soviet Union, and China.

At the time of the film’s production, US President Richard Nixon was announcing a trip to China in 1972. This was a beginning of the resumption of diplomatic relations after years of isolation. The filmmakers incorporated the scene where the Chinese missiles are destroyed by SPECTRE into the film, no doubt in support of Nixon’s vision of better relations with China.

Finally, as you can see above, the film was a lot more “sexy” and “bawdy” than previous films. The sexual revolution was taking place and the producers started to change their films to reflect it. The humour was also increased, something that would become the trademark of the next Bond, Roger Moore.

***

Live and Let Die

Story: A UN ambassador for the United Kingdom is murdered in New York, a white guy gets murdered in New Orleans, and another white guy is killed in San Monique, a fictional island in the Caribbean. Turns out they’re all British spies. After Paul McCartney sings the theme song, James Bond goes to all these locales to investigate. Eventually, he discovers a Mr. Big (pre-Sex In The City and black) is behind it all and planning on getting Americans hooked on his Caribbean heroin. James must, after banging Jane Seymour, stop him.

Highlights: Did I mention a young and lovely Jane Seymour is in this film as Solitaire, the tarot reader and fortune teller to Mr. Big?

I also cannot talk about this film without mentioning the late great Geoffrey Holder, who played Baron Samedi, a voodoo priest. He did a string of 7up commercials in the early 80s that are classics. His deep voice and awesome laugh are forever ingrained in my head:

Felix Leiter puts out an APB on a “white PimpMobile”!

Lowlights: I’ve never been a fan of short hair on women, so when Rosie Carver lost her wig, I kinda lost interest.

Ok, seriously, no one can tell that Kananga and Mr. Big are the same guy??

Random Observations: The first time we see Roger Moore as James Bond, he is in bed with a hot Italian agent. He also works an espresso machine like a veteran barista. Very nice start to his Bond career!

Solitaire can only see into the cards and divine fortunes as long as she stays a virgin. I wonder if there’s any benefit to staying an anal virgin? Incidentally, the back of the cards that Solitaire reads have 007 written on them.

The car that picks up Bond at JFK has an attached phone with a corded handset like a regular rotary phone. It’s a good thing that the phone companies didn’t go that route with cell phone technology!

The man that captains the boat that James and Rosie take around San Monique is named Quarrel Jr. He is, presumably, the son of Quarrel, the man James met and befriended in Jamaica in the Dr. No film.

Kananga tries to kill Bond and Solitaire by dunking them in a pool with sharks. This is the second time a villain has tried to kill using sharks; the first being in Thunderball in Largo’s pool. This would be repeated in subsequent films. Reminder: Sharks are deadly!

Influences: I went to New Orleans to check out the French Quarter, not because of Mardi Gras and bare titties, but because of what I saw in this film. The architecture is gorgeous and it truly is a city unlike any other in the United States.

Overview: Live and Let Die broke some major ground on several fronts. It featured Bond having interracial sex. It featured a black underground mafia with black people in power positions. It also featured a predominantly black cast. For a major motion picture, that was pretty big in the 70s.

These were all reflective of the changes in society at the time. While the producers weren’t necessarily making a political film, it was very much obvious that they were showing that things were majorly changing in the United States in matters of race.

All in all, the portrayal of black society in the film was positive. The underground network of Mr. Big’s organization was well-organized, powerful, and was NOT dependent on any white person at the head of it. It may seem a small detail, but it was a pretty big deal back then and still today.

Another important point to consider is that the white Southerners in this film, especially Sheriff JW Pepper, are portrayed as dumb characters there for comic relief. The smart characters are almost always black in the movie.

The biggest takeaway from this film is not so much that it was Roger Moore’s Bond debut. It’s that this film tackled the issue of race head on and tried to promote equality in the best way it could: by showing that black people could be just as intelligent, powerful, good, and evil as white people.

***

The Man With The Golden Gun

Story: James Bond has been summoned to Headquarters after a golden bullet is sent there with his number on it. It is presumed that Francisco Scaramanga, a freelance assassin with three nipples that uses these bullets exclusively, is looking to kill Bond. James is taken off his current case dealing with solar energy and goes hunting for him. In the course of the hunt, he realizes Scaramanga is involved in the solar case and must be stopped.

Highlights: Tattoo is Nick Nack, Scaramanga’s assistant/henchman!!

The greatest driving stunt in the history of cinema:

The return of JW Pepper. This time he’s on vacation with his wife in Bangkok (really?) and ends up joining Bond in trying to catch Scaramanga. Granted, this could be a lowlight for people that didn’t care for the character, but he did bring some laughs during the car chase scene that culminated in the first flying car seen on film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aEINuRgpbI

Finally, Britt Ekland was absolutely gorgeous in this film and plays her dumb blonde but not really dumb role quite well:

Lowlights: Who goes to Bangkok on vacation and visits an AMC dealership to go for a test drive?

Random Observations: The actor that plays the gangster that Nick Nack brings into the island at the beginning for Scaramanga’s “practice” also played a Vegas gangster in “Diamonds Are Forever”. My favourite line of his in that film was, “I didn’t know there was a pool down there.”

Similarly, Maud Adams plays Scaramanga’s… what do we call her? Kept woman? Pre-game fuck toy? In any case, she would later play Octopussy in the movie of the same name. She looks quite lovely in this film.

Aside from using sharks to kill people, another thing that continually reoccurs in Bond films is a belly dancer sequence. It first started in From Russia With Love with the gypsies and continued with Goldfinger in the pre-title sequence. In this film, Bond must steal a bullet lodged in the belly button of a dancer in Beirut. Future films would also feature belly dancing.

Influences: I have taken the hydrofoil to and from Hong Kong and Macau precisely because Bond did it in this film. It was an awesome ride!

For that matter, this was the first time the Bond films showed more of Hong Kong. I liked what I saw and that’s why I traveled there later in life. It is a fascinating and beautiful city that I loved very much. It’s a great mix of modern and ancient.

Macau was a different story. When I went there, the old Macau was relegated to a small piece of the original city. It’s basically the Las Vegas of the Far East now. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just completely different than what’s shown on the film.

I did mention before that I absolutely love blondes with green eyes, right? Thanks to you, Mary Goodnight/Britt Ekland!

Overview: When you think of the 70s in the United States, one of the first thoughts is the energy crisis. That was the background and theme of this film. Although solar power is ubiquitous today and largely accessible to everyday people, back then it was more science fiction. Developing a device that could harness the sun’s power and eliminate dependency on oil was a dream that seemed unattainable.

How far we’ve come, right?

This movie is different in that there’s no real “enemy”. Yes, Scaramanga is an assassin, but he wasn’t planning on killing Bond. Yes, Scaramanga is helping a Thai businessman get the Solex device, but that’s not a direct threat to the UK. It all boils down to a bit of corporate espionage really.

The Chinese role in the film is complex. It’s a Thai company that’s doing bad things, not the Chinese government. However, the Chinese military “hosts” Scaramanga in his island and provides protection for him. In essence, the government “sponsors” illegal or unethical activities. This is a reversal of the positive image from Diamonds Are Forever.

***

The Spy Who Loved Me

Story: Two nuclear submarines, one English and one Soviet, have disappeared without a trace. The Brits send 007 while the Soviets send XXX, who turns out to be the gorgeous Barbara Bach. While at first working at opposite ends, they eventually team up to attempt to recover the stolen submarines while fighting off an indestructible henchman named Jaws.

Highlights: This is Jaws’ first appearance in the Bond films and he made quite an impression on me. I mean, seriously, Jaws is awesome!!

Plus More Death By Shark!!

And Underwater Lotus!!

