An Overly Long Review, Ranting & Ranking of Daniel Craig's James Bond Gunbarrel Sequences

good evening mr bond fans is there anything that brings out the pedantin as double 007 worshippers more than the daniel craig gun barrel sequences stop getting bond wrong ah the trusty gun barrel sequence the traditional opening to a james bond film from its first realization in 1962's doctor no until 1999's the world is not enough it stayed relatively the same sure the music would differ the framing might change some credits might be placed up front and some effects may be added here and there but for the most part you can count on the constant reliable site of white dots moving across the screen from left to right a larger circle appearing with james bond inside the hero pivots shoots red blood trickles down the screen and off we go into the adventure it's the same thing every time comforting reassurance to those of us who value consistency above all else but since 2002 the series has tinkered with the established format so much that i think that fans go into each new installment wondering if it's even gonna be in the film at all now maybe to go back as far as 2002 is an exaggeration when it comes to talking about gun barrel aberrations but the dine of the dagon barrel does provide the first truly major shake-up of the famous sequence sending a cgi bullet hurtling towards the audience that was fun wasn't it yeah it's the 20th film after all supporting anniversary it's fine for them to play with the format in in in this context yeah like who doesn't like a bit of levity every once in a while just all these things are back to normal for the next one it's all fine are you trying to rationalize this to yourself indeed director lee tamahori indicates as much in his director's commentary that this was intended as a special little flourish and not necessarily an intention at setting a new precedent so here's the logo which you've changed to slightly right here we just thought it would be amusing uh for the 20th movie 40th anniversary to uh to throw a projectile straight down the barrel of the gun just just for this as a one-off don't expect i don't expect it to happen on the next one and i think it shouldn't really it's just a more of an amusing aside for those uh you have the audience ducking under theirs mr tamahori's words turned out to be somewhat prophetic and true enough it was not repeated on the next film but that next bond film did for the first time in history open an adventure with a fade on a shot of a office block in prague well this can't be right we must be in the wrong film i bet it's another one of those matt damon ones don't worry i'll go ask the management but sure enough we get our gun barrel just at the end of the pre-title sequence rather than the start of it well i spoke to them for five minutes and they said that this is the right screening room yeah it is they just did a different version of the gun barrel it was really cool what but it didn't begin with the white dots going across the screen how can i possibly know if a bomb therm is a bond film without white dots going across the screen at the start so i'm one of those people who truly love the casino royale gun barrel sequence given that the film is very much bond begins and this whole narrative is going to show as james bond at the start of his double-o career picking up the various elements and tropes that we associate with him to utilize the gun barrel sequence in this unconventional way makes an awful lot of sense and besides the context i just love the presentation i love bond's poses he spins around and shoots the blood dribbling down taking us into the main title sequence is awesome the way the whole sequence kind of builds to that moment is so expertly done i kind of adore it now i don't mean to be pedantic but hey if you're still watching this video you're probably a fellow pedant too but it does slightly bother me that the gun barrel graphic itself looks so shiny and clean and new i've always adored the original maurice binder designed graphic there's something so rough and stylized about it just looks so much cooler to me and hey they even teased how this particular graphic might have looked if they'd have used it in casino royale in one of the trailers and honestly i like it a lot but even as it is in the film it's still pretty fantastic it makes sense it leads into a kick-ass title song it's a great surprise and it was obviously going to be just another one-off right the whole point of casino royale is obviously to see bond becoming the bond that we know and love and by the end of the film he says the line bond james bond so next time it's going to be business as usual gun barrel at the start right right you must be pretty excited for this huh oh you bet it's been six years since i've seen those white dots go across the screen six years can you believe it yeah in a frenzied attempt at catching casino royale lightning in a bottle twice by replicating as much from that film as possible 2008's quantum of solace does not open with a gun barrel sequence either but instead places the gun barrel at the end which may have not totally sat well with me at the time but after a while i did come to kind of appreciate what that symbolized by being at the very end of the film with quantum souls being a direct sequel to casino royale continuing on the emotional plot line of bond and his feelings of betrayal and grief about this belind ending the film with him throwing her love not necklace into the snow the gun barrel being at the very end of the film was like a symbolic closing of a chapter the same chapter that opened with a gun barrel sequence in casino royale as far as the presentation itself goes i'm really not a fan of this one at all it's over so quickly craig stomps along and i get that they were wanting to make his bombs seem more aggressive more rough around the edges than his predecessors but he just looks a bit like he's late for meeting mates at the pub after work than anything else he also looks a bit stooped over to me i don't know something about his posture just seems really off i'm also not a fan of the design of the gun barrel itself on this one this is designed by mk12 who did the title sequence for quantum assaults as well but yeesh it's just so dull and then the blood drops down way too quickly i mean did they just export this whole thing in the wrong frame rate so we're watching it on fast forward it's notable for being the only bond gun barrel so far that has pond just walk off once he's shot and i guess this fits nicely with the general speedy vibe of this one but it just ends up feeling like one massive chore for bond like he's just going through the motions and getting it done as quickly as possible but whatever no more playing about with the gun barrel now right after these two films we can just