Bond, Brosnan and the Birth of DVD

 

Just as GoldenEye arrived in theatres, a revolutionary new home-video format emerged: the Digital Versatile Disc. By now, it’s almost unnecessary to spell out how dramatic an upgrade DVD was over VHS or even Laserdisc. What matters here is that, for obvious reasons, it was the Pierce Brosnan–era films that planted James Bond’s flag in this new and interesting territory. Let’s take a look at the various releases.

First Editions (1997–1998)

In March 1997, GoldenEye became the first Bond film to receive a DVD release in North America, months after coming out on VHS and Laserdisc to great success. Along with Martin Campbell’s film, the first three 007 adventures starring Sean Connery — Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Goldfinger — were also released.

As you might expect, there was little additional content in this first wave of titles. Still, the ability to jump directly to a scene, change language or subtitle tracks, or watch the film’s trailer was enough to enjoy the new format — and that’s without even counting the leap in image and sound quality.

GoldenEye was presented in a clipcase cardboard box with a scene selection index and the disc. Viewers could choose between a 4:3 Pan & Scan format to fill their tube TV screen or the now-standard 16:9 widescreen presentation. As soon as the disc was inserted, you were prompted to set up your desired screen format and audio output before the movie started automatically. To access the menu, you had to press the menu button on your controller.

The GoldenEye menu, based on the film’s main titles, was static. Interestingly, the menus of the other three films featured a brief animation and a few very tame extras. Options were basic: play the movie, scene selection, language options and the theatrical trailer. The film was available in English, French and Spanish, with subtitles and closed captions in the same languages.

Throughout 1998, Latin America and Japan released their own versions of these four Bond films. As far as I know, however, only GoldenEye received this type of release in Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American countries.

In late 1998, this standard version of the GoldenEye DVD was manufactured in Europe. The film came in either a regular plastic clamshell case or a wider CD-style jewel case. It also included an eight-page booklet with production notes and a scene index. Unlike the US version, the European release presented the film exclusively in widescreen and included an audio commentary by Michael G. Wilson and Martin Campbell, lifted from the US Laserdisc release. Depending on the region, available languages included English, French, Spanish, Italian or German.

Tomorrow Never Dies premiered theatrically in December 1997. Five months later, it arrived on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD. As expected, the May 1998 North American DVD release was very basic: a menu with the usual four options and the movie presented in either widescreen or full-screen versions. A booklet with production notes was also included. With this release, two Roger Moore adventures — The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker — also made their DVD debut.

Much like GoldenEye, a version of the initial US DVD was prepared for the European market. It was widescreen-only and featured an audio commentary with Michael G. Wilson and second-unit director Vic Armstrong. Menus were animated in the US version and static in the European releases.

Special Edition (1998–2003)

Both GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies sold incredibly well on DVD. Brosnan’s second 007 adventure shipped over 170,000 copies to video retailers and performed superbly in the rental market. These numbers convinced MGM Home Entertainment to push the envelope and produce an extra-laden Special Edition DVD of Tomorrow Never Dies, released in North America in November 1998.

The cover featured the film’s logo over a metal-effect silver background. The making-of booklet celebrated 35 years of Bond films and included a list of gadgets, villains and Bond girls appearing in each EON-produced adventure.

Instead of simple background animations, the interactive menus — designed by 1K Studio — used an interface inspired by Bond’s cellphone, guiding viewers through the disc’s many options. Extras included two audio commentaries (Michael G. Wilson/Vic Armstrong and Roger Spottiswoode/Dan Petrie Jr.), a short special effects reel, storyboard-to-film comparisons, an isolated music track, the made-for-TV documentary The Secrets of 007, two trailers and Sheryl Crow’s music video.

Unsurprisingly, MGM Home Interactive hit the jackpot with this release. As the theatrical debut of The World Is Not Enough approached in late 1999, the first wave of James Bond Special Edition DVDs reached stores. This gift set included Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, Licence to Kill, GoldenEye, and a reissue of the Tomorrow Never Dies Special Edition, now sporting key artwork consistent with the rest of the line. The first six films also included a trailer for the Tomorrow Never Dies PlayStation game, coinciding with its November 1999 release.

