Anatomy of Bond [October 22nd 2012 in The Courier]

Let’s just start this off by saying I own every single Bond film on DVD (apart from Never Say Never Again which I like to pretend never happened). This makes me as much an authority on Bond as drinking lots of wine in one evening makes you an authority on wine but I sure know my way around a Bond film. Even I, a die-hard Bond apologist, will readily admit that most Bond films do follow a very similar structure and, at times, can become very B-movie esque. And yet I still love them so. They’re the ultimate in comfort viewing. Down with the flu? Just throw on The Spy Who Loved Me and watch a car work underwater! Underwater! It’s this completely nuts form of escapism that is the true appeal of Bond to me and many others.

But what goes into making a Bond film? By now, there is a pretty neat formula in place that hasn’t really been strayed from until Casino Royale and the reboot of the franchise. Post Casino Royale has has the girls, the action and the pithy one-liners but has been distinctly lacking in gadgets and overly grotesque villains, opting more for the realism and gritty tones of Fleming’s original books (bar Le Chiffre’s tear duct malfunctions, the main feature of this villain is his sheer cunning. He has no gimmick, just a desire to win). You could liken the Daniel Craig reboot (who was derided before even a single piece of footage was release and yet has become one of the best Bonds since Brosnan in Goldeneye or Roger Moore in any of them) to Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the Batman franchise, although Quantum of Solace is definitely no The Dark Knight.

Pre-Casino Royale is where this established formula is most evident, however. This is the Bond that ITV used to show every single Bank Holiday. This is the one most people are familiar with. Here we find Bond girls with ridiculous names, usually with a sexual innuendo involved (Pussy Galore, Xenia Onatopp, Christmas Jones), villains with three nipples or an icy stare, ridiculous secret bases (You Only Live Twice’s fantastic volcano base), gadgets galore (hover gondolas, exploding pens, shoes with daggers in them) and plenty more sexual innuendos for good measure, including my personal favourite, “I though Christmas only comes once a year” (Q’s excellent “I think he’s attempting re-entry” from Moonraker is a close second).

Then there are the more stylistic choices; the big, bombastic themes, the beautiful and often times weird title sequences and the gun barrel. The gun barrel is a particular staple that hasn’t changed that much at all. Daniel Kleinman, who created the Casino Royale title sequence, revealed that Casino Royale actually explains the gun barrel sequence; signifying 007’s first kill, made at the start of Casino Royale.

While the rejigging of the Bond formula by Casino Royale was probably a good thing for the franchise, it’s nice to see that the Daniel Craig Bond films don’t stray too far; keeping what made Bond close by.