James Bond: 50 Years of Movie Posters [Hardcover]

DK Publishing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2012

Packaged with two exclusive prints!

Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the Bond movie franchise as well as the release of the new Bond film, Skyfall, featuring Daniel Craig, James Bond: 50 Years of Movie Posters is sure to be a must-have for every Bond fan.

From 1962's Dr. No to 2012's Skyfall, this lavish film-by-film guide, written by Bond Production Designer Dennis Gassner, boasts the most impressive visual collection of James Bond movie posters to date. Featuring a gallery of rare and sought-after posters, as well as spectacular unused concept artwork, and unique teasers and lobby cards from virtually every country where Bond movies have screened, this is a gorgeous collection of the images that have defined cinema's most famous superspy.

007 (Gun Logo) and related James Bond Trademarks© 1962-2012 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved. 007 (Gun Logo) and related James Bond Trademarks are trademarks of Danjaq, LLC, licensed by EON Productions Limited.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (September 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756698375
• ISBN-13: 978-0756698379
• Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 10.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #143,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Arts & Photography > Other Media > Prints
  • #27 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Commercial > Advertising
  • #70 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Movies > Genre Films

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best James Bond Poster Book By Far September 4, 2012

By Doug

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is by far the best Bond poster art book yet. It's 320 pages and comes in a slipcase. The inner sleeve even has a pocket that holds two mini card stock posters. One is the Italian one-sheet for "Dr No" and the other is the US one-sheet for "Octopussy." I'm not sure f they are the same for each copy. Each movie has it's own chapter and includes teaser, general release and unused poster art from US, UK, French, Italian, Japanese and other countries. Even lobby card art. It also has chapters for the 1967 "Casino Royale" and "Never Say Never Again" poster art as well as an artist index. My understanding is that the version of this book that comes with the Bond 50 BD set is an abridged version. The book is worth adding to any James Bond fan's collection...

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Book September 15, 2012

By Gary P. Cohen

Format:Hardcover

I have been a James Bond fan since seeing "Dr. No," at age 13, at my local theater with my father. I have numerous books on Bond and the Bond films and several books on the James Bond movie posters. However, they do not come close to this book. This heavyweight hard-cover book comes in a nice hard-cover sleeve with Connery as Bond on the front cover and Roger Moore in "Octopussy" on the back. As stated this book is big and heavy. (I would not hit anyone on the head with this book as you will surely knock them out or worse.)
The book starts with "Dr. No" and concludes with the upcoming "Skyfall." On top of the official Bond films, the 1967 mess "Casino Royale" and the unnecessary Sean Connery remake of "Thunderball," "Never Say Never Again" are also included. One of the many things I love about this book are the inclusions of lobby card sets and Italian "Photobustas." Also there are translations of what is written on the non-English Bond posters, a great idea.
The one thing I really came to realize was how much nicer the painted posters from the Connery/Moore days were compared to what we are seeing today which are basically all photographs. I own several of the Bond posters and never tire of looking at the wonderful artwork on films like "You Only Live Twice" and "Live and Let Die." And while I am greatly looking forward to "Skyfall," the Bond films of the Connery/Moore years were major events to be excited about. Their posters reflected this. I'm not quite sure that it is the same thing today.
In conclusion, if your're any sort of a Bond fan at all, you must get this book.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing Some Iconic Posters September 4, 2012

By Fuwa

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a goood overview of Bond posters but it is missing some key posters. The most egregious omission is the From Russia With Love door posters (James Bond Is Back!). I remember seeing this artwork on the FRWL record LP and this is what I associate most with that movie. This was the artwork that piqued my interest in the Bond films as they were becoming popular.

The festival posters are also absent: "Spend A Night With James Bond" (DN,FRWL,GF), "Can One Motion Picture Contain All this Excitement.? No..... It takes two ..... The Two Biggest Bonds of all (TB,YOLT) etc. etc.

A good book for the casual Bond fan but the serious fan wlll also want to get the James Bond Movie Posters The Official 007 Collection from 2002.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A lavish but not definitive book - but it's best to start at the back October 30, 2012

By Trevor Willsmer TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Dorling Kindersley's rather lavish book is perhaps more of a dinner table book than a coffee table book for one simple reason: it's huge. While you'll certainly need a lot of extra space just to turn the pages (male readers risk a hernia if the try reading it in their laps), it's a terrific overview of the film series that probably more than any other changed the way films were marketed. Unfortunately, it's also an unwitting demonstration of how unimaginative modern movie posters have become, with the ingenuity and wonderful artwork by many of the great movie poster artists of all time - Frank McCarthy, Bob Peak, Robert McGinnis, Renato Casari, Jean Maschi - giving way to increasingly identikit photoshop efforts. By the time you get to Quantum of Solace action packed artwork is a thing of the past, with GQ fashion shoots seemingly the model, a tragedy when you consider how iconic many of the great Bond posters like From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Live and Let Die or the 1967 Casino Royale are (gratifyingly this volume doesn't pretend that the EON films are the only Bond movies). Still, it could have been more dispiriting still: time precluded including all but the sly teaser for Skyfall, which has seen the laziest photoshopped posters in the series history.

Not that photoshopping is always bad: there are some good photo montages and teasers right through to the Timothy Dalton era (though the photoshop Licence to Kill quad is still a lowpoint) even when the producers decided to go with some of the dodgier artwork produced (the Moonraker teaser is infinitely superior to the clumsy final release ones).... And while the book doesn't include every variation from the days when each territory would either adapt or even create its own artwork (and there's a lot of McGinnis' work from Thunderball that is curiously missing), there's a strong selection of foreign posters and even some lobby card sets, with even the more obscure foreign artists getting credited for their work. While the physical production isn't quite up to Taschen levels, it's on good quality colour paper, though it's a bit annoying that the UK quads for each poster are spread over two pages since the sheer size and weight of the book doesn't favour that presentation. The rest of the posters are better presented, though not all the one sheets are treated to the full page format when deemed too similar to other variations. There's also some unused concepts and sketches for several of the films from the days when United Artists seemed to be consciously moving away from the classic Bond poster style. All in all it's certainly worthwhile for the Bond movie fan with deep pockets and a lot of shelf space. And if you want to avoid being depressed by the last few lazy poster outings, try reading it from the back to the front and the book magically starts to get better and better with every page! Read more ›

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but... September 6, 2012

By Fritz Nilsen

Format:Hardcover

Great looking book, but I find the numerous speculations about a poster's origin to be amateurish. Several posters are accompanied by the caption "Artwork maybe by *insert artist here*" If the artist is unknown, just state that and move on. In the case of the standard U.S. one sheet for Never Say Never Again, it is attributed to "maybe Renato Casaro", when a simple Google search would tell you it was Rudy Obrero who did the poster. I expect to see this rectified in future printings.