The Sound of 007

007

source: The Sound of 007

All I wanted was a sweet distraction for an hour or two...well, this wasn't quite two hours, but it was a fantastic watch, good enough to have come from Q branch itself! Full of great interviews and behind the scenes footage, this is really well put together and Bond fans will be in their element. Lots of insightful stories and as others have mentioned here, it's honest about this amazing musical legacy and the times it hasn't quite hit those high notes. So it's great to hear things like Radiohead's Spectre song, and surprising to see it played over the opening titles in a show like this. But it's also very of its time, and focuses on No time to Die at the expense of being more comprehensive. Whilst the scenes with Billy Eilish and Hans Zimmer are brilliant, we could have had less of these to make way for some told the amazing areas they don't cover , like the late Michael Kamen's score for Licence to Kill, or to get more time on Barry's last entry with The Living Daylights. Only briefly do we hear about Chris Cornell's superb work on his Casino Royale theme, and there's no mention of the unusually European sound of Goldeneye. They could also have discussed the secondary themes, like Pretenders or KD Lang. We see Sheena Easton but never really discuss her theme tune, and don't mention Bill Conti's funky score to For your eyes only. Overall, not quite an all time high, but in this ever changing world in which we live in...u should give it a try.

Whenever a documentary about the James Bond franchise is put together, it is exceedingly easy to get caught up in great action sequences or iconic pieces of dialogue and lose focus on the subject at hand. In other words, these sorts of docs often turn into "Bond greatest hits" montages and little else. Fortunately, "The Sound of 007" sticks close to its thesis--exploring the music of the franchise--and is the better for it. For a very basic overview, this doc looks at the soundtracks, opening songs, and singers of the Bond franchise from Dr. No to No Time To Die. Not every film or song is given time here, but overall it is a very comprehensive look. Certain artists are spotlighted and given more play, including... -John Barry and Monty Norman, essentially the creators of the Bond theme and general sound of the "early years". -Shirley Bassey and how her iconic "Goldfinger" tune set the standard for the "opening Bond song" for years to come. -Hans Zimmer (composer) and Billie Eilish (artist) working on thus far the latest Bond flick, No Time to Die. -Stories from the likes of Michael Caine, Nancy Sinatra, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Carly Simon, Sam Smith, and Duran Duran (among others) about their Bond music involvement. Though there are of course some Bond films montages throughout "Sound of 007", director Mat Whitecross keeps them to a minimum and really focuses on the history of the music and those creating it. Even while doing that, some interesting graphics and visual cues are used to give the whole thing a lot of visual flair. Overall, I think the reason I enjoyed "The Sound of 007" as much as I did is because it succeeds in wrangling a sprawling, decades-long, all-over-the-map franchise down to a specific topic: music. It is so easy for Bond conversations to spin off into this or that, but here the focus is kept on the music (both past and present). Because of that, I was both highly entertained--because at the end of the day Bond has great music!--and feel like I learned quite a bit about Bond music through the decades.

This was well done and as much as it's a great history and look at the music behind James Bond - it also offers a lot of insight into movie music across the board. It's well made - they hit all the major marks and movies - lots of fun and again, very insightful! I enjoyed all of it. Now to hit my 600 characters - I'd like to say This was well done and as much as it's a great history and look at the music behind James Bond - it also offers a lot of insight into movie music across the board. It's well made - they hit all the major marks and movies - lots of fun and again, very insightful! I enjoyed all of it.

Everyone has their favorite (and least favorite) Bond songs. This film looks not only at the songs, but at the scores that accompanied the films, although most of the attention is rightly given to the songs. A great amount of footage from older John Barry interviews is included (he passed away about 10 years prior) as well as Monty Norman, David Arnold, Thomas Newman, and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer, as the most recent composer, receives as much attention as Barry, likely due to the fact that this appears to have been produced alongside "No Time to Die." Although the music is wonderful, and many of the stories behind the music are fascinating, the film tap dances around many of the musical Bond moments we'd rather forget. Some of the bottom tier songs are briefly mentioned as being less popular, but are mostly praised for being daring and brave. That they may be, but daring and bravery doesn't always result in success, so maybe they shouldn't pat themselves on the back so much. One exception to this rule is Madonna's song for "Die Another Day," which is so irredeemably bad that it is completely ignored, aside from a brief image of Madonna's face towards the end of the film. This was one of three films whose music was ignored entirely. Also ignored were the missteps in scoring, namely the disco laden score in "Live and Let Die" and the electronica score for Goldeneye. I'm all for celebrating the musical successes of James Bond, but the failures could have been very interesting to explore. One of the darker aspects of Bond's musical history was the lawsuit regarding whether Norman or Barry deserved credit for the theme from "Dr. No." This hostility may have contributed to Barry's departure from the franchise, and is not even mentioned in the film. The story behind the creation of the theme at least offers a glimpse into how each man felt deserving of credit as the composer. While the film briefly mentions some of the alternative songs that were considered, namely Radiohead's "Spectre," other notable songs were ignored. K. D. Lang's "Surrender" was composed for "Tomorrow Never Dies" by David Arnold, and the song was heavily referenced throughout the film's score. Since Sheryl Crow was a more bankable name, Lang's song was replaced and relegated to the end credits of the film. It's widely considered the better Bond song of the two, but neither song is mentioned in the film. Neither is "No Good About Goodbye," the song David Arnold was writing for Shirley Bassey to perform for "Quantum of Solace" before changing direction. She later approached Arnold and asked him to complete the song for her anyway. He did, and like "Tomorrow Never Dies" the original song that got replaced is often considered superior to the song that was finally chosen. As the only vocalist to perform three Bond songs, even the abandoned idea of writing a fourth song for her seems noteworthy, at least. At 88 minutes, there was plenty of time to include notable stories such as these. It was a very enjoyable film through and through, despite its effort to maintain that everything was always so rosy. If only it had been willing to tell the full story, bruises and all, I'd have been willing to give it full marks, but an abridged documentary deserves an abridged rating.

