In a long article about Skyfall and Spectre (James Bond franchise) director and Oscar-winner Sam Mendes, venerable New Yorker theater scribe John Lahr quotes Mendes giving an acceptance speech. (Mendes gives acceptance speeches constantly, it seems, for the unending flow of kudos he receives for his work in both theater and film.)
In this particular speech, Mendes thanks his major influences simply by naming them — and the specific moments, characters and/or settings these movie masters created that have had enduring impact on Mendes’s idea of what films can do. So if you want to know why James Bond (the Daniel Craig version anyway) does what he does, take a look at the moments below for clues — here are the ghosts of movies past that inform the Mendes movie present. (Links to stream or buy each movie follow below.)
| Movie | Director | Moment/Scene/Character |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Strangelove | Stanley Kubrick | The War Room |
| The Apartment | Billy Wilder | C.C. Baxter |
| Throne of Blood | Akira Kurosawa | Death of the king |
| Taxi Driver | Martin Scorsese | Panning down an empty corridor |
| Fargo | Coen brothers | Marge and Norm in bed at the end |
| There Will Be Blood | Paul Thomas Anderson | H.W. Plainview going deaf |
| Persona | Ingmar Bergman | Night visit: Bibi Anderson, Liv Ullmann |
| The Godfather II | Francis Ford Coppola | Death of Fredo |
| The Social Network | David Fincher | First scene |
| All That Jazz | Bob Fosse | First audition scene |
| Pulp Fiction | Quentin Tarantino | Christopher Walken, watch speech |
| Manhattan | Woody Allen | Fireworks |
| Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood | Rain coda |
| The Red Shoes | Michael Powell | Shearer into the ballet |
| Blue Velvet | David Lynch | Frank Booth car trip |
| The Graduate | Mike Nichols | Dustin Hoffman, swimming pool |
| The 400 Blows | Francois Truffaut | The end: boy, lens |
| Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | Travis sees Jane again |
