The only way to redignify James Bond

 

It’s October 5, 2022. Happy 60^th anniversary, James Bond!

That’s what I would say if I was enthusiastic to celebrate this anniversary. Unfortunately, I’m not. One year ago, the worst spectacle ever to be associated with this great and glorious character was about to be screened in US theatres. Misleadingly titled No Time To Die, the film not only pushed Daniel Craig’s Bond to commit suicide in the bombastic climax but also made him lose every battle in every war: he takes every action after being outsmarted by the two villains; rarely acts like a spy, deciding just to break up and leave to an unplanned Jamaican vacation, ignoring the red flag that the man he put in prison could have a connection to his girl, and even bows down with a pathetic “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I apologize, I apologize, I’ll do whatever you want” to the main villain, the needle-thin Lyutsifer Safin played by Rami Malek. Let’s not forget Safin pathetically ambushes and shoots him four times in the back, turning the legendary 007 into a rookie first-person shooter player who had just tried Call of Duty for the first time in his life. Before that, he rejects Ana De Armas’ advances and barely touches a girl in the whole film, which is another death – the death of a well-known characteristic of his personality which is his frequent womanizing.

Using the #60yearsofBond hashtag, today we are celebrating a funeral and the fact that it all ended in a film that would make General G and the whole of SMERSH proud. And we are ordered to get past behind it, pretend nothing happened, and trust in that April Fools’ Day joke at the end of the movie reading “James Bond Will Return”. Apparently, people are way too reassured by that end credits line that was once a promise and it now feels like a mockery to those who have grown to admire and respect the character.

You would say that I’m just complaining and not offering a solution. Is there a solution? Can James Bond return after his death? Can we still depend on this man in this new world of new threats and new enemies?

A well-known Bond fan, someone I respect a lot and I have been following his work since my childhood, proposed that the character should return to the 1960s, his glory period, and from Bond 26 on every film should be a period-piece because in that way today’s society wouldn’t complain of 007’s “uncomfortable” attitudes. His intentions are noble, but I beg to differ. I think James Bond is a man for all seasons that always imposed his place in every era: the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and so on. GoldenEye, my favorite film of all time, is the perfect example of this: we have a new world, a world that clearly has no place for Bond in terms of ethics and ambitions. In a world where technology replaces the man in the field, women have more prominence, and the utility of a Cold Warrior began to wane… but Bond still saved the world and despite his “questionable” attitudes, the world depends on him and he doesn’t have to change a thing. Okay, maybe leave the cigarettes for a change, but not much more. The formula, with small tweaks, can work every time and in every era and will still achieve a huge number of followers. As much as Bond offends them, will they stop watching the films? Certainly not.

Leaving that aside, where’s the guarantee that setting future Bond films in the 60s will avoid the woke radar and have these people enjoy it and ignore whatever they find unsuitable? Don’t forget, the social justice warriors don’t judge the films only after 2013, they question “offensive” scenes of Dr No, Goldfinger and Thunderball knowing very well that those films were made when the world had different values. And they come over and over again with the same arguments. So, I bet that “Bond 26 will be set in the 60s” might be a way to attract the Sean Connery nostalgics, but in the end, we will get Bond films in a retelling of the 60s adapted to today’s moral viewpoints: things like making Bond black, Moneypenny a field agent, Tanner a queer secretary, a “multicultural” England. In the end, we had a film of the 2020s with a 1960s makeover. Check out this year’s version of The Ipcress File to have this pseudo-60s feeling that could be applied to 007 and you’ll get my points.

Then again, which is the only way to give a dignified return to James Bond?

If the series was rebooted, I’d say the first step is to deboot it. Return to where it was left in 2002, heal the damage caused by No Time To Die with a film that will remind us what Bond is and why we enjoy his films. I don’t think we should simply ignore what happened. The Cary Joji Fukunaga film is a cavity in a molar that can’t just be covered, it has to be healed for benefit of the franchise. Considering that a brand of the Heracles nanobot-based virus is still killing everyone with the Blofeld DNA around the world and Bond’s suicide, contrary to the official version, didn’t solve anything… this brand of Heracles could be something the villain is threatening the world with.

Gareth Mallory is arrested for ordering the development of a mass destruction weapon. The Defense Minister appoints Sir Miles Messervy (who else but Anthony Hopkins to play him) as head of the 00 Section again. He is informed that between 2006 and 2021 there was a political takeover of the British Secret Service that led to the demotion of all active personnel and recruits were assigned with cover identities. One of them was given the new “James Bond 007”, who committed suicide after being infected with a variant of Heracles. Messervy brings back to active duty none other than the real James Bond, now exiled in Nassau…

Yes, Pierce Brosnan. And no, I don’t oppose a 70-year-old Bond if it means debooting the franchise and restoring it to where it belongs. Liam Neeson still does action movies at this age, so we can argue that the 70s are the new 50s. Both Roger Moore and Sean Connery played Bond well into their 50s. And if Never Say Never Again made some fun of 007’s “advanced” age, why not make the opposite with Brosnan’s return? Make him scuba dive, being incredibly fit and strong for his age: still desired by women in their 40s, impeccably looking in his tux. This is the same Bond from GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Removed from the job by political influences in 2005 mimicking real-life facts about Brosnan’s exclusion from the role, and now brought again when the world is in danger.

