On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Peter Hunt

Country

UK | USA

Cast

George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ilse Steppat, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, George Baker, Yuri Borienko, Bernard Horsfall, Desmond Llewelyn, Virginia North, Geoffrey Cheshire Irvin Allen, Terry Mountain, James Bree, John Gay, Julie Ege, Jenny Hanley, Anoushka Hempel, Joanna Lumley, Catherina von Schell, Angela Scoular

Storyline

James Bond (George Lazenby) continues his mission to track down Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), head of the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization, by going undercover to uncover the true reason for Blofeld's allergy research in the Swiss Alps.

Opinion

I'm back with another adventure of James Bond. This time the super-spy has a new face, and a new heart, he is is less super and more human than even.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is arguably the most emotional adventure Bond will ever have, but I won't go too far and call it the best entry in the series.

While I'm actually happy there are basically no gadgets, I didn't particularly enjoy this entry because of its features, or rather, its non-features. The film is overlong, you can't argue on that, the editing is poor, the photography isn't a good as it used to be nor is the scenery, and lacks of charm.

Still, director Peter Hunt's choice is to be appreciated. He tried to make a simple, yet elegant and realistic film. The realism, especially, is the movie's strength. I'm not talking about the fights, they are indeed better and more realistic, but I'm talking about James Bond's character. He almost is a complete different man. Forget about the super cool Bond, this new one - which I'm afraid will be around in this film only - actually has feelings, and wants to do more than just whoring around. He still does that though.

Don't get me wrong, the film still is exciting, and plenty of action, but it also brings characters and events than we care for and can relate to. 

The story is more believable, and more structured than they used to be until now, but there's a problem with that. It feels like a love story disguised as a spy thriller. It's cleverly disguised, but it still is disguised. Okay, did you even understand what I just wrote?

And lastly the actors. George Lazenby is no Sean Connery, he lacks his predecessor charm, yet he is quite good. This is his first time as actor, so I don't see the reason of all the criticism he got. Telly Savalas does a good job as Blofeld, but what happened to Donald Pleasence? He was just perfect for the role. Diana Rigg pulls off a strong performance in the role of the Bond girl who manages to marry Bond, and she's the perfect casting to make the romance believable.