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Dom Robinson reviews
Special EditionDistributed by
MGM
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 16238 DVD
- Running time: 112 minutes
- Year: 1967
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 32 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English (and hard of hearing)
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Featurette: Inside You Only Live Twice,Silhoutettes: The James Bond titles, Storyboard: The Plane Crash Sequence,Trailers, Radio sports, Audio Commentary.
Director:
- Lewis Gilbert
(Alfie, Educating Rita, Haunted, Moonraker, Shirley Valentine, Sink the Bismarck!, The Spy Who Loved Me, Stepping Out, You Only Live Twice)
Producers:
- Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman
Screenplay:
- Roald Dahl
Music:
- John Barry
Cast:
- James Bond: Sean Connery (The Anderson Tapes, The Avengers, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. No, Dragonheart, Entrapment, First Knight, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Highlander 1 & 2, The Hunt For Red October,Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Just Cause, The Longest Day, The Man with the Deadly Lens, Marnie, Murder on the Orient Express, The Name of the Rose, Never Say Never Again, The Presidio, Ransom, Rising Sun,The Rock, The Russia House, Thunderball, Time Bandits, The Untouchables, You Only Live Twice)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld: Donald Pleasence (All Quiet on The Western Front, Escape From New York, Fantastic Voyage, Great Escape, Halloween 1-2 & 4-6, The Hour of the Pig, Soldier Blue, THX 1138, You Only Live Twice)
Aki: Akiko Wakabayashi (You Only Live Twice)
Kissy Suzuki: Mie Hama (You Only Live Twice)
Tiger Tanaka: Tetsuro Tamba (Kwaidan, You Only Live Twice)
Mr. Osato: Teru Shimada (You Only Live Twice)
Helga Brandt: Karin Dor (Topaz, You Only Live Twice)
M: Bernard Lee (The Battle of the River Plate, The Blue Lamp, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, The Man Upstairs, Moonraker, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball, Whistle Down the Wind, You Only Live Twice)
You Only Live Twiceor so it would seem. James Bond is dead. Long live James Bond. Death isn’t the careersetback it used to be and in order to give him a head start over S.P.E.C.T.R.E. this timeround his murder is elaborately staged.
The title comes from a Haiku poem which Ian Fleming placed at the frontof his novel :
- You only live twice:
Once when you are born,
And once when you look death in the face
The more I see more Bond films for the first time like this, the more references I’m spottingin theAustin Powers films. “One of our space probesis missing”, could be the cry from the American government as a mission amongst thestars is interrupted and their capsule is swallowed whole by an Interceptor rocket. Somebelieve it’s been fired from Japan, although their official inhabitants deny all suchknowledge.
Unsurprisingly, it’s all the work of Blofeld and here we see him for the firsttime, in the guise of the late Donald Pleasance. The character has since beenportrayed by two other actors who have now passed away – firstly by Telly Savalasin 1969’sOn Her Majesty’s Secret Serviceand by Charles Gray in 1971’sDiamonds Are Forever (review to follow), the latter incidentallycropping up here in a cameo as Bond aide Henderson. Perhaps someone had the technology…Perhaps someone could rebuild him?
With Bond getting married for the first time, a script written by the late fantasy-specialistRoald Dahl, a then-expensive £400,000 set of Blofelds operational base, complete withthe rocket laucher, helicopter landing pad, monorail and massive shutter to give it thecamouflage of a crater lake, not to mention Q’s inventions, such as “Little Nellie”, one-manminiature helicopter, which leads to some great aerial chase sequences over the JapaneseIslands, even if they seem a little basic compared to today’s SFX standards.
An anamorphic looking-a-bit-more-than-2.35:1 widescreen ratio, with seemingly more fleckson the print than normal, even if the film is 33 years old. The average bitrate is aso-so 5.22Mb/s, briefly peaking at 9Mb/s.
For Thunderball we were blessed with a remixedDolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, when it was originally recorded in mono. Sadly, no-one’sbothered here. My amplifier states the sound is in Dolby Surround, but it may as well bein mono for all the difference it makes as there’s little reason to suggest there’s anystereo steerage.
And yes, the theme tune was used for Robbie Williams‘ godawful Millennium song.
Extras : Chapters :The usual 32 chapters for an MGM, which is an excellent amount. If only some other DVDcompanies could take a lesson from this one. Languages & Subtitles :English is the only language on the disc – in Dolby Surround – and there are subtitlesfor English (and hard of hearing). And there’s more… :MGM seem to be pulling out all the stops for their Bond collection and starting with thefirst Bond film made we have a great amount for you to sink your teeth into.
- Featurette: Inside You Only Live Twice (30 mins): Anotherdocumentary narrated by Patrick MacNee with interview clips fromproduction designer Ken Adam, director Lewis Gilbert, Karin DorDanaBroccoli, wife of the late Cubby, Patricia Neal and her late hubbyRoald Dahl in a black-and-white clip.
- Silhoutettes: The James Bond titles (23 mins): a look at the mostfamous part of each film, with irreverent comments from Ken Adam, Roger Moore,title designer Danny Kleinman and again narrated by Patrick Macnee.It’s a look at the process involved with clips from each film’s titles, but sadly noteach of the opening titles in full which would have been a nice addition.
- Storyboard: The Plane Crash Sequence (2 mins): The original storyboards,showing two differences from the film.
- 4 Trailers (10 mins): Two theatrical trailers (one with UK narration, theother North American – the content is mostly identical and both are in anamorphic 2.35:1),a double bill of this film with Thunderball (cropped to 1.66:1) and the same againbut as a shortened TV spot (cropped to 4:3). The latter two states the film is rated”GP”, so consult your doctor before watching them…
- Radio spots (6 mins): 7 radio adverts from United Artists to promotethe film in the USA, the first five lasting nearly a minute each, but the last two aremuch shorter.
- Audio Commentary: from director Lewis Gilbert and membersof the cast and crew.
Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, aren’t exactly first-ratein terms of picture quality and sound, but it adds to the nostalgic qualityand all the interviews are clear enough. Menu :Another excellent brightly-coloured effort following in the footsteps ofall those that have gone before it, this one effecting the Interceptor rocketand its actions.The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film, select a scene,choose a language or watch the extras.
Before Michelle Yeoh got to work in Tomorrow Never Dies, her orientalpredecessors were high-kicking it up twenty years earlier. Film No.5 was the oneafter which Sean Connery said he was giving up the role. Of course, we know he was tomake two more:Diamonds Are Forever (review to follow)and the unofficialNever Say Never Again.
In this film, there’s a fair bit of action but it does tend to drag a bit inthe mid-section, particularly around the time when Bond is married off.
There’s not quite as many extras this time round, but still scores more than most DVDreleases so sit back and enjoy.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.