James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice
James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice (Original title: You Only Live Twice ) is the fifth James Bond - film from the from Eon Productions Ltd. produced film series. Directed by Lewis Gilbert ; Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman took over the production again . Due to the script written by Roald Dahl , the film is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming , but as the first Bond film in the series, it deviates significantly from the original. The German actress Karin Dor plays Helga Brandt . The film opened in German cinemas on September 14, 1967.
action
A mysterious spacecraft hijacks and steals manned spaceships from both the US and the Soviet Union . Both states believe that the other superpower is responsible for this; a nuclear war is imminent. However, the UK government believes the spacecraft landed in Japan .
James Bond, who fakes his death in Hong Kong (hence the film title), is sent to Japan to investigate this suspicion. He is supported by Tanaka, the head of the Japanese secret service . Together they find the person responsible, the industrialist Osato, who only serves as a front man for Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his criminal organization SPECTER . It turns out that an unnamed Far Eastern great power (implied as the People's Republic of China ) financially supports the plan, because the goal is that the two superpowers should annihilate each other; the great power and SPECTER hope to be able to usurp world domination afterwards.
With the help of agent Aki, Bond escapes several assassinations by Blofeld, but she is ultimately killed. The trail leads to a volcanic island in southwestern Japan. Bond gets the heavily armed autogyro Little Nelly from the Q , with whom he explores the island and is involved in a dogfight that he can win.
Bond appears to marry Kissy Suzuki, a Japanese secret service agent from the island. With their help, he manages to find the secret spaceport hidden in an extinct volcano . Before Bond can stop executing the last part of the plan, however, he is caught. The first meeting between Bond and Blofeld now takes place. The SPECTER spaceship is about to hijack another American spaceship, whereupon the US, which continues to blame the Soviet Union, would trigger World War III.
In the meantime, Tanaka and his ninja fighters try to penetrate the volcano. However, they are discovered and taken under fire by guns . Bond succeeds in giving them entry into the crater and triggering the self-destruction of the SPECTER spacecraft at the last second . The war is averted, but Blofeld manages to escape. This activates the volcano with a bomb, Bond and his supporters barely escape the eruption.
production
It was originally planned to be released on Her Majesty's Secret Service as the next film after Fireball , but the producers eventually selected You Only Live Twice as the next film in the series.
script
Richard Maibaum, who had written the scripts for the first four Bond films, was not available for You Only Live twice , so Harold Jack Bloom was hired. However, he left the project for reasons unknown. It is not known whether he had already delivered a finished script. The writer Roald Dahl was commissioned to write a screenplay. It delivered a result that, for the first time in the history of Bond films, had very little in common with the Ian Fleming novel. In doing so, he apparently took over some of the elements from Bloom's previous work, because in the film titles there is the reference "Additional Story Material by Harold Jack Bloom" (German: " Additional story material by Harold Jack Bloom").
Dahl himself said of the script development that he had no knowledge of the existence of any previous script. He assumes, however, that some of the guidelines the producers gave him for the script were originally Bloom's ideas. These specifications include, for example, the “death” bond in the introductory sequence. Otherwise, Dahl should only take over some of the characters and Japan as the location of the action and develop his own story from them. He then did this using a formula that the Bond producers gave him. According to this formula, three Bond girls should appear in the script, two of which are killed and one appears with the leading actor in the romantically designed final scene right before the credits.
When Bloom finally asked for a mention in the film titles, Dahl felt that this was fair, according to his own statement, but refused to allow him to be named as an equal author, as Dahl had written the script alone. Ultimately, Bloom was named in the manner already mentioned. The script is attributed solely to Roald Dahl.
