Orchard Press Online
Mystery Magazine
December 6, 2002
 |
CRIME BEAT
by Paul Davis |
Copyright © 2002 Paul Davis. All rights reserved.
Welcome Back, Mr. Bond
Celebrating 40 years of the James Bond Films
As I wrote in an earlier column - May 2002, "Happy Anniversary, Mr. Bond," forty years an impressionable 10-year-old boy attended a Saturday afternoon viewing of "Dr. No," the first in the series of hugely successful films featuring Ian Fleming’s suave and dangerous British secret agent with the Double O license to kill.
I became a Fleming/Bond aficionado that day, as I watched Sean Connery walk out across the screen as we viewed him through a sniper’s scope. Connery abruptly turns and fires his gun and then a red film flows down the screen. My friends didn’t get it, but I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my young life. I loved the film and saw it again and again.
Sean Connery returned as James Bond in "From Russia With Love," and with the 1964 release of the third film, "Goldfinger," Bond mania went into high gear. Films and TV shows tried to copy the Bond formula and there were countless TV commercials making references to the films and the Bond character. My favorite was a commercial for Bond Bread, which was their real name and predated the films. The commercials featured a character called "James Bread, from Bond."
Many products tried to capitalize on the Bond cultural phenomenon, from 007 cologne to the many James Bond toys and games. Perhaps only the "Star Wars" franchise can compare to the success merchandizing of the Bond films.
Sadly, as I noted in my earlier column, after "Goldfinger" the producers felt compelled to outdo each previous film in stunts, gadgetry and outlandishness. The films transformed from thrillers to action-comedies. Sean Connery left the series after "You Only Live Twice," stating his concerns over money, the grueling production schedules and the series’ growing emphasis on over-the-top Sci-fi plots. George Lazenby, an unknown Australian model, took over the role in "On Her Majesty’s Secret Service" and then left the series. Lazenby was not that bad, all things considered, but if Connery had starred in that film, I think it would have been one of the best of the series.
Connery was coxed into coming back and made "Diamonds Are Forever" and then the role fell to Roger Moore. The series then took a twist towards comedy and self-parody. The Moore films made money, but for those of us who loved the books and the early films, they seemed to have little connection to Fleming’s Bond character. Timothy Dalton took the role after Moore and he tried earnestly to return to the Bond of the books and the early films. Pierce Brosnan has also tried to keep Bond in that mode.
The producers hired Terrence Young to direct "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love" and it was Young who developed the Bond film formula. Young would return to the series to make "Thunderball."
Young knew and liked Ian Fleming and he was fairly faithful to the novels. It was Young who taught Sean Connery how to dress, talk and act like James Bond. The producers also hired John Barry to score the early films and Barry’s music greatly enhanced the films.
And now, forty years after "Dr. No," James Bond is back. Now in the theaters is the 20th Bond film and Pierce Brosnan is playing Bond again for the fourth time. I went to see "Die Another Day" and I would have to offer a mixed review.
On the one hand, it’s a very good action-thriller. But, like many of my generation who grew up with Sean Connery as Bond, I still have trouble accepting Brosnan. He is clearly not the man who defeated Dr. No, Red Grant and Goldfinger. He just does not have the screen presence of Connery.
The film is loaded with winks and nods towards the earlier films and even has a few references to the books. From a bikini-clad Halle Barry wearing a knife in a belt as she comes out of the ocean (Dr. No), to a camera crew surreptitiously filming Bond in his hotel room (From Russia with Love), there are a dozen such nods in the film. Bond even picks up a book titled "Birds of the West Indies," which, as every true Fleming fan knows, was written by a Philadelphia ornithologist named James Bond. Fleming liked the book and took author’s name for his character.
Personally, I could do without the film’s stunts, wild chases and gadgetry, but most of the moviegoers around me seemed to like this. I also grew tired of hearing about Halle Barry being a modern Bond woman, strong and independent for the first time.
The very first Bond girl, Honey Rider, was rather strong and independent. She wore that knife and knew how to use it. She also killed her rapist by placing a black widow spider in his bed. "The Black Widows are the worst," she matter-of-factly tells Bond.
In "Thunderball," Domino avenged herself and her dead brother by shooting Largo in the back with a spear from her spear gun. "I’m glad I killed him," she proudly proclaimed.
Bond, who was about to be shot by Largo, said, "You’re glad?"
Berry is a very attractive woman, but I also thought the other female lead, Rosamund Pike, was attractive as well.
So if you like James Bond action-thrillers, "Die Another Day" won’t disappoint you. But I would also suggest that you rent the videos of the early Sean Connery films and then go back to the source and read an Ian Fleming novel.
Contact the Author - daviswrite@aol.com