On Her Majesty's Secret Service - The LS Cut

Another Bond from LS always feels like X-Mas to me :-). I'm esp. thrilled that this one doesn't seek to "rescue" an obnoxious entry, but to improve upon an already good one. LS keeps showing his dedication to the Fleming spirit of the series in his stellar commentary and defines the "gold standard" together with HAL9000.

It's a pity some technical problems hamper further improvements, I for one wouldn't mind to see the cartoon-style action scenes slowed down. And I agree that "when in doubt, cut one-line jokes" is the way to go. Concerning the (on a PC screen nearly invisible) compression artifacts in the deep shadows: Afaik crazy bitrates aren't the only or best solution for this, but proper encoder tuning. I suggest you seek help on the doom9 video forum with a sample clip, esp. if you're doing the final encode with x264 this should be solvable.

But these are minor nitpicks, because LS convinced me that OMSS is a “golden age” movie and Lazenby is an authentic Bond after all. It’s amazing to see good fan-editors identify and solve key problems and how much a movie can benefit from dedicated work. After you’ve been told what the problems are, it’s all clear, but figuring it out is another matter altogether...

... and LS got it right: The basic problem I always had enjoying this one is that the Tracy love story seemed so disconnected from the dragging Bond vs. villain part. And all the references to the "real" Connery made Lazenby look like a single O who cannot decide between traditional promiscuity and being a soft Bond with a skirt. LS' edit solves these problems, and I can hardly wait what Bond movie he'll tackle next!

This is one of those edits that isn't about fixing a botched movie, it's just about trying to "perfect" something that was close to brilliant anyway. I'm one of those that's of the opinion that Lazonby is a great Bond and it's the film he's in, that has the problems. OHMSS has lots of little flaws and this corrects almost all of them.

Audio/Video Quality: I watched the HD file (And alternate music/audio track) and it's pretty much equal to the Blu-Ray, without the filesize being massive. Great job.

Visual Editing: This is spot on without anything that stands out. There a few more inconsistent studio shots that I'd personally like to have seen removed, or regraded but the really bad ones are all gone.

Audio Editing: As per usual with an LS edit this feature seemless music replacement and general audio work. The music change over the closing credits is just beauiful, I'd be amazed to find any person who would not agree this was the way it should have been... including John Barry. I also feel that on the alternate-audio-track, the new instrumental-montage is also undeniably better. The opening credits change might be controversial though but with the option to remove it why not. IMO this totally transforms the movie by shifting the tone much more towards a romantic film and adds strength to every later scene where the theme is woven back in.

Narrative: The big narrative change is of course trimming a large chunk of fat from the romance and Tracy free Piz Gloria middle act. It's still hugely flawed that Tracy isn't this part of the movie (She could have easily been one quick rewrite away from being one of the brainwashed girls?) but LS gets through it very quickly so she doesn't feel "left out" anymore. There were one or two further trims that I think could have been made (e.g. Bond could have climbed across the cable-car engine room rope just the once) but that's nitpicking.

Enjoyment: The gold standard test for any "Fanfix" is "Does it replace the original?". This absolutely does for me. OHMSS was never my favourite Bond movie, but this brings it a lot closer to the top of the ranking.

Extras: The audio commentary was very enjoyable and interesting, even when you've already listened to the official commentaries and watched all the documentaries. The two other optional audio tracks are also a touch of class.

OHMSS will never not feel like an outlier in the 007 canon for reasons beyond it being Lazenby's sole outing. The most classically tragic of the classic Bond films, the cliched recurring fan phrase about OHMSS has always been "it would be the perfect Bond movie if only Connery had been in it." While that may or may not be true (it's hard to picture Connery's blithe sociopath ever contemplating settling down), this edit is the next best thing, fixing many problematic moments/lines and tightening up the pace of the movie considerably, giving Diana Rigg's monumental turn as the ultimate Bond gal the showcase it deserves. LS' edit doesn't feel like a whole new movie, but it's a considerably better paced one, and a fitting addition to one's collection of Bond fan edits.

I'll admit, I've always been to two minds with this movie. The overall plot, locations, and action sequences have always been classic Bond for me. But Lazenby as a one-off in the franchise never really gelled as Bond for me, and the pacing has always bugged me. LastSurvivor has fixed this film for me.

The biggest improvement is the trims in the Piz Gloria sequence. It's always been way over-long for me, and far too much dallying around with the angels of death--even for Bond. Now there is just enough for Bond to accomplish his mission goals and the "yep, that's Bond being Bond."

Next is minimizing all the nods back to Connery's movies. Now all I could pick out at glance is the title sequence (no fixing that, and IMHO the worst in the franchise), and the quick shot during him clearing his desk.

The soudtrack changes are more subtle, but work really well. I had forgotten the original, and the changes description reminded me. LastSurvivor's choices work far better than the original release. The use of All the Time in the World was much moe impactful, and not over used.

This is now my preferred version to view.

Another solid Bond improvement from Last Survivor. This edit convincingly replaces the original.

Distractions are removed, we get back to the ultimate Bond girl faster, the narrative is tighter and more rewarding. The (enjoyable!) leisurely pace is retained. Lazenby comes into his own better than ever before.

Visual and sound editing are excellent. The one visual hiccup is a helicopter making a small jump on screen when they attack the mountain. And we get another editing masterclass with the audio commentary.