Starring: Sean Connery, Mie Hama, Donald Pleasance
Composer: John Barry
Title Song: You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra
The story: Bond fakes his death to get the criminal organization SPECTRE off his back. Agent 007 then flies to Japan in search of a hijacked spacecraft, knowing that nationalist cold war tensions will lead to nuclear war if he fails.
Although You Only Live Twice could have been a lot better on the silver screen, it is still an enjoyable film. Japan is a great setting for what was supposed to be Sean Connery's final Bond. The directing by Lewis Gilbert is superb. He puts an interesting twist on several scenes, including a frantic rooftop fight that is shot with a wide angle rather than a closeup.
The plot is fantastic and somewhat silly but it doesn't need to be realistic. This is a Bond movie, after all. The story gives Connery the opportunity to partake in several scenes that have become part of the Bond legend. The helicopter chase is exciting (and dangerous for the aerial cameraman, as I later learned), and the battle inside the impressive hollow mountain (as later spoofed by the Simpsons) is classic Bond action. Bond even tries to board SPECTRE's rocket, foreshadowing what would come in Moonraker.
My biggest complaint with this film is Blofeld himself. After concealing his face in the other Bond movies, his revealing is very anti-climactic. Donald Pleasance never lived up to the meanacing, mysterious Blofeld portrayed by Anthony Dawson in From Russia With Love and Thunderball. And, after seeing Mike Myers's hillarious Dr. Evil, you can never take him seriously. You Only Live Twice is classic James Bond fun and excitement. It is also the inspiration for another great movie franchise, Austin Powers. If you like either series of movies, make sure to watch You Only Live Twice.