"Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us better people."
-- Roger Ebert, The Great Movies

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Dr. No

  • Title:  Dr. No
  • Director:  Terence Young
  • Date:  1962
  • Studio:  United Artists (MGM)
  • Genre:  Action
  • Cast:  Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Jack Lord
  • Format:  Color, Widescreen
  • DVD Format:  R1, NTSC
The James Bond film that started it all.  Dr. No actually flows at a much more sedate pace than more recent Bond films, but it is still classic and still Bond.  The first half of the movie actually feels more like a mystery as Bond is sent to Jamaica to discover why an agent has disappeared and the regular radio transmission from the island was interrupted.

Soon Bond suspects something is going on on Crab Key, the local island the natives avoid, and one of  the last places the agent is said to have gone.  He investigates, running into Ursula Andress on the island (walking out of the ocean in a bikini with a knife strapped to her hip).  The two are eventually captured and taken to the underground hideout of  Dr. No.  Dr. No informs Bond he works for SPECTRE -- and organization of criminal masterminds, and that his (nefarious) plot is to knock out US space program launches from Florida.  His underground lair also uses nuclear power and is contaminating the island with radioactivity.

Despite being captured, knocked out, locked up a second time, and being beaten by No's goons - Bond prevails, preventing No from causing a Saturn rocket to crash and blowing up No's headquarters.  There's also a couple of  car chases (in huge 1960s sedans no less), and Bond kills more than once.

Besides Andress walking out of  the ocean and the setting in Jamaica, which were referenced in Die Another Day; this film is also referenced in the Bond parody Austin Powers International Man of  Mystery which also referenced the tan and plastic uniforms with the clear plastic flat-topped helmets.

Connery is also plays Bond with a chilling attitude, that's almost off-putting in this film.  And the pacing is a bit slow.  But it's where a very long series of films started, and it's a fairly good film in it's own right.

Recommendation:  See it
Rating 3 of 5 Stars
Next Film:  Dr. Who and the Daleks (Movie Version with Peter Cushing)

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