Bondgirl Akiko Wakabayashi is responsible for a small change in the script. She was dissatisfied with the original name of her character. According to Ian Fleming's novel , the character was supposed to be named Suki , but to Akiko that sounded too much like Mie Hama's character Kissy Suzuki . She offered to use her own nickname Aki for the role, and the crew around director Lewis Gilbert agreed. Apparently an unchanged script was sent to the German dubbing company, because 007 addresses it twice as "Ski" (the U would be "swallowed" in Japanese); otherwise her name is never mentioned.
title
The title of the film comes from Ian Fleming's novel You Only Live Twice (Eng. You only live twice ). In the book, the title refers to a poem that Bond writes, which says, “You only live twice. Once when you are born. And once when you look death in the face. "(" You only live twice: once when you are born and once when you look death in the face. ")
In the film, the title gets its meaning from Bond's feigned death at the beginning of the plot. The title is also mentioned in the dialogue between Blofeld and Bond. When asked about Bond's supposed death, Blofeld replied that it was now his second life. Blofeld replies: "You only live twice."
occupation
The Czech actor Jan Werich was originally hired for the role of Blofeld . After a few days of shooting, however, it became clear to the producers that Werich seemed far too friendly to convince as a Bond opponent. He was replaced at short notice by Donald Pleasence , who in turn was criticized in the finished film by some critics as "not bad enough". Officially, it was said that Werich suddenly fell ill and therefore could not play the role. The Austrian actor Helmut Qualtinger was also considered for the role of Blofeld.
Bondgirl Akiko Wakabayashi is responsible for a significant change in the cast. The roles of Mie and Akiko were initially cast in exactly the opposite way, so that Akiko Kissy Suzuki and Mie Suki . Kissy , however, was designed as a very traditional girl and Akiko found that, given her international experience and Asian beauty, she was more suitable for the role of Suki . The roles were then switched. Other sources say that due to Mie Hama’s poor command of English, roles were swapped so she had to speak less.
Bond's ally in Japan, Henderson, was occupied by Charles Gray . Gray was later to be seen in Diamond Fever - but this time as Bond's opponent Blofeld.
Filming
Filming began on July 4, 1966 at Pinewood Studios, London . Filming began in Kagoshima, Japan, at the end of July. During the entire filming in Japan, the film crew and especially Sean Connery were besieged by the Japanese press. The press in Japan practiced the “most ruthless and toughest journalism” in the world and many of the reporters worked “ruthlessly and not in the least bit committed to the truth.” One reporter even photographed Connery over the partition wall when using the toilet. Connery said during filming that he was "disgusted with all the hustle and bustle" and that he would not make another James Bond film.
During the shooting there were also the first signs that the partnership between producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli was no longer harmonious. The final separation did not take place until 1975.
Filming was completed in February 1967.
post-production
The first cut version was not to the satisfaction of the producers; they therefore asked Peter Hunt to work again as a film editor. He agreed on the condition that he would be left to direct the next film in the series.
Locations
The film was shot in the following countries and locations:
- United Kingdom
-
Japan
- Hotel New Otani, Tokyo
- Kuramae Kokugikan Sumo Hall , Tokyo
- Himeji Castle
- Kyoto
- Kumano Nachi Shrine south of Shuno
- Kobe
- Fukuoka
- Akime
- Kagoshima
- Shinmoe-dake volcano
- Ebino
- Ibusuki
- Sakura-jima volcano
- Beppu
- Kuro
- Norway
-
Bahamas
- Underwater scenes
-
Spain
- Torremolinos (Sierra de Mijas)
Gadgets
- Toyota 2000 GT Cabrio - Bondgirl Aki's car . A special convertible model of this car was built only for this film , it is a one-off item, which is also equipped with a video system in the glove compartment.
- Shooting Cigarette - Tiger Tanaka hands Bond a cigarette that a projectile can fire.
- Safe cracker - A small device that can be carried in a jacket pocket and attached to a safe. When setting the safety combination, lights show whether the position is correct. However, the safe cracker cannot prevent alarms from being triggered, as Bond learns.
- Rubber suction cups (on hands and knees) for climbing smooth ceilings.
- "Little Nellie"
In Little Nellie is a heavily armed one-man gyrocopter that can be disassembled and transported in four suitcases. It is approximately 3.4 meters (11.2 feet ) long , approximately 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) and lighter than 115 kg (250 pounds ). The single-engine machine is actually airworthy. It is approximately 210 km / h (130 mph ) and designed for a maximum altitude of 6 km (18,000 feet). In the film, she is also heavily armed: with machine guns , rocket launchers , flamethrowers , smoke machines and air mines .