The new Bond –correction, the genuine Bond – will be as womanizing, courageous and debonair as we last saw him. Sleeps with the heroine and the villainess, enjoys a bottle of Bollinger like a connoisseur instead of a drunken guy in the nearest dark alley, is respectful and obedient to M, gets assigned a mission instead of going rogue, defeats the mastermind and brings hope back to the world. He survives, naturally. And the franchise survives as well, leaving the “James Bond” from No Time To Die in the only place he belongs: next to Sir James Bond, Evelyn Tremble, Dr Noah and the whole lot from the 1967 satirical version of Casino Royale.

I can’t personally see another way to restore the myth of James Bond back to his early days of glory with this single deboot film so we can move on with another British, straight, white male actor in the role in original stories set in the current times. There is no way to avoid the complaints of a sensitive society so there’ll be a huge deal of protest for Bond antics in today’s world, but honestly, why should we care? The Bond films or books weren’t made for them, so they have every right to dislike them and surely Netflix can offer plenty of alternatives to satisfy their interest. Speaking of sensitivity, it surprises me nobody is offended by the fact that Craig-Bond preferred to die instead of assuming his parental duties and taking care of his daughter. Or the fact that right after two years where people died of a virus transmitted by touch, “James Bond” commits suicide after contracting a similar type of virus – a hopeless message that the world didn’t need in 2021, let alone coming from a name associated to saving the world from a madman who wanted to exterminate the human race with poisonous gas or another madman who plotted to drop an atomic bomb in the United States or Great Britain.

Since we are all so adamant about returning to Ian Fleming, and the producers themselves always insist that they turn back to Fleming whenever they get lost, why not understand him better when he said “I don’t write for a suffering humanity”? I think that makes it very clear that he would have shrugged at the sole thought of No Time To Die as the film is overloaded with people who suffer – and Bond’s demise is even caused by someone else’s suffering, as the villain has nothing personal against him. His apparent vendetta is against Mr White’s family, and Bond becomes a target only for being attached to the woman he is obsessed with!

Speaking of Fleming, an ending of No Time To Die that would have garnered all my applause would have been to have Bond living in Jamaica after recovering from his wounds or Heracles and an envoy of the Minister of Defense handing him a Colt weapon with the words FOR SPECIAL SERVICES engraved, which would serve as a homage to John Gardner as well. Since I doubt this idea never entered the minds of the ones who wasted five years in delivering that lacklustre and insulting production, I would propose this moment to conclude a deboot film with Brosnan.

That said, on this 60^th anniversary, I thank EON for 40 years of James Bond films.

IO Interactive To Develop And Publish A New James Bond Video Game

It all took us by surprise, yesterday, when video game developer studios IO Interactive announced their upcoming project to be a video game concerning the origins of the world's most celebrated secret agent, James Bond, as he climbs up the ranks to earn his 00-status. A teaser announcement video debuted on both the developer's official social media channels as well as the James Bond film franchise pages.

This is all - of course - a call for celebration among Bond fans in the video gaming subdivision of the fandom as it always has been a dream to see developer IO Interactive to work on a James Bond video game, especially when their original series, Hitman, has paid several homages to Ian Fleming's super-spy for two decades since its debut release in 2000. IOI's recent two efforts in the series even doubled down on the Bondian atmosphere regarding locations, stealth, outfits, methods of tackling the missions, characters, even going as far to hiring Sean Bean, who played Alec Trevelyan in the 1995 film, GoldenEye, to provide his voice and likeness for a special antagonist in the second installment in the World of Assassination trilogy, two years ago.

Last we've had a James Bond video game officially licensed by Danjaq (the company holding the rights to Eon Productions and the James Bond intellectual property on the screen), it was all but unfortunate effort that almost eliminated chances of seeing another entry in a video gaming form, called 007 Legends, released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the franchise back in 2012. Of course, its poor commercial performance and inadequately realized execution led to its developer Eurocom to shut down, and Activision, the publisher of the title with exclusive rights to release video games based on the 007 property, let go of the license a couple of months later. Another albeit a less extravagant attempt to bring Bond back to video gaming form was made in 2015 on mobile phones developed by Glu Mobile, entitled World of Espionage, which was universally panned due to its uninspired content and was pulled from digital stores in a year's time.

Since then, several attempts by the fandom to bring Bond back to the video gaming format was made, including the successful Half-Life 2 conversion mod, the multiplayer game GoldenEye: Source among others. Another fan project based on Nintendo 64's GoldenEye 007 entered development in 2017, which has been ongoing for three years with positive reception from fans, aimed for release sometime in August 2022 at the time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film the game was based on. However, that was not meant to be, as Danjaq issued a cease and desist letter to the developers which ended plans to construct the game furthermore. The project, instead, diverted into an original title called Spies Don't Die, which is an original first-person shooter experience inspired by the aforementioned game as well as other 1990s titles from the same video game genre.

With the upcoming Bond film, No Time to Die, experiencing several delays, and adding to that it will be a long wait till the next era in the film franchise comes along with a new actor in the role of the secret agent, this video gaming experience will be a welcome change to soften the wait. At this point, development on the video game is understood to be in its very early stages, possibly having gotten past only the rough sketches to outline the game itself, IO Interactive, in its announcement description, stated that they were looking to hire elite talent from around the world to join their team. Currently, the project is only given a working title, conveniently named Project 007.

From a speculative standpoint, this upcoming video game could very well be played from third-person perspective in the style of the Hitman video games, even possibly drawing similarities between the two titles, and even probably to be developed on IO Interactive's very own Glacier engine the same as the last four Hitman titles, including the upcoming one, which is due for release on 20 January 2021. It is also entirely possible that full development on the new Bond game won't begin until Hitman III is released. We previously had third-person shooter Bond video games during both Electronic Arts and Activision's reigns – those being Tomorrow Never Dies (1999), Everything or Nothing (2004), From Russia with Love (2005), a port of Quantum of Solace (2008) on PlayStation 2 and Blood Stone (2010). Whether the video game is developed within the film universe or adopting a separate timeline of its own, featuring none of the cinematic actors who portrayed Bond before but a new one, remains to be seen. What also is intriguing is whether the origins story of Bond working his way up to 00-status will be inspired by Fleming's outline of the two-kill initiation program, or adapt the one seen in the pre-title sequence of Casino Royale (2006).

