The Sound of 007

Everyone has their favorite (and least favorite) Bond songs. This film looks not only at the songs, but at the scores that accompanied the films, although most of the attention is rightly given to the songs. A great amount of footage from older John Barry interviews is included (he passed away about 10 years prior) as well as Monty Norman, David Arnold, Thomas Newman, and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer, as the most recent composer, receives as much attention as Barry, likely due to the fact that this appears to have been produced alongside "No Time to Die."

Although the music is wonderful, and many of the stories behind the music are fascinating, the film tap dances around many of the musical Bond moments we'd rather forget. Some of the bottom tier songs are briefly mentioned as being less popular, but are mostly praised for being daring and brave. That they may be, but daring and bravery doesn't always result in success, so maybe they shouldn't pat themselves on the back so much. One exception to this rule is Madonna's song for "Die Another Day," which is so irredeemably bad that it is completely ignored, aside from a brief image of Madonna's face towards the end of the film. This was one of three films whose music was ignored entirely. Also ignored were the missteps in scoring, namely the disco laden score in "Live and Let Die" and the electronica score for Goldeneye. I'm all for celebrating the musical successes of James Bond, but the failures could have been very interesting to explore.

One of the darker aspects of Bond's musical history was the lawsuit regarding whether Norman or Barry deserved credit for the theme from "Dr. No." This hostility may have contributed to Barry's departure from the franchise, and is not even mentioned in the film. The story behind the creation of the theme at least offers a glimpse into how each man felt deserving of credit as the composer.

While the film briefly mentions some of the alternative songs that were considered, namely Radiohead's "Spectre," other notable songs were ignored. K. D. Lang's "Surrender" was composed for "Tomorrow Never Dies" by David Arnold, and the song was heavily referenced throughout the film's score. Since Sheryl Crow was a more bankable name, Lang's song was replaced and relegated to the end credits of the film. It's widely considered the better Bond song of the two, but neither song is mentioned in the film. Neither is "No Good About Goodbye," the song David Arnold was writing for Shirley Bassey to perform for "Quantum of Solace" before changing direction. She later approached Arnold and asked him to complete the song for her anyway. He did, and like "Tomorrow Never Dies" the original song that got replaced is often considered superior to the song that was finally chosen. As the only vocalist to perform three Bond songs, even the abandoned idea of writing a fourth song for her seems noteworthy, at least.

At 88 minutes, there was plenty of time to include notable stories such as these. It was a very enjoyable film through and through, despite its effort to maintain that everything was always so rosy. If only it had been willing to tell the full story, bruises and all, I'd have been willing to give it full marks, but an abridged documentary deserves an abridged rating.

This was a great way to commemorate 60 years of Bond. Besides mostly being about the music, it really ties the plot and deeper meaning of the Bond films. Really thoughtful. For better or for worse, but it was interesting that they would talk about one movie's music, than immediately jump back to No Time To Die. It felt like they were just covering the movies they had the cast from and just skipping over some pretty big parts if they didn't have the singer of the song. However, it told the story of Bond in a more poetic. I just feel like they just waved the cast in your face and you are like "ya, I get it".

This and it's accompanying 007 Live at what I think was the Albert Hall have just appeared this weekend on Amazon Prime. The documentary is good however there's a bit too much Billie Eilish for my liking. Why she has so much screen time is beyond me, unless it's to try and appeal to the young. The focus tends to be on the themes of the Bond movies, less so on the scores which I would argue is more important. There is probably more time spent on the newer Bond movies as well which I wasn't keen on. It was interesting that LTJ Bukem appeared as he was one of the dance music artists involved with a remix project, which was never even mentioned. There are a few surprises straight out if the mouths of some of the biggest names associated with the franchise in terms of artist choice for theme songs etc. There are even sizable contributions from artist I either didn't know did a Bond song or had completely forgotten about. Jack White anybody? I certainly didn't know Lulu was ever involved. It's certainly worth watching and isn't too trainspotter-ish in terms of the musical discussions.

There is an accompanying live concert which was shot I believe on the 4th of October with a mix of new and older artists. Also on Prime. The newcomers struggled with the songs, Celeste who appears in the documentary seems to sing out of key while Paloma Faith sounds like she's doing a bad Tina Turner impression for karaoke. Also no Adele in this show. After watching the documentary you will likely find yourself clicking on the link for the live show, not a bad way to round off the evening but you won't miss much if you give the concert a miss.

John Barry wrote the most iconic music score in film history. Film and music have had an important integration that predates "talkies" when the only sound that came out were the musical scores played to fill the silence. Music sets the tone of films and amplifies the emotion of the scene, and has done so forever in movies. Try watching a film where the music score is eliminated and the difference is often startling.

No score is more identifiable than that composed and orchestrated by John Barry, who penned the immediately identifiable James Bond 007 theme. All one has to hear are the first handful of bass string electric guitar notes played to recognize it's the James Bond 007 movie theme. No other song is more connected to film.

'The Sound of 007" is the story behind how it all happened, and the amazing journey of artists and other composers, songs and performances involved over 60 YEARS!

Truly a worthwhile film to see, this is by a wide margin the best documentary on the subject, and a must-see for everyone interested in film and music arts.

👍👍

It touches upon the songs and the themes and covers a lot of the franchise, but it does give too much attention to No Time To Die and skips over some of the more interesting things. Credit to John Barry and David Arnold is definitely given, but entire bits dedicated to Amy Winehouse who almost wrote a theme and not a word about Chris Cornell's brilliant work on Casino Royale other than Rami Malek mentioning him as a favorite. I would have also loved some mention about John Barry's swan song score, Living Daylights where his orchestral and brass arrangements of aHa's theme are some of the best music of the entire franchise. The Dalton era is basically skipped over entirely. Amusing bit of Sam Smith saying he wrote his song in 20 mins and recorded it 20 mins later and given how crappy that song was, you could really believe him. Def worth a watch. Interviews with Shirley Bassey are a treat.