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| James Bond | Sean Connery | Gert Günther Hoffmann |
| Aki (in German Suki) | Akiko Wakabayashi | Beate Hasenau |
| Kissy Suzuki | Mie Hama | Maria Koerber |
| Tiger Tanaka | Tetsuro Tamba | Edgar Ott |
| Osato | Teru Shimada | Hans Hinrich |
| Helga Brandt | Karin Dor | Ute Marin |
| Ernst Stavro Blofeld | Donald Pleasence | Wolfgang Buettner |
| M. | Bernard Lee | Siegfried Schürenberg |
| Miss Moneypenny | Lois Maxwell | Lola Luigi |
| Q | Desmond Llewelyn | Kurt Conradi |
| Dikko Henderson | Charles Gray | Claus Biederstaedt |
| SPECTER # 3 | Burt Kwouk | Jürgen Thormann |
| British Foreign Secretary | Robin Bailey | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| US President | Alexander Knox | Werner Peters |
| Chinese liaison officer | Hisako Katakura | Peter Schiff |
Blofeld's criminal organization is called "Specter" for the first time in the German version as in the original and not "Phantom" as in the previous films.
A major change concerns Blofeld's statement after he identified James Bond as a fake astronaut due to his behavior and did not allow him to board the spaceship. In the German version, Blofeld mentions that "no astronaut would [put down his oxygen device] outside the capsule", while in the original, analogous to the observed action, he remarks that (for safety reasons) no astronaut would wear his oxygen device himself when entering the capsule .
In the German dubbing, the name change from Suki to Aki (see cast ) was not adopted.
Film music
The score was composed by John Barry. The theme song You Only Live Twice, written by Barry and interpreted by Nancy Sinatra, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse reached 11th place in the UK charts.
A melody from the theme song is the basis for the piece Millennium by Robbie Williams .
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was first released on United Artists Records in 1967 on LP . In the 1980s, the first CD pressing was released by EMI. After the 40th anniversary of the James Bond Jubilee, a new revised version was released by Capitol Records in 2003. The Extended Version contains extended pieces of music from the original soundtrack, which were cut due to the limited capacity of the LP.
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premiere
You Only Live Twice premiered on June 12, 1967 at Odeon Leicester Square, London. It was the first premiere of a James Bond film in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. Sean Connery appeared with a mustache and no toupee.
The film ran for the first time on German television on March 30, 1986 at 8:15 p.m. on ARD.
Aftermath
Financial success
You Only Live Twice was realized on a budget of approximately $ 9.5 million. The film was a huge financial success, with worldwide grossing over $ 111 million.
In Germany, 5 million visitors saw the film in cinemas, making it the sixth most successful film in the series (as of 2011). The worldwide box office results are at $ 757 million adjusted for inflation, which makes the film the fourth most successful of the series (as of 2011).
Contemporary criticism
The criticism at the time the film was released was muted.
Roger Ebert called the film a "below average contribution" to the Bond series and criticized in particular the accumulation of technical gadgets and the weak plot. The Time was critical, and wrote, "even Connery seems to feel uncomfortable and tired, as if he had meant it when he said that this would be his last Bond film." The New York Times commented positively, calling the film "a bag full of Bond fun."
Die Zeit wrote that You Only Live Twice is "the most complex and harmless so far, but also the most boring" of the Bond films. Der Spiegel criticized that you only lived twice "despite technical escalation and some Bond motives, as a matt facsimile."
Later evaluation
You Only Live Twice was the last James Bond film for the time being with Sean Connery in the lead role and at the time the “temporary climax of the Bond megalomania.” As with Fireball , technical gadgets had come to the fore. Connery was "tired" of the Bond role. In order to counteract this, the producers had released their main actor prematurely from his long-term contract and hoped to get him to appear again as James Bond on improved terms. However, Connery announced while filming that he would not make another James Bond film. In fact, he returned to the role at Diamond Fever in 1971 .
From today's perspective, You Only Live Twice is considered the highlight of the Bond series in terms of unbelief and unreality. This is probably one of the reasons why it is considered to be one of the films within the series whose elements have been parodied most often, B. in the films of the Austin Powers series or the television series The Simpsons .
