Review of On Her Majesty`s Secret Service: Special Edition (James Bond)

Introduction

George Lazenby stars as James Bond 007 in his one off movie and doesn`t seem to do too bad as the character although at times you wouldn`t think of him as a Secret Service agent, especially in that kilt he wears for a while.
A nicely animated menu is for starters but is less elaborate and basic compared to some of the other R1 007 DVD`s.

Video

Keeping the fact of the matter in mind that this was made in 1969 I think that the digital conversion has been done successfully well, the picture transfer looks remarkably good and although you can spot a lot of black and white flecks easily, especially on the very dark and well lit scenes it is a very clear picture. The skin tones on the characters are well contrasted and richly coloured almost as if the make-up was put on thickly, but these are the sort of tones you see in the older movies. The detail is crisp and clean giving the snow and ice scenes from above a real sense of coldness.

Audio

English Mono are the words I don`t like seeing on the back of newly improved transfers of movies, but it can`t be helped and you just have to keep remembering the year it was originally made in, and be thankful for what is available. The dialogue throughout the movie is clear and can be heard well over the action scenes, but I did find that the explosions and gunfire at the scene where Bond comes to rescue Tracy via helicopter didn`t seem to have a realistic impact, the bass was partially there and it all sounded slightly animated similar to how the sound effects are in Kung Fu movies. But for nostalgia reasons the sound to the movie does give out that authentic 1969 feel and serves it`s purpose well.
The music score sounds quite good and in some places fits the action well, the ski chase presents a catchy, rythmic version of the On Her Majesty`s Secret Service theme tune and yet the music takes on a more subtle melody on the approach to Piz Gloria via helicopter which is quite nice and lets you take in the views for a minute.

Features

The features on the DVD seem to be generous and I suppose for an older movie enough has been salvaged, but unfortunately they are all "snippies" and only the documentary at 45mins is something worth looking into. There is a Q`s lab featurette lasting aprox 11 mins and another featurette about a cameraman filming from under a helicopter. An audio commentary, stills, trailer, radio and TV spots make up this little bundle.

Conclusion

The fight scenes in this movie seem to move quicker and are more violent increasing the realism, especially when Bond visits Tracy`s hotel room and he battles it out with a thug sent from Di Vicenzo, you can almost feel the blows!! There are also a few scenes and nice touches to look out for, the car chase which leads onto a Christmas stock car race with Tracy at the wheel, this one`s quite fun! The bobsled fight between Blofeld and Bond is quite gripping at certain parts (between the blue screen work at least). Some nice touches in this one have got to be when Bond has resigned and is sorting through his desk and comes across props from other 007 adventures with the theme tunes to accompany each one. Bond looking through a Playboy magazine while waiting for the safe to be cracked got a giggle from me also. I also saw a grumpy lookalike of TV Presenter Les Dennis, but with a blonde perm following Bond around I couldn`t stop thinking it was him in a previous job or something!!
This has got to be the strangest Bond ending I know because it just leaves the thought on the bullet hole in the car windscreen just before the credits roll, Tracy is shot just after her wedding to James but it just never was. What a sad ending to be left with, but does make the point why Bond never marries again. On the whole not to bad of a disk, at least an effort has been made to revamp it.