Does James Bond belong in the 20th Century?

chrisisall · July 2012

Hi, I'm new here, but I've been lurking & reading a lot. So, first post!

I was having this discussion with a co-worker: Does Bond work best in the era in which he was created?
Like, would Indiana Jones work well rebooted to be a contemporary character?
As you all know, a new Bond novel is currently being written set in 1969
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/12/william-boyd-james-bond-novel
and I think it's a great idea to put him in that time, not TODAY.
(Funny thing- the first Flemming novels and the last Indy film are set around the same time...)
Today is high tek & high finance- drones do the explosions, the enemies are out in the open, and they are mostly old money guys that threaten the world with resource depletion, financial concentration & political corruption. Setting a ruthless Bond loose in today's world is kind of like bringing a gun to a cyber fight IMO.
I yearn for the good old days where madmen wanted to destroy civilization as we know it with truly sinister tactics & physical weapons...

)

jamesm123 · July 2012

Totally agree.

Alec 006 · July 2012

I thought the BBC rewrites of Sherlock Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) set in 2011/2012 were FANTASTIC.
So for my money, James Bond belongs right here, right now. . . and back there, back then

I have often wanted to take a gun to a cyber fight actually, walking in on some annoying Net Troll as he sits in a squalid bedroom hiding behind the cowardice of an internet avatar, and putting a Walther P99 to the back of his noggin would certainly win any cyber fight I have ever been in

)
Good question though.
I actually like the fluidity that the 007 character allows, from Dr. No to Deaver's "Carte Blanche" Continental GT driving new age guy.
All good stuff in my book.

Thunderpussy · July 2012

Bond is one of those Heroic archetypes that can be re-invented for any generation. After all Fleming didn't
set his stories in the Past, but in His present, Using all the technology of the day if needed to help the
story along. So In My Opinion Yes Bond can Belong to the 20th and 21st Century. -{

thesecretagent · July 2012

I'm a fan of the Connery films and Fleming's original books. I'd like to see a period drama series on tv abouth ninty minutes long with a relatively new actor. I think a telling very close to the books without all the special effects would work well. Likewise I enjoy they new films when they come out. They could all work side by side.

minigeff · July 2012

I think that's the beauty of the bond character, having been around for 5 decades we can and have seen him now and in the past. It's not a case of which era works best, as bond as a character and story works in all periods.

Just not time travelling dinosaur era.

Moore Than · July 2012

thesecretagent wrote:

I'd like to see a period drama series on tv abouth ninty minutes long with a relatively new actor. I think a telling very close to the books without all the special effects would work well. Likewise I enjoy they new films when they come out. They could all work side by side.

I've long thought that a faithfully adapted TV series set in Ian Fleming's era (with the same production values of Granada TV's excellent Sherlock Holmes series) would work exceptionally well.

Does James Bond belong in the 20th Century? The answer is no. As Alec 006 stated, James Bond belongs right here, right now...and back there, back then.

Napoleon Plural · July 2012

Depends. The problem of today's Bond was seen in Deaver's Carte Blanche, where Bond just gets an app to do everything. Gadgets are for everyone these days, but they make us and the hero just a machine really.

On the other hand, well, set Bond in the past and you kind of know how it turns out. It's all history. Unless you concentrate more on the characters, ie who will die among Bond's associates he meets in the course of the book. You also miss out on the lovely, current consumer items that are part of it, the avarice.

The whole Mad Men thing, well, they doing it now to imply that Bond is a bit of a hopeless case, an orphan, damaged, no wife at a certain age, all that, whereas in the 1960s it was more, way to go!

Thunderpussy · July 2012

I remember a few times when Fleming gave Bond a few useful gadgets,Only to have
the villain remove them from him, Leaving Bond to deal with things using his own
skill and Nerve.
A recent BBC2 documentary showed that all that cold war spying stuff is still going
on, even with Modern surveillance systems. Drones etc and remote systems can
give alot of information, But nothing beats a Skilled agent on the spot.

Napoleon Plural · July 2012

What about Le Chiffre? He beat a skilled agent on the spot.

Thunderpussy · July 2012

)

)

Although Not a skilled agent, It was his first mission.

Hit him right in the Double Os

Number24 · July 2012

Not all bad guys today are on Wall street using iPads. Earlier this year a man was trained at a al-Queda training base in Yemen. He was given the "honour" of being the first to use new type of suecide bomb. He took the bomb to the nearest CIA station and handed over the bomb to them. Turns out the man was a double agent for the CIA and Saudi inteligence (Yes, they worked against the terrorist that time). There is now a news story that Yassir Arrafat most likely was poisoned by the Israelis. Scientists working on the Iranian clandestine atomic bomb program are assasinated by people on motorcycles who attach limpet mines to their cars.

There is a place for Bond today.

chrisisall · July 2012

Number24 wrote:

There is a place for Bond today.

Fighting terrorists & scientists?
*yawn*

Actually, Bond vs. evil media mogul WAS pretty good...

Number24 · July 2012

chrisisall wrote:

Number24 wrote:

There is a place for Bond today.

Fighting terrorists & scientists?
*yawn*

Actually, Bond vs. evil media mogul WAS pretty good...

But you do realise that covert operations and secret services today are far more than unmanned drones and evil stock brokers? To be clear: I too prefer the Bond novels to be set in the past, but I think there is a place for Bond in the world today.

zaphod · July 2012

I think it's difficult...which is why we increasingly get strong(er) personal elements in the narrative. The danger is that indeed 'the medium becomes the message' and increasingly we get drawn into the characters personal lives and relationships from TWINE onwards. I worry that someone will eventually poision or kidnap M's Dog/child/housekeeper...and 007 will be reduced to sorting it out. As Bonds position/role becomes more difficult in the imagined 'real' world his background, childhood etc come much more into play.

I really hope they don't overdo the (re)created back story in Skyfall, but fear that we might get Bond on a psychiatrists couch complaining that he was not Breast fed

)
"God I miss the cold War "

chrisisall · July 2012

Number24 wrote:

But you do realise that covert operations and secret services today are far more than unmanned drones and evil stock brokers?

Yes, it's just that the instant information age has illuminated so much of the world... the spy business used to have more shade. -{

chrisisall · July 2012

zaphod wrote:

we might get Bond on a psychiatrists couch complaining that he was not Breast fed )

X-(

Blackleiter · July 2012

Bond is forever. That is all.

chrisisall · July 2012

Blackleiter wrote:

Bond is forever. That is all.

Yes, in essence I must agree. The flavour changes with time, no matter the temporal setting.

Number24 · July 2012

Some things change -other things don`t. I saw an interview with the legendary WWII secret agent Gunnar Sonstebye, who died earlier this year. After 9/11 the CIA contacted him to use his experience from in an advicer role. The old SOE told them he realised a lot have changed, mobile phones alone are a game-changer, but he had some knowledge in building and running a covert network (he was the commander of a very successful sabotage network in Oslo). Sonstebye said he spent two years building a solid organisation before it became really effective and he assumed Bin Laden must have spent many years doing the same to mount such complicated bombings. "When you have put in the time and effort to build a solid covert network it is very difficult to catch you. I think it will take you years to catch him."

Mobile phones and unmanned drones changes the game, but in 2001 the CIA felt the advice of a man who quit spying in 1945 was useful.

Does James Bond belong in the 20th Century?

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