Diamonds Are Forever
by Guy Hamilton
List Price:
Our Price: $10.98
You Save: $4.00 (27%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.24 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Charles Gray, Jill St. John, Jimmy Dean, Lana Wood, Sean ConneryDirector: Guy Hamilton
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Producer: Alan Silvers
Producer: Albert R. Broccoli
Producer: Harry Saltzman
Producer: Stanley Sopel
Writer: Ian Fleming
Writer: Richard Maibaum
Writer: Tom Mankiewicz
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-04
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Diamonds Are Forever
Movie Review: A soaring 007 entry
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was a kid, all the movie-guide books I had gave "Diamonds Are Forever" rave reviews. That may be changing, as the 'serious' tone of the Craig films, and the (rightful) enshrinement of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" signal a shift of opinion further away from the 'campy' tone of the 70s Bond films. In particular, many viewers now read into the film's pre-credit sequence a craven back-off from the highly dramatic conclusion of OHMSS.
If you throw chronology aside, it certainly looks as if "Diamonds Are Forever" is picking up where "You Only Live Twice" left off. And we may as well regard it like that, since the Bond films have never treated that kind of continuity seriously (we express no astonishment that Charles Gray mysteriously morphs from a dead liaison to a living panoply of Blofelds, after all!).
"Diamonds Are Forever" may be comic in tone, but it's a dark brand of comedy that is not merely campy, but creepy and grandiose, full of menace and delight. When it's in the world of a diamond-smuggling caper, it's as dark and methodical as the third act of "From Russia With Love", but with a dollop of nightmare absurdity (the cremation scene is a wild flight of fancy).
And when it expands into a Blofled plot for world domination, it's a thrillingly expansive adventure in the mold of "You Only Live Twice." Connery, Jill St John, Charles Gray and the rest of the cast mug their way so convincingly, they carry off lines and scenarios that would falter helplessly in lesser hands. What other Bond film can boast a Hidden Fortress plastered with placards that enjoin "When in doubt Ask"? A Blofeld who uses MBA-type reinforcement shouldn't work, yet here it does, marvellously.
Director Guy Hamilton really lets loose with this film, more so than "Goldfinger" even. Despite the American locales, it's a deeply British film, full of whimsy.
And it's a semiotician's dream. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, Bambi and Thumper, Blofeld and his doubles, Willard Whyte's stolen identity and Bond's switched one, Tiffany and her wigs-- identities multiply and get confused as in some madhouse (even Blofeld's Cat gets a doppelganger!). The film might best be appreciated as a sort of screwball horror film, a lustrous nightmare that finally explodes. When Blofeld's satellite gets under way there's a kind of joyous relief, now that the plot has a rational focus point, sharp as the destructive laser-- and, despite the (deliberately? or did Connery's salary eat into the special effects!?) obviousness of those wisps of explosive smoke, theatrical as a magician's powders, I find the scene thrilling, buoyed by the gorgeous John Barry music and the sheer deathly beauty of the fan of diamonds soaring through space.
I say none of this to suggest that "Diamonds Are Forever" is some sort of anti-Bond film; on the contrary, it seems more and more to me the quintessence of Bond, Bond at a fearless extreme. The whole film is a funhouse experience: nothing is ever what it seems, and Bond's utter imperturbability, no matter what claustrophobic terror he is confronted with (pipes, coffins, riding with gangsters, Blofeld's john) is all that stands between our world today and the alternate fate of watching Blofeld and the unctuous Prof. Dr. Metz share the Nobel Peace Prize. Which I can totally see in my mind's eye, and may be the most chilling sort of apocalypse imaginable.
The cast is uniformly excellent: Jill St. John marvelously plays a hardboiled ditz, and Charles Gray's Blofeld is so hypnotically insinuating you would think he'd sold apples in Eden. Wint and Kidd are like the killers in "Rope" by way of "A Clockwork Orange", a terrifying Id to Gray's rationally murderous superego. Miss Moneypenny gets perhaps her most fetching cameo in the entire series. And those visionary collaborators, Ken Adam and Maurice Binder, are at their best. Binder's sensational title sequence, with diamonds, girls, and Blofeld's cat abetted by the delectable title song, is an audiovisual masterwork in its own right.
This is not just a Bond adventure, but a work of Pop Art. If its reputation needs revising, it's only up, not down.
Summary of Diamonds Are Forever
Superspy James Bond (Sean Connery) gets tangled up in the wild world of international diamond smuggling. But hold on--the mission is not quite so simple as it seems; his chase of the jewel thieves leads him to conspirators with plans for unleashing a nuclear armageddon on an unsuspecting planet. The majority of the action takes place on the gaudy glittering streets of Las Vegas as Bond negotiates the grotesque terrain with his customary aplomb and fancy mechanical gadgets. As always he manages to dally with several sexy bombshells along the way including the wonderful Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole. Connery is as suave and entertaining as ever taking on the menacing Charles Gray who is trying his hand at playing Bond's archenemy Blofeld. Look for the car chase down a narrow alley.System Requirements:Running Time: 120 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616085412 Manufacturer No: M108541Similar DVD Movies
MoonrakerTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $37.50
OctopussyMGM; Release date: 2007-09-04; DVD
Best price: $10.17
Price in other shops:
The Living DaylightsDALTON,TIMOTHY; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $8.43
Price in other shops:
The Spy Who Loved MeSony; Release date: 2007-02-06; DVD
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
GoldfingerTCFHE/MGM; Release date: 2007-02-06; DVD
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops:
You Only Live TwiceTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $15.95
A View to a KillTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-09-04; DVD
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Special Edition)Release date: 2000-05-16; DVD
Best price: $18.86
Price in other shops:
The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)Release date: 2002-10-22; DVD
Best price: $8.75
Price in other shops:
From Russia With LoveSony; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $7.25
Price in other shops: