Does DC's Bond believe in God?
MrZareba
Krakow, PolandPosts: 1,775MI6 Agent
I tried to find a similar topic before but without success. One day this question popped up in my mind - in "Casino Royale" he says to Vesper "I do hate when religion comes between us" after she says she's Roman-Catholic. In "Skyfall", after seeing Kincade for the first time, he says "Good God, you're still alive?". Both are of course used not literally here - the first one is a joke, the second one is a common expression even among Atheists but I was just wondering. What do you think?
Comments
I assume Bond to be Church of England, but not an active member. Like many of us
It's there for, Weddings, Funerals and christenings.
Both examples you point out are IMHO simply Jokes in the script, The first a bit of
"Sexy" banter with Vesper, the second a bit of "Leg pulling" of an old friend.
Aah good old Smith and Jones
Oscar Wilde
I would tend to agree here.
Hmmmmmm, never thought I would see us debating religion on this site!
Just hope this isn't a can of worms.
Out side The Bluewater shopping centre & handing out leaflets.
Dalton looks good in orange too
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
"I have a way? Is that better than a plan?"- Malcolm Reynolds
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Keep an eye out for spiders !
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ApNp4L1H3vs
What does this have to do with movie Bond, you ask? In the movies I don't think that it's mere revenge or some motivation of professional loyalty that drives Bond, but it's this deeper sense of mission and purpose. Otherwise, Bond would exhibit an obvious nihilistic attitude and behavior in the way he is portrayed (I think Connery's Bond comes closest to being nihilistic, though he does have the sense of mission and believes evil men must be stopped). This is speaking strictly in terms of character development! Admiration for Bond's "cool factor" had been established from the beginning, but the producers have also purposely written a reasonable amount of depth into the character so we can sympathize with him and I think this began to be more obvious with Tracy's death, then we see some softening of Bond during RM's later movies in which he's sage-like at times. Then with TD going forward to the present with DC, emotional, introspective Bond is in full swing. Does this mean that Bond is religious? Not necessarily so, or at least he's not actively religious but I believe that there's a level of spirituality in his consciousness, at least in how the scriptwriters have depicted him to be. Again, what I'm saying is strictly about character development, which is purposefully done in good scripts.
With DC, I think his character development is the most interesting in this regard; you see him as very soulful and without his armor, his emotions are on his sleeves. But when he's hurt and betrayed, he puts up a front of indifference (like when he unceremoniously lugged Rene's body into the dumpster) though his soulfulness has not fully died and is actually resolved by the end of QoS. Unlike all the other arguments that DC is Fleming's Bond that I think do not fly, these are the aspects of DC's portrayal, his vulnernabilities, self-doubt and introspection, that remind me of some facets of the Bond character in Fleming's books.
Nice analysis! -{
How do you do the job he does and remains religious?
At heart he's an atheist. But wouldn't have time for proffessional atheists (ie Dawkins).He'd be equally scathing.
He goes through life happily without god.
he would have been flogged every day until he did
I think that makes a lot of sense. As a product of his upbringing, he must have some inkling or awareness that he tucks away in his mind of something out there, maybe even very vague notions of the Judeo-Christian god despite his actively post-modern mode of thinking.
By that logic all soldiers past and present, including Crusaders in the Middle Age, are/were atheists!
As Gassy Man mentioned, closer reading of the books show that Bond was more of an agnostic vs. that on an atheist as reflected in his philosophies and the fact that he does give deference to the Judeo-Christian beliefs of his (and Mathis’) Western culture, whereas an atheist would denounce all of that outright. In CR, ch. 20, “The Nature of Evil,” Bond enters the philosophic and religious realm to rationalize on the ethics of killing to the point of considering the higher purpose Le Chiffre serves in the world. In fairness, Bond mentions God and the Devil more in philosophical terms when exploring the interplay of Good and Evil for the purposes of achieving an equilibrium, which would be contrary to a concept of a random universe. Then in GF, ch. 16, Bond muses how it would be like in heaven when past and present finally get to meet, hardly the thought process an aheist would have.
Going back to movie Bond, I was just thinking how the SF filmmakers so obviously used religious themes (Christological imagry has been done since they began making movies, typically to affect viewers' cultural psyche). The beginning sequence when he was shot and was drawn from the depths alluded to resurrection, a theme used before in YOLT, both the novel and movie. Then of course, the showdown between Silva with Bond and M takes place in a chapel…very religious, lending a very epic feel of the movie's climax (whether or Bond himself was religious).