Daniel Craig names the best James Bond films: “They’re two of my favourite movies”
It’s not an obligation for an actor to enjoy the James Bond franchise before they decide whether or not to accept a part in the latest instalment, but it’s hard not to be when it’s been one of pop culture’s most monolithic sagas for over 60 years. Daniel Craig was an excellent 007, and he was a fan first.
The longer cinema’s most famous secret agent hangs around, the more difficult it will be to find a new leading man who didn’t grow up with the movies. This issue has been plaguing similar staples like The Simpsons and Star Wars in recent years; the people who grew up obsessed are now in charge of making them, which leads to an uptick in reverence and nostalgia that can often be detrimental.
Fortunately, that hasn’t happened to Bond yet, largely because the character needs to exist in a constant state of reinvention to remain relevant and move with the times. Craig was very much his own man under the tux, but there were still a couple of predecessors he went out of his way to actively avoid.
His grounded, gritty, and no-nonsense 007 was about as far away from the eyebrow-raising Roger Moore years as it could get, but Craig was nonetheless evocative of the physicality and steely charm of the Sean Connery era and the harder edges and inner turmoil of the underrated Timothy Dalton period.
It’s not that he was copying any of his predecessors, but it does make perfect sense that by taking Bond right back to his roots with Casino Royale and establishing him as a rookie agent at the beginning of his career in espionage, Craig would hold the first two instalments closest to his heart.
“Dr No and From Russia with Love,” he unequivocally told Devin Faraci when pressed for his favourite Bond flicks. “They’re great, just the best; they’re two of my favourite movies. Sean Connery being physical, scary, complicated, bad, all those things about the character. Besides whether it’s Bond, it’s a great character; it’s something he created that’s lasted this long. Those two are very special.”
Connery remains the definitive 007 in the eyes of many, Craig included, and he had the additional benefit of being the first. There was no point of reference for the Scotsman when he was drafted in, which allowed him to not only put a stamp on the role that was entirely his own and incomparable to anything else but made him the benchmark that everybody else to follow in his footsteps would need to live up to.
Craig made at least two very good Bond movies, and taking his cues from Connery came easy to someone who’d grown up so enamoured by his seminal stint as the spy.
