It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Correct, and in CR Bond almost proposes to Vesper but at the end he's freed of any potential marital bond and left free to enjoy a different partner in each adventure, which was undoubtedly part of the books' fantasy appeal.
Agreed. While we occassionally hear about one or two of the Bond girls getting married, it's easy to imagine most of the others continuing with a string of lovers.
Yes, children, marriage, and family are pretty much banished from the books, and that was part of their fantasy appeal to men--and women.
I think the difference is that in the books Bond goes up to the edge of domesticity, marriage, and fatherhood, but always escapes in the nick of time, whereas in NTTD he doesn't, for several dispiting scenes at least.
Yes, that's what makes it ultimately sentimental in my view; new Dad Bond is trying, even if he's awkward about it, and he and Matilde ultimately, and predictably, connect.
The film might have been a bit more interesting and complex if it had subtly raised those concerns, instead of going hard on sentiment. In the book of OHMSS we have Bond's nightmare about married life, and even the film includes a line where Bond sombrely realizes he can't go on in the service. But Tracy was a livelier charcater than Madeline, and her sadly ironic last line, about Bond giving her a future, indicates that the film is as much her tragedy as Bond's.
I suppose I can understand how a film wouldn’t feel the need to explore that idea. It’s a bit of a tangent from the main drama of the story and is a bit too introspective. A book can more easily convey that.
Yes, there are differences. But I wouldn’t quite phrase it as Bond escapes in the nick of time from domesticity in the books though. Tracy of course is murdered, and the situation with Kissy is quite sad and I’d say it's written in that tone. Effectively Bond getting any sort of alternative, even happy life is taken from him, conflicted as he is about it. So I do get the sense Fleming acknowledged the tragedy of Bond’s situation, and I get a similar sense of that in NTTD (I’d also say that I agree about the ending being similarly tragic for Madeline, but I do think the end of YOLT is similarity a tragedy for Kissy. The last chapter even gives us a lot from that character’s perspective. Arguably it’s more tragic for her than Bond!)
If Craig's Bond lives, people will wonder where are Madeleine and Mathilde when the new guy shows up. He dies and people wonder how does a dead man return to life?
I suppose the family one is easier to write out as if they wished to continue continuity they could say Bond got divorced and he never sees his child. I still have ambiguous feelings about giving Bond an actual family and have concerns how it played out on screen.
Another familial aspect is in the film OP. Giving OP the backstory of Major Smythe was an interesting choice because it makes Octopussy more relatable and give her life of crime more sympathetic to the audience. The twins are another family aspect of the film. I wonder if there is love between Misha and Grisha or whether they see themselves has competitors. I loved how the dynamic worked with these two. The killing of the last twin has some poignancy for me.