The director of the latest Bond movie has been defending Madonna’s title track. The ‘Die Another Day’ theme song has come in for much criticism. Even the film’s composer, David Arnold, called it “tune-free”.
But the movie's director Lee Tamahori has told Australian music website Undercover that he likes the song. "There is no secret that for 40 years the Bond movies have always employed 'The Ballad'. The Shirley Bassey template that was set in Goldfinger set the tone forever. Then somewhere in the 80s they started experimenting with Duran Duran and so and so. But, as a fan of the genre, it always seemed to me to be a little behind the 8 ball. By the time it came out it was like "oh wasn't that last years...." So anyway, it was flavour of the month all through the 80s. I have always like the ballad but when it came to the 20th movie, 40th anniversary we wanted to move beyond the ballad. It was a conscious decision to do so."
"People love this song, people hate this song" he continued. "Bond traditionalists don't seem to like Madonna coming in with her electronic, techno, dance, track. However, there is a huge audience out there, a much younger audience who don't care about Shirley Bassey and all the great themes".