Is Bond an alcoholic?

sito · September 2007

I noticed that Bond consume a great deal of booze in every movie. I wonder if Bond is an alcoholic in denial. what do you think?
Is Bond an alcoholic ?

7289 · September 2007

Ian Fleming's oo7 was a heavy drinker, and I think the arguement could be made that he was a borderline alcoholic if not a full blown one. But then Fleming's Bond also smoked very heavily - up to 70 strong unfiltered cigarettes per day. So at the very least the "real" oo7 was self destructive.

The movie Bond drinks like an old lady compared to the fellow in the books. Unless someone puts digitalis in his Martini, Movie Bond never shows ill-effects from his indulgence.

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youknowmyname · September 2007

Yeah, I think Bond is an alcoholic. This was a topic slightly addressed in a book called Questions are Forever: James Bond and Philosophy. It was a great read, and touched on a lot of good philosophical notions within the Bond series. Although I would have to say that some of the essays were ridiculous and that some of the authors had obviously never seen a Bond movie before. Anyways, check it out.

superado · September 2007

I think the most blatant indication ever made in the movies was the medi-computer in DAD making a comment about Bond's liver. In the books if I remember right, Bond consumed a daily average of half a bottle of spirits.

Andy A 007 · September 2007

7289 wrote:

Ian Fleming's oo7 was a heavy drinker, and I think the arguement could be made that he was a borderline alcoholic if not a full blown one. But then Fleming's Bond also smoked very heavily - up to 70 strong unfiltered cigarettes per day. So at the very least the "real" oo7 was self destructive.

The movie Bond drinks like an old lady compared to the fellow in the books. Unless someone puts digitalis in his Martini, Movie Bond never shows ill-effects from his indulgence.

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7289 Is spot on. I would say that Fleming's Bond was indeed a borderline alcoholic. There are many times in the books in which Bond takes a smoke or a drink to deal with some form of violence or distaste in his job. Fleming's Bond is a tarnished man, self-destructive because of the nature of his work. He has many inner demonds and he deals with this by drinking and smoking.

Jamesbondjr · September 2007

I would say he is not far off being an alcoholic. Maybe not so much in the films, but definitely in the books. I quite often thought while reading the books that he was maybe an alcoholic.
There is a passage in Goldfinger that sticks out, in which he is tracking Goldfinger through the Loire valley in France i think, here he has a pint of rose d'anjou.

He is without doubt an excessive drinker. Alcoholic? The jury is out on that one. for me

7289 · September 2007

Lets hope they pick up this "thread" of Bond's charecter for the new Daniel Craig oo7 and run with it.

But DC was complaining they wouldn't let him smoke, so having Bond drink too much......?

Sweepy the Cat · September 2007

To be honest I think he is an alcoholic as it is referred to in most if not all of the books and heseems to have expert knowledge of champagnes/cocktails etc I'm not going to promote smoking here but I think it's daft to stop him as he has always smoked (on/off) He did it in most 60's films, the Dalton films and had a cigar in LALD and DAD

Is Bond an alcoholic?

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