The first James Bond film I went to was 1979’s For Your Eyes Only. I had no preconceived notion that Roger Moore wasn’t the “real” James Bond so I was completely accepting of Moore in the role. I was neutral about the film: it was entertainment and it was a date after all.
It was the 1981 For Your Eyes Only where I was impacted by James Bond. Maybe it was the front row view of the movie or maybe I was newly excited by Indiana Jones which I had seen the week before, but for whatever reason, I was captured by Bond.
Liking Bond felt like it went against my feminist beliefs. Bond used women as playthings, showed little respect, cast them aside when he was done with them. Yet somehow I wanted to be a Bond girl: bad-ass and sexy.
Lily Rothman at time.com notes
while Bond is always Bond, his feminine foils have evolved to fit the times, each one shedding light on what her era believes a woman can do.
Lillian Lemoning notes
There are lots of interesting feminist moments in Casino Royale. Bond is kissing Vesper and then she starts saying “No. Stop. Stop it.” In a Sean Connery Bond film this moment would be when he kisses her harder, and then she reveals that she likes it, that no means yes. In Casino Royale, Bond stops. Immediately. And he doesn’t get resentful or scary, or share a sad look with the camera. He’s always looking at her, and he doesn’t resist her paying her share. This Bond is a different kind of Neanderthal, not a perfect feminist partner, but certainly not the paragon of male chauvinism we see in the Ian Fleming novels and 60s and 70s films.
I had no issue when a new actor would take on the role. It was a little fun to see how the character would be <ahem> fleshed out. Before Timothy Dalton was named the heir apparent, there was a rumor that Pierce Brosnan was being tapped for the role. I thought this was an excellent choice. Although it took another 7 years for this to happen, it was good to see Brosnan in the role.
When Daniel Craig was called up and the media was aghast that Bond would be blond – oh my! He has been a spectacular specimen of Bond.
I saw a documentary Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007. It goes inside the James Bond legend to uncover how a series of spy stories by Ian Fleming became Hollywood gold, and how film producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman helped create one of the most iconic franchises in cinema history. I liked the tidbit about how Fleming decided his character’s name. James Bond (January 4, 1900 – February 14, 1989) was a leading American ornithologist, an expert on the birds of the Caribbean. Ian Fleming, who was a keen bird watcher living in Jamaica, was familiar with Bond’s book, and chose the name of its author for the hero of Casino Royale in 1953, apparently because he wanted a name that sounded ‘as ordinary as possible’.
And James Bond has become the opposite of ordinary.