James Bond--A Bad Double-O?
Revelator
Posts: 604MI6 Agent
James Bond is a Double-O, a government assassin. Yes throughout the James Bond saga, Bond (and Fleming) show an increasing unease with this. In Casino Royale Bond is clearly established as an assassin, having performed two cold-blooded kills to gain Double-O status, yet we do not see him on another assassination mission until For Your Eyes Only. And after that, only The Living Daylights and The Man With the Golden Gun. What gives?
In CR Bond is comfortable with being a cold-blooded killer, though conversation with Vesper he goes out of his way to divest being a OO of any glamor. Yet by the time of From Russia With Love, Bond and Fleming have developed a great distaste for cold-blooded murder--"Bond had never killed in cold blood" writes Fleming, contradicting his own books!
In FYEO, Bond undertakes M's private mission of revenge (which even a staunch Bond-fan like Kingsley Amis found distasteful) after being told of Von Hammerstein's crimes, yet when it comes time to pull the trigger, Bond's nerves begin to fail him. It's only when Von Hammerstein reminds Bond of his cruelty (by shooting a bird) that Bond can bring himself to try assassinating him. In TLD Bond's decay as a OO proceeds further--he cannot even bring himself to kill Trigger (and unlike the movie, Bond knows she's a professional killer)! Despite being reborn in TMWTGG, Bond's unease with cold-blooded killing reaches its zenith: presented with the ideal opportunity to kill Scaramanga, he cannot bring himself to shoot him in the back. And when Bond finally has Scaramanga at his mercy, he ludicrously, intentionally, delays the execution, even allowing the thoroughly immoral Scaramanga a prayer break!
It's clear: James Bond has become uncomfortable with being a OO. His job is to kill in cold blood, yet he can no longer so. This fact has eluded the educated idiots who tell us that Fleming's Bond is a murderous sociopath. In FRWL Fleming tells us the following:
If Bond worked for the Soviets, they would have executed him. If I were M, I would fire him.
In CR Bond is comfortable with being a cold-blooded killer, though conversation with Vesper he goes out of his way to divest being a OO of any glamor. Yet by the time of From Russia With Love, Bond and Fleming have developed a great distaste for cold-blooded murder--"Bond had never killed in cold blood" writes Fleming, contradicting his own books!
In FYEO, Bond undertakes M's private mission of revenge (which even a staunch Bond-fan like Kingsley Amis found distasteful) after being told of Von Hammerstein's crimes, yet when it comes time to pull the trigger, Bond's nerves begin to fail him. It's only when Von Hammerstein reminds Bond of his cruelty (by shooting a bird) that Bond can bring himself to try assassinating him. In TLD Bond's decay as a OO proceeds further--he cannot even bring himself to kill Trigger (and unlike the movie, Bond knows she's a professional killer)! Despite being reborn in TMWTGG, Bond's unease with cold-blooded killing reaches its zenith: presented with the ideal opportunity to kill Scaramanga, he cannot bring himself to shoot him in the back. And when Bond finally has Scaramanga at his mercy, he ludicrously, intentionally, delays the execution, even allowing the thoroughly immoral Scaramanga a prayer break!
It's clear: James Bond has become uncomfortable with being a OO. His job is to kill in cold blood, yet he can no longer so. This fact has eluded the educated idiots who tell us that Fleming's Bond is a murderous sociopath. In FRWL Fleming tells us the following:
Executioners have a short 'life.' They get tired of their work. The soul sickens of it. After ten, twenty, a hundred death rattles, the human being, however sub-human he may be, acquires, perhaps by a process of osmosis with death itself, a germ of death which enters his body and eats into him like a canker. Melancholy and drink take him, and a dreadful lassitude which which brings a glaze to his eyes and slows up movements and destroys accuracy. When the employer sees these signs he has no alternative but to execute the executioner and find another one.
If Bond worked for the Soviets, they would have executed him. If I were M, I would fire him.
Comments
Though Fleming never gave details of what Bond did during the war before becoming a 00, he probably would have been working in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and had killed more than a few times (as well as blown a lot of things up). Executing the men that earned him the 00 status was done in peacetime (even though it was during the start of the Cold War). One was as a sniper and the other hand to hand. Doing this during wartime is one thing, doing it during peacetime in the cold, innocent light of day is another. This is the dilemma that tasks the moral soul of doing such work. For someone like Bond, who has compassion for others and must put his duty above his compassion, it slowly erodes at the core of being human.
This is why Fleming never intended to write Bond as a cold blooded thug. He was merely a spy who was given a special status in the service that granted him the license to kill other criminals or professionals who worked for the enemy be it self defence or as a matter of being a specific target for assassination. For Bond's sake, that latter category was given to him very seldom, because he really did not have a taste for it being - as I have stated - a man of compassion. Fleming did a good job of showing Bond's increasing distaste for the violence in his work when it had to be done in cold blood.
Inner demons. Although even with his doubts he still performed his duty.