Icons Unearthed: James Bond Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Icons Unearthed: James Bond Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 13, 2025

The Icons Unearthed series found its formula from the outset and has stuck to it. Usually, I might say "stuck to it to a fault," but this is just the opposite: it's a winning formula. Granted, it's a winning formula geared more at hardcore film fans willing (and eager!) to sit through what amounts to little more than glorified supplements, hours upon hours of interviews and other content, but...these are treasure troves for deep-dive insights into fan favorite franchises. And when I say "franchises," I mean franchises. The series has so far covered the biggest, most sprawling, most lucrative, most well-known, most beloved, most everything entertainment behemoths to grace the small and silver screens in the past few decades, including Star Wars, The Simpsons, The Fast and the Furious, and the juggernaut that is The Marvel Cinematic Universe. For entertainment consumers who just can't cram enough information into their film canister-like brains, this franchise is a dream come true (and, hey, maybe one day it too will grow big enough to have Icons Unearthed: Icons Unearthed...now wouldn't that be something?)

The latest franchise to fall under the Icons Unearthed spotlight needs little introduction. One look at the cover shows a Walther pistol and a Martini (shaken, not stirred) and the implication is obvious: Bond. James Bond. 007. And why not. 27 films. One of the most iconic movie themes ever composed. One of the most iconic introductions ever conceived. Several iconic performances spanning generations. Unforgettable stories. Fierce villains. Beautiful women. And on and on. Of course it's getting the Icons treatment. There are few franchises that are so throughly iconic as this one, and fans will be happy too know that Icons Unearthed does its due diligence to explore the franchise far and wide for a very welcome and necessary entry into the quickly growing series.

On one hand, there's much to talk about when talking about Icons Unearthed: James Bond. On the other hand, talking about it really spoils the fun, because that's really all they program does: talking about the history of James Bond. The program begins, rightly, with a look at character and franchise creator Ian Flemming, and not just his writing but the foundations of the character that emerged from his own life experiences. But to say too much is to spoil the fun, and while this may not be a major revelatory experience for longtime, die-hard franchise fans, there's a lot of good information here that casual-plus fans who mostly just watch the movies here and there and rarely check out extras or who have not read the books or who haven't consumed much print or online information about the franchise will find appealing, engaging, and even riveting.

Indeed, Icons does here, as it has done in the programs before it, a wonderful job of exploring the franchise in an accessible way, yet still digging deep for not just interesting anecdotes and broad sweep insight but also finding those tasty morsels, those hidden gems, to go along with the meat. Between main program and extras there's plenty to go around, and with all of the different perspectives into the different eras, fans will find a very thorough exploration of the franchise with no proverbial stone left unturned. The program digs into the characters, the actors, the music, the style, the fashion, the dialogue, the villains, the girls (of course!), and everything that makes Bond, well, Bond. Plus, this is almost like a journey through Hollywood history itself. There is a very clear evolution of style and substance at work in the franchise, and it's fascinating to watch it unfold through the singular Bond prism while also consciously (or maybe even unconsciously) thinking about the state and style of Hollywood at large.

Icons Unearthed: James Bond Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek's 1080p Blu-ray release of Icons Unearthed: James Bond looks just about like all of the other releases in the series. It presents crisply sourced and efficiently transferred interview clips to the screen with plenty of clarity to interviewee skin details and nice clarity to background and support elements around home offices or living rooms and wherever the interviews take place. There's not a fine detail that's left unclear or underrepresented. Colors are rich and satisfying with plenty of pop, depth, and nuance, again and especially on faces and clothes and various items around the frame. There are some film clips scattered throughout of varying qualities but these do not factor into the review score, and neither do the assortment of still photos that pop in, again of varied ages and qualities. The interview material is the big highlight and it looks fine.

Icons Unearthed: James Bond Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Icons Unearthed: James Bond contains a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack which is perfectly serviceable for the material in question. These are not the films proper, just a lot of talk about the films proper (with some clips tossed in here and there), so the two channel configuration suits the content just fine. Dialogue is nicely imaged to the center -- seamlessly, really -- with no obvious fall into the sides or lack of clarity or anything of the sort. There's not a lot more going on here. The theme music is suitably rich and spacious across the front, while some underlying music likewise plays with good clarity and positioning underneath the dominant dialogue.

Icons Unearthed: James Bond Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with previous entries in the Icons Unearthed series, this three-disc 007 set includes a number of lengthy bonus interviews, here spread across all three discs. These are essentially deleted scenes and segments of interviews that did not make the final cut of the film. These are the only included supplements. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Disc One:

• Bonus Interview: Caroline Munroe (Actor) (1080p, 1:03:30).
• Bonus Interview: Jeffrey Caine (Writer) (1080p, 1:28:54).

Disc Two:

• Bonus Interview: George Lazenby (Actor) (1080p, 1:35:23).
• Bonus Interview: Jeff Kleeman (Former MGM Executive) (1080p, 2:27:26).

Disc Three:

• Bonus Interview: Gloria Hendry (Actor) (1080p, 1:34:37).
• Bonus Interview: John Glen (Director/Editor/2nd Unit Director) (1080p, 3:07:26).
• Bonus Interview: Martin Campbell (Director) (1080p, 2:28:13).

Icons Unearthed: James Bond Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"It became like a license to print money" are amongst the first words heard in the program, and that is probably the first thing the creators of the Icons Unearthed series look for in a subject: how much money has it made? Between franchise longevity, the mammoth number of films in the can, and the sprawling popularity across many decades, it's no surprise that the 007 franchise is here as one of the first handful of focuses for this burgeoning series. Fans will delight in exploring maybe not every nook and cranny, but certainly numerous nooks and countless crannies through the venerable history of one of Hollywood's all-time signature franchises. With video and audio presentations that are up to the job and hours of bonus videos, this release comes highly recommended.