All in all, this is a very exciting news. To keep up with the official coverage, visit the official site here.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment on the topic below!

EON Productions: Bond's First Line of Defence

James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli during a premiere for 2015's SPECTRE.

Oscar-winning British director Danny Boyle has left Bond 25. In a very short statement, EON Productions and Daniel Craig announced he was no longer directing the upcoming James Bond film due to "creative issues". For some, this is bad news. On the other hand, others are relieved.

While this may delay Bond 25's schedule a bit, there's something rather important to point out. There are some good news inside the bad news. This is the fact that this is the perfect example to prove how much producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli defend their franchise, the legacy of the great producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli (with Harry Saltzman during the first 12 years) and previously Ian Fleming, who created James Bond.

Since 2008, EON showed interest for auteur directors like Marc Forster and Sam Mendes, the first one helming Quantum of Solace that year and the second one behind Skyfall and SPECTRE in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Following this logic, in May this year Danny Boyle was announced as the director of Bond 25, with his long time collaborator John Hodge as screenwriter.

Boyle and Hodge had an apparently innovative idea, which EON liked enough to discard the original script penned by the regulars Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, present in the series since 1999's The World Is Not Enough. This way, the shooting was announced for December 2018 with Annapurna and Universal distributing the movie by November 2019.

The bomb was dropped last Monday when Boyle decided to leave the director chair empty. 

Depending on the time it takes them to find a new director, this could delay the November 2019 release date of the film. However, it is good to take into account that EON may have had another filmmakers shortlisted before going for Boyle. Plus, there's the possibility they re-hire Purvis and Wade and focus on their original idea. Back in July 2017, even before Daniel Craigannounced his return to the role, EON released a statement announcing November 2019 as Bond 25's release date and that Purvis and Wade were working on the script. In that case, they could reach that deadline after all.

But the good news inside the bad news is that this ordeal with Boyle's departure reaffirms the fortitude of producers Wilson and Broccoli and the zealous way in which they defend their James Bond saga, inherited from the legendary producer Albert R. Broccoli who, in 1962 with his then partner Harry Saltzman, knew how to build a solid cinematographic identity for the character: a pop-culture myth that has survived more than five decades, geopolitical changes, entire generations, globalization and many changes in the actors portraying the leading role.

Rumours and insiders point out that Boyle's departure was due to his insistence to cast Cold War actor Tomasz Kot as the leading villain, in his idea a Russian nemesis in a script based on a "modern-day Cold War". Apparently, Daniel Craig, who has a say in the casting, felt the Polish actor was "too left-field" for the role. Other sources point out that Barbara Broccoli was infuriated with Boyle bringing his whole crew for the movie, namely John Hodge who caused the forced departure of Purvis and Wade in favour of the Boyle/Hodge idea.

Following with more speculation, it's also probable that Boyle wanted to gamble too far with his style and the particular stamp every one of his movies has. We can see that in both Trainspotting movies, the drama Slumdug Millonaire and Trance to understand what that personal stamp is (narration, vocal song soundtrack, surrealism, etc). 

The origins of the big screen James Bond: Sean Connery surrounded by producers Albert R. Broccoli (left) and Harry Saltzman (far right) with author Ian Fleming (sitting).

The thing is we'll never know exactly what idea he proposed for the upcoming James Bond adventure, but probably he wanted an abrupt change, either in the artistic or story field. Other speculation point out the Russia angle as proposed by Boyle was a political gamble that could have gone too far. Remember that EON always wanted to avoid political feuds as much as possible to make everyone line up in Bond's side. This way, in 1963's From Russia With Love, SPECTRE replaced the Russians from the same novel as the main enemy. In You Only Live Twice, it's Blofeld the one who wants to frame Russia as the responsible part in hijacking an American space capsule to provoke World War Three, and in the 1980s we have the figure of the charming KGB leader General Gogol (Walter Gottell) who ended up joining the British to achieve world peace. 

Moreover, while Donald E. Westlake and Bruce Feirstein worked on treatments based on Hong Kong's handover to the Chinese in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, the plot veered to a multimedia tycoon trying to provoke a war between China and the United Kingdom to increase his ratings and the historical milestone was set apart, the main reason being that EON didn't want to dare a Bond film set on a very political event set the same year the movie was going to be released in case something went wrong with the ceremony.

Back to the artistic aspect, the producers made a mistake in letting Marc Forster take many artistic determinations with Quantum of Solace. Namely, the interpolation of a Tosca performance with a shootout between Bond and Greene's goons held at the same theatre complex in Austria. Something alike happens minutes before as 007 chases an MI6 traitor over the roofs of Siena, Italy, and the scene is intercut with the traditional Palio horse race taking place nearby.

Probably Boyle aimed something along these lines and it felt like too much for Bond, who has a very established formula and "dogmas" whom an audience wouldn't like to be touched. Sam Mendes, another drama director, avoided to impose his aesthetic seal too much on his two James Bond movies, yet in the line of his films, the story whirls around the protagonist recent or remote past.

