Bond...James Bond - Revisited

Some time back I critiqued or skimmed the surface of James Bond (#9). Last weekend I found myself in a funk. I was melancholy and in need of something to pull me out of my doldrums. As a guy, chick flicks are not the cure. Action, manly-man, adventure, overkill kills, spies, and SEX!!! James Bond was the answer. Bond has always been a male oriented film product specifically designed and targeted for men. I am sure there are many women who like the sex appeal of the Bond character (actors), but most women could live without the violence and excessive naked and/or dead body count. More on body count later.

So. Starting last Saturday I began my binge watching Bond Fest. I started with the first film, Dr. No (1962) and finished up this afternoon with the most recent film (I own) Skyfall (2012). I intend to get SPECTRE (2015) shortly. There is, to-date, a total of twenty-four Broccoli and Saltzman (EON Productions) produced films. There are two other non-EON films, but I did not add them to my binge watch. I've seen them and probably will watch them again in the near future. The following actors portrayed James Bond with the number of films in parenthesis: Sir Roger Moore (7), Sir Sean Connery (6), Pierce Brosnan (4), Daniel Craig (4), Timothy Dalton (2) and George Lazenby (1). The two films I did not watch this past week starred David Niven and Sean Connery, who filmed this twelve years after he was replaced by Roger Moore. I have seen all twenty-six at least once.

I watched the first seven on Saturday:

1. Dr. No (1962) - Connery
2. From Russia With Love (1963) - Connery
3. Goldfinger (1964) - Connery
4. Thunderball (1965) - Connery
5. You Only Live Twice (1967) - Connery
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - Lazenby
7. Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Connery

Sunday I watched the next six:

1. Live And Let Die (1973) - Moore. This was my first in-theater Bond movie. I was fifteen.
2. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) - Moore
3. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - Moore
4. Moonraker (1979) - Moore. At the end of Spy Who Loved Me, it announced Bond would be back in For Your Eyes Only. That film was set aside to capitalize on the Star Wars craze and this one was paraded out instead. It, to-date, is considered the fans least favorite Bond film.
5. For Your Eyes Only (1981) - Moore
6. Octopussy (1983) - Moore

Monday I watched the next seven:

1. A View To A Kill (1985) - Moore
2. The Living Daylights (1987) - Dalton
3. License To Kill (1989) - Dalton. After this film, Bond went on hiatus for six years while the producers and main scriptwriter battle about in court over right's to Fleming's work. Eventually, EON (and only EON) can use Fleming's work for Bond movies. Thus the reboot in 2006.
4. GoldenEye (1995) - Brosnan
5. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - Brosnan
6. The World Is Not Enough (1999) - Brosnan 
7. Die Another Day (2002) - Brosnan

Now that's some binge watching. A special TMI note: I said I was in a funk on Saturday. Well, funk I was. I never got out of my PJs that day nor showered. It was bad. However, the joy of watching exciting and senseless violence invigorated me enough that I showered and put on my big boy pants on Sunday and subsequent days. (There's a moral to this. You just have to wait until the end of this piece.)

Tuesday: Casino Royale (2006) - Craig

Wednesday: Quantum Of Solace (2009) - Craig

Thursday: I took a TV day off and finished reading a book, John Grisham's Rogue Lawyer.

Friday (Today): Skyfall (2012) - Craig

I have a hold placed at my library for the fourth Craig entry, SPECTRE (2015), which I had seen in the theater before Christmas. It hasn't been that long ago and is fairly fresh in my mind. Now that I have been brought out of my misery with a new will to live, strangely, I have this intense desire to kick somebody's (anybody's) ass. Hmmm. Do you think I am being influenced by the films? Or rap music? Kidding. I'm just naturally violent. NOT!!!

While watching I took note of  the common themes and differences. For instance:

All the Bonds were debonair, suave and could make any woman disrobe with few words, except for maybe Lazenby and Dalton. Dalton's Bond shied away from the sexual aspect of Bond because of the general public's uptight sexual attitudes during those years (AIDS, HIV, etc.). Here's how I best described the different Bonds:

Moore = Comical, almost spoofy
Connery & Brosnan = Suave, sexy and funny
Dalton = Freaking scary. There was nothing light-hearted or frivolous about his portrayal.
Lazenby = Zzzzzzzzzzz
Craig = Probably the best Bond, if based on the books. So I've read. He also is the first Bond in the rebooted series. With the rebooted series everything changed. The one carry-over was M. More later on that point. There was a desire to reboot the series to relate more to the Ian Fleming novels than the predecessor films. I haven't read the books yet, but will in the near future. It's on my Goodreads list.

Interesting Wikipedia point: Other actors considered for the role of James Bond included Mel Gibson, Mark Greenstreet, Lambert Wilson, Antony Hamilton, Christopher Lambert, Finlay Light, and Andrew Clarke. (I did not know this. Then again, I don't know most of the names on this list.)

With all great action movies there comes a great supporting cast. The Bond franchise is no different, but different it is/was. Ignoring the non-EON productions, I've listed the actors and roles.

There were four actors portraying "M":

1. Bernard Lee: (1962–79), who passed away after Moonraker. They didn't use M in the next film For Your Eyes Only out of respect, but brought "M" back when Robert Brown took the role.
2. Robert Brown: (1983–89)
3. Dame Judi Dench: (1995–2012). She replaced Brown after the court case was settled and stayed on through the reboot, but was killed off in Skyfall. (Don't blame me if you hadn't seen it and I just spoiled it for you. What are you waiting for?)
4. Ralph Fiennes: (2012– Present) (I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Fiennes on Broadway in 2006 in a one man monologue play, The Faith Healer. I saw it with my sister. By-the-by, any youngish lady who is a Broadway aficionado and is looking for a debonair Bondish man (that's me) to attend Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, feel free to contact me.)

