Quiet Day, So I'm Wittering About James Bond

[poliphilo]

Bond works for the government. As an assassin. He's an establishment man- sexist, materialist, brutal.  No, I've never liked him.

I keep thinking I should maybe read one of the original books and then I think, no, I don't believe I can be bothered.

The films aren't nearly as good as we're supposed to think they are. Early Bond is to the thriller what the Carry On films are to comedy. Middle period Bond is vaudeville.  In the recent films he becomes a superhero.

I find his continued popularity faintly depressing.

Rush Limbaugh says it's inconceivable the character should be played by a black man. Oh, for fuck's sake, Bond is fiction. And he keeps being rebooted and updated. If it were incumbent on the film-makers to stay entirely true to Fleming's original conception Bond, who first appeared in 1953, would have to be played by a man in his nineties.

Besides, Idris Elba is just about the sexiest, most charismatic male actor around. He'd be perfect for the role.

If you like that kind of thing...

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

I would be ok with a jane bond, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And why not?

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I could go for that. ^_^ Similarly, much as I've warmed to Peter Capaldi, I'd love to've seen Moff have the conviction to go with a female Doctor this time around. There too, of course, we heard the howls of protest from those insisting there's no way a time-travelling alien capable of cellular-level regeneration/recincarnation could possibly be anything but a white male. >chuckle< (If she were only 30 years younger, Judi Dench would've been so good..)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I feel much the same. Capaldi was a great choice but I'd love to see a woman have a bash at it.

Maxine Peake for instance.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Hwy, Joanna Lumley did a great job in the Red Nose Day/Comic Relief special THE CURSE OF FATAL DEATH.