I love the Virgin series of film books. While very accessible, those I have read in detail (this volume and Jim Smith's George Lucas) are thoroughly researched and have a lot to offer een those who already know the material well. This volume on Bond cinema shares the heading-driven format common to the series, but it rises above the beginner's primer that the look of the book leads you to expect. Smith and Lavington know their material well enough to offer their opinions with confidence, and the result is a robust critical analysis of this important series. The sections relating to the early films' adaptations of the novels are particularly solid. This is where poor research would have vshown up, but instead the authors know the books well enough to argue persuasively that the early films were not only essentially faithful to the Fleming novels, they frequently improved on them. Another sign of good research (so rare in film books aimed at a mass audience) is the puncturing of received wisdoms: they frequently question the apocryphal stories that a lesser text would have recycled verbatim. This is the best of the several books available on the Bond films.

Click here to buy this book through Amazon.

---

Comments? Click here

© 2005 by Stephen Rowley