The documentary "The Sound of 007" enriches us with details about the construction and choices of songs/writers and performers for each of the James Bond films. Composer John Barry created the sound of James Bond, he mastered 11 of Bond's music scores. He invented the style and it was the basis of all other subsequent Bond movies. Any of the 007 movies without the well-known opening theme doesn't sound like a James Bond movie. The theme became one of the main characters of the film, without it the film would be incomplete. Aside from the opening theme, each Bond film brings the trademark of a song originally written to embrace the plot, this is for all 25 Bonds films. The documentary focuses a bit more on the soundtracks from the 60s to the 90s and touches on the 2000s onwards. But the film manages to give a good view of how important a soundtrack is for the construction and identification of one character: BOND...James Bond!!!

This was a great way to commemorate 60 years of Bond. Besides mostly being about the music, it really ties the plot and deeper meaning of the Bond films. Really thoughtful. For better or for worse, but it was interesting that they would talk about one movie's music, than immediately jump back to No Time To Die. It felt like they were just covering the movies they had the cast from and just skipping over some pretty big parts if they didn't have the singer of the song. However, it told the story of Bond in a more poetic. I just feel like they just waved the cast in your face and you are like "ya, I get it".

As "The Sound of 007" (2022 release from the UK; 85 min0 opens, we are at the "AIR Studios 2019" and Billie Eilish is working on the title track of the latest Bond movie called "No Time To Die". We then go back in time, to the very beginning of it all, as Monty Norman, and later John Barry launch the music juggernaut that would become "the sound of 007", in the Bond theme, the Bond songs, and the Bond scores. At this point we are less than 10 min into the documentary. Couple of comments: this film is by British director Matt Whitecross, and he looks back fondly to these 6 decades of Bond music. A good chunk is devoted to how and where the Bond theme originated. But the heart of the documentary is indeed a look back to the many Bond songs (of which many were the movie's title song). Too much attention is given to Billie Eilish and her brother (I personally think that "No Time TO Die" is one of the worst Bond songs ever). But then we get a look to people like Shirley Bassey, who is of course THE ultimate Bond singer. Along the way we can to enjoy some memorable Bond scenes, and the usual talking heads providing further insights. In all this is quite a breezy documentary that doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, and that's just as well. "The Sound of 007" premiered recently on Amazon Prime (of course, since Amazon bought MGM including the James Bond movies for an estimated $9 billion). If you are a fan of James Bond, and who isn't, I'd readily suggest you check out "The Sound of 007" and draw your own conclusion,

This and it's accompanying 007 Live at what I think was the Albert Hall have just appeared this weekend on Amazon Prime. The documentary is good however there's a bit too much Billie Eilish for my liking. Why she has so much screen time is beyond me, unless it's to try and appeal to the young. The focus tends to be on the themes of the Bond movies, less so on the scores which I would argue is more important. There is probably more time spent on the newer Bond movies as well which I wasn't keen on. It was interesting that LTJ Bukem appeared as he was one of the dance music artists involved with a remix project, which was never even mentioned. There are a few surprises straight out if the mouths of some of the biggest names associated with the franchise in terms of artist choice for theme songs etc. There are even sizable contributions from artist I either didn't know did a Bond song or had completely forgotten about. Jack White anybody? I certainly didn't know Lulu was ever involved. It's certainly worth watching and isn't too trainspotter-ish in terms of the musical discussions. There is an accompanying live concert which was shot I believe on the 4th of October with a mix of new and older artists. Also on Prime. The newcomers struggled with the songs, Celeste who appears in the documentary seems to sing out of key while Paloma Faith sounds like she's doing a bad Tina Turner impression for karaoke. Also no Adele in this show. After watching the documentary you will likely find yourself clicking on the link for the live show, not a bad way to round off the evening but you won't miss much if you give the concert a miss.