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"Smacks" were quite common in classic films.
The following is actually one of the film posters for TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949) and I've yet to see a Gloria Grahame noir where she doesn't get knocked around multiple times.
Subjective opinion: While there are many things in early Bond films (or classic movies, for that matter) that give me pause, I try to compartmentalize how I evaluate them. While depictions of gender and race in older films are often problematic, it would be wrong to censor them (or pretend that they didn't exist). In fact, we can use them to have a discussion about how things should be handled going forward. We can also use them to contrast other cases where things were handled differently.
It would feel a bit strange to start having R-rated Bond movies after a run of 25 PG / PG-13 ones, but to be fair, if all the Fleming novels were done completely faithfully, they all would be. It’d be a bold new direction, possibly good.
And it didn't came from an old movie.
The Living Daylights held my top spot for the longest time. Arguably it still does. Only the the slightly muddled boss fight at the end let’s it down, and it’s not as visually appealing compared to later things. It would have been a cooler ending if Bond had just shot Whitaker with a Sniper rifle, bringing that full circle and closing that particular Chekhov’s gun. But that was too low key for 87. They could more or less redo the films overall story now, and it would work.
I think the Craig films have been quite inventive in shaking the formula up in some cases, but that Skyfall shower scene, as SIS_HQ pointed out, is kind of a head-scratcher - I’m sure I remember hearing Mendes or Craig talk about trying to make it seem less ‘rapey’, but to me it just seems ill-conceived and unnecessary. The idea that Bond has snuck aboard, stripped naked, and hidden himself in her shower for god-knows-how-long, just waiting to surprise her is just all sorts of weird and creepy. What were they thinking?
While I agree with you regarding TLD being one of the very best, I do love that final encounter with Whitaker in his War room! Your idea could have worked, but I think Bond needs to have the last meet with the villain face to face! ( One of the reasons why I dislike SF. i was looķng forward to Silva and Bonds final confrontation, only for to be let down with the abrupt knife killing!)
Hemingway's last wife discussed the sexual energy in Europe during the Second World War; it was erotically charged.
It's not sexist to think a man like Bond, who lives a dangerous life, would be Ina situation with a woman where they hungrily take and comfort each other.
It's human nature and can be depicted with class and maturity.
I realize this. What I'm saying is that it takes me out of GF, TB, and OHMSS in particular, which is unfortunate because I think GF and OHMSS are near-perfect Bond films.
Eon could not have known how people would "read" a behavior decades later. But here we are.
True!
True, no doubt some viewers could be influenced to mimic Bond's actions - an individual in the same city as me recently changed his name to 'James Bond' and was arrested for carrying a bb gun for what he said was 'the symbolism'! But I wouldn't want future Bonds be unarmed in order to prevent other vulnerable viewers from deciding to copy him too. Similarly, I wouldn't want the next Bond to produce a written consent form for the Bond girl to sign before they do the deed. Exaggerating for effect, but you get the idea.
In light of Cary Fukunaga saying explicitly that Connery's Bond was 'a rapist' and others saying that those scenes in GF and TB are 'rapey scenes', I do think that the Cape Fear comparison is fair, tbh. I'd say that Mitchum's performance in that scene in Cape Fear shows you what that actually looks like. And it doesn't look anything like GF and TB.
GF. Bond forces himself on Ms. Galore then she visibly gives in, returning his passion. And is shown to be on his side soon after. She literally and happily ends the film in his arms. Does not detract from the strong character to my mind.
TB. Patricia Fearing gives a finger-waving but still playful objection to Bond's suggestion. Seconds later is shown losing her robe and acquiescing. After 007's late night rounds, she expresses jealousy regarding his comment to the beautiful woman in the corridor. They part the next day on the best of terms or even better. "Any time, James. Any place!"
OP. Some back and forth discussion, two of a kind on opposite sides. Also some frustration going on. Bond takes a chance and forces an embrace and a kiss. Initial reaction to resist is quickly overcome, Octopussy fully opens herself to the kiss and to Bond without reservations. She doesn't waiver from that through the rest of the film.
SF. Bond has the invitation from Sévérine--if he survives the casino, meet at her yacht Chimera. She's shown in a silk robe waiting for him, champagne and two glasses on the table. She showers. Bond shows up, lets himself into the shower and she does not resist in the slightest what appears to be her plan all along. It makes sense to me she would want that both for herself (as a personal escape from the control she's under by the bad guys) and toward a final out from Silva altogether.
SP. Bond's Turkish lover. Shown in passion and otherwise. I didn't see evidence of anything negative, just a relationship that the two took on as useful and enjoyable at the time.
SP. Bond offers Lucia life insurance at the funeral and backs it up at her residence. It appears she didn't love her husband Sciarra but she rightly vents rage at Bond for disrupting her arrangement and signing her death warrant as she says. Bond forces the issue and they passionately embrace, couple off screen. Before he moves on he reassures her a CIA contact will offer protection. She expresses concern for him, for the danger involved in the direction taken.
Based on the end result and reaction of the women involved, these scenarios work fine for the story and for me. The modern Craig Bond set-ups are exceptionally well done across Solange, Vesper, Fields, Camille, Sévérine, Estrella, Turkish lover, Paloma, and Madeleine. Whether or not they go to bed.
In recent years I've been at a GF screening with an audience, and the roll in the hay generated some awkward silence and nervous laughter. So times have changed, and I don't expect the GF and TB type examples will come up again in new films. But even beyond the context of the 20th Century origins, taken as a whole the scenes in question show both male and female characters deciding to engage with positive outcomes for both. That's wish fulfillment for all sides I hope.
Bear in mind you are presenting the scenes here though, not the films. For example:
You’ve left out that Severine is a sex slave who has been exploited and abused by men all her life. For Bond to then have sex with her, in a rather vulnerable position, is a bit creepy. It’s clear she’s so used to being subservient to men that she automatically does the same when another strong male, in the shape of Bond, comes along. He means well but he’s just the next exploitative man in a row of many (and he does want to use her for his own means). It feels a far cry from the Bond who got into the shower with Vesper fully clothed just to comfort her.
That’s how the film presents it as well: it’s not quite right to pick only some elements and say that is objectively how the film presents it.
It’s even worse when you then put in the rather pointless (both in universe, and in terms of the plot or story or characters forward) death, and the ‘waste of good scotch’. It’s a bit edgelord, frankly, and there are likely better ways to have dealt with that character at least. Her surviving would basically have been Bonds only win in that film, had it occurred. As foreshadowing for Ms death, it doesn’t work, and as ‘ooh look Silva is so Eeeeevillll’ it’s just clumsy and overegging.
The tattoo indicating sex trafficking/human trafficking is an important point, to give understanding for her character. That she would take the risk on Bond and he fails is also key.
I took the shower scene how I described it. On screen the character is shown in control of her actions, actively seeking pleasure, and hopeful to find a way out of her dire situation. Her tragic past and unfortunate end during the duel don't cancel that for me. Not her intent, but in a way she follows Vesper in seeking some last moments of pleasure before events overcome all.
Craig's Bond seemed to downplay the sex, or the use of it to advance Bond's work. Aside from Solange in CR I can't think of Bond sleeping with someone to get intel. His Bond was probably the least romantic and least sexual of the Bond's of yesterday. It will be interesting to see if the sex is played up again for the next fellow!
He did it again in SPECTRE with Lucia Sciarra, we can safely say he did also slept with her.
He also did with Strawberry Fields and with Severine.
I do find the "waste of a good Scotch" line absolutely gruesome. I know the intention behind that moment - Bond is presenting an impregnable front to Silva - but it plays just a little too ambiguously on screen.