Thursday, August 11, 2011

James Bond. 007. All entertainment, no Reality !!

James Bond is your ever lasting image of the perfect gentleman. So much charm, so much class, just so much of it all. It is the ever selling model to be used when selling the image of the perfect spy. But at the end of the day, is the image that James Bond portrays even real? Is it even a livable character? Is it an achievable mold or just something that is purely fictional, purely entertainment? 
In my opinion, the standards that James Bond lives up to, the problems that he faces, the charm that he exudes with his enemies and especially among women, the wit he has to fix any problem, is 100% very far away from actual reality. There have been many theories that Bond was the depiction of an actual real life agent, and that he acted in a way the actual spies or intelligence forces do or did. However, through just some research and theory we can dissect that theory to entirely unfounded. 
Bond's character is sexist and very detached from reality. One can argue in the film "Goldfinger" he can be viewed as a womanizer and an alcoholic. He also seems to treat his foreign counterparts with very less respect, as almost that he is better than them. It is almost that the character Bond portrays seems to have a sense of entitlement towards almost anything in the world - and it reeks of British Imperialism here. 
Also we see that as the world has changed, so has the images of Bond. Bond throughout the years has lost the sexist character as much and has become more sensitive in emotional issues. This is an example of Bond changing for the entertainment value of the world. 
Many people try to cut the Bond franchise into many meanings and try to read it for its subliminal messages, however, in it's purest form, Bond is just a reflection of the current times, especially in terms of entertainment value and will continue to mold into whatever defines Pop Culture at the time of it's production.



Goldfingerisms from the novel
"Money is an effective winding sheet."
"The safest way to double your money is to fold it twice and put it in your pocket."
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." (Attributed as a saying in Chicago, and used in three sections also as titles for the novel's three main sections.)
"Riches may not make you friends, but they greatly increase the quality of your enemies."


Works Cited:
Goldfinger. Dir. Guy Hamilton. 1964. DVD. An Eon Production.
Wikipedia. Web. 11 August 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfinger_(film)


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