You Only Live Twice marks a turning point in the
series, as it is the first James Bond film that was not
based on an Ian Fleming story.
While Fleming's novel of the same name is set in Japan
and features Blofeld, little else remains apart from the
characters Tiger Tanaka and Dikko Henderson - and while
he is a colourful character in the book, the latter is completely
wasted in the film.
Instead the screenplay was written by Roald Dahl, best
known for his children's stories.
The result? Some impressive action sequences and sets,
the unforgettable Little Nellie, but a character that has
started to become a cartoon, rather than the cold, blunt
instrument envisaged by Ian Fleming.
This cartoonish quality starts with the pre-titles sequence,
in which Bond is seemingly machine-gunned down in bed and
buried at sea. However, typically for Bond - and lending
the film its name - all is not as it seems and he lives
to fight another day.
The plot is revolves around SPECTRE's plan to cause World
War III by hijacking American and Russian spacecraft, while
making it look like the work of the other side.
It is notable that the same basic story was reused in The
Spy Who Love Me and slightly less obviously in Moonraker,
both with Roger Moore.
While the set design by Ken Adam is impressive - particularly
the volcano set with working monorail - and some of the
scenery good, it does lack visual punch.
And some of the comic elements that really took of with
Roger Moore started to appear - there is a scene when a
helicopter with a giant magnet picks up a SPECTRE car in
pursuit of Bond and a girl - the driver, swinging the steering
wheel wildly from side to side, only appears to realises
the car is in the air when he looks out of the window and
down at the ground - in other words nonsense.
While there are some good moments, You Only Live Twice
just isn't in the same league as the previous Bond films
and marked the sad move towards making James Bond a comic
character.
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Sean
Connery
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James
Bond
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Akiko
Wakabayashi
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Aki
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Mie
Hama
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Kissy
Suzuki
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Tetsuro
Tamba
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Tiger
Tanaka
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Teru
Shimada
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Mr.
Osato
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Karin
Dor
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Helga
Brandt
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Donald
Pleasence
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Ernst
Stavro Blofeld
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Bernard
Lee
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M
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Lois
Maxwell
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Miss
Moneypenny
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Desmond
Llewelyn
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Q
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Director
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Lewis
Gilbert
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Screenplay
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Roald
Dahl
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The
books and films below are provided in association
with
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