Thursday, February 23, 2012

Thinking about Bond

There's nothing NOT to like about James Bond films.

Oh, sure,  you have your favorite Bond:

Sean Connery
George Lazenby
Roger Moore
Timothy Dalton
Pierce Brosnan
Daniel Craig



As the central figure for his works, Ian Fleming created the fictional character of James Bond, an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Navy Reserve Commander. 

Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide, "Birds of the West Indies"; Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist’s wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". He further explained that: When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument...when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard.  —Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962

On another occasion Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, "James Bond" was much better than something more interesting, like "Peregrine Carruthers". Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."


My favorite James Bond Theme Song


My second favorite James Bond Theme Song



"It takes two kills to become a 00 rated case officer"...

And then there are the "Bond girls" like:

Olga Kurylenko, who doesn't seem all that happy in handcuffs?


But seems to be thrilled to be at the movie premier.


And who can forget Octapussy?


6 comments:

Opus #6 said...

Hard to figure if this is a Rule 5 or Tuesday Tunes posting.

Everybody loves James Bond.

Xmichra said...

I want to dislike Bond movies... it seems like I should. But they really are quite good. lol...

WoFat said...

Bond - Started watching him in the early '60s, in Thailand - James Bond.

LL said...

Opus #6 - shaken not stirred.

Xmichra - Sure, everybody would like to dislike the blatant chauvinism and shameless product placement to sell advertising in the films - but they're fun.

WoFat - YOU are James Bond.

Az said...

Sean Connery was my favourite Bond. Followed by Pierce Brosnan. Ironically, my favourite Bond movie would be Casino Royale :)

Race Bannon said...

I didn't get Daniel Craig as the choice, before Casino Royale came out, they kept showing him in that Euro-small bathing suit...but other than that, it was the best Bond movie in a long time.

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