Who Is Bond?





So who is Bond, according to the original books he’s described as white (with tanned skin obviously as he's abroad in hot climates all the time). 6ft 2. He is according to one specific book (the authorised biography of James bond). Born in Germany, has a Scottish farther and a Swiss mother. Wait he’s not even English! Yep he just works for Britain. A lot of his tastes and likes where taken from parts of the authors own tastes and the people he worked with. His own creator described him as a cardboard cut around which everything happens. As a person in himself he is probably just a boring civil servant who has a job to do. He doesn't have a lot of friends and apart from work he doesn't have much a life. Even his name was chosen by the author based on the fact that he sounded boring.

Is he appropriate for today? Do we still need Bond? If you've read the books, and watched the films. You'll notice a difference the books all happen in an era when life was pretty dull for most people. We'd just come out of war. There wasn't much food or money, most people didn't go abroad. Even Bond reminisces of child hood holidays near La Touquet (Northern France). 

What Bond allowed was an insight in to another world. He was at that time and still today allows the reader/watcher a view in to a different sort of world. One that was at the time completely unreachable for most people. In he's first book Casino Royale Bond orders an avocado pear for desert. When I first read the books in the early 80's I didn't even know what one of those was. Nowadays thanks to a friend I have them coming out of my ears.

In relation to his behaviour in the books and films we have to remember Bond was from another time. When his behaviour was how they did things. It's not right now, but for that time it was appropriate if he didn't behave in that way he would never have made it as an icon. It is what people deemed on the bounds of acceptable and appropriate.

A question I get asked quite often which is my favourite Bond, my reply then as it is now each was appropriate for his time. Sean Connery wouldn’t work today, nor would a Roger Moore. Each Bond played the part as was relevant for the audience at the time. Hats off to the Broccoli family (the producers) for that one. As to the next Bond again I am sure he will be appropriate to the time. In order to stay relevant he has to move with the times. 

I remember the furore of the diehard Bond fans (including myself at that time) when Daniel Craig was introduced. Oh my god a blond Bond can’t be! He’s supposed to have dark hair. Yet again for the time, he is perfect.  So we get a black bond or a black female bond (or my favourite choice a disabled Asian in a wheelchair Bond). It doesn’t matter in the international world of today a black person could still have Scottish father and Swiss mother.  It still works. It is irrelevant who we want to take on the mantel of the perfect cardboard cut-out, me, I’ll leave it to the Broccoli family they seem to know what they are doing.

With regard to his behaviour with the opposite sex say the incident on the boat with Severyn in Skyfall which is criticised by a lot of people as inappropriate. Yet when you think in this day and age where people can seem to choose and sleep with someone on the basis of a swipe on the phone It does bring it in to a perspective. 

As to the need for a Bond, and the reality of his purpose. I believe it still stands. In the Authorised Biography, M describes a spy who’s not like all the other grey man employed by the secret services, is employed for the sole purposes of infiltrating the higher echelons of society and business, someone who fits in to that lifestyle, this is who he is! He is spy who keeps the top notch of society in check. Making sure rich people pay their dues. In fact he's almost a tax man, after people who invest billions in crooked and corrupt money making schemes. We know there still a lot of those to deal with. So his relevance today when time and time again rich corporations are fleecing the people, he is probably more relevant than ever.

In reality I don’t think who Bond is matters, there will always be another Bond as long as there's evil. Just think of St George the British Paton saint slaying dragons and rescuing damsel in distress (he is originally thought to be off been born in Turkey) yet we are happy to have him as our patron saint not because of who he is but what he stands for. In reality thus Bond isn’t a person he is a brand. A brand that enjoys the finer things in a world where most people don't live. One that is but an empty vessel that other well-known brands can be associated with to sell their wares. If bond has it, it must be the best. Watching a movie is like flicking through a high end glossy magazine say GQ or Tattler, lots of glossy photos of things most of us can’t afford taken in places most of us won’t see, with the odd bit of print telling us how to live a life which is completely out of our realm.

At the end of a day, how he treats woman and the inherent racism of the books is not appropriate for these days, that for certain, but then saying he can't be black or a woman is also not appropriate either. At the end of the day for all the furore as to his behaviour and gender or colour he is an assassin that kills for the government and nothing is more inappropriate than that in this day and age of the ultimate right. The Human Right to life.


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