Anachronistic Dr. No
CmdrAtticus
United StatesPosts: 1,102MI6 Agent
I recall that Fleming originally wrote the novel as a screenplay for the first episode of a TV series that was to be titled "Commander Jamaica". Since he wrote the previous novels up till then as literature rather than as stories for television or cinema, I always wondered how it influenced his approach in creating DN and what he might have changed when he then wrote it as a novel.
Since the novel was released in March 1958, I assumed Fleming must have written it in the beginning of 1957, thought he produced the screenplay the year before. I always thought that since western culture changed quite a bit in the years from '56 to when the film was released in '62, that when I watch the film there seems to be a bit of an anachronistic feeling about it. Not so much in the plot involving American missile tests from Florida as they were contemporary at the time - but what was going on in culture. Jamaica gained independence in the year NO was released. It was no longer a British colony, so when they show Strangways and his card partners at the British club they seem to me as ghosts from the colonial era that's already been passed. Also, in the novel Bond travels to the island on a propeller driven Super Constellation. In the movie he arrives on a Boeing 707 jet.
For me, it's almost as if the first Bond film arrives at the time when the character from the novels and the world of the '50s cold war as well as Fleming's Jamaican North Coast bubble of post war aristocrat/celebrity culture is already fading away.
Though the film comes across as a slick, modern thriller decorated with jets, rocket launches and nuclear reactors, the novel for me still feels blanketed in 1950's - just before culture was going to go through such a change - JFK, Cuban missile crisis, jet travel, Britain losing more of it's power and colonies, and on.
An example is the plot itself. In the novel, No is financed by the Russians who want to screw up the American rocket program for obvious reasons. A 1950's cold war plot - Soviets vs the US. By the time the film comes out, he's financed by SPECTRE - though I've never quite figured out how the profited from it unless they were getting paid by the Soviets to do it.
So I suppose as much as I admire how much the film ushered in the cinema Bond in the modern era and how much they've kept the films on the cutting edge of modern culture, I feel a certain "out of place, out of time" feeling when I watch the film. As far as I can figure it out, it's because the world of the '50s was still slowly evolving socially and technologically towards the revolutionary world of the 60's and as such there were still areas of the world and culture that Fleming wrote about that still seemed frozen in early years after the end of WWII. It still took a long time to travel to places, communication was still done without satellites and it was still easy to find private islands to launch nefarious schemes from. It's just another reason why I think updating the plot of DN would be such an almost impossible challenge. With instant global communication and surveillance, 24 hour news coverage and the US space program now a host of science projects instead of a Soviet-American space race, it's difficult for me to see how the story could be redone unless most of it was changed to the point it would be unrecognizable. No himself, with his - at the time - unique German/Chinese identity, would no longer be considered unique given the amount of cross cultured identities that are so commonplace now. Even the Tongs, which were organized gangsters in the past like the Yakuza, have morphed into youth street gangs.
I've amused myself at times at trying to come up with a way the film could be adapted to the modern era, but I just cant make a go of it. CR - as old as it was and the first novel, was fairly easy to update. Novels like DN and even FRWL - being influenced so much by the era they were composed it, would be nearly impossible to adapt if a modern remake was attempted.
Since the novel was released in March 1958, I assumed Fleming must have written it in the beginning of 1957, thought he produced the screenplay the year before. I always thought that since western culture changed quite a bit in the years from '56 to when the film was released in '62, that when I watch the film there seems to be a bit of an anachronistic feeling about it. Not so much in the plot involving American missile tests from Florida as they were contemporary at the time - but what was going on in culture. Jamaica gained independence in the year NO was released. It was no longer a British colony, so when they show Strangways and his card partners at the British club they seem to me as ghosts from the colonial era that's already been passed. Also, in the novel Bond travels to the island on a propeller driven Super Constellation. In the movie he arrives on a Boeing 707 jet.
For me, it's almost as if the first Bond film arrives at the time when the character from the novels and the world of the '50s cold war as well as Fleming's Jamaican North Coast bubble of post war aristocrat/celebrity culture is already fading away.
Though the film comes across as a slick, modern thriller decorated with jets, rocket launches and nuclear reactors, the novel for me still feels blanketed in 1950's - just before culture was going to go through such a change - JFK, Cuban missile crisis, jet travel, Britain losing more of it's power and colonies, and on.
An example is the plot itself. In the novel, No is financed by the Russians who want to screw up the American rocket program for obvious reasons. A 1950's cold war plot - Soviets vs the US. By the time the film comes out, he's financed by SPECTRE - though I've never quite figured out how the profited from it unless they were getting paid by the Soviets to do it.
So I suppose as much as I admire how much the film ushered in the cinema Bond in the modern era and how much they've kept the films on the cutting edge of modern culture, I feel a certain "out of place, out of time" feeling when I watch the film. As far as I can figure it out, it's because the world of the '50s was still slowly evolving socially and technologically towards the revolutionary world of the 60's and as such there were still areas of the world and culture that Fleming wrote about that still seemed frozen in early years after the end of WWII. It still took a long time to travel to places, communication was still done without satellites and it was still easy to find private islands to launch nefarious schemes from. It's just another reason why I think updating the plot of DN would be such an almost impossible challenge. With instant global communication and surveillance, 24 hour news coverage and the US space program now a host of science projects instead of a Soviet-American space race, it's difficult for me to see how the story could be redone unless most of it was changed to the point it would be unrecognizable. No himself, with his - at the time - unique German/Chinese identity, would no longer be considered unique given the amount of cross cultured identities that are so commonplace now. Even the Tongs, which were organized gangsters in the past like the Yakuza, have morphed into youth street gangs.
