His name's Bond, Sean Bond.

Hi once again everybody and welcome to my latest movie thoughts.

With the Scottish public going to the polls this week to vote YES or NO for a Scottish independence I thought I would take a look at probably the most famous of the great Scots that have made an impact on the movie world. That has to be the one and only Sean Connery a true Scot and a staunch advocate of his country. Now aged 84 and reportedly retired from acting, I would like to take this opportunity to take a short look at some of his films that made an impact on me and I'm sure millions others.

The original and some say the best of the Bonds. Even though I am a fan of his in the role of James Bond they are not my choice of his best work.  The three films in which I believe he gave his best performances were The Untouchables which came out in 1987. Directed by Brian De Palma and also starring Robert De Niro and Kevin Costner, in it Connery played the Irish veteran beat cop James Malone, who is both guide and mentor to Costners' character Eliot Ness to such great effect that he quite rightly collected the best supporting Oscar and the Golden Globe in the same category. His death scene was the best scene in the movie and he also had by far the best lines in the script that gave the film a slightly comedic lift at dark times of the movie.

Connery as Malone

Up next is the 1975 adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling short story The Man Who Would Be King in which he starred alongside Michael Caine as Daniel Dravot. Directed by the great John Huston it tells the tale of two men who travel to a remote area of the middle east known as Kafiristan, now Afghanistan, in 1888, and once there the two comrades become "gods" but at the end lose everything. Connery gives a brilliant performance as Danny, as his character increasingly develops delusions of grandeur as he truly enjoys the adulation he receives from the locals, which towards the end of the film runs out of control with terrible results.

Connery as Danny Dravot

My last choice of his films is the 1990 The Hunt for Red October in this Connery plays a Russian submarine captain, Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius. The film is based on the novel by Tom Clancy and directed by John McTiernan. This is the first of many films portraying the character of Jack Ryan, in this instance actor Alec Baldwin plays the lead, but Connery is so good in it that he totally steals the film and the movie poster. The film is a little claustrophobic at times as it's based inside a submarine but Connery, through his performance never makes you feel closed in at all.

In Hunt for Red October

I suppose the most interesting aspect of Connery's performances in all of his movies is that it doesn't matter where his character is from, he could be playing an Irish cop, an English gentleman, a Spanish Immortal or even a Russian captain his accent never changes, he still has that distinctive Scottish accent that is so recognizable. But he gets away with it due to the quality of his acting and screen presence. Their are not many other actors who could get away with that, the only other one that springs to mind is Michael Caine, who apart from in the film Zulu in which he tries to put on an upper class English accent, uses the same cockney accent in all of his work. The one phrase of Connery that sticks in my mind is when as Bond he pronounces Miss Moneypenny and when he uttered the phrase "My name's Bond, James Bond" it still sounds better than all the actors who followed in his larger than life 007 footsteps. Talking about Bond it would have been great for Connery to have played the character Kincade, Bonds gamekeeper in Skyfall actually played by Albert Finney, but sadly it wasn't to be.

Most famous as 007

So it's a shame that we won't be seeing him on the big screen in the future but thankfully his films can still be watched and admired by all.

So whatever the Scots decide in the referendum I'm voting a big YES for Sir Sean Connery to have an enjoyable and golf filled retirement, he has certainly deserved it.

Until next week have a great week at the movies.

Miles Dunton.