By Smilla Eihausen, Y12
“The name’s Bond, James Bond”. Let me just start by saying that I am a huge James Bond fan and have watched the movies and special editions so often that I am now a walking and talking trivia machine. My favorite Bond films of all time are From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, and Casino Royale. Therefore, talk to me about any of these films, and my heart will melt into a puddle and be yours forever (chocolate truffles would be nice too). Due to my father’s love for the Bond franchise, I was introduced to the action series at the ripe old age of four years old. It took my parents weeks to convince me that the red stuff on the floor was just ketchup, but I soon began to fall in love with the films nonetheless. As I grew older, I begged my dad to show us the rest of the movies whenever my mom was not there to reprimand us. So began the tradition of piling onto my dad’s bed with my siblings for James Bond nights and peeking through our fingers whenever my dad told us to look away. I was obsessed with Bond’s cool intellect, humor, and stealth, and wanted to be just like him. I imagined myself dressed up in his black tuxedo with a Walther PPK strapped to my chest, defeating villains and traveling to exotic places. James Bond soon became an integral part of my family; my brother and I would practice fight sequences in the kitchen with the theme music playing, I received and gave countless Bond themed birthday and Christmas gifts, and the phrase “shaken not stirred” was uttered an unhealthy amount of times at the dinner table.
Hopefully we will be hearing those words soon in cinemas next fall when the next Bond is released. After two years of waiting for the next Bond installment, No Time to Die better knock me off my feet. With countless trailers, interviews, and music videos, this might be the most promoted Bond in 59 years. Rami Malek will be playing the new Bond villain, Safin, and from what I have seen so far, he looks positively terrifying. I am also very intrigued about the new character Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, who, from what I have seen from the trailers, has taken over the 007 position from Bond. Since this is Daniel Craig’s last film, I am curious about how the storyline will continue after he is gone, especially because he is “too old” to be an agent anymore. Since each film seems to top the next with technological advancements, it would be interesting to see if they will film the next Bonds in a different time period, or simply restart the Bond timeline like they did with Casino Royale.
I could talk about the Bond films for ages, but I will limit myself to discussing two of my favorites films to prevent boredom from any of my readers. Firstly, The Living Daylights is by far one of my favorite Bonds of all time. I am not sure if it’s the 80s fashion, beautiful scenery, intricate story line, phenomenal acting, or the music that captivates me, but it makes my head spin nonetheless. Many people argue that the movie moves along too slowly, but I completely disagree and find that every second of those 2 hours and 11 minutes are vital to the storyline and character development. Bond, played by Timothy Dalton, has to travel the world in order to stop an arms dealer from starting another world war. Along the way, he meets Kara Milovy, a headstrong cellist, played by Maryam d’Abo, who fights along Bond and risks her life to save him. Secondly, Casino Royale has one of the best storylines ever written, which makes every scene captivating to watch. After Pierce Brosnan’s disastrous and over the top Bonds, Casino Royale was a breath of fresh air that introduced a new storyline to James Bond’s life and left all of the invisible cars and spaceships in the 20th century. Not only is Craig’s interpretation of Bond refreshing, but Bond girl Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, is my favorite Bond girl of all time. Her character was intelligent, witty, strong-willed, and entirely human. I lived for the banter between Bond and Lynd, and their chemistry was unmatched to any of the other films.
Another iconic aspect of the Bond films are the legendary themes performed by the best singers and bands of all time. I have countless playlists dedicated to both the theme songs and instrumental pieces from many of the movies. My favorite themes are “You Only Live Twice” by Nancy Sinatra, “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey, “We Have All The Time In The World” by Louis Armstrong, “Moonraker” by Shirley Bassey, “Nobody Does It Better” by Carly Simon, “For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton, “The Living Daylights” by A-ha, and “Writings On The Wall” by Sam Smith. If you are looking for music to study to, I recommend any instrumental music from Spectre or Casino Royale. One thing I hate in cinema is when music is used too often or in the wrong context. Therefore, I love how the entire musical score and theme songs complement each individual scene and action-packed sequence in the Bond films.
However, as much as I love the films, I have to address the inherent sexism and racism that make some of the Bonds too frustrating to watch. Whenever I watch the earlier films, even the ones from the 90s, I cannot help but notice that a majority of the Bond girls are depicted as beautiful, foreign, dumb-downed women who are in constant need of saving. Even in one of my favorite films, The Spy Who Loved Me, the lead Bond girl, Major Anya Amasova, makes numerous mistakes that almost cause her death in multiple scenes before Bond saves her over and over again. Anya’s character has the opportunity to be fantastic, but that opportunity is lost the moment she struggles to drive a car, even though she is supposedly the best spy among the Russian forces. The films from the 60s and 70s are even worse, where Bond sleeps with around three women per film and the Bond girl falls in love with “James” after about two days. Not to mention the dreadful names assigned to the female characters such as “Holly Goodhead” and “Pussy Galore”.
One of the most painful scenes to watch was in You Only Live Twice, when Bond goes undercover to reveal SPECTRE’s plot, and is then transformed into an extremely racist and stereotypical depiction of a Japanese man through makeup and costume. Bond is then taught “how to be” like the Japanese through various offensive and stereotypical rituals, which always makes me audibly cringe. Another popular Bond, Live and Let Die is rumored to be one of the best Bonds, but when I watched it for the first time, I was appalled by the depiction of people of color. Bond is depicted as the intelligent white man who continuously outwits the Black men and women on the fictional island of St. Monique. The islanders are depicted as stupid, hysteric, and animal-like peoples that practice Voodoo magic, which was absolutely disgusting to watch. I will never understand the praise, and in my opinion, Live and Let Die should really just be left to die for good.
Overall, I am thrilled to watch the next Bond and I hope it lives up to the previous films from the Craig era. Hopefully you will be motivated to watch some of the Bonds I mentioned because they do not disappoint! Thank you for reading!
