Bond Girls Are Forever (2002 TV Movie) User Reviews

Surprisingly well done and interesting look at the 'Bond Girls'

[davidsrose · 8/10 · 15 January 2006]

With a title like this one, you'd expect the usual, fluffy, ET-type of superficial clip flick. To my surprise, however, this retrospective/interview documentary, hosted (quite well) by former Bond girl Maryam D'Abo, turns out to be highly watchable, and not just for all the requisite clips of attractive women in bikinis. D'Abo, who co-wrote the script as well as hosted the interviews, does an excellent job of 'bonding' (ouch!) with her fellow eye-candy compatriots, and it really is fun (and interesting) to see the evolution of the role over time.

Since the film was made some 40 years after Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore rolled in the hay with Sean Connery, and that image is firmly fixed in our cultural consciousness, it is somewhat disconcerting to see her now, white-haired and pushing 80 (but still regal). On the other hand, most of the more recent vintage actresses seem to have aged surprisingly well, and (at least to my mind) come across even sexier today than they did in their films. This is not the least because they are allowed to speak their minds without a script. Surprise, surprise, instead of just being decorative, many of them come across as being thoughtful, gracious and eloquent.

The interviews with D'Abo were filmed casually, usually in public settings such as restaurants, bars or parks, but with extremely high production values. And since the film was made with the support of the franchise owners, there are more than enough clips from the original films to satisfy even hard core fans.

While this was shot in 2002, AMC is running it in rotation now with the Bond films themselves, so I'd suggest that you set your Tivo to record it for you so that you can watch it at your leisure.

Entertaining but far from comprehensive documentary

[gridoon · 6/10 · 1 August 2007]

This 46-minute look at the history of an essential part of the Bond phenomenon is certainly entertaining and at times even wonderful to watch: along with clips from several Bond movies (accompanied by their own music score), we get interviews from several former Bond girls who are now gracefully aging, intelligent women (Honor Blackman, who was around 75 when this was filmed, looks amazing for her age and still has that characteristic toughness in her voice). Most of them fully embrace their long-standing popularity, but there is one (Maud Adams) who seems to want to cut off most connections to the past. The documentary is also a good reminder of how many strong female characters have been introduced in this series; of course there also have been films like "The Man With The Golden Gun", with one bimbo and one victim, but in total the Bond series is not sexist, even if the Bond character himself is. However, there are too many omissions (among the most important ones: Carole Bouquet is not seen at all, and both "Goldeneye" girls are seen only in clips) for "Bond Girls Are Forever" to qualify as the definitive documentary on the subject. (**1/2)

better than average bond documentary

[postmanwhoalwaysringstwice · 7/10 · 3 April 2007]

Originally created for TV's American Movie Classics to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the first James Bond film, "Bond Girls Are Forever" (2002) collected film footage and new interviews with the leading ladies of those first twenty or so Bond films. The short documentary was slightly revamped in 2006 to include information about the film "Casino Royale". The documentary was co-created and is narrated by Maryam D'Abo, who played one of the more helpless and overall useless Bond girls in 1987's "The Living Daylights" opposite Timothy Dalton. She tracks down most of her Bond movie sorority sisters (a comparison made in the film) to discuss the significance in their lives and careers of having appeared in the series. There's certain repetitiveness to her discoveries, however for hardcore Bond fans the opportunity to see these women again is both exhilarating and disappointing, given the overarching mystique and fantasy elements of their presence in their respective films. The feminist criticism of the series and the empowerment of female characters within the past several entries is discussed, however the absence of Grace Jones, Roger Moore's adversary in "A View to a Kill", was felt by this viewer (as well as the other Moore era actresses Carole Bouquet, Barbara Bach, and Tanya Roberts). Though "Bond Girls are Forever" is a far more interesting entry into the Bond legacy than many other shows made about the phenomena there's a shallowness about it that's equivalent to many of the characters several of the women interviewed portrayed.

