Millennials watching classic Bond for 1st Time- Connery is a Rapist

A7ceA7ce Birmingham, EnglandPosts: 656MI6 Agent
Charming !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5315501/Millennials-watching-old-James-Bond-not-impressed.html

Dr NO! Millennials watching classic Bond movies for the first time blast 'sexist' and 'racist' plots online - and describe Sean Connery's 007 as 'basically a rapist'

James Bond is part of British cinematic history, with 26 films spanning the past 56 years - but some millennials watching 007's early outings for the first time are taking issue with the movies' 'inappropriate' content.

Some viewers too young to witness past Bonds like Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton - and even Pierce Brosnan - in action at the cinema have expressed their shock at the 'sexist' and 'racist' contents of the films in a modern context.

The older Bond movies may have stood the test of time in the eyes of true devotees of Ian Fleming's hero - but those people coming to the franchise with fresh eyes say the spy's sexually aggressive actions are unacceptable.

In particular, Sean Connery's James Bond - the Scottish actor took the title role in seven Bond flicks between 1962 and 1983 - has been described variously as a 'sexist wife beater', a 'scumbag', and a 'rapist' by modern viewers.

It comes after the arrival of seminal '90s sitcom on Friends on Netflix sparked an online outcry among 20-somethings seeing the episodes for the first time, who branded it 'transphobic', 'homophobic', and 'sexist'.
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Comments

  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    As a millennial, I don't get millennials.

    First off, it's a miracle they've seen the older movies because most of my acquaintances (wouldn't go as far to describe them as friends) consider me a weirdo for watching older movies.
    Trying to see an older film with them usually results in them starting talking and getting bored very easily (like some people I know who walked out of BR2049).

    In regards to Bond, they have a blind idea of what Bond is but have no sort of grip on the character and what he's supposed to be.
    Doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they would label Sean as a rapist, even if he was pushy, all women eventually succumbed.
    Pussy could've pushed him back further but she didn't.

    For the racist accusation, most Bond villains don't play by any rules except their own. Orlov, for example, may be Soviet but he's fulfilling his own dreams of power. Dr No called out both the east and west and Goldfinger used the east to achieve his goals in the west.

    It's harder for them to immerse themselves to a movie, some even taking channels like Movie-Sins as gospel and most "retro-spectors" don't even talk about the good things about the movies without focusing on PC BS.
    Nobody seems to get that this was a very, very different time.

    Of course, this is merely my opinion.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,616MI6 Agent
    I think most Millennials would have the same problems if they watched anything made before their lifetime. Bond is hardly unique. I've watched things made in the 1980s that were supposed to be empowering to women that seem sexist today. This is coming from a Millennial.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    Bond is hardly unique.
    Puzzling choice of word.
    I presume you mean unique as Bond being an exception to the rule.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    It seems to me that a lot of millennials lack an ability to understand context...(where they can have an echo chamber validate their opinions)...

    To be fair, though: there are some millennials who are actively rejecting this mindset. I work with a few who seem to understand how the world really works, so I have hope that things will turn around.
    Exactly the word I was looking for.
    That's called attention whoring, something that most social media users do and to be fair, I wouldn't exactly say it's strictly restricted to millennials. It's something that's happened in one way or another since the introduction of internet.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • MikeG77MikeG77 Posts: 1,778MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    It seems to me that a lot of millennials lack an ability to understand context. I say this as someone who is older and works with millennials for the most part, so movie discussions tend to go off in interesting directions. In all honesty, most of them seem to live in a perpetual sense of outrage and are constantly looking for the next thing to complain about on social media (where they can have an echo chamber validate their opinions).

    To be fair, though: there are some millennials who are actively rejecting this mindset. I work with a few who seem to understand how the world really works, so I have hope that things will turn around.

    The point you made about millennials "Being in a perpetual sense of outrage" hits the nail right on the head. The other issue i see for millennials is that universities and colleges are no longer teaching their students how to think but what to think. This is exactly why i never engage in any sort of high level conversation that requires critical thinking as they are unable to do so and God forbid you have a differing opinion!
    I know where you keep your gun!
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,616MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    Bond is hardly unique.
    Puzzling choice of word.
    I presume you mean unique as Bond being an exception to the rule.

    That's right. The Bond films were not unique in being sexist and racist. Bond is getting attention because its still around. If they watched anything else from the 1960s they would have the same criticism.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • walther p99walther p99 NJPosts: 3,416MI6 Agent
    Being a millennial myself I'm embarrassed how a lot of my generation seems to get offended and outraged over absolutely everything as evidenced by things like this.
  • Sterling ArcherSterling Archer Posts: 197MI6 Agent
    As a Millennial myself, I should point out that many feel pressured into being offended. The staunch defenders of being offended by everything tend to be outspoken and will demean others for not being as offended as they are.

    People are also incredibly two faced. They'll say one thing in private and then act completely differently in public (I guess you could say this for any generation).

    At some point, some people in my generation should've been told to shut up, grow a pair, or simply someone should've told them they are wrong. Eventually after being pampered for so long, people will develop a huge sense of entitlement and arrogance. Hard to cure it by the time they are grown adults.
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    MikeG77 wrote:
    ...teaching their students how to think but what to think.

    I've heard this from a number of people, including millennials. It's all brainwashing. Add in the fact that it's really easy to find people who will validate your opinions online without challenging your preconceptions and you wind up with an outrage culture. The idea that someone could have a valid, differing opinion from your own point of view is completely out the window.

    I think it's a complex set of issues. Although not a Milenial myself by a long shot " Quarel fetch my shoes" still jars. I don't think that we need ro see all viewpoints as valid, misogyny is still misogyny, but we do need to see it as of a particular time and place. The real danger lies in editing/rewriting history. The worrying thing for me is there is still much that is highly questionable in the current era. For me Bond is a complex character for every " Quarel fetch my shoes" there is a counterbalance. Bond's attitudes and behaviour have been in concert with the prevailing codes of the time. Fleming when asked about Bonds personal politics said that his views were " to the left of my own" It's the present 'Rapey' overtones that worry me.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • HigginsHiggins GermanyPosts: 16,619MI6 Agent
    edited January 2018
    Actually, the ‚fetch my shoes‘ comment, the Moore slapping of Andrea and many more have been controversially even 30 years ago.
    President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.

    Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Higgins wrote:
    Actually, the ‚fetch my shoes‘ comment, the Moore slapping of Andrea and many more have been controversioally even 39years ago.

    Indeed they were/are. It's not in my view a binary but a spectrum and indeed a continuam. It's not to excuse the past but to contextualise it to some extent. The point you make is well taken and amounts to that Bond is and always has been a controversial figure. His moral compass seems to have been a bit off in recent times to my mind, but not for the first time.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    God preserve us from idiots. X-(
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    God preserve us from idiots. X-(

    Indeed, but Higgins will be Higgins.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • HigginsHiggins GermanyPosts: 16,619MI6 Agent
    not-sure-if-im-being-trolled-or-if-youre-just-an-idiot.jpg
    President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.

    Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
  • FiremassFiremass AlaskaPosts: 1,910MI6 Agent
    I'm not too worried about it. Connery did have a couple scenes that are uncomfortable to watch today, but whatever. Not everything from a 1960's film is going to be completely non-offensive for a modern audience.

    Bond films feature cooler, stronger women that are found in most other films of the era. Female pilots, Russian spies, CIA agents, astronauts, geologists, computer programmers, nuclear physicists, etc
    My current 10 favorite:

    1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
  • ToTheRightToTheRight Posts: 314MI6 Agent
    I think that Daily Mail article is more insulting to the Millennial generation it references than Bond. It is the type of article that implies Millennials probably believe the world only just started progressing during their existence.

    With every decade comes social progression. From the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and onward. Even earlier than that. It's been going on for ages and will continue. Bond was just as much a bastard in 1964 for saying 'Man talk" as he is now. Even Micky G stated when GOLDENEYE was announced that part of the fun of Bond was that he isn't exactly a PC character. Most Millennials I know probably don't give a crap that 007 doesn't conform to PC standards. So what if Bond gets laid multiple times in an individual film. Good for him.

    Movies have always featured characters with unlikable traits that the audience can still identify with. John Travolta in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is a great example. The characters on HBO's ENTOURAGE from a only a few years back are far from PC.

    What now? Maybe we should just watch movies that deal with nice people? It is simply a media trend to be offended and it's a passing phase.

    For Millennials that do feel pressured into taking offense over every little thing, as a generation X-er, I can attest twenty years ago, very much the same types of dialogue and discussion went around regarding sexism, racism, and politics. Twenty years ago it was popular to take offense as well. That came and went and is back again. I can recall my college drama professor, very much a social justice warrior advising: "Don't take offense, and you won't be offended."
    One of the best things about getting older is one cares less and less what other people think. In the meantime pop in MOONRAKER and enjoy the ever chauvinistic Bond say " A woman?" and enjoy Holly dish it back to him. It's part of the fun in Bond.
  • Bond44Bond44 Vauxhall CrossPosts: 1,581MI6 Agent
    Thank god I am not a millennial don’t think I would fit, frankly could not give a ****. Life’s too short. Bond films like thousands of other films are purely entertainment if anyone cannot make that distinction and enjoy them for what they are, well then they deserve to be stressed.

    I would love to know what they think of the Dear Hunter, The Godfather or Exorsist! :D

    Cheers :007)
    My name is Bond, Basildon Bond - I have letters after my name!
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,139MI6 Agent
    I finally thought to "read" the linked "article", and I want that 10 minutes of my life back!
    it's a collection of Tweets! I see nothing in the skimpy text to even prove these Tweets are coming from actual individuals within the named demographic, nor anything to say where the Tweets came from, what the context is, if there was a conversation leading to these Tweets, if anybody actually started it with a question, nothing...
    My university Stats professor would have a few things to say about legitimate meaningful survey techniques looking at that "article", but I for one can conclude absolutely nothing about what one supposed demographic thinks about James Bond movies because (1) I see no question asked, and (2) I'm not even convinced real individuals made the Tweets, let alone a representative sample group within a certain age range.

    Is this Daily Mail a reputable paper? I went to the main page of their website and literally all I saw was celebrity gossip and many pictures of scantily clad females.


    As for actual film buffs of a certain age: young folks today have a huge advantage I never had when watching these films the first time. Virtually the whole entire history of cinema is available on dvd, and much of it available for legal streaming on Netflix, or illegal download from torrent sites. A young aspiring filmbuff should be able to find all the context they could dream of to intelligently evaluate a movie from an earlier time period.

    When I was lad, I had to wait til a movie was rerun on television, and if it ever was, it would be chopped up for commercials and censored for objectionable content. It is quite possible I never even heard Connery tell Quarrel to fetch his shoes until I got the dvd, I certainly don't remember noticing that line while watching it on TV. That'd be an easy line for an American tv network to cut.

    The other option was films doing the Repertory circuit, and that was usually certain artfilms with good critical reputation and cult appeal. I never saw an old Bondfilm at the Repertory theatres, only on TV.

    Also, I saw very few contemporary films to compare the Bond films to, either other spyfilms or other films Connery made at the time. And researching the historic context was not easy, as there were only so many relevant books published (and they weren't easy to find), as opposed to all that is available at the click of a button today. Imagine being able to look at the Wikipedia entry right after watching a Bondfilm for the first time! All the things that can be learned! or this very site! All I knew was what I'd seen within the film itself, the TV Guide caption, and what my schoolchums had to say the next day at lunchtime! Hardly the resources required for an aspiring film scholar!


    So I envy young folks today who want to take an interest in film history! Let us see more of their opinions!
    Just written in proper paragraphs please, not Tweets, and not curated by a "newspaper" that otherwise specialises in celebrity gossip.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Still, if they wanted Sean on full-on rape mode, they should've watched Marnie instead.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,139MI6 Agent
    I was just wondering about Marnie, because otherwise I don't know what the "wife-beater" allegation is based on.
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    I was just wondering about Marnie, because otherwise I don't know what the "wife-beater" allegation is based on.

    Real life.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • HigginsHiggins GermanyPosts: 16,619MI6 Agent
    Connery stated in an interview back then that it‘s ok to slap the wife now and then

    ‚An open-handed slap is justified – if all other alternatives fail and there has been plenty of warning. If a woman is a bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually, then I'd do it.‘
    Playboy magazine, 1965.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0d1zTAFKA
    President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.

    Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,139MI6 Agent
    ooh, now I get it, thanks for the quote Higgins
    just goes to show: I'm an old guy, and I don't know the context of these films!
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 38,077Chief of Staff
    Is this Daily Mail a reputable paper?

    Let me put it this way: if they said today was Monday, I'd check a calendar.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I have read that with Friends now being shown on Netflix.
    Many Millennials are complaining about the sexist and Homophobic
    jokes in the series. So simply give it enough time and all the
    cool and completely PC programmes of today, will be getting
    laughed at and complained about in twenty years or so. ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • HigginsHiggins GermanyPosts: 16,619MI6 Agent
    Barbel wrote:
    Is this Daily Mail a reputable paper?

    Let me put it this way: if they said today was Monday, I'd check a calendar.

    :)) :)) :)) that was quite funny, Barbel.
    You obviously had some relaxing days in Spain {[] {[]
    President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.

    Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 38,077Chief of Staff
    {[] Thanks, my friend- yes, I had a great time! :)

    (Going to Berlin soon for family stuff, then perhaps Norway in April. Maybe I might link up with Number24!)
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Over sorting out the Catalonia problem ? :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 38,077Chief of Staff
    Oh, hardly- just sampling the local produce & seeing the sights!
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,920Chief of Staff
    Barbel wrote:
    (Going to Berlin soon for family stuff...)

    I’d love to go to Berlin just to see Hansa Studios -{
    YNWA 97
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