Was I too harsh on Bond's age gap romances?
ironpony
Posts: 57MI6 Agent
I always use to not like it when the age gap seemed huge, like in Roger Moore's movies more so for example.
However, now that I am older and my SO is 16 years younger than me, I feel my perspective has maybe changed, and I wonder if I was too harsh on it and maybe a lot of other people are as well?
What do you think? Or is it still bad to many others still?
Comments
16 years is about the age difference between Sir Roger and Maud Adams, and few had a problem with that. It's when the difference is 30 years or so (Carole Bouquet, Tanya Roberts) that many feel uncomfortable.
Sir Roger had the enviable characteristic of looking younger than his years (aided by some cosmetic surgery between OP and AVTAK) which helped, though by the end of his tenure his age was starting to show and damage his credibility.
If Sir Sean had remained Bond, we might have had leading ladies 40 years younger than him....
I think it reflects unfavourably on the sexual socio dynamic of the 50s and onwards. A bloke was meant to get some experience and wealth and promotion under his belt before he could afford to 'entertain' a woman and then get to bed her. Her not being easy, this might mean a night out and dinner - this sounds awful doesn't it - but latterly in the permissive years, and the bigger economic power of teens and students, a fumble and a shag in a bedsit after meeting in a club might be the order of the day. Anyway, in the former scenario a fellow of older years would have something to offer a young lady in her early 20s - he'd have a car for instance, and not an Aston - so the whole Bond era reflected that. Then we have the idea that Bond is always in his late 30s pretty much - now an actress in her late 30s might be a looker but in the early days she'd be on the turn or already well known so lack mystery, therefore they'd opt for a younger actress.
There's also the convention of the format - Astaire is way way older than Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face but it's largely accepted because we want to see Astaire in one last great song and dance movie, and in his private life Astaire was a gent, no rumours of funny business. We buy into the conceit, mostly. I was happy to see Moore in one final Paris fling too in A View To A Kill.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I don't think people might a 10-year age gap, it's the generation gap- when Bond looks like he could be the girl's dad or grandad- where it becomes icky.
It seems to depend a lot on chemistry, too. For instance I could believe Brosnan and Sophie Marceau in TWINE but not Brosnan and Denise Richards despite her only being slightly younger than Marceau.
Big age gaps in relationships do happen in real life. Cathrine Zeta-Jones and Calista Flockheart are both married to men much older than themselves. These age gaps aren't neccessary a bad thing. It becomes a problem if the age gaps are extremely wide or an actor gets teamed up with significantly younger actresses in most movies.
Likewise Caroline Bouquet not much older than Lynn Holly Johnson in FYEO but one gets an ice cream and the other doesn't.
Roger Moore 1927-2017