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I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I'd never seen a Sean Connery James Bond movie before sitting down to start reviewing the 6 newly released Bond flicks on Blu-ray disc. (The set comes with 3 Connery movies so I needed to consult IMDb to figure out which one came first chronologically.) It's not that I'm not a fan of James Bond, or that I'm not a fan of Connery for that matter. Just that it was never really all that high on my priority list. But, looking over the long list of James Bond movies, I'm actually surprised at how few I've seen. My first "theatrical" Bond was "A View To A Kill" in 1985 when I was only 12. I recall watching "Moonraker" (Bond in space?!) at some point on VHS but I'm not sure how old I was. On another note, while looking over Connery's filmography, I'm equally ashamed to admit that the first movie of his I saw was "The Man Who Would Be King" which was first released in 1975. Too many movies. Not enough time.
So, the first Bond movie was Dr. No -- released in 1962 and starring Connery alongside Ursula Andress as Bond girl Honey Ryder and Joseph Wiseman as the villain Dr. No. The movie opens in Jamaica where a British agent named Strangway and his secretary are murdered. James Bond is sent to the island to find out what happened. There, he learns that Strangway had been investigating rock samples from an island called Crab Key. With the help of man named Quarrel, Bond makes his way to the island. On the island he meets Honey Ryder who is there collecting shells. The two are captured by Dr. No's henchmen and are brought to meet the villain who explains his involvement with an international terrorist organization named SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) and their plan to disrupt American rocket launches at Cape Canaveral. Of course, Bond escapes and foils Dr. No's plans.
The movie introduces many of the Bond trademarks that are still used today more than 20 Bond movies later. There's the stylized opening title sequence. The theme song. The introduction of Bond through the barrell of a gun. We also meet Bond regulars M. (Bernard Lee), Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and Felix Leiter (Jack Lord). And of course there's Bond who, as the trailer reminds us, has a license to kill whom he pleases, where he pleases, when he pleases. This also applies to the women he beds -- whom he pleases, where he pleases, when he pleases.
As for the movie itself, it holds up well. I know it's old, and parts of the story are dated, but it's really not that bad considering it was originally released more than 45 years ago. In terms of picture quality, again, this Blu-ray looks very good considering the age of the film. There were a few times where the image looked a little grainy, but it didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the movie.
Special features on this disc include:
MI6 Commentary by Director Terence Young and Members of the Cast and Crew - This commentary, narrated by John Cork of the Ian Fleming Foundation, mixes stories from a number of sources including Young who directed 3 of the first 4 Bond movies. From what I've read, this commentary has appeared on previous DVD releases of this movie. Still, I gave it a listen if only as a little history lesson. Since this is the commentary for the very first James Bond movie, What I enjoyed most was that it mixed information about Dr. No with information about Bond in general. Very informative if you're a long time fan of the series or if you're just a casual fan starting your 007 journey from the beginning.
Top Level Access - Here we find the featurette "007: Licence to Restore". Again, this extra appeared on a previous DVD release of this movie. However, if you haven't seen it before, it's worth a look. The featurette, which runs nearly 12 minutes, talks about the restoration of the films done by Lowry Digital Images. We get clips from several 007 adventures and go behind the scenes to take a look at the work that goes into bringing the original films to digital life.
Declassified: MI6 Vault - Included here are "The Guns of James Bond" courtesy of the BBC. The black and white video includes an introduction by Sean Connery and a walk though various Bond Guns by firearms enthusiast Jeffrey Boothroyd. A nice historical peice. This is followed by "Premiere Bond: Opening Nights" which takes us through various premieres from "Dr. No" through "Die Another Day" in 2002.
007 Mission Control - Under this title, you can find various clips from the movie featuring Bond, the women, allies, villains, gadgets and locations.
Mission Dossier - Included here are "Inside Dr. No" which runs a little more than 40 minutes and looks at the genesis of the James Bond movies before zeroing specifically on "Dr. No" from finding a director, a star, the filming, the theme to the title sequence. This is followed by "Terence Young: Bond Vivant" which runs 18 minutes and focuses on Bond's first director. The final video here is a "Dr. No 1963 Featurette" which is interesting but shows it's age.
Ministry of Propoganda - Included here are a number of trailers, TV and Radio spots and for the first Bond movies. For the most part, the video quality is terrible but it's still fun to see how movies were marketed in the "old days".
Image Database - Features are completed with a number of behind-the-scenes photos from the production of the movie.
Searching around online, I see that the special features included here are exactly the same as included on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD released in 2006. While I'm sure that's a bit of a letdown for owners of that collection looking to upgrade, there's no reason fans looking to build their Bond collections should bypass this disc. And for those who haven't experienced the early 007 films like myself, this is the perfect starting point and I look forward to adding more Bond Blu-rays to my collection.
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