In retrospect, Man lives only twice, despite all the criticism, is viewed as an above-average contribution to the James Bond series, which is also reflected in the placements in various rankings in recent years.
In 2006, almost 40 years after the film was released, Entertainment Weekly magazine ranked You Live Only twice as the second best James Bond film. The film is the “smoothest of all Bond films” and “takes the series to the extreme limits of casualness without even drifting into kitschy”. In the same year, the employees of the multimedia website IGN rated the Bond films and chose the one "Bizarre but still very popular" You only live in 4th place twice .
In 2009, the German James Bond expert Siegfried Tesche named the film fifth in a list of the ten best James Bond films of all time.
Two years later, visitors to the James Bond fan site MI6-HQ.com voted for the best Bond films, with One Lives only reaching 14th place only twice .
In 2012, the Bond films were rated by the readers of 007 Magazine . One lives only twice occupied the 11th of 24 places. In a list published by Rolling Stone , also in 2012, Man lives in seventh place out of 24 James Bond films only twice . The film would be "better and more transparent with age." In the 2012 special issue published 50 years James Bond of the star of the film 4 out of 5 stars rated ( "good"). That same year, Time Out magazine named You Only twice as the fourth best of 22 Bond films.
radio play
The label Europa released the revised soundtrack of the film as a radio play on music cassette. The narrator that does not exist in the film is spoken by Norbert Langer .
Awards
- Nomination in the category “British Art Direction: Color” for Ken Adam
- Golden canvas 1967
- 3 million moviegoers in 18 months
Trivia
Some famous works of art can be seen in the large atrium of Blofeld, which also houses the piranha pool. The Madonna picture is the Darmstadt Madonna by Hans Holbein the Younger . In some scenes Blofeld no longer has an eye, it was probably originally planned to show Blofeld with only one eye and a large scar on his face. In the final version, Blofeld was shown in almost all scenes with a scar without losing his eyes.
literature
- Manfred Knorr, Peter Osterried: James Bond 007. MPW, Hille 2005, ISBN 3-931608-67-0 . (Moviestar special tape)
- Danny Morgenstern, Manfred Hobsch: James Bond XXL. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89602-545-7 .
- Danny Morgenstern: 007 XXS - 50 years of James Bond - You only live twice. DAMOKLES, Braunschweig 2017, ISBN 3-9819032-1-8
Web links
- James Bond 007 - Just two lives in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- James Bond 007 - Just two lives at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- James Bond 007 - Just two lives at Metacritic (English)
- James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice in the online movie database
- James Bond 007 - You only live twice in the German dubbing file
- MGM's official You Only Live Twice website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release Certificate for James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2004 (PDF; test number: 37 622 V / DVD).
- ↑ Interview with Sean Connery in Playboy, November 1965 at seanconneryonline.com (English), accessed on November 4, 2012
- ↑ YOLT's 45th anniversary: Twice is the only way to live in the HMSS weblog , accessed on November 26, 2012
- ↑ The mysterious 007 movie writing credit in the HMSS weblog , accessed November 26, 2012
- ↑ a b Tom Soter: Roald Dahl - He only lived twice on tomsoter.com (English), accessed on November 26, 2012
- ↑ a b Michael Petzel, Manfred Hobsch: The James Bond files. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89602-415-9 , p. 109.
- ↑ a b c d You Only Live Twice - Premiere & Press or Trivia - You Only Live Twice at mi6-hq.com (English), accessed December 8, 2012.
- ↑ a b Documentation Inside You Only Live Twice on DVD for sale James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice (Ultimate Edition), MGM, 2007
- ↑ a b Kocian, Erich: Die James Bond Films Heyne, Munich, 7th edition 1994, ISBN 3-453-86044-6 , p. 145
- ↑ Steve Rubin, Siegfried Tesche: The background story to 25 years of Bond. Kino Verlag, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-89324-026-8 , p. 78
- ↑ THE GREAT ZERO. In: Der Spiegel No. 35/1966. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
- ↑ Trivia - You Only Live Twice at mi6-hq.com , accessed December 8, 2012.