Interesting

[MovieAddict2016 · 7/10 · 9 January 2004]

Interesting documentary about all the different Bond girls over the years, and why they will forever be immortalized. I don't know if this was aired in the States, but I saw it over in the UK and it was interesting as far as these things tend to go.

Nothing that interesting but benefits from quite natural and chatty contributions

[bob the moo · 17 February 2007]

Intrigued by her own experience playing a Bond girl alongside Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights, Maryam d'Abo looks at the Bond girls from the original appearance of Ursula Andress through to one of the most recent entries (*raise eyebrow*) in the form of Halle Berry. I saw this piece of fluff as it was rolled out again with the release of 2006's Casino Royale but actually found it quite enjoyable for what it was.

The film doesn't get every Bond girl of course but it gets a good selection of them involved and mostly draws some nice conversations out of them. d'Abo meets her interviewees in mostly relaxed situations and it seemed to work pretty well as she gets more than just obvious interviews and it is more like a load of chats. It is nice to hear personal recollections from some of the Bond girls even if none of them really provide any strong or memorable anecdotes or insights; however where they are just reminiscing they are all pretty cool. Some of them try to inject some social significance into the role and they fall flat. Yes, the nature of the Bond girl has changed with society but beyond this there isn't anything beyond very simplistic attempts at commentary.

The natural contributions do tend to make it worth a look though with only Halle Berry meeting d'Abo like it was just yet another interview in a long day of interviews to promote her film. D'Abo is a reasonably good host in how she draws out the chat but not in her delivering narration, where she is a bit stiff and dull. Overall though it is an entertaining enough piece of fluff that benefits from a good collection of quite natural and chatty contributions. Nothing that interesting though but good enough for the short running time.

They are all I need to please me.

[Son_of_Mansfield · 7/10 · 5 June 2007]

Miriam D'Abo, Olivia's sister, narrates this documentary as she interviews some of the women who were Bond girls. The girls in the doc all enjoyed being able to show off their femininity, to be beautiful and, in some cases, to show off their strength. It's interesting to see the four main eras of Bond girls, from the relatively placid girls of the Connery age to the forced sex slaves of the Roger Moore era to the de-sexed Dalton girls to the tougher girls of the Brosnan films, from the perspective of the actresses who lived through them. Strangely though, some of the films are ignored, You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, and From a View To a Kill, and with the exception of Ursalla Andress, Honor Blackman, and Carey Lowell, the interviews are too short. Miriam D'Abo is also not the first Bond girl that you would think of to host a documentary on them and a club that includes some ninety women over twenty some films should probably have more than an hour dedicated to them. Despite all this, it's still a satisfying hour that brings up some interesting points to buffs.

The curse of the Bond Girl . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 6 November 2014]

. . . is explained near the end of the 13-minutes-long initial part of this documentary shorts trilogy, titled A NEW KIND OF WOMAN. Luciana Paluzzi (who portrayed "Gina Volpe" in THUNDERBALL) laments that her potential shelf full of Italian Oscar awards vaporized quicker than Ms. Volpe's criminal empire did in the movie, as all the leading Italian film directors shunned her "as if I were a comic strip character" forevermore. Or take Halle Berry. MONSTER'S BALL, B.B. (Before Bond). CATWOMAN and MOVIE 43 after. One can go up and down the list of the hundred or so "Bond Girls," and see Ms. Paluzzi's experience repeated again and again. There might be life after Sean Connery for James Bond, but there is little life after Bond for his "girls"--on-screen or off-. After awhile, this caused leading actresses to generally be very wary of Bond in Real Life, which may explain why Bond's Eon Production Company began filling Bond Girl roles with models rather than actresses (even if ALL of their lines needed to be dubbed!).