I've amused myself at times at trying to come up with a way the film could be adapted to the modern era, but I just cant make a go of it. CR - as old as it was and the first novel, was fairly easy to update. Novels like DN and even FRWL - being influenced so much by the era they were composed it, would be nearly impossible to adapt if a modern remake was attempted.
Comments
Wait- it already IS a period piece now!
Yeah I agree, a MAJOR rewrite would be needed to bring it into our present era.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Yes The Film Bond came along just as the world of the literary Bond
was changing.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
I'm not sure I agree on the cultural issues, though. They don't usually change as quickly as, say, fashion or aesthetics do. Just because a colonial nation achieves independence doesn't mean that suddenly the holdovers of life and style are different overnight or even in a few years. It also depends on the culture -- some revere tradition while others are constantly eschewing it.
For example, though from a different island/cultural viewpoint, I've been to Hawaii many times, and the first thing that is obvious is the age of the houses and buildings -- the Hawaiians repurpose a lot, and the temperate weather means that the wear and tear on things is considerably less than, say, in the American midwest. Hotels have looked the same for decades, and most houses are circa 1940s or 1950s. Tradition is upheld there, and the Hawaiians protect their environment -- to the point that they got rid of a convenient and affordable ferry that used to shuttle people between the islands because of its negative impact on the environment. This doesn't mean they are in the dark ages, certainly, but that the pace of life is different. Obviously, they have all the latest technology toys and access to the Web. But tradition is extremely important to the Hawaiian people, and in this respect, it is a unique state.
In addition, foreigners who've emigrated there -- Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, for instance -- have brought their ways to the islands, and they essentially live in their own enclaves, not much different from other immigrant experiences in most places in the U.S. except that it endures. If you want to do any serious business there, you'd either better be a part of some ethnic group or bring something of value to them and learn to do things their way. There is intergroup cooperation and people pretty much get along with each other, but there are also cultural barriers that most mainland Americans would likely be unaware of. In some ways, Hawaii is more like a foreign country than it is like the rest of the United States, or at least the mainland U. S. A.
And while it's true that being biracial or multicultural is less unusual today, that's a relatively recent phenomenon. Those of us old enough to remember can recall the many societal restrictions on interracial dating and marriage, for instance, that too many Americans still cling to (repulsively). In addition, it depends on the type. For instance, people may be less troubled if a white male and an Asian female marry than if an Asian male and a white female marry. Studies literally have found this.
So, I'm not sure Dr. No could not be done today. The basic idea still works. In Hawaii alone, there are numerous uninhabited smaller atolls and islets where, theoretically, someone could sneak in. There are hundreds and hundreds of similar places throughout the world's oceans. That may sound silly in this age of satellites and GPS and all that, but I'll remind everyone that despite all that technology, a Malaysian jet is still missing and people have been able to fly drones into the White House grounds. There are gaps and flaws even when things seem fool proof.
So, how could Dr. No be updated? Easily. Dr. No is still working for SPECTRE, who is contracted through North Korea to disrupt the western civilian space program. Some fictitious British company on the order of Elon Musk's SPACEX is making great progress, and is based in part near Jamaica, but North Korea wants it and others stamped out. Like the Chinese, the North Koreans are concerned about the satellite dominance of the west so they are developing an anti-satellite space weapons program.
Rather than use a radar beam, Dr. No develops a high-intensity EMP weapon capable of knocking out the guidance systems. It is mounted to some sort of stealth submarine that No launches from a bay in his privately held key. Bond is dispatched to Jamaica to investigate it after Strangways, a British agent posing as a marine biologist, turns up dead. Strangways' research partner is Professor Dent, whose specialty is not geology but oceanographic engineering (it is he who design's No's stealth submarine and subterranean seaside lair), and he remains a double agent. We get to keep Miss Taro and also the assassination scene with Dent in the hills of Jamaica.
Quarrel remains as is except he's not quite so child-like. Instead of a dragon, he fears some sort of sea creature best described as a giant squid. It is bioluminescent (and actually No's submarine, which is capable of using robotic "tentacles" to attach themselves to smaller boats and pull them into the depths). Bond is, of course, skeptical of such a creature, but Quarrel meets his end when his fishing boat is, indeed, sunk by such a "creature."
Honey Ryder would be less Tarzan-like but more "damaged" by her physical abuse -- think "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." She has come to Jamaica to lose herself, so to speak, operating only when necessary through the Internet. In fact, she has been trying to hack into Dr. No's computer network because he is wealthy and hopes to steal funds. Bond discovers her presence when he -- using some hacking system devised by Q -- is trying to do the same. After Quarrel's demise, she takes him back to her "hideout," where No's men find them.