get back to normal right that's it well skip ahead to 2012 and once again i think most of us went into the cinema not really knowing what to expect still holding out for that gun barrel sequence huh it occasionally crosses my mind it's literally the last thing i think about at night and the first thing i think about every morning if it isn't at the front of the film i'm gonna burn down the cinema [Music] you never know better look next where'd you go is anyone else hot in here is it just me how could they not put it at the start of skyfall i demand an explanation immediately hello this is sam mendes director of sky 4 oh just the man and one of the first things was the debate we had about the gun barrel logo which was always designed or at least in my head was always intended to go right at the beginning of the picture but what you see here now is of course another version of the gun barrel logo which is a bond walking and then stopping and lifting a gun so when i put it in front of this image it didn't work at all felt like this was a repetition but in the end i think it worked out better with it at the end which is in itself a kind of new beginning well that's all very well and good mr mendes but actually that is all well and good that makes a lot of sense yeah if there was anyone on earth that could make me fine with not having a gun barrel sequence at the start then it's cinematographer roger deakins and the shot that actually does open the film is all kinds of wonderful and beautiful and sure maybe it would have felt jarring if it had followed on from the gun barrel but saying that it makes it sound like the gun barrel was something of an afterthought for those making the film i mean i would have thought that you would compose the opening shot for the film knowing it was gonna lead on from the gun barrel but okay whatever once again we get the gun barrel at the very end of the film and as for what we get pretty alright i think uh daniel kleinman is back on the design front and while i still miss the classic maurice binder graphic which was all over the promotional material for skyfall so you'd think that i've actually included in the film too but i don't think that the cg barrel design is all that bad here but it still has that all too polished shiny cg look to it i guess i like the details and the lighting and hey it fades away into an iris of the binder logo which was repurposed with the 50th anniversary symbol so yeah maybe it would have felt weird fading from this design to this design again the blood comes down in much the same way that it doesn't quantum i.e far too quick for my taste but i think craig's performance is much improved he no longer walks like he's piers morgan leaving his own breakfast show but rather strolls along maybe a little bit too casually he isn't doing much of a good job of hiding that gun either but the final shot and pose work very nicely as for the sequence playing at the end of the film again it makes somewhat thematic sense given how the ending of the film plays out with recurring characters moneypenny and q back in the series bond heading into m's office through a padded door to receive his next mission just like the old days it feels like it's something of a capper on a spiritual prequel story of sorts for james bond and ending with the gun barrel kind of signifies that it's gonna be back to what we know the series to be from now on right alternatively i'd just kind of come around to the idea that okay new tradition from here on out the gunmeral comes at the end of the film fine i can roll with that but then in the lead-up to spectre's release the rumors started swirling that it was actually gonna be back at the start of the film again you must be pretty excited for this huh excited that's putting it mildly it's been 13 years since i've seen those dots move across the screen can i switch seats with you [Music] well you finally got what you wanted i'm very happy for you why did they make it look so flat why is craig swinging the gun around for all to see why are they still using that fast blood treat why didn't the iris move around before opening up on the first shot how have they forgotten how to do this conflicted is the best word i can use to describe spector's gun barrel sequence for me uh hooray that it's at the start of the film and i love that they've gone back to using the maurice binder graphic but how could they leave it looking so flat the modernizing of this graphic that took place during the ps brosnan era was absolutely perfect the design of his gun barrel was such a perfect modernization and to be completely honest it's aged wonderfully you could still use this same thing today and it would look great i guess maybe they wanted to arc back to the very original gun barrel where it was just like a still image but then why break from so many of the other traditions i've never been a fan of how the lighting adjusts to just make bond a silhouette before the blood starts dripping and that element has always felt a bit unnecessary to me and i'd have preferred it if the iris just kind of opened up on the first scene of the film rather than fading to black so that we can have this awful pretentious text to begin the film as for craig's performance i like the timing i like his final stance better than the previous two but what the is he doing waving that gun around all waxy daisy like this he's supposed to be a covert operative for goodness sake but hey we were close right look i know it's two steps forward one step back with these things it seems but surely going into craig's fifth and final double 07 adventure they were going to give us surely they were going to give us a quintessential james bond gun barrel right oh christ here we go again don't worry i'm a changed man now i really don't care after all these years i do not care if it's at the start of the film or not [Music] oh my god they put it at the start thank god first of all i want to talk about the fact that we actually have two different versions of the gun barrel for this film the american release version is probably the most conventional where we go from the logos to the dots coming in from the left of frame but for the international release where the universal logo also plays at the start of the film the universal globe fades away to become a white dot which leaves to the left of the frame to come back smaller and then continue along as the us release does this is one change to the format that i do absolutely adore and i don't know if it's anything that we're going to see on any future bond films unless universal uh a part of future bond films releasing as well but seeing that the globe of the universal logo dissolve away into the white dots and then i mean it got a huge cheer from the audience on the first time i saw this film and um it gets a smile out of me every time i'm