This new Special Edition of GoldenEye added most of the content previously exclusive to the US Laserdisc, including The World of 007 documentary hosted by Elizabeth Hurley. A new making-of booklet was also issued, containing far more information than those found in the standard European editions. The only omission was the Spanish audio track and subtitles, presumably due to disc space limitations. All Special Edition DVDs were presented in widescreen.

Throughout 2000, the remainder of the Bond catalogue received the Special Edition treatment in the US. European editions followed between 2000 and 2001, with spines designed to form a “007” logo when arranged in chronological order (the US releases used individual spine designs). North American discs generally included English, French and/or Spanish language options, while European releases varied by region. Depending on the title, menus could closely resemble — or differ radically from — their US counterparts.

The World Is Not Enough was released on Special Edition DVD on May 16, 2000, coinciding with Pierce Brosnan’s 47th birthday. This title is a clear example of radically different menu design. The US version featured a red, pipeline-like interface with minimal music, while the European version used a design based on the film’s main titles, accompanied by David Arnold’s end-credits rendition of the Bond theme blasting through the speakers.

The extras also differed significantly. The European release included several additional features absent from the US version, such as the PS1 game trailer, the James Bond Down River and The Bond Cocktail documentaries, and a short tribute video to the late Desmond Llewelyn originally produced for the VHS release. The European edition also retained all the US extras: The Making of The World Is Not Enough hosted by Leanza Cornett, the theatrical trailer, Garbage’s music video, and two audio commentaries (one with Michael Apted, the other with Peter Lamont, Vic Armstrong and David Arnold).

In Latin America and some European territories, Special Edition DVDs were released in bare-bones configurations, with static menus and the theatrical trailer as the sole extra. In most cases, however, the cover artwork was preserved.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the franchise, Die Another Day came out in November 2002. The outcome of the film filled MGM's pockets generously with good numbers both in the US and the UK. MGM Home Interactive went big or went home for the DVD release in 2003: this time, the Special Edition would be a two-disc release. This followed a tradition from many studios that were well aware people consumed extra content of their favorite films and started experimenting with dedicating one disc for the film, and a supplementary disc riddled with additional features. The US Special Edition DVD of Die Another Day came presented on a cardboard slipcase featuring Bond and Jinx over the poster's blue-beam background. The actual sleeve had the regular home video artwork with the two agents surrounded by explosions near the Ice Palace. Disc 1 featured the movie, audio commentaries and a DVD-ROM content which, sadly, is unavailable now due to the links being broken; Disc 2 had an extensive Inside Die Another Day documentary split in many chapters, plus three trailers, many TV spots, Madonna's music video and its making of, multi-angle and storyboard explorations, the trailer for the Nightfire video game along with a short featurette on its development, and much more content than other Special Edition DVDs. In North America, the Die Another Day SE DVD was available in both Widescreen and Full Screen editions, but they had to be bought separately. The European version had the same features, but included two "exclusive" Region 2 documentaries: Shaken And Stirred On Ice and From Script To Screen. Missing was the DVD-ROM feature. In this version, the DVD sleeve was double sided: one side had a spine that could fit into the 007 formed by putting all the Special Editions together. The design of the booklet was also different, although the text was identical.  

Ultimate Edition (2006 onwards)

Sony acquired MGM in April 2005. A little over a year later, in November 2006, the entire James Bond catalogue — from Dr. No to Die Another Day — was released as two-disc Ultimate Edition DVDs. The films were digitally restored by Lowry, promising improved picture quality, though many purists felt the earlier Special Editions were closer to the theatrical color timing.

Some of Lowry’s more controversial choices included extremely saturated red hues in Live and Let Die (particularly noticeable during the gunbarrel and main titles), darkened sunrise scenes (such as Bond rescuing Tracy on the beach in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service or Bond killing Locque in For Your Eyes Only), and cropped framing in A View to a Kill and GoldenEye.

The cover artwork featured wide digital montages of Bond holding a gun, with an action scene from the film in the background. Black-and-white vignettes from the movie appeared at the top and bottom. Depending on the territory, releases included new booklets and different liner notes.