Caroline Munro as Naomi, Stromberg’s henchwoman

And a wet XXX

Lowlights: Stromberg claims he’s not interested in extortion and simply wants to restart civilization under the sea. I never understood that motive. I mean, if you’re going to pull off an evil scheme, isn’t the point to get filthy rich?

Random Observations: This film is the first one to feature a famous and popular singer doing the theme song. No disrespect to Shirley Bassey, who was an amazing singer, but she wasn’t very famous. Carly Simon was well-known and getting her to do the theme song was a big thing for the film. Going forward, the decision as to who would sing the theme song became a big deal.

This is the first time we meet General Gogol. The same actor had previously been in From Russia With Love in a different role. The Gogol character would appear in the next six films as a sympathetic and pro-peace force inside the Soviet Union.

Influences: Since I never saw On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, my first introduction to James Bond skiing was in the pre-title sequence to The Spy Who Loved Me. Needless to say, that inspired me to learn how to ski. I have yet to stay at a mountaintop cabin, though…

Overview: The plot centers around a rich madman that wants to reshape the world by destroying it and then rebuilding it. Keep this in mind when you read about the next film.

There is no SPECTRE and all the national governments are actually cooperating. That’s a huge change from previous films. This is the first time since World War II that the Soviet Union, the UK, and the USA are on the same side.

This shift reflected the peak of the detente period (the mid to late 70s) in which Soviet-American relations were at their warmest. There was cooperation on trade, a joint international space mission, and increased communication between the two countries. Moreover, there was an attitude that things needed to change and that the Cold War couldn’t continue the same way forever. The Stromberg character tapped into that.

You can see the spirit of cooperation everywhere in the film. Although both governments and their individual spies are wary of each other, eventually they learn to trust each other and work together to defeat Stromberg. It culminates in XXX not only deciding not to kill Bond, but in having sex with him at the end.

Now there’s a wonderful metaphor for Soviet-Anglo relations, don’t you think?

***

Moonraker

Story: Another rich madman decides that the world does not deserve to live, so he plans on killing everyone in it and starting over again. This time, it’s through the use of space shuttles, poison gas from rare orchids, and octagonal Venetian glass. James Bond must join forces with the beautiful Dr. Holly Goodhead to stop him.

Highlights: The fucking space shuttle gets stolen right off the back of a 747! What a great start to a movie!

The idea of a French castle in the middle of the Southern California desert is laughable yet still kinda cool.

Also, Jaws is back!

And he falls in love!

And he speaks!

This movie also had some great lines:

Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him.

Drax

How do you kill five hours in Rio if you don’t samba?

Bond (taking off Manuela’s robe)

I think he’s attempting re-entry, sir.

Q

Take me around the world one more time.

Holly Goodhead

Lowlights: James Bond in Star Wars?!? FUCK YOU!

Also, the hovercraft gondola scene in St. Mark’s Square was played for laughs but seemed a little over the top. I mean really:

Random Observations: When Bond goes to California, he actually goes to the High Desert north of LA. Basically, Lancaster/Palmdale. This is the second time that Bond goes to LA (the first being in Diamonds Are Forever) only to immediately leave to go somewhere else. Why no love for LA, James?

Drax claims to want to repopulate the earth with only men and women that meet his standards yet invites along a LOT of aristocratic women with short hair, small tits, and no asses. I highly question his credentials/judgment.

Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis were both approached to do the theme song, following in the footsteps of Carly Simon and the producers’ attempt to get “name” artists to sing the song. However, they couldn’t do it and the producers ran out of time, so they asked veteran Bond singer Shirley Bassey to step in at the last minute.

I always wanted to fly on the Concorde after I saw it on the film. Alas, the flights were discontinued before I could afford one. BTW, the Concorde DID fly a regular route to Rio De Janeiro from Europe.

Influences: Y’all read my Brazil/Rio post, didn’t you?

