VOD film review: The Sound of 007
Review Overview
Anecdotes
8Insight
8Affection
8David Farnor | On 11, Oct 2022
Director: Mat Whitecross
Cast: Daniel Craig, Hans Zimmer, David Arnold, Billie Eilish
Certificate: TBC
“The fight to do a Bond song is as big as the fight to be cast as Bond,” argues one critic in The Sound of 007, Amazon Prime Video’s new documentary about the music behind the world’s most famous secret agent. The title of the film alone alludes to how meaty its subject matter is, because people will already have their own notions of what the “sound” of James Bond entails. Here, that engrained cultural knowledge is unpacked in beautiful detail.
Director Matt Whitecross, who also gave us the superb documentaries Supersonic and A Head Full of Dreams, turns what could have been a sugary promo piece to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Bond film franchise into a loving and insightful exploration of its equally long-running accompaniment. It takes that legacy and familiarity as its throughline, using it to tie together the passion that so many people have put into Bond music over the years and the way the music has faced the same challenge off screen as Bond’s actors have on screen: putting a new spin on an unexpected blueprint, remaining the same, timeless franchise while also moving forwards.
The theme songs alone are a wonderful chronicle of changing times, from John Barry’s brassy Goldfinger belted out by Shirley Bassey to the post-Barry pop of Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die and Duran Duran’s A View to a Kill through to the modern artists interpreting the formula, such as Garbage’s The World Is Not Enough and Adele’s Skyfall. Sam Smith pops up to boast about composing The Writing’s on the Wall in 20 minutes, which says everything we need to know about that song, while Jack White is charmingly self-deprecating as he talks openly about the backlash to his and Alicia Keys’ guitar-heavy duet.
Even in this most public-facing aspect of Bond music the documentary surfaces some intriguing revelations, from Barbara Broccoli talking about the Amy Winehouse theme that never was for Quantum of Solace to Sam Mendes explaining how technicalities prevented Radiohead from getting the gig. In the well-researched archive footage, too, are fun, little-known anecdotes, including Michael Caine talking about John Barry composing Goldfinger all through the night while he was crashing on his sofa, and Tom Jones almost passing out in the studio recording Thunderball.
The exact process of how John Barry stepped in to re-arrange Monty Norman’s iconic 007 theme is thoroughly outlined, paving the way for a fun tour through the ways that the Bond theme has been peppered and pulled apart during the films by a range of composers, or woven through the theme songs. That then sets the frame for the third element of Bond’s sound: the soundtracks themselves.
Barry’s shadow looms large, with all manner of experts talking about his influence, including the always-insightful David Arnold, who picked up the baton to bring Bond into the modern age, and studiously avoided using the main line of Barry’s Bond theme for the whole of Casino Royale. Fellow composer Thomas Newman pays tribute to Arnold, while Hans Zimmer is a delight as he waxes lyrical about playing with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service for No Time to Die’s score.
No Time to Die, perhaps inevitably, gets the lion’s share of screen time, as we hear about how they built up to Daniel Craig’s final scene as 007 – someone astutely notes that Bond doesn’t talk about his feelings much, leaving the music to do the emotional heavy-lifting – and how Zimmer used Billie Eilish’s vocals from the title track as a sample within the score. Billie and Finneas O’Connell’s songwriting talent, meanwhile, is matched by their giddy enthusiasm for being involved in the franchise.
But Whitecross doesn’t lose sight of Bond’s 60-year legacy, deploying a witty use of Maurice Binder’s title credits for Dr No to introduce musical notes and other concepts, while talking heads not include figures such as Neil Brand and Reggie Watts but also lyricists Don Black and Tim Rice and singers ranging from Lulu to Sheena Easton. The result is a playful and precise documentary assembled with as much care and affection as the musicians being showcased. The best and most comprehensive Bond playlist since 2006’s The Ultimate James Bond Film Music Collection Ultimate Bond, this will have you going back to listen to The Sound of 007 all over again – all over again.