"Refreshing to hear that there is one subject you're not an expert on!" -M
[looking down] "Exceptionally fine shot." -James Bond
"I didn't know there was a pool down there." -Slumber Inc. Attendant
This is not a dig at Diamonds are Forever (DAF) so much as an applaud for the song. The Title Song: Diamonds are Forever is better than the film it plugs.
Finally a James Bond with plot I can get behind. 1. Steal diamonds. 2. Build diamond refractive solar laser satellite. 3. Extort world. I get it. It's simple. Understandable even -despite its obvious flaws.
Connery is back for DAF, but he looks old; gray hairs even. They also seemed to have let him grow out his eyebrows. Caterpillars. And age seemed to be a theme for DAF.
It's only 1971, but Bond looks stunningly out of place in his white tux on the floor of the casino. It's like he's wearing a tie to a party where the mandatory attire is sweatpants. He being proper, gentlemanly, and groomed only serve as a counter point to the background Americans but to Vegas and his advisaries. The world went and got itself rather uncouth and ugly in a short amount of time. Bond did not change with it. That is both admirable and rather strange.
This is second Bond to rather brazenly spend an entire movie in the USA. I can only guess that if you were thinking about from where the end of the world would come in 1960-70's the logical choice would be the United States as British films would have had a hard time filming in the USSR. Also, I guess is that the USA was the biggest market for feature production paying audiences. I don't fault Bond makers for these decisions, but for me Bond is European and British, his natural element is in Europe or an exotic local, not Vegas.
It's a shame that I couldn't do anything but laugh at Charles Gray as Ernst Blofeld...all I can think is that he is going to break into the Time Warp.
On a scale of "knowing what IT is" to "having what IT is change", I give Diamonds are Forever 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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