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Whilst I found the Sound of 007 to be fascinating, insightful and compelling as a James Bond fan, and as a fan of all the music scores and theme songs from the past 60 years, it didn't completely satisfy my thirst for wanting to know about the musical origins of all the Bond films.

The works of John Barry and David Arnold are quite rightly covered in detail and celebrated as being most influential on the franchise but it didn't cover the lesser contributions of Bill Conti, Michael Kamen and Eric Serra. These were ominously overlooked and I really wanted to know more about these scores, or maybe that is just the completist coming out in me, but either way I felt it was a missed opportunity to make this a definitive documentary about the Bond music film by film. They could easily have stretched out the running time to 2 hours instead of 88 minutes by giving more even coverage to every film.

The Timothy Dalton era is almost completed omitted. Why were there no contributions from A-Ha or Gladys Knight? Even John Barry doesn't mention his score for The Living Daylights. Apart from that shortfall it is still worth a watch as there were many stories and facts I hadn't heard before from the many talented writers, performers and producers who created them.

It was an interesting documentary worth watching. I did think that they spent a little too much time on No Time to Die. It Is a fun watch overall that reminds you that there have been a lot of great songs that came out of the James Bond franchise. Sometimes you forget that songs came from these movies and it is nice to be reminded of them and hear some stories behind them. My biggest criticism would be that they barely mentioned Chris Cornell who did a great job on Casino Royal which I found disrespectful given that he's passed away. Overall though it was worth watching for any James Bond fan, movie fan, or music fan.

Everyone has their favorite (and least favorite) Bond songs. This film looks not only at the songs, but at the scores that accompanied the films, although most of the attention is rightly given to the songs. A great amount of footage from older John Barry interviews is included (he passed away about 10 years prior) as well as Monty Norman, David Arnold, Thomas Newman, and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer, as the most recent composer, receives as much attention as Barry, likely due to the fact that this appears to have been produced alongside "No Time to Die."

Although the music is wonderful, and many of the stories behind the music are fascinating, the film tap dances around many of the musical Bond moments we'd rather forget. Some of the bottom tier songs are briefly mentioned as being less popular, but are mostly praised for being daring and brave. That they may be, but daring and bravery doesn't always result in success, so maybe they shouldn't pat themselves on the back so much. One exception to this rule is Madonna's song for "Die Another Day," which is so irredeemably bad that it is completely ignored, aside from a brief image of Madonna's face towards the end of the film. This was one of three films whose music was ignored entirely. Also ignored were the missteps in scoring, namely the disco laden score in "Live and Let Die" and the electronica score for Goldeneye. I'm all for celebrating the musical successes of James Bond, but the failures could have been very interesting to explore.

One of the darker aspects of Bond's musical history was the lawsuit regarding whether Norman or Barry deserved credit for the theme from "Dr. No." This hostility may have contributed to Barry's departure from the franchise, and is not even mentioned in the film. The story behind the creation of the theme at least offers a glimpse into how each man felt deserving of credit as the composer.

While the film briefly mentions some of the alternative songs that were considered, namely Radiohead's "Spectre," other notable songs were ignored. K. D. Lang's "Surrender" was composed for "Tomorrow Never Dies" by David Arnold, and the song was heavily referenced throughout the film's score. Since Sheryl Crow was a more bankable name, Lang's song was replaced and relegated to the end credits of the film. It's widely considered the better Bond song of the two, but neither song is mentioned in the film. Neither is "No Good About Goodbye," the song David Arnold was writing for Shirley Bassey to perform for "Quantum of Solace" before changing direction. She later approached Arnold and asked him to complete the song for her anyway. He did, and like "Tomorrow Never Dies" the original song that got replaced is often considered superior to the song that was finally chosen. As the only vocalist to perform three Bond songs, even the abandoned idea of writing a fourth song for her seems noteworthy, at least.

At 88 minutes, there was plenty of time to include notable stories such as these. It was a very enjoyable film through and through, despite its effort to maintain that everything was always so rosy. If only it had been willing to tell the full story, bruises and all, I'd have been willing to give it full marks, but an abridged documentary deserves an abridged rating.

John Barry wrote the most iconic music score in film history. Film and music have had an important integration that predates "talkies" when the only sound that came out were the musical scores played to fill the silence. Music sets the tone of films and amplifies the emotion of the scene, and has done so forever in movies. Try watching a film where the music score is eliminated and the difference is often startling.

No score is more identifiable than that composed and orchestrated by John Barry, who penned the immediately identifiable James Bond 007 theme. All one has to hear are the first handful of bass string electric guitar notes played to recognize it's the James Bond 007 movie theme. No other song is more connected to film.

'The Sound of 007" is the story behind how it all happened, and the amazing journey of artists and other composers, songs and performances involved over 60 YEARS!

Truly a worthwhile film to see, this is by a wide margin the best documentary on the subject, and a must-see for everyone interested in film and music arts.

👍👍

This and it's accompanying 007 Live at what I think was the Albert Hall have just appeared this weekend on Amazon Prime. The documentary is good however there's a bit too much Billie Eilish for my liking. Why she has so much screen time is beyond me, unless it's to try and appeal to the young. The focus tends to be on the themes of the Bond movies, less so on the scores which I would argue is more important. There is probably more time spent on the newer Bond movies as well which I wasn't keen on. It was interesting that LTJ Bukem appeared as he was one of the dance music artists involved with a remix project, which was never even mentioned. There are a few surprises straight out if the mouths of some of the biggest names associated with the franchise in terms of artist choice for theme songs etc. There are even sizable contributions from artist I either didn't know did a Bond song or had completely forgotten about. Jack White anybody? I certainly didn't know Lulu was ever involved. It's certainly worth watching and isn't too trainspotter-ish in terms of the musical discussions.

There is an accompanying live concert which was shot I believe on the 4th of October with a mix of new and older artists. Also on Prime. The newcomers struggled with the songs, Celeste who appears in the documentary seems to sing out of key while Paloma Faith sounds like she's doing a bad Tina Turner impression for karaoke. Also no Adele in this show. After watching the documentary you will likely find yourself clicking on the link for the live show, not a bad way to round off the evening but you won't miss much if you give the concert a miss.

It's a nice summary of the history of the music in the James Bond films. Surprisingly, they left out the John Barry instrumental theme to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I always found that to be a compelling piece of music.

To me, that intro was much better than the James Bond theme used through the films of the franchise. It was used throughout the action segments of the film and aligned so well with the character. You'll know it when you hear it.

Otherwise, this is a nice walk through the films of the franchise and touch upon almost all of the instantly recognizable musical pieces and motifs of the series.

The documentary "The Sound of 007" enriches us with details about the construction and choices of songs/writers and performers for each of the James Bond films. Composer John Barry created the sound of James Bond, he mastered 11 of Bond's music scores. He invented the style and it was the basis of all other subsequent Bond movies.

Any of the 007 movies without the well-known opening theme doesn't sound like a James Bond movie. The theme became one of the main characters of the film, without it the film would be incomplete.

Aside from the opening theme, each Bond film brings the trademark of a song originally written to embrace the plot, this is for all 25 Bonds films.

The documentary focuses a bit more on the soundtracks from the 60s to the 90s and touches on the 2000s onwards. But the film manages to give a good view of how important a soundtrack is for the construction and identification of one character: BOND...James Bond!!!

It touches upon the songs and the themes and covers a lot of the franchise, but it does give too much attention to No Time To Die and skips over some of the more interesting things. Credit to John Barry and David Arnold is definitely given, but entire bits dedicated to Amy Winehouse who almost wrote a theme and not a word about Chris Cornell's brilliant work on Casino Royale other than Rami Malek mentioning him as a favorite. I would have also loved some mention about John Barry's swan song score, Living Daylights where his orchestral and brass arrangements of aHa's theme are some of the best music of the entire franchise. The Dalton era is basically skipped over entirely. Amusing bit of Sam Smith saying he wrote his song in 20 mins and recorded it 20 mins later and given how crappy that song was, you could really believe him. Def worth a watch. Interviews with Shirley Bassey are a treat.

This was a great way to commemorate 60 years of Bond. Besides mostly being about the music, it really ties the plot and deeper meaning of the Bond films. Really thoughtful. For better or for worse, but it was interesting that they would talk about one movie's music, than immediately jump back to No Time To Die. It felt like they were just covering the movies they had the cast from and just skipping over some pretty big parts if they didn't have the singer of the song. However, it told the story of Bond in a more poetic. I just feel like they just waved the cast in your face and you are like "ya, I get it".

This is an interesting watch as it tells you much of the inside story of the music of James Bond, but I am disappointed that the two songs of the franchise that have stayed with me the most are hardly mentioned.

1: "Tomorrow never dies" by Sheryl Crow. Being the wife/girlfriend of a government assassin would not be a comfortable place to be, and nothing captures the pathos of this situation more than this song. So it would relate to the plight of the Teri Hatcher character, and does so eloquently.

2: "You know my name" by Chris Cornell. Unmistakably Bond, but, also unmistakably new, like the film itself. Sets up the first appearance of Daniel Craig very nicely.

Music has been an important element of the James Bond movies.

Dr No had the Bond theme composed by Monty Norman and realised by John Barry.

It was Barry who was instrumental in bringing the iconic songs to the movies. Big numbers from the likes of Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger or Diamonds are forever.

How the music reflected the era once Roger Moore took over the role. Paul McCartney going for a more rock sound with even a hint of reggae.

Marvin Hamlisch brought a touch of disco to The Spy Who Loved Me.

Duran Duran stating how difficult Barry could be to collaborate with but they managed to hit number one in America with A View to a Kill.

I was amused that Sam Smith who won an Oscar for his song for Spectre. Boasting that he wrote the song in 20 minutes and recorded it in one take in a further 20 minutes. It seems Radiohead did have the better song.

There was more emphasis on No Time to Die as it was the most recent movie.

There were failures, Shirley Bassey did not like her song for Moonraker. Tim Rice showed that he should stick to musicals as his song for Octopussy was not an all time high.

I was puzzled why A-ha and Chris Cornell's songs were overlooked.

A criticism about the Daniel Craig era was that the main Bond theme has not been used at all in the action scenes.

David Arnold gives an explanation as to why, the Bond theme appears at the end of Casino Royale.

That does not explain why since then, there are snatches of the Bond theme rather than a full blooded roar.

I remain unconvinced by Hans Zimmer deconstruction of the Bond theme for No Time to Die. It was bass heavy and reminded me too much of his Batman work.

I wish it had just gone in chronological order. Why say that each song reflects a certain time in pop culture, and then jump back and forth in decades? Also, besides the one snippet showing how one of the main motifs came from an Indian tune, I wish the documentary went into the actual parameters of the notes and chords that make up the stereotypical James Bond and 007 sound. I know they did not want to go down a rabbit hole of music theory for a broad audience, but there has to be a certain scale and comparison against the standard Western scale that could have been touched on for a few minutes.

RATED 8/10 Language: English Source: Prime Video RECOMMENDED

I start to watch Bond movies from Golden Eye and it is really awesome for me to know about the history of bond.

The origin of the bond theme and everyone's involvement from the beginning to end is analysed in detail. The documentary has some really classic footages and it is really great to know about the history.

It brings back the nostalgia of school and college days with the improvements and variations of theme over the period.

This is really awesome to watch in 5.1 surround sound in big screen. At the same time the documentary feeling is unavoidable and bit slow in the middle.

As "The Sound of 007" (2022 release from the UK; 85 min0 opens, we are at the "AIR Studios 2019" and Billie Eilish is working on the title track of the latest Bond movie called "No Time To Die". We then go back in time, to the very beginning of it all, as Monty Norman, and later John Barry launch the music juggernaut that would become "the sound of 007", in the Bond theme, the Bond songs, and the Bond scores. At this point we are less than 10 min into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this film is by British director Matt Whitecross, and he looks back fondly to these 6 decades of Bond music. A good chunk is devoted to how and where the Bond theme originated. But the heart of the documentary is indeed a look back to the many Bond songs (of which many were the movie's title song). Too much attention is given to Billie Eilish and her brother (I personally think that "No Time TO Die" is one of the worst Bond songs ever). But then we get a look to people like Shirley Bassey, who is of course THE ultimate Bond singer. Along the way we can to enjoy some memorable Bond scenes, and the usual talking heads providing further insights. In all this is quite a breezy documentary that doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, and that's just as well.

"The Sound of 007" premiered recently on Amazon Prime (of course, since Amazon bought MGM including the James Bond movies for an estimated $9 billion). If you are a fan of James Bond, and who isn't, I'd readily suggest you check out "The Sound of 007" and draw your own conclusion,

Whenever a documentary about the James Bond franchise is put together, it is exceedingly easy to get caught up in great action sequences or iconic pieces of dialogue and lose focus on the subject at hand. In other words, these sorts of docs often turn into "Bond greatest hits" montages and little else. Fortunately, "The Sound of 007" sticks close to its thesis--exploring the music of the franchise--and is the better for it.

For a very basic overview, this doc looks at the soundtracks, opening songs, and singers of the Bond franchise from Dr. No to No Time To Die. Not every film or song is given time here, but overall it is a very comprehensive look. Certain artists are spotlighted and given more play, including...

-John Barry and Monty Norman, essentially the creators of the Bond theme and general sound of the "early years".

-Shirley Bassey and how her iconic "Goldfinger" tune set the standard for the "opening Bond song" for years to come.

-Hans Zimmer (composer) and Billie Eilish (artist) working on thus far the latest Bond flick, No Time to Die.

-Stories from the likes of Michael Caine, Nancy Sinatra, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Carly Simon, Sam Smith, and Duran Duran (among others) about their Bond music involvement.

Though there are of course some Bond films montages throughout "Sound of 007", director Mat Whitecross keeps them to a minimum and really focuses on the history of the music and those creating it. Even while doing that, some interesting graphics and visual cues are used to give the whole thing a lot of visual flair.

