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Bond timeline and World events at the time. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
edited March 2014 in Bond Movies Posts: 15,171
Did World events at the time of release have an effect on the performance of the James Bond films?
Looking back to the begining, I'm hoping we can discuss the possible outcome for each of the Bond films, and how events at the time may have helped or hindered the performance and or the story.
Rather than discuss all the films together I feel it would be better to discuss them on a film by film basis. And what better place to start.

Film : Doctor No
Release date : 1962
Villains scheme : The toppling of American missiles/ Sabotaging the US space race.
World events 1961: Great Leap Forward ends in China after the deaths of roughly 20 million people. Building of the Berlin Wall; first human spaceflight
World events 1962: Cuban missile crisis; Algerian war ends with the independence of Algeria; The Beatles' first record. Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation begins. Sino-Indian War. Second Vatican Council is opened by Pope John XXIII.
Box office : $16,067,035 (US Domestic)

If anyone has any suggestions of areas they think may have been overlooked, please feel free to alert me.
Thanks.

Comments

  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,022
    Well, there's the theft of Goya's Portrait of Wellington, which finds its way into Dr. No's lair. Of course, it wasn't Spectre that did it, but the production had no means of knowing that at the time.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    @Benny - the first Beatles record was out that week. (when Dr No was) And the birth control pill was out on the market.
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 6,022
    In France, most of the events in 1961 had to do with the Algerian War, including the Algiers putsch, where a group of french generals tried to take over the government because they wanted to keep Algeria french. 1962 saw the independance of Algeria, after one of the messiest conflict ever.
  • samainsysamainsy Suspended
    Posts: 199
    Dr No came out?
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    And weren't bikinis really new on the scene then? Ursula's was quite different from the usual kind of swimsuit. And of course her in it made a lasting impression.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    4EverBonded wrote:
    And weren't bikinis really new on the scene then? Ursula's was quite different from the usual kind of swimsuit. And of course her in it made a lasting impression.

    Hitchcock was one of the leading filmmakers to really show women in bras, so that may have helped pave the way for Bond to show the skin of its actresses, and has been a franchise that has always embraced the female form ever since its debut in theaters.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    Well in terms of improving box office the only elements that springs to mind are the aforementioned Cuban Missile Crisis and the space race.

    Indeed looking at the dates it seems that the global threat from a Carribbean island on film is perfectly overlapped by similar real world events and it seems inconceivable that at least some of the people who went to see the film had no interest or knowledge of Bond but were attracted by what seemed a prescient thriller that uncannily aped the current geopolitical news story du jour.

    Similarly the space race was really heating up so a film about a shadowy character destroying Americas rockets certainly pandered to fears of the communist threat (despite the fact Dr No worked for SPECTRE) nicely and must have helped getting bums on seats.

    The difference between the two is that whilst the missile crisis was just a stroke of luck for EON, the space race was something they must've been aware of during production and you wonder just how much it influenced their thinking. Although the film is a fairly accurate reproduction of the novel the film does seem to dwell a lot more on the whole toppling angle than the book. In the book it seems rather incidental compared to the overall goal of just stopping Dr No's reign of terror.
  • StirredNotShakenStirredNotShaken Toronto
    Posts: 2,402
    royale65 wrote:
    @Benny - the first Beatles record was out that week. (when Dr No was) And the birth control pill was out on the market.

    Not just the same week, the same day! The two most popular British things ever had their debut on the exact same day!
  • Perilagu_KhanPerilagu_Khan
    Posts: 2,483
    This is a good topic. Perhaps somebody will favor us with FRWL now?
  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,171
    Perilagu_Khan wrote:
    This is a good topic. Perhaps somebody will favor us with FRWL now?

    Glad to see this can be resurrected. I'll get cracking on FRWL later today.
  • WillyGaloreWillyGalore
    Posts: 6,396
    Benny wrote:
    Perilagu_Khan wrote:
    This is a good topic. Perhaps somebody will favor us with FRWL now?

    Glad to see this can be resurrected. I'll get cracking on FRWL later today.

    Yes, I'm pretty sure there was a major world event in the year FRWL was released...
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    Yeah, it was called Doctor Who.
  • WillyGaloreWillyGalore
    Posts: 6,396
    Samuel001 wrote:
    Yeah, it was called Doctor Who.

    :))
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,348
    WillyGalore wrote:
    Samuel001 wrote:
    Yeah, it was called Doctor Who.

    :))

    Who needs the Profumo Scandal, the Magic Circle of the Tory Party and Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Kennedy assassination when you've got that, eh?!
  • SoundofthesinnersSoundofthesinners
    Posts: 3,236
    Somebody get @BeatlesSansEarmuffs in here. He's got some great timelines over on the originals thread.

    I was actually recently thinking about the Cuban Missile Crisis-Dr. No and Kennedy Assassination-From Russia With Love connections as I was in the Kennedy Presidential Library up in Boston. Dr. No was actually released just before the Cuban Missile Crisis in Britain, and didn't see release in the US until May of '63. From Russia With Love, likewise, wasn't released in the US until April of '64. Goldfinger didn't premiere until a few months after the UK premiere, in December of '64. That's 3 Bond films in about 18 months! Curiously enough, Thunderball premiered in Tokyo and apparently debuted in the US before the UK. Interesting stuff all around.

    Anyway, Bond was way more sexualized than almost everything else out there. In the time of Dr. No, the pop songs of the day were "Be My Baby" and "Then He Kissed Me" and "She Loves You" (these came out in '63, but cut me some slack). In the first five minutes of the movie, we see Bond playing (and winning) a high-stakes game of cards in a casino at 3 A.M. against an impossibly beautiful woman, not to mention setting a date with her, and we find out that's just what he does for fun! A few minutes later we see him hit on the secretary, and then he discovers the woman from earlier wearing only his shirt, and of course coitus ensues. Then we get what is repeatedly stated to be hours and hours of Bond and Miss Taro together, and I doubt I even need to discuss Honey Ryder's introductory scene. Bond himself was an unstoppable vortex of sexuality in the early films, and the films on the whole were like nothing out there, except for Playboy, which I would imagine had far less mainstream appeal & acceptance.

  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,171
    Time to dust off a few older threads that still have potential for discussion.

    Film: From Russia With Love

    Release date: 1963

    Villains scheme: SPECTRE plans an intricate scheme to lure James Bond into stealing a valuable Soviet decoding machine, and unknowingly deliver it into their hands. In the process, Agent 007 is to suffer a humiliating and disgraceful death.

    World events the year before release    : Cuban missile crisis; Algerian war ends with the independence of Algeria; The Beatles' first record. Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation begins. Sino-Indian War. Second Vatican Council is opened by Pope John XXIII.

    World events the year of release: Independence of Kenya and creation of Malaysia Birmingham campaign. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" at the March on Washington. Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Launch of the first geostationary satellite. Paul VI becomes Pope.

    Box Office: $24,796,765 (US Domestic)

    As this has been left static for a while, I'm hoping we can discuss the possible outcome for each of the Bond films, and how events at the time may have helped or hindered the performance and or the story.
    John F Kennedy had listed his favourite books in '62 I believe, with FRWL being one of them. This led Saltzman and Broccoli to move ahead and film FRWL as the follow up to DN.
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