The Spy Who Loved Me - opening scene

The picture round at the pub quiz on Monday was James Bond themed. You had to guess the pictures of the Bond villains and the films they were in. We got most of the films right but struggled with the names of the bad guys (anyone else really bad with character names in films? - I certainly am). That got me thinking about Bond films, which got me thinking about my favourite scene from the series.



I got into Bond films while at university and found them an excellent revision aid; you know, something to stick on the TV that's familiar and not-too-distracting while you work. The Bond series is an odd franchise, ranging from superb action to genuinely bad self-parody and stupidity. 'From Russia with Love' and 'You only live twice' are great action adventures, 'Octopussy' and 'The World is not Enough' are properly silly.

'Casino Royale' is a fantastic film, but it is more of a re-invention of the franchise than a continuation. Gone were the quips and the raised eyebrows, suddenly Bond was an alcoholic psychopath - a much more interesting character, but hardly part of the Bond tradition. As such, I often exclude the recent Daniel Craig films when thinking about the Bond series - and my favourite Bond film remains 'You Only Live Twice'. Best scene? Well, it has to be the opening to 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. People will rightly point out that it has bad blue screen special effects and stars the hammiest actor to grace the silver screen, but it's a scene that embodies a lot of what the Bond series is about, silly stunts, Bond shagging his way through the cold war, useless henchmen and above all a misguided sense of British patriotism. Also there the fact that the stunt performed at the end of this clip was real and not CGI - a stunt man actually skis off a cliff. He also nearly dies when his ski collides with his parachute. You don't get stunts like that these days, the health and safety police would go mental! Literally.