In that same vein, Venice again makes an appearance in a James Bond film but this particular one struck a chord with me. For some reason, this one was more appealing to me. Maybe it was because Dr. Holly Goodhead shows up wearing a silky satin-y kinda-see-through dress without a bra.

To this day, I’m a big fan of the silky satiny blouses.

Overview: The setup is similar to The Spy Who Loved Me but there is one critical difference: The Soviets are not really involved. General Gogol makes a small appearance in which he coordinates with the Americans on a response. He’s actually pretty friendly with them!

It’s the US and UK cooperating to save the world but even then they have to overcome mistrust. Holly Goodhead turns out to be a CIA agent, but she doesn’t trust James and doesn’t really want to work with him. This is a big departure from the friendship that James and Felix Leiter had shown in the early films. Eventually, they figure out that they need to help each other in order to take down Drax.

While Stromberg was intent on repopulating the planet under the seas, Drax wants to repopulate in space and then bring the “superior race” back to earth. This is another example of the Bond films taking on the subject of race in the 70s. The message in this film is one of inclusion and equality, in keeping with the prevailing social attitude of the times.

This was the last Bond film of the 1970s and, while it certainly discussed contemporary race issues, it also foresaw the space shuttle program which the US would launch in the 1980s. In fact, the producers worked closely with the US government to get the shuttles’ look and details just right.

Surely, this was seen by the government as an opportunity to engage the public and promote a positive image for the upcoming shuttle program. It worked perfectly as a few short years after the movie premiered, the first space shuttle launched and the public was enamored with the space shuttle program.

The public still loves the space shuttles. Many are on display in museums and draw big crowds. A few years ago, one of the space shuttles arrived in Los Angeles on the back of a 747 and it did a tour around LA at low altitudes so everyone could see it. It was an awesome and amazing day that hundreds of thousands of Angelenos participated in and enjoyed greatly.

***

Conclusions

Sean Connery returned for one film and did a good job, but Roger Moore’s availability meant that the films would go in a new direction. Actually, they started going in a new direction even in Diamonds Are Forever.

More than before, the Bond films reflected what was happening in the world, first through a social lens and then through a political lens. Diamonds are Forever was the first film to flirt with near-nudity. It was the first to show a “normal” homosexual couple. It also fully embraced the sexual double entendre which I’ve come to know and love so well.

Roger Moore’s arrival didn’t change much. There was plenty of flesh on display on Live and Let Die, both male and female. While there were no homosexual couples this time, the issue of equal rights as it relates to race was prominent. Sexual liberation and racial equality were big issues in the 70s.

To a certain extent, this continued in The Man With The Golden Gun as Sherriff JW Pepper reappeared. However, it does seem that this film was meant to be more lighthearted and comedic after the heavy topics of Live and Let Die. It’s a difficult creative decision, to mix drama and comedy. Many television shows struggled with that in the 70s as did this film.

The Man With The Golden Gun also shifted the focus from social issues to political ones. The energy crisis dominated everyday life and the lack of a political solution from authority figures was the perfect backdrop in which the producers could introduce the two rich madmen villains featured in the last two films of the decade. Stromberg and Drax tried to change the world as they wanted to through their vast wealth, not through political channels.

Dissatisfaction with the status quo was reflected in both The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. The madmen’s solution was to destroy the world and start again. However, there was another option. The two films showed that through mutual worldwide cooperation, things could and would change for the better and we could achieve our common goals of a better life.

That’s a particularly apt message for today. We haven’t seen this level of worldwide cooperation and coordination ever. One could point to the world wars, but the world was split in two then. That’s not the case today. Slowly but surely, the world is getting control of this disease and the current situation will change for the better.

Speaking of change, that was a constant in the Bond films. The films of the 70s showed that the producers were more interested in telling stories that people of the time would respond to than Ian Fleming’s original stories. As times got crazier, so did the stories told in the films. I’ll see you next time in the 1980s.