Blending Creative and Documentary Style, Becoming Bond – currently available on Hulu – covers the life history of George Lazenby. He’s the first actor to succeed Sean Connery as James Bond after his timeless reign in the venerable franchise. – Australian male model and actor. It’s a nice and rather short story as narrated by the protagonist, but its (more or less
Lazenby is a character rather than the subject of a former action hero Lazenby, which makes the audience more doubt that he had the right to be 007.
Lazenby never acted at any time in his life, yet he was cast as the most famous spy in the cinema. However, he only did this once in the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Going by Lazenby it was not what he wanted. He indeed walked away from all the fame and all the money, turning down a multi-picture deal and dollar million offers to reprise the character of 007. (The franchise may say ‘killed’ Sean Connery, ‘pulled out’ of the acting for Scottish bow-calls of old man waddling man a single time before Roger Moore got the character.)
Becoming Bond is constructed in such a way which having moved on from the thinker, the shit stain on society that was his childhood in Australia, the mechanic, the car salesman, the accident of a male narrative and finally the second Bond on the screen and his mistress from one romantic episode to another are put back largely in a funny way with Josh Lawson – who plays Lazenby as superstore house of lies.
The choice of director Josh Greenbaum to let Lazenby tell his own story as he remembers it creates some fun moments of Lawson’s Lazenby portraying some of these scenes, however, this also raises doubts about the extent to which Lazenby is an unbiased storyteller. That would make sense why Lazenby is a participant in the best narrative he knows there is — his own. He confesses his arrogance which in his perception is just about honestly being himself, and also through that manages to ‘apologize’ to his every imperfection starting from valid reasons to be wrong and including episodes of sexual dysfunction.
Though it has to be pointed out, that while many might complain over the historic inaccuracies of these so-called reenactments, there are bits that come across really funny. The comic in his sketch is derivative, tacky, and petty more like a sketch in TV comedy. In fact, here where he really compares favorably with the original Bond actors is Bradley Lawson in real life-seems too dainty and lacks the signature macho that the 007 was known for. If this is how an idiot depicts himself on purpose I do not get how he can play that particular role.
Lawson is a bold comedian but he pretty much cannot pull off Lazenby’s look convincingly even in make-up. The hairline is out of proportion. There is simply no resemblance with the former. He further speaks of an ex there in series of a jump cut to lazenby and back to that stylish flashback Laban Abitbol has.
The dramatizations achieve their greatest effectiveness during the stage when George pursues Belinda (Kassandra Clementi) a wealthy Australian woman he falls terribly in love with. While there is surely some pretty stalkerish pursuing on our modern standards on George’s side, I have to admit believing that a romance with Belinda brought out the positive aspects in George and even when he was being an arrogant fool and letting the better of him, one could still end up sympathizing with him.
Things that are already deeply rooted in the culture about ‘bonding’ for Lazenby may not have been the most admirable in today’s hyper sensitive and PC culture and there are times that one has to say cringe, especially with some of his (and his character’s) actions. But at least the film and its subject, to their credit, takes the risk to portray the man with I would say relatively few embellishments.
Supporting actors include Jeff Garlin who plays Bond films producer Harry Saltzman, Bond Girl Jane Seymour plays Georgie’s agent, Jake Johnson and Dana Carvey cameos – do not have particularly fleshed out characters, causing these moments to feel more like skits than anything meaningful.
In the end, it is Lazenby himself that decides the worth of the film Becoming Bond. He is charming without even trying, a great storyteller, and his life is very captivating … perhaps with the exception that this writer believes, many fans of Bond familiar with the franchise history may regard his premise on the abrupt cessation of his Bond stuck a bit differently. In such a way psychological frankness allows standing to the imbalance of the view between the subject and the subject of the study
The casting of the charming, skilful storyteller George Lazenby whom Becoming Bond is about is one of the greatest reasons to watch the film. The pageantry, though sometimes amusing and engaging, will never quite measure up to the man or his stories.
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