Much of the rest of the story could remain the same. Felix can be there to help him. There can still be attempts on Bond's life, though with CGI, they could certainly use the centipede instead of the tarantula.
To me, this would be a much less colorful version of the original. One thing I love about Fleming is how he ferrets out the unusual in an otherwise ordinary world. Nowadays, moviegoers want to see the ordinary, just with lots of explosions and more technology. It all just seems boring. But certainly Dr. No can be updated without losing the basic idea. No can even have his lair (there are hotels in caverns these days), and instead of the painting, they could work in the idea that No downed that Malaysian plane as a test of his weapon. (I would not suggest that out of respect for the families, but my point is there is no reason they can't update the film with contemporary references to events that would be familiar to the audiences these days.)
But actually, I like DN as is. No updates or remakes, please.
DN & FRWL are great 50's holdover movies. GF eases us nicely into the real 60's. TB & OHMSS were unique bigger Bonds. FYEO & Tim's two were nicely retro.
There's still MR to be done right, but basically, let's have new stories for the new Bonds. -{
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Edit: And Bond has never been to Hawaii, which holds great potential for a future adventure.
Boing - oops!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
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I never thought that. The Chinese aspect of his character is such a small part. He's not the caricature that Fu Manchu is. His attire is Asian but kept simple and that's all. He doesn't speak with a Chinese accent. The essence of the character has nothing to do with being part Chinese, whereas that's what Fu Manchu is all about.
I guess you're right because Fu Manchu is a highly educated super-intelligent Asian guy who is the a member of a secret international crime organization and likes to kill his enemies using poisonous snakes and spiders and has a secret hideout on a Caribbean Island (The Island of Fu Manchu) inside an extinct volcano! Whereas Dr. No is a . . .
Fu Manchu has many things in common with Dr. No and other Bond villains, but I was thinking along the lines of how offensive the Fu Manchu is in comparison to Dr. No.
It's why I like seeing them dispatched.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
New idea for a thread there for Silhoutte Man, if he hasn't done it already. Maybe Le Chiffre was a Sydney Greenstreet type.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Yes, well there is a thread on just that subject on MI6 Community where both of us are also members (myself as one Dragonpol) but as it was Ludovico's idea and not mine I won't run a similar thread here. I've also not read Dracula so I'd be out of my comfort zone. A nice idea, anyhow.
Perhaps you could start a thread on it instead, Nap?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Thanks, Nap, old pal. Yes, I'm based in the UK. I'll have to try and tape that film if I can. I've been meaning to get the Dracula films on DVD as I have a friend who is a big Hammer fan. I'm just getting into horror a little too but I have so many articles still to write that I can't cope with any more (especially not in an area I am a novice in).
The novel is unusual because it's epistolary in form, with different characters giving their version of events. Although the style, at times, is leaden, with lots of repetitious proclamations of love and friendship among the characters, for instance, it creates a very formidable villain in Dracula. Few of the film adaptations have gotten it right. The 1977 BBC production with Louis Jourdan is, in my opinion, the best adaptation, and the one that stays truest to the character of Dracula (though Jourdan does not quite appear as Dracula is described. Perhaps ironically to this conversation, he looks more like Fu Manchu in the book, fitting a classic Victorian image of villain (e.g., long face, pronounced nose, bushy eyebrows). Jourdan plays him like a wily if world-weary aristocrat; it's not so much he's evil as he simply views humans as food and inferiors for his amusement. The Coppola version stayed truer to the plot but focused too much on the romance rather than the gothicism, and invented an origin story for Dracula that was unnecessary.
Is he not?
"- That is something to be afraid of."
Dracula
Jonathan Harker is sent from Britain to Dracula's secluded middle-European lair, where he will discover things are not as they seem. The Count has dark schemes, which would have devastating effects on Harker's homeland if they come to pass. Harker encounters some young ladies (?) in the Count's thrall, in a definitely sexual context. Eventually he escapes from Dracula's lair in the mountains and returns to GB to aid in foiling the Count's plans. Harker's girlfriend (and later wife) is a central part of the story.
OHMSS
James Bond is sent from Britain to Blofeld's secluded middle-European lair, where he will discover things are not as they seem. The prospective Count has dark schemes, which would have devastating effects on Bond's homeland if they come to pass. Bond encounters some young ladies (?) in the prospective Count's thrall, in a definitely sexual context. Eventually he escapes from Blofeld's lair in the mountains and returns to GB to aid in foiling the prospective Count's plans. Bond's girlfriend (and later wife) is a central part of the story.
Still, these are no more than cursory resemblances. The characters and themes are very dissimilar, and the thrusts of plot go in very different directions. Tracy is not Mina, Harker is in no way like Bond, Draco is not Van Helsing, etc, and the story-telling differs dramatically as Gassy Man says.
Harker is not an infiltrating agent in Stoker (though he is in the 1958 Hammer film), and Ruby & co are far from Dracula's brides. Fleming's subtext and themes are not Stoker's. Blofeld and Dracula have a bit in common (perhaps Christopher Lee should have played Blofeld rather than Scaramanga?) but more in YOLT than OHMSS.