After seven decades of successful operation, one has the right to wonder why James Bond continues to monopolize the spotlight. public attention and of the gargantuan and never satiated entertainment industry. And since 1953, the franchise that started Ian Fleminga former British naval intelligence agent who intended to fill his leisure time by writing thrillers in the privileged setting of his Jamaican estate, has become a authentic vein.
Only the books he signed (12 novels and two short story collections) have sold more than 100 million copies; But Fleming’s James Bond is not the only Bond: over the years, and with the endorsement of Ian Fleming Publications, the manager of the literary rights, dozens of Bond novels have been published by authors such as Kingsley Amis (pseudonym), John Gardner, Sebastian Faulks, or William Boyd. The same manager has taken care of sequels, prequels and other Bondian literary by-products. Until Miss MoneypennyM’s fireproof secretary, has her own series.
However, there is no doubt that the universal diffusion of the very versatile British MI6 secret agent is due, above all, to the call Bond canonbuilt from the 25 movies from the production company EON, founded by Albert Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961, and to which two more films must be added: the first Royal Casino (1967), produced by Charles K. Feldman, and Never say never (1983), from producer Kevin McClory. The latter, who denounced Fleming for plagiarism, was, in addition to the instigator of very long lawsuits against Saltzman and Broccoli, the cause of the tremendous headaches that embittered the writer’s last years.
family air
The success of Bond canon has a lot to do with the creation of a solid team which gave their products an obvious family resemblance. That initial team, chaired by the two producers, and based at Pinewood’s London studios, included technicians and creators, such as designer Ken Adam, author of futuristic interiors; the screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who knew how to adapt Fleming’s novels; the composer John Barryauthor of the identifiable James Bond theme; cinematographer Ted Moore; the revolutionary editor Peter Hunt, or the legendary title designer Maurice Binder. Without forgetting, of course, Joe Caroff, who turned 007’s 7 into the silhouette of a luger, thus creating one of the most recognizable logos of the 20th century.
He secret of the validity of the cinematographic Bond It is its chameleon-like ability to adapt to changes in the social, ideological, moral and technological environment. 007 vs. Dr. No (1962) is still a film with the Cold War as a backdrop (it premiered during the Cuban missile crisis). From there, in each of the following films issues such as the obvious Britain’s loss of imperial powerthe competitive relations between Anglo-American agents, the awakening of African American consciousness (with the black panthers and the blaxploitation), the fall of the USSR and the rise of computer technologies and their globalization; until reaching, in the latest films, references to the women’s liberation and to climate change.
The fixed ones (discontinuous)
The first James Bond films They also had a stable supporting cast. MoneypennyM’s ineffable secretary, was run by the wonderful Lois Maxwell until A view to kill (1985); M, the head of MI6, has had 4 avatars: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown, Judi Denchwho broke the glass ceiling and played the role until his character’s death in skyfall (2012) and, finally, Ralph Fiennes. Another fixture is Q, the head of the MI6 investigation division, in charge of providing Bond with the gadgets and odds and ends that 007 insists on destroying on his missions: his best interpreter was Desmond Llewelyn, who was Q in about twenty films. By the way, the gadgets that are offered to Bond, almost always at the beginning of his adventures, have a clear Chekhovian function: viewers expect their hero to make them work throughout the film, and even enjoy the repeated potlatch of its ritual destruction: even the incredible Aston Martin with which the hero travels are converted into pure scrap for the enjoyment of those who could never acquire them.
As for Ian Fleming’s preferences, he would have wanted his character to be more like David Niven or Cary Grant in the movies.
Throughout the seven decades in which the cinematic canon James Bond’s character has been played by six actors: Sean Connery (6 films for EON and 1 for McClory), George Lazenby (1), Roger Moore (7), Timothy Dalton (2), Pierre Brosnan (4) and Daniel Craig (5). Bond fans continue to argue about the qualities of each one; The greatest rivalry (the so-called “Bond war”) is the one between Connery’s supporters and Moore’s supporters. My favorite, however, is by far Daniel Craig.
As for the Fleming’s preferencesit must be said that he would have wanted his character to be more like David Niven oa Cary Grant: nothing to do with that kind of libidinous satyr with hair on his chest and the air of a bodybuilding fan who was then the Scot Sean Connery. Of course, despite their preferences, Connery and Fleming ended up being good friends, among other things because the writer admired – and envied – his film character: luxury, women, alcohol, casinosgood spirits, action and triumph.
Bond Avatars
Sean Connery has been the most Bond politically incorrect of all, among other things because the mainstream it was too. She spanked the girls’ asses, cured to lesbians, as he did in Goldfinger with Pussy Galore, whom he forced into a haystack; By the way, the homophobic Fleming was convinced that lesbians were lesbians because they had not yet met the right man. Connery’s Bond, furthermore, was something racist (I was suspicious of dark-skinned people, as well as Asians and some Central Europeans).
The homophobic Fleming was convinced that lesbians were lesbians because they had not yet met the right man
Aside from some not particularly memorable returns from Connery (who had multiplied his Dr. No salary tenfold), other less notable Bonds were George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), whose only interest lay in the fact that 007 he was getting married for the first and only time with a lady whom the villain continually murdered. Later, after the seven films of Roger Moore -a Bond so elegant and ironic that, little by little, he ended up being a slightly funny parody of the original-, it was the turn of Timothy Daltona tougher 007, not much of a womanizer and deliberately lacking in humor and irony.
The penultimate Bond was Pierce Brosnana less harassing and supremacist 007 who had to deal not only with the M of Judi Dench (a feminist boss who called him a misogynistic and sexist dinosaur), but with villains from a world in which there were no clear homelands and the most lethal technologies dominated.
Bond’s latest avatar (for now: Barbara Broccoli, daughter of the founder and his half-brother Michael Wilson, are still thinking about how to continue) has been Daniel Craig. In addition to being the first blonde Bond, he is a very violent killer, a true killing machine that acts as an extreme patriotism. But he is, unusually, a vulnerable Bond.falls madly in love, for the first time in his lifefrom the unstable and ambiguous Vesper Lynd (Royal Casino, 2006), and sees her die in his arms-; He is tortured almost to death, he is left for dead (Quantum of solace, 2008) and ends up having to take the tests again to be readmitted to the MI6 (skyfall, 2012); He takes M (Dench, with whom he has a tense relationship) to Scotland to fight the arch-villain Silva (Javier Bardem), and there he shows vestiges of his childhood, before see M die.
Now we know that Bond was also a child. In the last movie (No time to die, 2021) Bond is, more than ever, and according to his director, Cary Fukunaga, a wounded animal without help, but he has a daughter and, finally, dies for her. Yeah: Bond dies. But in the end they tell us that she will return. We will wait.
Taschen has in its catalog an authentic bondopedia (in English). To the exhaustive The James Bond archiveswhich contains hundreds of photos and texts from each of the films in the canon, has recently been added the very complete James Bond, Dr. No, with the most complete information on the filming of the legendary first film in the saga. The bad news is the prices: the first (648 pages, 3.8 kilos in weight) costs 75 euros; of the second there are two editions “for collectors”: at 1,500 and 750 euros respectively.
The Fleming novels (now censored and purged of the less politically correct aspects) has been reissued by Roca in paperback edition. The latest – and best – biography of the Bond author is Ian Fleming, the complete manby Nicholas Shakespeare (846pp, Harvill Secker, £30).