Depending on the kind of director they end up choosing for Bond 25, we could say Wilson and Broccoli learnt from the mistakes of their past. But the most important thing to point out is that they still keep in mind the message "Cubby" Broccoli left them: "Don't screw it up. Everyone's going to try and mess with it".

With this determination, it's very clear that EON holds its legacy with a very firm hand and there's the certitude that the legacy they knew to build, inherit and hold is in capable hands, despite some occasional hit and miss.

"Cubby" Broccoli always insisted that in a James Bond movie, the star is always James Bond and no-one else. Therefore, when you make a James Bond movie, you are not making a Daniel Craig, John Hodge or Danny Boyle movie.

You are doing a James Bond movie.

Nicolás Suszczyk

Going Back In Time: Dynamite Entertainment Presents James Bond Origin

Ever since assuming the license from Ian Fleming Publications back in 2014, eligible for twenty years to use and produce comic books centering on the character as well as the universe that surrounds him, we've had twelve installments from Dynamite Entertainment based on Ian Fleming's intellectual property, three of them being spinoffs, while the rest are original stories by various artists and a faithful graphic novel adaptation of Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale that came out only a couple of months ago to positive reviews.

But, that isn't all. Dynamite made a whole new revelation today that they've announced back in 2017 during the Diamond Summit event, originally scheduled for Fall 2017, only to be pushed back to Spring 2018, which didn't materialize but now.

The original announcement image by Ian Fleming Publications

James Bond Origin is the title unveiled today, depicted as a whole new series that takes the readers back to March 1941 where James Bond is a 17 year old boy making the decision that will change his life forever. But, before I further come to discussing the details, I'd like to mention that despite Fleming's given birth of year of Bond's, novelist Charlie Higson settled on 11 November 1920 as the character's date of birth while writing the Young Bond novels, which would make him over 20 years old by then. Anachronistic, sure. But, it's all in a minor factor that changes over the years with fictional characters. Writer and comics veteran Jeff Parker reflects on the experience:

“It’s a weighty challenge to reverse-engineer this icon into a young man on a life’s journey of danger, but Nate Cosby paired me up with Bob Q, who not only brings the gravitas of war in 1941 Europe, but nails the promising hero in his youth,” Parker said in a statement. “James doesn’t have the vast experience of a double-O agent yet, but he’s tenacious and a lightning-quick study. Bob and I work to show the full force of Bond’s spirit.”

James Bond Origins #1 F-Retailer Exclusive cover by artist Bob Q

The official blurb proposes this:

Introducing a 17 year James Bond, a restless student in Scotland, who is eager to leave his mark on the world, a sudden but unfortunate series of events coincides the visit by an old family friend with devastating Clydebank Blitz, thus forcing a young Bond to fight to survive.

Written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by Bob Q, the first issue is set to come out sometime in September, later this year, resulting in the debut of a new series in the franchise. The first issue - of course - will come in various selection of covers illustrated by several artists, a treat that VARGR had seen back in November 2015. It's worth to mention that one of the covers is brought by Kev Walker, who himself worked on various artworks for the Young Bond novel series as well as the graphic novel adaptation of Silverfin, the first book in the aforementioned sub-franchise within the main franchise.

Variant covers for James Bond Origin feature materials delivered by

(left to right) John Cassaday, David Mack, Kev Walker

Gene Ha, Ibrahim Moustafa, and Bob Q in collaboration with Jordan Boyd.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to discuss the topic below!

'Forever And A Day' review: 007 is Dead, Long Live Bond

While the cinematic James Bond is doing some silence, the literary James Bond is back. Altough, in this case, we could say he's back... in time! Anthony Horowitz second Bond novel Forever And A Day is a prequel to Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, which introduced the British secret agent to the world, marking the beginning of a timeless legacy.


(Mild spoilers below this point)

Taking place around 1950, one year before the events of the first Ian Fleming novel, Forever And A Day begins with the death of 007. But don't worry, altough this 007 wears Saville Row suits and was a very much regarded agent by M, he's not James Bond. The anonymous 007 has been sent to Marseille to investigate the surprising stop on the narcotic production. The region is a battlefield between the Corsican and Sicillian gangs because of the drug business, so the Secret Services tought someone could be planning something bigger and they sent 007 to survey the French Riviera underworld. There are little leads and no explaination on how the secret agent was unarmed when he was shot at point blank at La Joliette, unarmed, on daylight. There are also no clues on his research, except that he made contact with one Madame 16 or Sixtine, a rogue agent that went freelance selling secrets after being captured and tortured by the Germans during the war. So far, Madame 16 seems the prime suspect of 007's death.

Vintage postcard featuring the Casino de Monte Carlo, where Bond has his first encounter with Madame 16

M resolves to send someone to replace the deceased agent. 008 is recovering in the hospital. 0011 is on a mission in Miami. The head of the British Secret Service turns his eyes to a new recruit, the operative next in line for the 00 section, a man recommended by the Chief of Staff: Bond... James Bond.

Taking the place (and number) of 007, who was a close friend of his, James Bond goes to France and in the following chapters he'll have to face many exhilarating dangers: an infiltration on a film processing plant (used for dark purposes) in the middle of a forest filled of bobby traps, the escape from a sinking luxury yacht rigged with explosives, a downhill escape on jeep and a heroin-based torture. Of course, the perks of his job will also allow him to visit the Casino de Monte Carlo for a Blackjack match against the pretty Madame 16, that will turn out to be a rather memorable woman in Bond's life.

Forever And A Day has -like Trigger Mortis- original Ian Fleming material as the main source, in this case is the TV serial pilot Russian Roulette. The narrative of this book is rather similar to the one of its predecessor, too: very straightforwarding and short in descriptions, but with some subtleties that make it an enjoyable read. In this novel we learn, for example, how Bond started preferring the Morlands cigarettes and why his Martini should be "shaken, not stirred". The second chapter also describes, in full detail, how he eliminated the Norwegian man that spied for the Nazis during World War Two. While the James Bond of Forever And A Day is around 30 years old and a recently promoted 00 agent, he's very smart and definitively not less lethal than Fleming's Bond.

Horowitz deserves a lot of credit for this novel, considering the fact that precedes Casino Royale and every other James Bond novel. The challenge is huge: with the 1953 book defined as the one where Bond went trough emotional and physical hell in the hands of Vesper Lynd and Le Chiffre, the one that shaped him up as the one we know, a precuel for Casino Royale had to be carefully written in order to avoid overshadowing the important characters that meant so much for the secret agent. The girl and the villain can't be emotionally more important than Vesper or Le Chiffre or what Fleming had created would seem fake. 

The French Riviera, where agent 007 was shot dead in mysterious circumstances

At the same time, the elements in Forever And A Day shouldn't be completely weak and uninterested. Yet, the author managed to balance the elements in an exemplar way: the villain, Corsican gangster Jean Paul-Scipio, makes the new 007 feel very uncomfortable during his stay putting him in perilous situations. On the other hand, and despite her protagonism goes a little over the top near the climax where she almost opaques Bond, Sixtine proves to be a very well written character as an experienced agent 10 year older than Bond. She's smart, resourceful and with epic characteristics. Of course she wasn't meant to be over Vesper when analiyzing Bond's life, yet one has the impression he will never forget this girl.

A story of death, betrayal and brutality, Forever And A Day also provides good quantities of elegance and romance (the title itself, as read in the book, has a romantic connotation). At the same time, the action feels very "cinematographic" in a way and there are some elements that are reminiscent to the movies, with a plot somewhat similar to Live and Let Die and Licence to Kill, and some very tiny nods to GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. The exotic locales are an effective setting for the story, and the fact that the book is set in the 1950s gives it a special touch: the French Riviera, a sunny turistic spot darkened by the occupation of the Corsican and Sicilian gangs, fighting each other for the drug business and using the beautiful locale as a battlefield.

Forever And A Day is a good pre-introduction to the literary James Bond in the same world of intrigue, violence and elegance Ian Fleming created for his hero. Everything in the right balance to avoid overshadowing Casino Royale, but bringing up an exciting product in terms of narrative -and bondian- quality.


Leer artículo en español (bondenargentina.tumblr.com)


Nicolás Suszczyk

'Red Sparrow': From Russia, without love

Poster artwork for Red Sparrow, featuring Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika Egorova.

Nostalgics of the good old days where "Russia was the enemy" may be pleased with the cinematic adaptation of Jason Matthews' Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence and directed by Francis Lawrence, from the Hunger Games saga and with no relation with the leading actress except directing her for a fourth time in a cinematic production.

Vanya offers Dominika a place in the Russian SVR

Any good Ian Fleming fan would notice that the essence of the film is reminiscent to From Russia With Love, dealing with a civillian sent to a training school to become an operative whose primary body is her sex and body. While Fleming's heroine Tatiana Romanova worked for the state in the 1950s Soviet Union and was sent to seduce and turn James Bond to the Russians, Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) faces a more complex situation.

A Bolshoi ballerina who is incapacitated after an accident on stage, Dominika might lose her main income and the pension paid by the theatre, which includes the modest apartment she shares with her ill mother (Joely Richardson). Feeling she has reached a dead end, she is forced to accept the help of her lascivious and greedy uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts), a member of the SVR (Russia's secret service). First he asks her to perform a small job, to investigate Dmitri Ustinov (Kristof Konrad) a corrupt politican who ends up almost getting raping her. She is saved by a Russian operative sent by her uncle, who brutally strangles the aggressor, but since the SVR wants no witnesses of the death of Ustinov -a word that directly involves Dominika- she feels forced to integrate the ranks of Mother Russia's Red Sparrows, a group of women exhaustively trained (phisically, emotionally and psychologically) to get into the mind of their targets, discover their witnesses, seduce and kill them.

Dominika's target, in this case, Nate Nash (another From Russia With Love connection in the name) a CIA operative assigned to protect a mole in the Russian intelligence known as 'Marble'. Joel Edgerton's character is very good agent for the Americans but is known to have some vices, like drinking in excess, hiring prostitutes and watching pornographic videos with frequency - a situation that may facilitate Dominika's job. Nevertheless, she has started questioning the bases of her devotion to the state and sees in Nate the posibility of a escape route for her and her mother from Vanya and the SVR. 

CIA's Nate Nash comforts Dominika.
Is he a trustworthy escape route?

There are those who may agree that Red Sparrow is not a perfect movie and it has a rather morbid taste for violence and sadism. Over its 160 minutes a good deal of blood ("ten pints of blood" one could say to add more Fleming references) is splashed on the screen. It is, perhaps, the kind of film no-one should invite her girlfriend to watch unless she's really into the spy genre and has a very good stomach. However, the action scenes are not continuous and there is more space for intrigue and psychological introspection, a good example is offered by the scene where the Sparrows are trained by a Rosa Klebb-like matron (Charlotte Rampling) and are ordered to perform overtoned tasks as practising oral sex to fellow Russian soldiers because their body belongs "to the state". The kind of situations that are morally questionable but interesting to get us inside the cruel world of an agency who had their roots in the old KGB or NKDV, yesterday's enemy of civilized order. It may feel offensive to some viewers but perhaps the trick is, indeed, that the audience could be offended by Russia so that we can understand why America (and agent Nash) is the only salvation for this poor and extorted girl.