- ^ Kocian, Erich: The James Bond Films, Heyne Munich, 1982, 7th edition, ISBN 3-453-86044-6 , pp. 151–152.
- ^ Kocian, Erich: The James Bond Films, Heyne Munich, 1982, 7th edition, ISBN 3-453-86044-6 , p. 168.
- ↑ a b Kocian, Erich: Die James Bond Films, Heyne Munich, 1982, 7th edition, ISBN 3-453-86044-6 , p. 159.
- ^ Kocian, Erich: Die James Bond Films, Heyne Munich, 1982, 7th edition, ISBN 3-453-86044-6 , p. 160.
- ↑ a b Box office / business for James Bond 007 - You only live twice . On: imdb.com (English). Retrieved March 13, 2013.
- ^ Siegfried Tescher: The great James Bond atlas. Wissen Media Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-577-07305-9
- ^ Danny Morgenstern, Manfred Hobsch: James Bond XXL (Volume 2) Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, ISBN 3-89602-545-7 , p. 61.
- ↑ German synchronous files
- ↑ You Only Live Twice at mjnewton.demon.co.uk , accessed December 8, 2012
- ↑ GUY CHAMBERS & STEVE POWER: Recording Robbie Williams' 'Millennium' on soundonsound.com (English), accessed December 8, 2012.
- ↑ Kocian, Erich: The James Bond Films. Heyne, Munich, 7th edition 1994, ISBN 3-453-86044-6 , p. 189.
- ^ Daniel Craig makes his 007 debut at premiere of Casino Royale on dailymail.co.uk , accessed November 26, 2012.
- ↑ You Only Live Twice - Premiere & Press at mi6-hq.com (English), accessed December 8, 2012.
- ↑ YEAR 1980–2000. Retrieved February 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Box office results worldwide In: Stern-Edition 2/2012 , pp. 72–73.
- ^ Roger Ebert : You Only Live Twice. In: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ . June 19, 1967, accessed on March 13, 2013 (English): "Like its predecessor" Thunderball ", another below-par entry, this one is top-heavy with gadgets but weak on plotting and getting everything to work at the same time . "
- ↑ FILM TIPS. In: The time . September 29, 1967, accessed on March 13, 2013 : "The fifth James Bond film, the most elaborate and harmless so far, but also the most boring and, according to reports, the last with Sean Connery."
- ↑ Climb to the crater. In: Der Spiegel No. 41/1967. October 2, 1967, accessed on March 13, 2013 : "The latest Bondiade, on the other hand, acts as a matt facsimile, despite technical escalation and some Bond motifs."
- ↑ a b c A direct hit and a blowout: all Bond missions in maneuver criticism In: Stern-Edition 2/2012 50 years of James Bond , pp. 64–71.
- ↑ a b The 10 best James Bond films of all time ( Memento from January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at: ten.de , accessed on December 27, 2012.
- ↑ Bond-a-Thond # 5: 'You Only Live Twice' (1967) . On: mtv.com (English). Retrieved March 13, 2013.
- ↑ REVIEW: All 23 James Bond movies from best to worst . On: heritage.com (English). Retrieved March 13, 2013.
- ↑ Countdown: Ranking the Bond Films on ew.com (English), accessed on March 13, 2013.
- ↑ James Bond's Top 20 - Ranking 007's films from worst to best. On: ign.com (English). Retrieved March 13, 2013.
- ↑ Best Bond Film Results. from: mi6-hq.com (English), accessed March 13, 2013.
- ↑ 007 MAGAZINE readers vote On Her Majesty's Secret Service as greatest ever Bond film! at: 007magazine.co.uk , accessed March 13, 2013.
- ↑ James Bond's Best and Worst: Peter Travers Ranks All 24 Movies at rollingstone.com (English), accessed on March 13, 2013
- ^ The best and worst James Bond movies: a ranked list on timeout.com , accessed on March 13, 2013.
- ↑ You only live twice. James Bond radio plays. In: jamesbondfilme.de. Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
- ↑ BAFTA Awards 1967 at bafta.org (English), accessed on November 26, 2012