also actually quite positive regarding the cg design of the gun barrel itself i love how bond reflects on the inside of it i love how bond fades out and we go through the gun barrel as it reveals the first scene of the film and then that scene reflects on the metal inside too i think it's a really cool look and of all the craig cg designs this is my favorite by far i think craig performs it well too i like that he's in a tux he has that confident stride he's just about keeping the gun hidden the turn and pose are great so hey this is all really positive right it might not be the exact same thing as what we got in the past but it's pretty awesome right god that was great i loved that oh that's good i thought the lack of blood dribbling down the screen would have annoyed you so i think it's clear that they don't use the usual blood trickle so that they can keep this as smooth a fade as possible from the white background into the wintery white and blue of the first shot and god help me i'll be completely honest i don't actually miss the blood maybe we've just been through so many changes from the format that i'm numb to such tinkering these days and perhaps that explains why i actually kind of like the no time to die gun barrel i think it updates the format really well and in the case of no time to die the fact that bond i guess misses his would-be assailant you know from the lack of blood anyway we can assume that that fact is actually quite a bit of foreshadowing no time to die is also notable for including a pseudo gun barrel of sorts much later in the film during the big climax of the villains base now had they not gone with the gun barrel at the start and instead stuck a graphic over this moment to make this the film's gun barrel sequence that would have been one hell of a mold breaker if the gun barrel sequence had just taken place four fifths of the way through the film but as it stands i think of this shot as just being a nice little nod and not a gun barrel sequence specifically it'll be interesting seeing going forward whether the no time to die style of gun barrel will hold or whether we'll reverse something with a more classic look or whether every bond film will just have its own version of the gun barrel sequence from here on i mean craig is notable as the only bond to film a different gun barrel sequence for each of his films heck the only reason roger had to film two was because they changed the aspect ratio of the films that brosnan dalton and lazenby only got one each and connery himself too only had one play in his films after bob simmons obviously played bond in the initial three gun barrels at the end of the day i can't say i have many opinions when it comes to comparing say octopuses gun barrel sequence with a view to a kills gun barrel sequence but when it comes to the daniel craig ones i mean well i did say in the title that this video was going to be overly long so to wrap up let's rank the five gun barrels of craig's era coming in dead last for me is the quantum of solace sequence not a fan of the design nor how rushed it is it feels like everyone's just embarrassed about having to do it or something so they're just having to get through it as quickly as possible next up is spectre i kind of admire it for trying to return to the classic look and feel but then i kind of resent it for feeling so thrown on at the start and being mad with that stupid stupid text that follows it up it feels like an afterthought in the middle spot is skyfall the design is fine and craig's performance is fine i don't hate it i don't love it i don't resent it for being at the end of the film so overall i guess it's just a bit of a blah one for me i find it difficult to have strong opinions about this one in any capacity in second place then is no time to die where i think they made great use of the sequence i love how it opens onto the first scene of the film i think it's the best looking cg barrel of craig's five and the actors walk and pose are pretty spot on so in the top spot we of course have casino royale and yeah even though it's the one that breaks the formula the most it's the one that makes the most sense to do it in this context i'm not against the gun barrel format being played with when it can be well utilized and inventive and with casino royale i think that's very much the case i guess that's very much the moral of this exercise for me i like my bond movie traditions and the gun barrel sequence is one of the most iconic of those traditions i love sticking on a bond film and seeing this thing at the start it's a fun jolt of adrenaline and something so unique to this series that i adore but really thinking on craig's gun barrels has made me realize that you know what i'm not against breaking from the traditional presentation if it's done well and arguably casino royale in no time to die are the ones that break from the traditional format the most but i'd say that it makes more sense in both of their cases or at least they try to do something cool by breaking away from the tradition the other three whether at the start or the end of their respective films just feel like they're trying to be in that classic style a bit too much and as such draw inevitable comparisons and they just don't match up with what came before though i think it's pretty cool and poetic that craig's era has been bookended with a couple of great sequences and as i say i'll be super interested to see what happens with this sequence for the next iteration of bond just no more speedy gonzales gun barrels please please do let me know your own thoughts and rankings on daniel craig's gun barrels in the comments section below also below you can click the subscribe button and the mrs bell notification button and if you want to stay uh super up to date on future videos that i upload on this channel and in addition to that also below are links to my various social media pages so you can follow me on twitter or my facebook page or on my instagram page or even my patreon page if you want to go one extra step in supporting this channel then please do head over to that site for more details there and with all that being said and until next time bond fans so long for now

Channel: Calvin Dyson

Views: 61,009

Keywords: James Bond, 007, Review, Reviews, Video Essay, Analysis, Vlogger, Vlog, Vlogging, Movies, Films, No Time To Die, Daniel Craig, Spectre, Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale, Die Another Day, The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies, GoldenEye, Licence to Kill, The Living Daylights, A View to a Kill, Octopussy, Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Man With the Golden Gun, Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Dr No, Ian Flemming, Reaction

Id: 6Jk3k48isuE

Length: 18min 25sec (1105 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021