Jennifer Lawrence proves to be a very effective choice for the main role as a woman who is not the femme fatale the poster campaign for the film tried to sell and it's actually victim of her own country instead of a "black widow" victimizer of the opposition. Charlotte Rampling and Matthias Schoenaerts stand out in very believable performances as the deadly representatives of Mother Russia, while Ukranian actor Sergej Onopko perfectly embodies the lethal Simyonov, a skilled torturer that resembles all the dangers of Russia previously described in the Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and John Le Carré stories. Past meets present.

The technical aspects of the film are very well handled, particularly the use of Mozart and Tchaikovsky compositions and the score by James Newton Howard whose overture resembles Lalo Schiffrin's work for The Fourth Protocol (1987) and enhances drama with the use of violins and other wind instruments. The departments of Jo Willems (cinematography) and Maria Djurkjovic (production design) can transport the viewer to Moscow and Vienna making him forget he's actually located in the middle of a theatre.

Red Sparrow is an entertaining story dealing with intrigue and psychology. A story about survival and resistance more than an action film. A story about relatives, love interests, personal interests and Russian state dealing with all these intimate assets.

Nicolás Suszczyk

'The Man With The Golden Gun', an Ignored Masterpiece

Bond duels the villain Scaramanga on his "fun house", a maze full of video screens, images and sound effects  meant to confuse every possible challenger.

The Man With The Golden Gun is an ignored masterpiece. That may sound a rather strong assessment for a film that is troughly hated by the worldwide community, accused of its blandness and being the epitome of the funny, self-parodic James Bond films written by Tom Mankiewicz since 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. But depending on what side you look at it, the movie can be pure unadultered enjoyment.

When you read books like Casino Royale or On Her Majesty's Secret Service you will know that James Bond as portrayed by the late Roger Moore was not an accurate cinematic version of Fleming's Bond. Nor was the 1974 film, which instead of having 007 sent to kill Paco "Pistolas" Scaramanga, a sort of far-west outlaw who brutally kills British agents or any oposition with his golden Colt .45, has Bond being the target of Francisco Scaramanga, a debonair contract killer who mounts a golden gun from his personal golden jewlery.

Movie poster artwork for The Man With The
Golden Gun, designed by Robert McGinnis

Nevertheless, it is necessary to admit that due to many factors the cinematic Bond was different from the literary Bond from the beginning, and producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli knew they had to lighten up a bit Fleming's dramatic hero into a man of this world. "This world" refers, precisely, to each year of the five decades where 007 was relevant including the present day, from the Space Race sensation of the late 1960s (see Dr. No and You Only Live Twice) to the globalization in the 1990s (see GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies) and heroes with a past and emotional conflicts from the 2010s (see Skyfall and SPECTRE).

Directed by Guy Hamilton, The Man With The Golden Gun was released in December 1974 and the film itself serves as a testimony to the era: from the music to the sets, the costumes and the subplot that touches the early 1970s energy crisis and the emergence of martial artists like Bruce Lee. That is, perhaps, what makes it beautiful in its own way.

As he showed in previous Bond adventures like Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever, Hamilton makes good use of the thechnical aspects of the story and has a straightforward way of presenting the facts, with a simple storyline that leaves more space to the technical aspects such as the action sequences and the film visuals (mainly the cinematography, the music and the set design).

The films opens, much like in the previous 007 adventure Live And Let Die, ignoring Bond and showing what the villains do. In this case, we see a day in the life of Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), sunbathing with his lover Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) on the beach of his private island near Phuket, Thailand. A contract killer arrives to put an end to Scaramanga's life. He laughs, thinking it will be an easy job. But soon enough, he finds himself inside Scaramanga's fun house: a labyrinth filled with diversion stategies (loud music, false paths, mannequins of shooting cowboys) made to make the challengers lose most of his ammunition. Finding his precious Golden Gun exhibited among the maze, Scaramanga shoots his rival right between the eyes. The funniest part here is that the killer was hired by none other than Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize), Scaramanga's servant, in a way to train his boss with surprising challenges: the same training method Kato had with Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies. 

Fantastic shot of the film by cinematographers Ted Moore and Oswald Morris.
Equally fantastic set design by Peter Murton.

After the colorful main titles by Maurice Binder, playing over the catching title song by Scottish singer Lulu, Roger Moore makes his second appaerance as James Bond onscreen and reports for duty to his boss M (Bernard Lee). This time, tough, he isn't briefed about a mission. He is offered a sabbatical year or the resignation. The reason: he has been marked for death by Scaramanga - whom nobody knows where he is or how he looks like (except we, the audience, who were offered a glimpse of his million dollar hits). "The Man With The Golden Gun" has been previously responsible for the death of agent 002 in Beirut, and now he seems to have put his eye on 007.

In recent Bond films, namely Licence To Kill (1989), Die Another Day (2002), Quantum of Solace (2008) and SPECTRE (2015), we see 007 picking his own mission outside MI6. The Man With The Golden Gun could be the first film in the series where Bond isn't formally assigned to a mission and M wants him out of the picture to protect him of Scaramanga. Thus, Bond goes solo following a series of clues from Lebanon to Macau, from Hong Kong to Thailand, to find Scaramanga first. It happens in a very subtle way and Bond isn't exactly going rogue, but he isn't formally assigned to kill his nemesis.

Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga,
aka "The Man With the Golden Gun".