I rated Part 2 of this trilogy, CHILDREN OF OUR GENERATIONS (lasting nearly 18 minutes), slightly higher at "7." Where Part I covers "Bond Girls" of the 1960s, Part 2 focuses on Agent 007's chicks in the 1970s and 1980s. Two things stand out here. Lois Chiles as "Dr. Goodhead" told 007 to "take me around the world one more time" under duress at the climax of MOONRAKER, since she closes the back door in Real Life. Similarly, when Carey Lowell and trilogy host Maryam D'Abo get together to compare notes on James IV (Timothy Dalton), they point out that neither of their characters slept with Bond because of the 1980s AIDS crisis and 007's well-known penchant for unprotected rear entry.

Important note, mostly for Halle Berry (and any other aspiring actresses who want to take a shot at "serious" roles in the future) . . .

. . . who says during BOND MEETS HIS MATCH (Part III of this trilogy, which also lasts 18 minutes, and also merits a rating of "7") that Bond Girls are "an elite few." Moments later trilogy narrator Maryam D'Abo notes that there were 87 official BeeGees through the first 21 Agent 007 flicks (or 4.1 per picture, which yields a total of 95.2 Bond Girls series-to-date). Guess what, Halle? No matter how hard you scan this roster, it does NOT include the names of Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Streisand, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Ellen Burstyn, Louise Fletcher, Faye Dunawy, Diane Keaton, Sally Field, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Geraldine Page, Marlee Matlin, Cher, Jodie Foster, Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Emma Thompson, Holly Hunter, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Frances McDormand, Helen Hunt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank, Julie Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Helen Mirren, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, or Cate Blanchett--the OTHER "Best Actress" Oscar winners during Bond's run (1962 till now). YOU were the only one of this "Eliter Few" to fall for bad boy Bond's "charms," and you've been rewarded with roles in flicks such as MOVIE 43 ever since!

Is this a joke?

[gtc83 · 1/10 · 8 January 2006]

So I'm watching the 007 marathon on American Movie Classics, and along comes this show called "Bond Girls Are Forever". You can imagine my surprise when these women, who played characters with names like "Pussy Galore", "Dr. Good Head", and "Octopussy" started talking about themselves as if they were paragons of the women's lib movement! Each in turns claims that she was the first to portray a "strong female character" in a Bond film. Then the next claims she was the first, then the next one was the first, etc. Somewhat comical, just for the way they contradict each other.

Then, even more unbelievably, Judi Dench (M in the Brosnan era movies) shows up. I don't thing there's a Bond fan on the face of the planet who would ever think of her androgynous, politically correct, repellent and repulsive hag character as a "Bond Girl", yet here she is. She's glad that "those days are over", referring to the days when Bond girls existed. Not especially appropriate for a show called "Bond Girls", but again, there it is.

Someone comments that perhaps they should be called "Bond Women", as "girl" is degrading. At least one of the actresses has the good grace to laugh at this notion.

Overall, this is a show about beautiful women, made by people who apparently think that beauty has no value, with only advancement of the cause of feminism being regarded as a worthy accomplishment. The sort of humorless, clueless imbeciles who, thankfully, weren't around to ruin the first 30 years of Bond films.

Shallow and rather uninteresting

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 6 November 2015]

IMDb lists the date for this short Bond documentary as 2002, but I must have seen an updated version because QUANTUM OF SOLACE was discussed and Gemma Arterton made an appearance. I'm guessing they reused material from the 2002 version of the documentary and cut out some extraneous material to make way for the new, up to date stuff.

In any case, this is a rather dull little effort that offers entirely nothing new other than a few sound bites from various Bond actresses. Judi Dench is the most interesting one, bringing to light some of the gender politics from the series, but others like Halle Berry are very dull to listen to. The clips used are predictable and there's no real meat here to get your teeth into; the other Bond documentary shown alongside this one, EVERYTHING OR NOTHING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF 007, was much more interesting. Plus, I didn't like the way the interview footage was over directed, bizarrely going into split-screen at one point; just let the actresses speak for themselves without these over-the-top theatrics.