'No Time To Die' Is OHMSS Rebooted For The 21st Century

Of all the actors who have donned the world famous tuxedo strapped with a Walther PPK, George Lazenby is the least known.

Sandwiched between the late great Sean Connery and Roger Moore, the Australian certainly did himself no favours in choosing to do just one film and the antipodean is often used as a cultural reference point for forgettable non-iconic acting performances.

But time has been extremely kind to the film that one film that George Lazenby signed up for which is titled: " On Her Majesty's Secret Service"or to use the abbreviation OHMSS.

In the 1998 book the essential bond, the authors had the following to say about OHMSS:

Although OHMSS was routinely dismissed by critics who cited Lazenby as a brave but disappointing successor to Connery, the intervening years have been notably kinder to both the film and its star. Indeed, due in no small part to Peter Hunt's inspired direction, OHMSS generally ranks among the top films with fans. Likewise, Lazenby has emerged as a very popular contributor to the series and has enjoyed large enthusiastic audiences during his appearances at Bond related events. In summary, OHMSS is a brilliant thriller in its own right and justifiably ranks amongst the best Bond films ever made

For it is this little known but highly regarded film which provides the inspiration for the latest offering from the Bond franchise as well as the perfect sendoff to Daniel Craig's super spy.

And Just like its predecessor, the word time features quite prominently, giving us (the audience) a sense of foreboding, an inkling of what's to come throughout this rather long film.

In the opening sequence of the new offering, as Louis Armstrong's original recording of we have all the time in the world plays to the magnificent Italian backdrop, you instantly knew or had the impression that something ominous was about to or would happen.

In OHMSS, Lazenby's Bond meets and falls in love with Tracy Di Vincenzo, daughter of Count Draco,the head of the second largest crime syndicate in the world. Over the course of the film, our hero works very hard to infiltrate Ernst Starvo Blofeld's scheme to use a number of girls to spread bacteriological warfare across the world, while consummating his relationship with Countess Di Vincenzo.

As is his wont, Bond has to negotiate defeating Blofeld while ensuring that those around him are not endangered.

The theme of bacteriological warfare in No Time To Die is eerily prescient in view of the global pandemic which shut down the world in 2020, which also saw the release of the movie postponed four times from November 2019 to October 2021.

Perhaps more than any Bond film you have ever seen, you are treated to a multi dimensional character replete with profoundly complex emotions, who struggles to maintain some sort of balance while working arduously to ensure that Rami Malek's character (who tops Blofeld at his murderous sociopathic worst) is comprehensively defeated.

Just as George Lazenby's 007 declares his undying love for Countess Di Vincenzo and is completely helpless when she is killed by Blofeld at the end of OHMSS, we see Daniel Craig's Bond displaying levels of emotional vulnerability that Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan's 007s would have baulked at, but something that makes for compelling viewing.

And it is with this in view that the film roars to an explosive ending with our hero having to make difficult choices in terms of who lives and who dies.

Having been poisoned by Safin's bots as well grappling with a few bullet wounds, 007 makes the all important decision in having the royal navy destroy the base from which the poisonous bots are manufactured with him in it and gets to express his deepest feelings to his love interest and his daughter (another first) as he accepts his fate with great equanimity.

And unlike any other Bond film in history, it is the protagonist who dies.

It's clear to see why the critics have been lauding this film, with a number of reviews describing it an brilliant piece of story telling with a few action sequences to keep its loyal fans salivating and everyone else thoroughly captivated.

Given the sheer quality of the film, I might go to the cinemas to see it a second time.

It is that good.