Another clever resort from the script is that for the first time in the series 007 is described as an assassin. Right before the duel à la mort between Bond and Scaramanga, the latter gloats about his profession and matches himself to the secret agent. "Come, come, Mr. Bond... you enjoy killing as much as I do," he happily says. "When I kill it's under specific orders of my government, and those I kill are themselves killers", Bond replies.

In many interviews, Christopher Lee saw his character as "the dark side of Bond", and this shows off in the aforementioned exchange: Scaramanga is an assassin and so is Bond, but the latter firmily establishes he's on the side of good. Both Moore and Lee have an unique chemistry and the contrasts between the protagonist and the antagonist are truly believable. Lee, distant cousin of Ian Fleming, didn't portray Scaramanga as the outlaw described by Fleming and the movie is much less dramatic in comparison. 1989's Licence To Kill would be even closer to Ian Fleming's The Man With The Golden Gun in concept as Edward Biddulph brilliantly described on his blog James Bond Memes.

Cinematographers Ted Moore and Oswald Morris used an eye popping palette of purple, red, yellow and green for most of the scenes, namely those taking place in Scaramanga's fun house. The Man With The Golden Gun is probably one of the most visually impacting films of the series, where reds look redder, greens look greener and blue looks bluer. Even the iconic gunbarrel sequence, for unknown reasons, got the opening dots in a light purple hue, something the Lowry team "corrected" in their DVD and BluRay transfer restorations for the film. Production designer Peter Murton, who previously worked as an art director on Goldfinger and Thunderball, was in charge of set designs that maybe weren't as extravagant as Ken Adam's pieces but do deserve some credit: besides the imaginative fun house of the villain, there is also the British Secret Service hideout rebuilt inside the sinking wreckage of the Queen Elizabeth transatlantic (pure Moore-Bond era humour!)

After the relevance of martial arts in 1970s flicks,
Bond (unwantedly) visits a karate school.

John Barry returned to compose a James Bond film after his abscence from Live And Let Die, where George Martin took up the task. The score for The Man With The Golden Gun has been criticized even by Barry himself. Nevertheless, the sound of the film is very appealing with the times and with the tone set for the story. Lulu's title song breaks with the mould and goes for a tacky tune describing qualities of the villain. Instrumental versions of this theme song are repeated very often in the score, either during the action sequences or the romantic moments between Bond and his female counterpart Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland). It even features as source music inside Scaramanga's fun house, both in a piano and trumpet jazzy version.

The music is skilfully used as Bond and his uninvited guest Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) are chasing Scaramanga and Nick Nack through the streets of Bangkok, both "teams" driving AMC cars. As Scaramanga hides his car inside a garage and turns his vehicle into a flying car, a soft version of the theme song is heard, while we get a frenetic version of the James Bond Theme as 007 and the policeman are on hot pursuit (listen to track six of the soundtrack, "Let's Go Get Them"). Given that Pepper has first appeared in the previous film, Barry allows himself to add some little irony and include a few bars of George Martin's Live And Let Die theme song.

Other suites of the album are comprised of guitars and wind instruments, with some percussion rythms too. Much like in Diamonds Are Forever, the soundtrack of The Man With The Golden Gun feels vibrant, sexy and lush.

Part of the score is also the much criticized "whistle" sound effect as Bond and Pepper's AMC Matador makes a 360 degree spin as they jump over a broken bridge. But, seriously, would that sequence be any better without this (in)famous sound effect? It added emphasis and substance to one of the most remembered and meticulosly planned stunts in the motion picture history.


Times change and James Bond is now, with Daniel Craig, closer to what Fleming had in mind: a blunt instrument. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that and Craig is the right Bond for today's world. Nevertheless, as Bond is a character of all time, Roger Moore was Bond for yesterday's world, and the world of the 1970s was much more visually flamboyant than today's.

Forty-three years after its release, the Bond film that put to an end the society between Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli is sadly overlooked when compared to other 007 flicks. But, seriously, think of The Man With The Golden Gun as a testimony of the vibrant early 1970s and you'll love it. Immerse yourself in John Barry's music, fix your eyes on the exciting cinematography, take an invite to Scaramanga's fun house, envy Roger Moore's womanizing with a blonde and a brunette in the same hotel room for the sake of Queen and Country and -seriously- you'll love it.

Bottoms up!


Nicolás Suszczyk

The Swinging Bonds of 1967 - Too much (in common) for one James Bond!

The “Swinging London” waves threw barrels of color to the grey streets and society 50 years ago, in 1967. During that year, as Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix and The Beatles were heard loud in music stores and Twiggy was photographed everywhere, the regular moviegoer had not only James Bond film offered to him, but two.

For the first time –sixteen years prior to 1983’s “Battle of Bonds”– two different adaptation of Ian Fleming’s character would face each other, both bearing big discrepancies but a few things in common.

On June 12, You Only Live Twice was released. For the first time in the official 007 series produced by Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, a great departure has been made between the script and Fleming’s original novel, consisting in a dark and dramatic story where a depressed Bond was out of revenge for the death of his wife against Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE. In the 1964 book, the secret agent follows the lead to one Dr. Shatterhand, owner of a suicide garden in Japan. The doctor is revealed as Blofeld in the last chapters, and his plan doesn’t go beyond attracting “dishonoured” Japanese citizens to commit suicide.

Two months before this film, Columbia Pictures released Casino Royale, an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel. American producer Charles K Feldman acquired the rights of this novel some time before Broccoli and Saltzman. Since the duo refused to join forces to produce the movie, Feldman went solo and opted to satirize the contents of the novel. The 1953 book was a dramatic story that included a horrid torture scene and a tragic ending, where the girl whom the protagonist falls for reveals to be an enemy agent and commits suicide afterwards.