Overall, I think the reason I enjoyed "The Sound of 007" as much as I did is because it succeeds in wrangling a sprawling, decades-long, all-over-the-map franchise down to a specific topic: music. It is so easy for Bond conversations to spin off into this or that, but here the focus is kept on the music (both past and present). Because of that, I was both highly entertained--because at the end of the day Bond has great music!--and feel like I learned quite a bit about Bond music through the decades.

This was well done and as much as it's a great history and look at the music behind James Bond - it also offers a lot of insight into movie music across the board. It's well made - they hit all the major marks and movies - lots of fun and again, very insightful!

I enjoyed all of it.

Now to hit my 600 characters - I'd like to say This was well done and as much as it's a great history and look at the music behind James Bond - it also offers a lot of insight into movie music across the board. It's well made - they hit all the major marks and movies - lots of fun and again, very insightful!

I enjoyed all of it.

Music has been elemental to the success of the James Bond franchise, and director Mat Whitecross' 2022 documentary provides a good albeit incomplete overview of the contributions made by various composers and renowned performers through the years. There's a lot of emphasis on Billie Eilish's work on "No Time to Die", and one can't help but feel this was an extended commercial for Amazon's recent purchase of the Bond filmography. It was interesting to hear the familiar musical passages recycled yet altered as the character went through life changes in the series. The hits are covered though the movie breezes through the misses with little explanation. No surprise that this is on Amazon Prime.

This documentary is a short, but perfectly-formed summary of the cultural impact of Bond, why it maintains such relevance today, and what it means to some of the most elite operators in music and cinema of all time.

It includes a plethora of talking heads and sheds light on some of the fascinating layers and mystique that surround each and every song and score.

Hearing from composers, musicians, actors, and even a 007, describe, in rich detail, how the music has enhanced the cinematography across sixty years, was rich in nostalgia, and moving throughout.

My love affair with the Bond universe has grown deeper still now that I have this thorough understanding of the care and sense of duty which intertwines with every theme song.

I cannot recommend this highly enough.

I love all things Bond, and have for a long time. Along with that, I have owned a compilation album of Bond theme songs that I listen to regularly basically my entire life, which I replaced more than once over the years as new movies/songs released. It was a foregone conclusion that I was going to rush to watch this documentary about "The Sound of 007." It was a big celebration of all the great music over the years, and talked directly about the way they make these theme songs. There was some extra attention given to No Time to Die, but that's not surprising since it is the most recent film and they had a lot of access to Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell. They interviewed a number of people involved in the creation of the music, and all of them still seemed pretty passionate about the work they did.

I was impressed that The Sound of 007 actually admitted the fact that not all 25 songs have been winners. They discussed some of the ways they have fallen short, and even made some speculation why that might have happened. They also openly discuss in this documentary that the franchise has a tendency to follow trends in modern music which doesn't always work. If I had my druthers, they would have walked through time and discussed every single song at least a little. Seeing more of the singers/bands discussing what they did would be awesome. As it stands they hit all the expected highlights, and skip over some of the others. It's still a decent documentary even if it didn't tell me anything new. In conjunction with the live concert that you can also watch online, this was a fun way to celebrate 60 years of James Bond films (while we wait at least 3 or 4 more years before we'll see a new one.)

The Sound of 007 is quite a great watch. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the history of 007 in music and its rich and wonderful journey. It was magical to see excerpts and clips from the 60s and 70s of Bond artists who hit so many homeruns for the franchise. Music has such a deep way of moving people and this is very true of the greatest film franchise of all time. I learnt a few things and it was a complete treat seeing the films and music come together in such a beautiful display.

This well made documentary was quite deep in parts which was enjoyable. My only criticism is omitted a bit of Timothy Dalton's era, Aha and Gladys Knight which was disappointing and a bit too much time wasted on No Time to Die at the end which was a pitiful movie and went against the spirit of Bond to try justify a redundant "rebirth" and breaking a cardinal rule. These were great artists in the 80s and it would have been rich to have included more about them.

If you are a Bond fan then you should really enjoy this feature and homage to the music and sound of Bond.

Perfect idea for a documentary:let's highlight all those terrific classic Bond songs over 60 years! And they are still superb. Still rock solid to this very day. And they make me FEEL GOOD every single time I hear them. There is simply something about those songs that gives me goosebumps, a feeling of movie magic, of glory and of the sky being the limit.

I LOVE BOND SONGS!

In this documentary we get to see many musicians and composers and all the ins and outs of how they were chosen to do the Bond theme song and how it was created.

What's also quite funny to see is those songs and artists that didnt make it, like Radiohead, who wrote a TERRIFIC song, that was to die for, but alas they had already found somebody else. And Amy Winehouse was offered the Bond theme song as well, but unfortunately she was already too far gone.

Highly recommended for any Bond fan, because this documentary will stir up so many pleasant memories of all those many years we went to the cinema, with the very first minutes, welcoming us with that recognizable John Barry theme. What a joy!