You Only Live Twice

Region 2 Ultimate Edition - 7.11Mb/sec

Region 1 Special Edition - 5.56Mb/sec

As you can see, the new editions offer much higher average bit-rates.

For the first time the first three films are offered in something closely approximating their original theatrical aspect ratio (of 1.66:1). The 2000 editions were cropped to 1.78:1 format. The new versions are windowboxed (i.e.: they have thin black bands at the sides of the image, to allow for anamorphic enhancement).

The 2000 discs featured a number of edited transfers - or, at least, were versions that did not include footage that was contained in other versions.

The UK versions of several of the 80s and 90s Bond movies have suffered at the hands of the BBFC (Licence To Kill, Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies especially). Several shots of graphic violence from Licence To Kill were removed by the BBFC, and the BBFC have routinely toned-down impact sound effects (punches, etc) and sounds of human suffering (screams, etc) in subsequent films (sometimes to ensure that the films get a certificate that is agreeable to the distributor).

However, in some cases of missing footage it was simply a case of MGM not using the optimum print. Indeed, several Bond films are known to exist in several slightly different versions, notably Thunderball (see the featurette on the DVD).

The new Ultimate Edition DVD versions rectify some of the problems.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Three instances of missing footage have been fixed:

[Times in brackets refer to the Ultimate Edition discs - these will be different to any NTSC transfer]

A shot of the shadow of a passing cable car has been reinstated to the sequence where Bond's backup, Campbell (Bernard Horsfall), is trying to gain access to Blofeld's lair (it's just after the line "Perhaps you'd like to teach me?")  [72'19"]

As Bond and Tracy leave the race-track, the line "I told you that crowd would discourage them" is now delivered over an interior shot of Bond and Tracy in the car. The previous version had it delivered over an exterior shot of the car.  [103'58"]

Blofeld's line "Tracy, don't be so proud. Your father's own business is not entirely within the law. His brotherhood also have exotic ways of keeping a closed shop"  is no longer truncated after "the law."  [116'36"]

Licence To Kill  (SPOILERS!)

Licence To Kill was quite heavily cut by the BBFC for its theatrical release, and it was this version that was released on DVD in 2000, even in the US, where it should have been released uncut, like their theatrical release.

A number of cuts have been re-instated:

An underwater shot showing Felix Leitner's (David Hedison) bloody stump has been reinstated to the end of the sequence where Sanchez lowers Bond's friend into the jaws of a shark.  [21'05"]

Believing that Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe) has betrayed him, Sanchez locks Krest into a decompression chamber, pressurises it, and then severs a feed pipe with an axe. A shot of Krest's head swelling up, and then exploding (or, at least, a shot of the inside of the porthole suddenly being showered with blood), has been reinstated.  [94'18"]

Several shots of Dario (Benecio Del Toro) falling into the grinding machine, and literally being minced alive, have been reinstated.  [109'15"]

A lingering shot of Sanchez on fire, falling to his knees, has been reinstated to his final confrontation in the desert with Bond.  [122'06"]

From Russia With Love

Unfortunately, a cut in From Russia With Love has not been fixed. There is a jump-cut at the end of the scene where Bond and Tatiana Romanova are riding in a gondola. Bond examines Grant's blackmail film. There is an awkward cut after Bond says "He's right you know". Bond's position changes (he's no longer obviously holding the film), and there's a jump in the theme song.  A subsequent line, "What a performance!" is missing from all known prints. An article about this can be found here.

The films have been given new transfers, and extensive restoration work has been undertaken by DTS Images (formerly Lowry Digital Images). I've had a look at Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball and Live and Let Die. There's no doubt that the Connery films look much better than previous editions. Colour fidelity is improved, and there is more detail to the pictures. Grain is reduced (not necessarily a good thing, but it seems fine here), and dirt and film damage has been almost completely eliminated, (and if you don't think that this was a problem with the old discs, I suggest you take another look at them!) Some of the films I looked at - Live and Let Die, especially - had lots of flecks of dirt and film sparkle, which is no longer present.