You Only Live Twice poster artwork by Frank McCarthy, depicting 007 walking upside down the villain's lair inside a volcano. A image that promises limitless andventures and thrills.

As the Space Race was at its height, with astronaut Ed White performing the first US spacewalk in the Gemini 4 mission, You Only Live Twice screenwriters Roald Dahl and Harold Jack Bloom oriented Blofeld’s plan to a blackmail that included the hijacking of space rockets in order to “inaugurate a little war” between the US and the Soviet Union, both powers challenging each other for the Space Race since the late 1950s.

Dahl was known for his children stories like Matilda or Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, Bloom for TV series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Bonanza. Scribes with this kind of background lightened the story in a significant way, providing the SPECTRE organization with an enormous lair hidden in a volcano (it costed one million dollars, the budget of the first Bond film Dr. No), explosive action sequences, and lots of humoristic situations for Sean Connery’s Bond.

Casino Royale poster artwork by Robert McGinnis. The
psychodelic tatooed lady invited the audience to a
world of extravagant action and beautiful ladies

The usual quota of beautiful women was also exploited with three main female characters (the good girl who dies, the bad girl who also dies, and the one that remains with the hero, according to Dahl’s formula) opposing the romantic Kissy Suzuki from the book, who tries to retain Bond in the last chapter when he loses his memory after a fiery battle with the villain.

Unlike the Lewis Gilbert film, whose only big problem was Sean Connery getting tired of the James Bond image and the Japanese fans and reporters stalking him even in the bathroom (literally), the production of Casino Royale was far more complicated.

Five directors helmed the film: John Houston, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, Ken Hughes and Joe McGrath. None of them knew what the other was shooting. The stars had a volatile relationship with each other, namely Peter Sellers who refused to work with Orson Welles, kept making a change after another in his scenes, and had some arguments with his co-star and fiction lover Ursula Andress.

All the dramatism of Ian Fleming’s novel was of course left aside to make a spy spoof. The story, written by Wolf Mankowitz, had the retired Sir James Bond played by David Niven (one of Fleming’s favourite actors for the role of his creation) visited by the head of the world’s biggest intelligence services, begging him to return to active field after a mysterious enemy has killed most of their agents. The fun starts as Sir James differentiates himself and criticizes “the bounder” who got his name and number and complains of the overuse of gadgets in the service. This is of course an indirect to Connery’s official Bond, who is “an impostor” in this world.

David Niven as Sir James Bond in Charles K Feldman's
Casino Royale. Niven was Ian Fleming's idea of an
onscreen Bond, but this clearily wasn't the version
he expected.

Suddenly, Sir James’ house is blown away and M dies on the attack (actually, it was M’s plan to blow James house away, to force him to return). After meeting M’s widow Lady Fiona and a number of teenage girls trying to seduce him –whom, unlike what the official Bond would have done, he rejects– he plans to train a number of male and female agents and name them all “James Bond 007”, to distract the enemy. The big threat was none other than Sir James’ nephew Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen), plotting to kill all men over 1.60 mt and make all women beautiful with a bacillus he created.

Only the name of a few characters and the card game (held between Le Chiffre and Evelyn Tremble, a baccarat expert recruited by Sir James) remain from the book. Instead, Casino Royale preferred to take full advantage of the colourful era with its ravishing cinematography, over developed costumes and bombastic music by Burt Bacharach, all in a film made with the spirit of the Pink Panther saga and almost following the structure of What’s New Pussycat, a prior Feldman production also starring Sellers and Andress.

Casino Royale should be remembered more as the testimony of a funny 1960s film than a James Bond film, but You Only Live Twice stands out as a solid James Bond movie as produced by EON and tied up to the official franchise. The difference is very clear in that aspect, with only reading a plot summary of both flicks.

However, the Lewis Gilbert movie also stands out in comparison of the first four official Bond films. Far from the simplicity of Dr No and From Russia with Love, closer to Goldfinger’s escapism and taking one step ahead of Thunderball’s lavishness, this movie broke new ground as the fantastic comic book-like situations in the series (three girls, action scenes, gadgets, villain and henchmen in underground lair) began to soar from this film on in the series.

"The things I do for England!" - Bond is seduced by the deadly SPECTRE agent Number 11 aka Helga Brandt (played by the late Karin Dor). Following Robert Dalh's Bond scripting formula, she was "the bad girl who dies".

This production would also be the template for other Bond stories as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), both also directed by Lewis Gilbert. Even another cinematic secret agent, Harry Palmer, would have a more extravagant movie in 1967’s Billion Dollar Brain, opposed to the rather urbane-looking films The Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966).

Freddy Young’s lens captured the neon lights of Tokyo and the orange sunsets of Kyushu Bay, while John Barry added some oriental sounds to his fifth Bond soundtrack, besides his grandiloquent percussion that included interpolations of Nancy Sinatra’s title theme.

These two –rogue and official– Bond productions meet each other as representative of the time they were released. Artist Robert McGinnis worked in the poster campaign of both movies delivering extravagant and colourful designs: Casino Royale got a lady with her body tattooed with scenes of the film, while You Only Live Twice presented our hero walking upside down Blofeld’s volcano in an impeccable black tuxedo (in a poster variation done by artist Frank McCarthy) or smiling as he piloted his Little Nellie autogyro. None of them could beat the other in terms of visual style, the cinematography being very innovative and sharp in both productions. And the two provided a large amount of extravagant fight, chases and explosions.

Everything in 1967 seemed to be extravagant, colourful, surrealist and bombastic. James Bond wasn’t going to be an exception.

Nicolas Suszczyk