Diamonds Are Forever
Release Date: December 30, 1971 Rated PG for violence and sexual innuendo Directed by: Guy Hamilton Starring: Sean Connery, Charles Gray, Jill St. John, Jimmy Dean, Bruce Cabot, Norman Burton, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn
Plot:
Superspy James Bond (Sean Connery) gets tangled up in the wild world of international diamond smuggling. But hold on--the mission is not quite so simple as it seems; his chase of the jewel thieves leads him to conspirators with plans for unleashing a nuclear armageddon on an unsuspecting planet. The majority of the action takes place on the gaudy, glittering streets of Las Vegas, as Bond negotiates the grotesque terrain with his customary aplomb and fancy mechanical gadgets. As always, he manages to dally with several sexy bombshells along the way, including the wonderful Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole. Connery is as suave and entertaining as ever, taking on the menacing Charles Gray, who is trying his hand at playing Bond's archenemy, Blofeld. Look for the car chase down a narrow alley.
Review:
Connery returns to the role of James Bond and is after Blofeld for his actions towards Tracy's death. Witnessing the opening scene of Diamonds Are Forever one can see how angry Bond is and how desperate to kill Blofeld he is. A new actor plays the role of Blofeld and that is Charles Gray who actually has a small role in You Only Live Twice as Mr. Henderson.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld has another plan up his sleeve and even clones himself. That's right, in this film Bond not only finds himself with Blofeld, but a duplicate of him as well. Earlier in the film we can see Bond killing off what was going to become a third Blofeld, but he luckily got that out of the way. Charles Gray gives somewhat of an interesting performance, but not necessarily solid.
Besides performances, Diamonds Are Forever as a whole has a weak story to it and doesn't fit right especially after what happened in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Its almost being ignored until the end when Tiffany Case mentions something which I will not mention here so you all can enjoy it. Tiffany was interesting and good eye candy.
Tiffany Case is the name of the bond girl in this outing and Bond gives some solid sexual innuendo towards the name. The one-liners are very satisfying in Diamonds Are Forever and while Bond doesn't look his best he still delivers them well. Connery for one thing is quite heavier then usual and he looks a bit older which are downsides of course.
Connery still had his good looks intact, but everything else dropped a notch. His performance was probably equal to his You Only Live Twice performance or slightly better, but it wasn't his best at all. It almost seems like he took the role of Bond one last time for the money and nothing else. They also accepted him because he is the big name as Bond and noticed crowds weren't too proud with George Lazenby.
Getting back to the bond girl who is played by Jill St. John, she is extremely sexy and intelligent at times. The other bond girl has even a more humorous name, Plenty O' Toole. Bond also gives a very good line to reply to that "Named after your father perhaps?" They made the right choice to choose Tiffany over Plenty as the main bond girl because Plenty can be a bit loud and annoying at times.
Diamonds Are Forever has some interesting scenes that are greatly added to the series, but it doesn't have that appeal of James Bond. They took a different route and while it didn't work completely it still managed to entertain because of the interesting characters. As for the plot, it can be the weakest of them all, but as a whole Diamonds Are Forever has a nice dark side to it which can be good for some.
What this film does have that can be considered solid is its direction. Most bond films have solid direction no matter how the screenplay is written. The direction is good here with some nice camera shots and some quick zoom ins and zoom outs. Ultimately the screenplay was not solid enough to have something to work with. So, its easy to say that Diamonds Are Forever had a weak screenplay which could have been better done differently.
This of course is Connery's last official bond film and the next one is Live and Let Die which enters Roger Moore. It was a change of pace with a new actor and he had his own style which distinguished him from the rest. Connery overall is the best James Bond, but mainly because of his first four films. Every bond has his weak films though and that's how it always is going to be.
Diamonds Are Forever unfortunately is one of the weakest Bond films. Having said that, it is entertaining, but the bond feel lacks in the film, the story was a bit odd and didn't fit the film especially after having had his wife died in its predecessor. Connery gives arguably his weakest performance and in the end of it the film seems like it ignores On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, even with its different style and lackluster, this is a flawed, but pretty good bond film.
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