Everything or Nothing

As a documentary, EVERYTHING OR NOTHING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF 007 attempts to shed new light on the much-loved film and book franchise as well as being a celebration of the topic. It succeeds in the latter part but is noticeably light in offering up anything new in way of material; Bond fans will find this all very familiar stuff indeed.

Still, I enjoyed this as a straightforward retrospective, exploring Ian Fleming's life and his original stories before working its way chronologically through the Bond films and their actors. This was made to tie in with SKYFALL and the 50th anniversary of Bond, so it's pretty comprehensive, with lots of clips and interesting reveals about the behind-the-scenes production wrangling with rights issues and the like.

The most fun part of all this is the talking head footage of pretty much every important Bond participant, including Barbara Broccoli. The only one missing is the ever-grumpy Sean Connery, but he isn't missed too much. Roger Moore is a delight as ever, and it's nice to see Christopher Lee in what would be one of his last screen appearances. I'm not sure what Bill Clinton is doing here, but he's here nonetheless. EVERYTHING OR NOTHING will do nothing to change your opinion or outlook about the Bond franchise but it whiles away the time readily enough and certainly puts you in the mood for a Bond film or two.

Nothing here that I didn't already know. The information is already out there in countless books and other documentaries. Because it's an official documentary, views are very sanitized. Dull.

Though this feels like a better than average DVD extra that's been buffed up and polished so that it can attempt to stand on its own two feet as a tv special/film, this actually isn't too bad.

It covers (briefly) how Bond came to be, but mostly focusses on how the film franchise came to be the massive deal that we know it to be.

It doesn't shy away from covering some of the lower moments along the way, not to mention that awkward six year gap between the reign of Dalton and Brosnan, but it's perfectly accessible for those who've heard all of the stories many times before, and equally those who don't.

A good effort.

Fantastic documentary and very pacily directed. Actually more involving and entertaining than many recent Bond films for this fan, a real narrative arc to it all, and emotional involvement. Superb use of Barry music throughout to accompany the narrative, and clips from the films to illustrate events.

Bond creator Ian Fleming gets his deserved share of acclaim in it. Connery's non-involvement lends him a posthumous air, but it allows him to be cast as the villain of the piece, an attitude which seems more justified in retrospect as the series has gone from strength to strength without him. They linger on shots of Connery looking quite obese in the Diamonds are Forever era, as if to make a point, and the clips from his rogue Bond film Never Say Never Again mainly show him at his worst. They don't mention, however, that EON actively worked to mess up Never Say Never Again by hauling them to the courts on a weekly basis to throw up roadblocks over their intended storyline.

Alternative Bond producer and huckster Kevin McClory is the other villain of the piece, though no one would realistically stick up for him. That said, I'm not sure that the whole Spectre thing wasn't his idea and lord knows EON milked that in the 60s, using them for films where they hadn't even featured in the books.

A shock to see Roger Moore look so overweight, he's turning into Cubby now, while I thought Dalton looked better than he's been in decades, quite rugged and windswept. But his interpretation of Bond is wholly damned here, with no one speaking up in support of it, and he even seems to damn it in his own words: 'I worried that half the people would love Connery and the other half love Moore and they'd gang up to hate me...' implying that's what happened, though in the interview from which that quote was taken, a few years after LTK, he swiftly added 'Which didn't happen I'm glad to say', now edited out. Brosnan is in good form, but still surprisingly cut up about getting the push, surprisingly because, let's face it, his films were mostly below par through no fault of his own. I think his response was the grief or regret that comes from knowing he'd never get a chance to get it right, and now time had moved on.

One-time Bond George Lazenby is perhaps the best entertainment value for anecdotes, he's in good form and amusingly self-deprecating. Oh, there's a moving scene regarding a phone call from Connery to Cubby, related by Barbara Broccoli. Connery's comments are occasionally heard, but they're from past interviews and used very fleetingly, over other clips.

What I found surprising was that I found the clips of Casino Royale with Daniel Craig at the end far more moving than in the actual film, because the music played over it - not David Arnold, it seems - was more affecting. Craig's performance looked shockingly impressive this time round simply because of this.

Some clips from Skyfall at the end, though not too many if you haven't seen it yet. The trailer is almost directly before the film, so arrive at the last minute if you want to miss that. Catch this in cinemas if you can, as you get to see some clips of the films on the big screen for once, even if some of the hi-def remasters seem to have just something very slightly wrong about them sometimes.

"Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007" (2012 release; 98 min.) is a documentary about the James Bond movie franchise (which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012). After a 'classic' Bond opening, we quickly delve into Ian Fleming's background, and in particular how deeply affected he was by WWII (in which he served) and later the Cold War. It eventually leads him to create the James Bond character, and the first Bond novel "Casino Royal", which some refers to as Fleming's "autobiography of a dream", ha! After this promising start to the documentary, we quickly evolve into the complicated relationship between Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.

Couple of comments: this documentary is directed by British film maker Steven Riley. Riley tries to walk a fine line between on the one hand all of the legal issues that have confronted the James Bond franchise over the years (and believe me, there are PLENTY), and giving an overview of how the Bond movies have evolved over the years. There are some tidbits here and there that I found interesting (such as: the budget for the first Bond Movie "Mr. NO" being $1 million--or about $8 million in today's dollars, can you imagine making a Bond movie for just $8 million?; and the interview with one-time Bond actor George Lazenby, on how he talked Broccoli and Saltzman into becoming the new Bond, only then to be kicked out of the Bond franchise after just one movie).

I recently stumbled on this while browsing the EPIX on Demand documentary section. When a 50th anniversary celebration movie like this one is put together, you can be assured that it stays on the lighter side when all is said and done, and that's fine. I'm sure one day someone (independent from the Bond film makers) will produce the definitive James Bond documentary.