Menus across the range followed a generic design: silhouettes of Bond and Bond girls walking over translucent 3D weapons against a gunbarrel background. Only the music and circular vignette imagery varied by film. The real draw, of course, was the wealth of archival material recovered from the Bond vaults, including the 1965 documentary The Incredible World of James Bond and the 1967 featurette Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond. Additional content included still galleries, more deleted scenes, never-before-seen material, and textless versions of many Bond main titles. Roger Moore also recorded new audio commentaries for his films. For the most part, the Ultimate Editions carried over the Special Edition extras alongside this newly added content.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the Brosnan era.

GoldenEye: Unfortunately, the image quality was a step down from the Special Edition. The transfer appears too dark and, more importantly, much of the frame was cropped. The main titles have the credits awkwardly centered for this reason; otherwise, the actors’ names would have been cut off.

All of the Special Edition content (with the exception of the Tomorrow Never Dies video game trailer) was moved to disc two. New additions included several documentaries such as GoldenEye: The Secret Files, a couple of deleted scenes, a short feature on Peter Lamont’s location scouting, and a retrospective video covering the film’s press launch event at Leavesden.

Tomorrow Never Dies: There is little to criticize regarding image quality here, and the original burned-in location subtitles were thankfully restored, although some red hues appear slightly pinkish. Once again, all the Special Edition extras were carried over to disc two.

New material included Highly Classified: The World of 007, a documentary previously exclusive to the 1998 VHS collector gift sets, along with deleted scenes, multi-angle explorations and the music video for Moby’s remix of the James Bond Theme.

The World Is Not Enough:  This time around, nearly all of the content from the European Special Edition was moved to disc two, with the notable exception of the PS1 game trailer. As a result, Region 1 viewers were finally able to access documentaries such as James Bond Down River and The Bond Cocktail, as well as the Desmond Llewelyn tribute.

New additions included a look at the Hong Kong press conference, a featurette detailing the making of the teaser trailer (which concludes with the teaser itself), and several deleted scenes.

Die Another Day: This marked the second two-disc DVD release for the 2002 film. So how do you make it more complete? In this case, the answer seemed to be adding some new material while subtracting a significant amount of content from the 2003 Special Edition — and therein lies the problem.

Disc two includes Just Another Day, a promotional documentary originally released on VHS, focusing on the making of Gustav Graves’ parachute jump over Buckingham Palace. Also present are Peter Lamont’s location scouting feature and The British Touch: Bond Arrives in London, which details the marketing tie-in between 007 and British Airways and concludes with a deleted snippet in which Bond leaves his seat before the plane lands. This moment originally preceded a longer deleted scene showing Bond taking an alternative exit to avoid customs control.

From Script to Screen and Shaken and Stirred on Ice were also included on disc two — and that’s essentially it. Missing entirely are the trailers, TV spots, multi-angle explorations, storyboard comparisons, the extensive Inside Die Another Day documentary, as well as Madonna’s music video and its making-of feature. The result is a surprisingly disappointing release, one that effectively forces collectors to track down the 2003 two-disc edition solely for the missing extras.

The Ultimate Edition DVDs were reissued in 2008 with new cover artwork, still in two-disc configurations. These featured a grey background composed of a gunbarrel motif and the 007 logo, overlaid with heavily airbrushed images of Bond and the leading lady, along with a gold band across the center bearing the film’s title.

In 2012 and again in 2015, single-disc versions of the Ultimate Editions were released, containing only the first disc. The 2012 covers were minimalist and heavily airbrushed, yet still visually appealing in most cases. The 2015 editions, by contrast, used rather dull airbrushed screengrabs from the films, paired with a wide white band at the bottom displaying the title in black lettering.

By this point, studios were clearly steering consumers toward Blu-ray, and DVD had become something of an afterthought. As a result, the poorly cropped Ultimate Edition transfer of GoldenEye remains the most readily available version of the film on DVD — unless a future reissue in the format makes use of the far superior 4K transfer currently available for streaming.

I have covered the home video release of the Brosnan Bond films in the Updated Edition of The Bond of The Millennium. You can get the book in Paperback, Kindle and DRM-Free Digital Special Edition at ZOOM Platform.