Some of the new transfers - Live and Let Die, especially - don't seem quite as sharp as before, but this is probably attributable to artificial edge-enhancement on the old transfers. The improvements to Live and Let Die weren't as immediately obvious, compared to the Connery discs, and they seemed to be more variable from shot-to-shot. Some shots were immeasurably better, others, if anything, seemed worse. I stress that this was based on a random sampling of scenes. Since the new transfers and grading were not supervised by the film's original cinematographers, there's no guarantee that the new versions faithfully reflect their original intentions.

Some screengrabs from Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball and Live and Let Die can be found here.

More notes on the James Bond Ultimate Edition DVDs.

Dr. No

That's a Smith and Wesson... and you've had your six!

In the original cut of the film Bond shot the traitorous Professor Dent six times. Director Terence Young decided that this was a little excessive, so trimmed the scene. In all extant versions of the film, including the new Ultimate Edition version, Bond only shoots twice ([56'09"]

From Russia With Love

There's a sequence where Tatiana Romanova leaves Istambul's Russian Consulate General with two colleagues [13'35"]. She chats to them briefly. Shortly afterwards, on her way to a meeting with Rosa Klebb, she asks a policeman directions [14'00"]. Both of these scenes have foreign dialogue, but no English subtitles. Apparently some prints (possibly only theatrical / TV prints) have English subtitles for these scenes. The new Ultimate Edition version is the same as the 2000 R1 version: no subtitles.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The MichaelDVD review mentions a shot where one of the helicopters attacking Blofeld's mountaintop lair apparently vanishes into thin air. This is at 120'51"-120'54" in the Ultimate Edition version. This is the same as the 2000 R1 edition [125'13"-125'16"], and seems to be the result of a lap dissolve between two takes.

Live and Let Die

The disc features the film's original burnt-in theatrical captions. It's possible that the textless version of these scenes may no longer exist. If they did, it would have been relatively simple to stabilise the rather shaky opening shot of the UN building. Perhaps doing this, which would mean re-creating the original caption, or replacing it with a player-generated one, went beyond DTS Images' restoration remit?

The Man With The Golden Gun

Some of the new additional features on the Ultimate Edition DVDs have been somewhat awkwardly edited, perhaps to avoid licensing complications, or music clearance issues. None, though, is more ham-fistedly handled than the interview with Roger Moore and Herve Villechaize from The Russell Harty Show, which has been re-edited to completely remove the show's host (some shots seem to have been zoomed-in, apparently to crop him out!) The result is a disjointed mess. This footage was licensed from ITN.

Octopussy

During the chase through the streets of Dehli, Bond dispatches a villain by throwing him onto a bed of nails, much to the disgust of its owner, a fakir, who says (in Indian) "Get off my bed." In the theatrical version, this was accompanied by an English subtitle. This is present in the new UE version, but as a player-generated subtitle. [35'38"] This subtitle was missing entirely from the 2000 R1 edition [37'04"], so in this respect the new Ultimate Edition version is an improvement, even if it isn't the original burnt-in caption.

A View To A Kill

There's an awkward jump-cut in the scene where Bond pulls back the bed covers, when May Day climbs into bed with him (presumably to remove some accidental nudity). This is still present in the Ultimate Edition version.  [41'50"]

The Living Daylights

The establishing caption ("BRATISLAVIA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA"), which should appear after the main titles is missing entirely: no burnt-in caption, and no player-generated subtitle [9'54"]. It's missing from the 2000 R1 edition, too.

In the scene where Kusov is smuggled out in the pipeline, Bond's colleague, Rosika Miklos (The Life and Loves of a She Devil's Julie T. Wallace), seduces the security supervisor, to distract him form his control panel. Her job done, she rebukes him: (in Russian). There's supposed to be an English subtitle here ("What sort of girl do you think I am?" ), but it's missing: the line doesn't even appear in the regular English subtitles. [18'40"] It wasn't there in the 2000 R1 edition, either [19'29"].

The Inside The Living Daylights featurette still contains the Sam Neill screen test footage (which was - probably erroneously - blamed for the 2000 disc becoming briefly unavailable).

Goldeneye