I remember reading a paper in which author argued, Bond movies reflect contemporary threats and/or political events. Sadly, I cannot find it. If you know any source dealing with this topic, please let me know.
The only connection between the movies and current political events I can think of are as follows:
Dr. No - Cuban Missle Crisis
Moonraker - spacer race between the USSR and the USA
Licence to Kill -the case of Manuel Noriega
The World is not Enough- the Gulf War and oil spill
What about the movies like FRWL, TSHLM or GoldenEye?
What political events/fears are reflected in Bond movies?
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Re: What political events/fears are reflected in Bond movies
You could file YOLD under space race too.nanolark wrote:I remember reading a paper in which author argued, Bond movies reflect contemporary threats and/or political events. Sadly, I cannot find it. If you know any source dealing with this topic, please let me know.
The only connection between the movies and current political events I can think of are as follows:
Dr. No - Cuban Missle Crisis
Moonraker - spacer race between the USSR and the USA
Licence to Kill -the case of Manuel Noriega
The World is not Enough- the Gulf War and oil spill
What about the movies like FRWL, TSHLM or GoldenEye?
GF, TB maybe even OP and GE dealt with rogue nukes.
GE also touched on post soviet russia
TSHLM= detente
TLD= Russian war in Afghanistan
AVTAK= global dependence on microchips/electronics
TND= Media influence
Just out of curiosity, whats with all these philosophical questions you've been posting? Are you a student? And why ask here among the muckrakers and malcontents? Again I ask just out of curiosity.
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Re: What political events/fears are reflected in Bond movies
Casino Royale was heavily touted as a "post 9/11 Bond film", and even the line "While you were away, the world changed" in DAD has been seen by some as an oblique reference to 9/11.
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Re: What political events/fears are reflected in Bond movies
What you can say also is that the Bond films stayed away from world politics or tried to present a better view of things.
During the 1960s Spectre became the main enemy and not Soviet Smersh, in Dr No and FRWL Spectre was the villain instead of the Soviets in Fleming's books.
During the 70s and early 80s, which was a pretty bad period of the Cold War with Brezhnev as Soviet leader, the Bond films stressed detente and the friendly General Gogol became a recurring character.
During the 1960s Spectre became the main enemy and not Soviet Smersh, in Dr No and FRWL Spectre was the villain instead of the Soviets in Fleming's books.
During the 70s and early 80s, which was a pretty bad period of the Cold War with Brezhnev as Soviet leader, the Bond films stressed detente and the friendly General Gogol became a recurring character.
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Re: What political events/fears are reflected in Bond movies
The Man With the Golden Gun was about the early seventies energy crisis with the solex thingymebob.
Re: What political events/fears are reflected in Bond movies
And of course SPECTRE's plot is very clearly based on the NSA spying scandal.
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig