Customer Reviews

The James Bond Films: A Behind the Scenes History

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The original printing of this book ends with For Your Eyes Only, and the copy I have is an update in the 1983, when Octopussy and Never Say Never Again hit the theaters.

This book is what it claimed to be all right, a behind the scenes of the James Bond films. For James Bond fans, this book is a treasure trove of information. It includes lots of information which at first was previously unavailable. Thanks to this book I finally found out the name of the Japanese girl in the Thunderball teaser and the actress who played her, as well as the two women who played Bambi and Thumper.

Generously filled with candid black and white photographs, the James Bond Films covered each Bond film chronologically in each chapter. For the Sean Connery films, virtually every meticulous fact about how the film was made is detailed in the book.

It is obvious that Steven Jay Rubin have a vendetta against Roger Moore. In his later work, the James Bond Encyclopedia, he would gives a one star rating to three of Moore's Bond films. In the James Bond Films, he pratically skimmed over Moore's films, with the exception of Live and Let Die, possibly because he had the full cooperation of Moore's leading ladies (Seymour and Hendry)from that film, and The Spy Who Loved Me, which is no doubt, one of the best Bond movies ever made, with or without Connery.

In the chapter for Moonraker, we didn't really get a lot of background info on it, rather, Rubin just bitched how the character of Bond have been corrupted into a cartoonish character and how Moonraker sucked. The worse offender is For Your Eyes Only.....which doesn't tell you anything at all.

The update chapter on Octopussy and Never Say Never Again tied up some loose ends from the For Your Eyes Only chapter (like how Carole Bouquet was perfectly casted as Melina Havelock), but since this book was written when the two films are being released, understandably, not much info, other than a preview, was given.

Despite his shabby treatment of the Roger Moore films, The James Bond Films is still a fascinating read.