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Agreed. The racist card is usually pulled when all other arguments fail. Racism has become a loose term, which is kinda racist when you think about it. 😉
As I posted recently about Denzel in Malcolm X... There was a scene where he encapsulated everything a Bond actor should have, and I didn't see skin colour. I just saw an alpha who I couldn't take my eyes off of; he was handsome and deadly and had ice cold charisma... What he had is universal and goes beyond the superficial-- like skin colour...
If the new guy has an iota of what Denzel, Connery, Craig have, then skin colour be damned. Hire the man closest to depicting the things we love about the character....
But James Bond represents something more universal and his tent is a large one (one of the reasons why the producers have usually and widely steered away from politics-- they didn't want to alienate anyone group); Bond is about adventure, style, a rogue who, when the chips are down, is the only person we can rely on to win the day... All of these things aren't just "white" traits... As has been shown around the world, what James Bond exemplifies can be enjoyed by one and all... As an archetype, James Bond isn't a skin colour...
Whereas Shaft is very specific to a cultural movement....
EDIT: I should add, I don't care who gets the role, so long as the man is as close to the best we have in the running... Black, white, Asian... May the best man win.
This is well elaborated.
I see it two ways. By keeping Bond white, they can maintain the subtext of Bond being a man out of time, which is what Fleming Bond was. A relic of the British Empire finding himself in a new world order. But this is an aspect that was virtually ignored by the first half of the film series. Connery Bond doesn’t feel like a man out of time because the films are too concerned of making him super aspirational, playing up to the “who men want to be and who women want in their bed sheets”. So a black actor could actually play Bond up the cinematic Bond. This is why so many are open to Idris Elba because most are more familiar with cinematic Bond rather than Fleming Bond.
The Brosnan and Craig era certainly played up that “man out of time” aspect but in a way that was updated. A literal relic of the Cold War is what Brosnan was since he was still young enough to have fought Soviet Russians in the 80s, while Craig simply plays Bond like someone who should have been born 50 years earlier than he actually was. So if they recast with another white actor, they could still play up this aspect. Whereas I don’t see it quite translating with a black actor because that’s far more a 21st century image than something from Fleming’s time. But again, that would be okay if they just play up the cinematic Bond.
"Greetings, I'm Russian nuclear scientist Mikhail Arkoff."
It would depend on what aspect of the next Bond they play up and how they do it. I didn't as much get the sense that Craig's Bond should have been born 50 years earlier, but that he himself was the 'old guard' by Skyfall, and the film goes to great lengths to depict him as such. It's one of the reasons why I feel that film works so well - because Bond should, in fact, be slightly out of step with his own time, as he was in Fleming's novels. SF even stands out in the sense that it overtly explores these ideas more so than most Bond films - the role of the 00 section/Bond himself in the modern world, Bond's feelings towards his job etc. Race doesn't come into it, but it still conveys that aspect of Bond in a way which adapts these Fleming-esque ideas...
Now, I personally suspect the next Bond actor will be white. As much as it's been talked about there's not much precedent in the recent past for changing the race of a main character in a well known franchise (save for Dr. Who franchises like Batman, Spiderman etc. have kept the lead actors of their latest instalments white). I do, however, suspect much of the rest of the cast will be more diverse - M, Tanner etc. Do these characters need to be white too by this logic? Would they be depicted differently as characters if they weren't white? Would it be any different to changing Bond's race if updated?
I don't even know the answer to the latter questions, but it's interesting to think about.
I actually don’t think I mind what colour an actor playing Bond’s skin is, having thought about it. Sometimes I do take a more purist approach vis-a-vis Bond being an adaptation… hence my tongue in cheek comment about a Chris Evans Shaft (adaptation from a book, series of films going back about fifty years, different actors in the role over time, action based… see why I may have picked it?) because if the argument for Elba is tied to race, then it’s just as silly as the argument against his casting being due to his race. Shaft is a character much like Bond in that the character was originated in another time, with different ideas about ethnicity etc. In a certain reading Shaft is about masculinity and Black Power, but then, by the same token, Bond is about faded Empire and Colonialism acting in the interests of good. Neither are exactly comfortable topics in the world today, or ones that could be handled well in popular film.
I actually think a British Indian Bond would be more likely. Still Scots and Swiss, just British Indian, and would work quite well. If I was casting Black British, I would have gone with Adrian Lester over Idris Elba.
Speaking of which… Too old now, and I always took the Danny Boyle ‘too street’ to refer to the fact that Elba is a Londoner. Too cockney and working class to be Bond. Which may also be something about the way Tom Hardy is perceived that would prevent him getting the role, though after Craig, who knows?
Cavil would be the best option, but he’s a bit too famous now… on the other hand, Moore was hardly an unknown.
The Avengers TV show had a season where Mrs Peel would get the message "Mrs Peel - we're needed", in various ways; The Saint had the pre-credits sequence where the halo would appear above Simon Templar's head as he looks into camera... those are small-scale examples of what I'm talking about. You don't see it in movies, though. Is it because no other series of films has had the confidence they would be churning out more than two or three films?
Studios are afraid too when its time to go really big and produce action driven blockbusters with a black actor front and center of the picture. Think about Netflix, that should be one of the most inclusive studios of the world… their last two big action productions with the Russo brothers all cast handsome white actors.
Excellent post, yes indeed; he needs that 'something', and Denzel is a good example- you can't take your eyes off him.
I think this is potentially troublesome though; you certainly weren't being racist at all and I think the response you got was out of order, but sometimes other people are: there's no catch-all sweeping 'people aren't racist' conclusion to be drawn. Ms Lynch herself described how she received racist messages online, and I'm sure she knows what's racist and what isn't, so I'm happy to take her word for it. Every case is different.
Funnily enough the two 90s Martin Campbell Zorro films come to mind: they actually have gunbarrel sequences (they really do!) followed by an opening act which functions as a short, slightly separate film. I can't remember if they have totally separate title sequences though, but the first does also have a song, the melody of which features throughout the score.
The Mission Impossible films also borrow this formula slightly, although no gunbarrel and the opening act isn't always a big, separate stunt sequence; but they do have title sequences.
So I don't think we can make these sweeping generalisations because then folks who do say racist things can look at that and say 'people are calling others racist when they're not so that awful thing I just said must not be racist at all - a mod said so'. Do you see what I mean? Each case is different, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. You say it's fairly clear when someone is and isn't being racist, but sadly it seems increasingly that it's seen as a matter of opinion and some folks are too quick to excuse it, hiding behind accusations of 'woke' and all that.
It goes back to my initial point that started all this - I've seen a lot of these types of flags and complaints of late on here that have nothing to do with the actual complaint and it's pretty dangerous to start claiming someone as such when they've offered no evidence to back that up, such as myself.
Now you've caught me!
Yes indeed, and I will agree for the fourth time that you weren't being racist :) Why I'm mentioning that others can be racist at times is because I disagree that folks in general are accusing others too easily, because it's a case by case situation. You say it's clearly obvious who those types are, but to be honest I think bigotry is accepted and excused a bit too often, even (not by yourself I stress to make clear, I'm not making any accusations; it's just an observation). But I'll leave it now, it's not a point I want to press too hard, and I totally understand why you felt so aggrieved :)