The Sound of 007

The first James Bond film came out in 1962, and that guitar riff has been attached to the character ever since. The documentary runs through sixty years of Bond music: the theme in Dr No, John Barry's approach to orchestration, Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger, and the title song tradition that reaches through Paul McCartney and Duran Duran to Adele and Billie Eilish. Mat Whitecross takes the music chronologically and shows how in each era the song was fastened to the film. The Bond title sequence became a genre of its own over time, and the documentary explains that as a production process: what the producer wants and what the composer wants usually collide. Daniel Craig, Sam Mendes, Hans Zimmer, Rami Malek and Naomie Harris are among those who speak. Who it's for: Followers of the Bond series, and anyone interested in film scoring and the relationship between pop music and cinema. Who it's not for: The telling is celebratory and takes no critical view of the series. The musical analysis stays on the surface, so there is no technical depth to find.