Cultural / Political events affecting Bond Villains

FizzyC15 · September 2012

Hey,

I am doing some research to see weather Bond villains where ever portrayed differently because of certain cultural or political events.

For example because of the Cold War, right up until the USSR fell most Bond villains had links to Russia/Communism. Now out of the Cold War era, in a post 9/11 world, bond villains have now been possibly affected by these events.
The villains are now located throughout the globe, and are really, an unknown treat unlike in the Cold War days where the villains was obvious, he would be a communist/Russian.

The film's I am concentrating on are, From Russia With Love, Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

I would love to hear all your views on this subject..

chrisisall · September 2012

FizzyC15 wrote:

I would love to hear all your views on this subject..

IMO, Bond's villains were never so much about politics as much as extremes in human nature. Communist, Fascist or Capitalist, it was/is the nutjobs he gets to deal with.
Lucky bloody him, eh?

)

Napoleon Plural · September 2012

It was Fleming who was virulently anti-Commie, having covered a show trial for Reuters in Moscow in the mid 1920s. But as Cold War tensions eased, so did his slant on having Russia as the villains. Ditto the films, as Kruschev (sp?) came to power, the villains tended to be Spectre in place of Mother Russia.

GE was a bit of revisionism on this count as we see Bond in the pts try to blast up a Russian nuclear facility, something hawkish he never did when the Cold War was actually on, or it would not have 'stayed cold much longer' to quote Rosa Klebb.

I agree with chrisisall, it was the villains' exotic idiosyncracies that characterised them. Lust for gold, lesbianism, voodoo, so on.

FizzyC15 · September 2012

Would you also think that because of the events of 9/11 this has changed the villains in the bond films. As now the writers can no-longer link the villain to communism or Russia. The villains are now are relatively unknown and have connections across the world.
(For example in casino royale, quantum try to blow up a airliner in Miami air-port. Could this have echoes of 9/11? or am I looking at it too deeply?)

I also found out the american financial backing of the bond films, could have strongly effected the way villains were depicted.

Sorry for asking lots of question, I'm using some of the responses to my question to help answer my A2 Film Studies course work.

Sir Hillary Bray · September 2012

I don't think 9/11 had any impact on film depictions of Bond villains. They have always been worldwide organizations like SPECTRE or Quantum, or individual megalomaniacs like Stromberg or Drax. Even the films in which Communiist countries were involved, it was usually peripheral involvement (for example, China supplying Goldfinger with the bomb). Most times, the central villain ended up betraying the Communist country (GF, YOLT, AVTAK) so that the Communist country is seen as a victim, albeit maybe not a sympathetic one.

The one time Bond was really battling the Commies was in TLD, and even then it was rogues like Koskov and not "official" KGB like Pushkin. Interestingly, that film shows the danger of using real-world organizations in a story, because those cute and cuddly mujahaddin allies from 1987 had morphed into the Taliban a decade later.

chrisisall · September 2012

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

Interestingly, that film shows the danger of using real-world organizations in a story, because those cute and cuddly mujahaddin allies from 1987 had morphed into the Taliban a decade later.

Yeah, we armed them, then they went bad....

Bludgeonatorrr · January 2013

IMO, I think CR does reflect today's fears of terrorism. The film practically mirrorred the tragic 9/11 attack by Al-Qaeda, during the Miama scenes. In, FRWL, the villains are meant to reflect the cold war threat, but indirectly, to try and be and PC. :007)

chrisisall · January 2013

Bludgeonatorrr wrote:

In, FRWL, the villains are meant to reflect the cold war threat, but indirectly, to try and be and PC. :007)

I disagree, it was to create a sense of timelessness IMO. Link a movie directly to real places & events and you date it almost immediately. Besides, 'PC' wasn't around back then.

Cultural / Political events affecting Bond Villains

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