Miss Moneypenny has been portrayed by:

1. Lois Maxwell (1962–85). The one person who I will always think of as Moneypenny, though not the one I was most attracted to. She was older than my mother. Creepy.
2. Caroline Bliss (1987–89)
3. Samantha Bond (1995–2002). My favorite. I admit. I had a slight crush. She is better known these days as Lord Grantham's sister, Lady Rosamund Painswick in Downton Abbey.
4. Naomie Harris (2012–present). The only African-Brit to portray Moneypenny. She also played in the second and third films of Pirates Of The Caribbean, as the voodoo witch, Tia Dalma. She was scary, but not in Bond. She's a good add to the franchise.

Another main recurring character is the American CIA agent, Felix Leiter, who disappeared after License To Kill being replaced by a new character (to film, at least) portrayed by Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade, a CIA agent in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. Baker also played the villain in The Living Daylights. But if you are like me, you like consistency. With all these Leiters, I needed a scorecard.

1. Jack Lord (1962)
2. Cec Linder (1964)
3. Rik Van Nutter (1965)
4. Norman Burton (1971)
5. David Hedison (1973 & 1989)
6. John Terry (1987)
7. Jeffrey Wright (2006–2008). Besides Hedison who played the character twice, Wright in the rebooted series is the only Leiter, so far. Let's hope it stays that way. Also, of the EON productions, the only African-American to play the role. He wasn't the first however. Former Professional Football standout turned actor, Bernie Casey played Leiter in the Connery Bond, Never Say Never Again.

One of my most favorite minor characters is "Q," (the Quartermaster). He, too, was portrayed by many actors:

1. Peter Burton (1962)
2. Desmond Llewelyn (1963–99), the longest and most identified as to this role.
3. John Cleese (2002). He was "R" in his first Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, but became "Q" after Llewelyn passed away in an auto accident in 1999.
4. Ben Whishaw (2012–present)

As I stated, differences and similarities are found in the Bond series. The characters remained consistent but the actors often changed. My favorites are Maxwell and Bond as Moneypenny; Hedison and Wright as Leiter; Dench and Fiennes as "M"; and you can't forget that "Q" my most favorite character in all the films, even above Bond, is Llewelyn.

Now, let's talk about similarities in death. If we are to believe that there are many evil people in secret evil organizations with secret agendas, armies and weapons, then we need to believe that the world media coverage is missing a lot of front page stories. The body counts of both the bad guys and the good guys number in the hundreds approaching thousands. There are a lot of husbands, fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters, etc. that are not going to be home for the next holiday dinner. Or we can believe that all these people have no families and truly won't be missed. Or there are going to be a shit-load of funerals in the UK or wherever. However, with the reboot, I observed less mass murdering and chaos. The earlier films really played upon the violence and large battles. It sort of resembled the mass Cowboy and Indian wars from the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood Westerns. There always seemed to be a lot of dead Indians. Of course, the secret weapons, the massive death machines, were entertaining but not really believable. We're talking Star Wars' Death Star on earth. Just not likely. And the one thread that was consistent in all the films, it was always about the money. The bad guys wanted to ransom the world for Billions.

Another common thread throughout the series: The Women. The women, be it villainess, MI6 partner or casual sex partner, they just about all have two things in common: 1) They have small boobs, not a Hooter's gal in the bunch, and 2) They all get killed off, just about. Harpers Bazaar released online last November their list of the 25 finest-best Bond girls in honor of the release of SPECTRE. Check it out.

Let's finish up with the cars. I loved the cars. (Full list here.) I wanted to own at least one of each car Bond drove. Even the shitty ones. Below is a list of cars Bond drove. We'll ignore the cars that Bond did not drive. I'll list just the makers, because there were so many models used:

1. Alpha Romeos
2. AMC - Hornet and Matador
3. Aston Martin - my favorites
4. Audi - used in the reboots
5. Bentley - another nice set of cars
6. BMW - meh?
7. Chevrolet - blah!
8. Ford - meh?
9. Jeep
10. Land Rover
11. Lotus

I'm sure I may have missed one or two. But they did mash up a lot of vehicles and if you followed the link, there are a shit-load of cars.

The final roundup is Who's your Bond? In this case, my Bond. In order of preference

1. Pierce Brosnan, it used to be Connery, but after this binge watch, I like this guy best. Of course he got screwed because with the reboot they wanted a younger Bond.
2. Sean Connery, the first Bond still stands up.
3. Daniel Craig
4. Roger Moore
5. Timothy Dalton, he got screwed because of the lawsuit business. When all was said and done, Brosnan got the job, but he was their first choice to replace the very aging Moore, in the first place, but was not available because of his contract with Remington Steele. I loved that show. Watch A View To A Kill. You'll know what I mean when the young hotty is hanging all over the geezer. Creepy.
6. George Lazenby

So, I promised you a morale. When you are down in the dumps, blue or feeling life is not worth living, or even pondering ending it all, don't. (Don't be concerned. I wasn't contemplating anything, except maybe getting on a plane to Hawai'i or Japan or somewhere.) Stop. Look around. Find yourself something that truly makes you happy and pursue it. Whether it's decompressing and hiding out in you living room and watching old action movies or working out in the gym or taking a long walk or drive, just do it. Life will get better. In my life I've had more ups and downs than I can count and have always come through it. This, too, will pass. Until next time, check out the Bond series. It's really a hoot.