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Why? because nobody ever went up to Bond and said hey, You're that white secret agent.
Easier said than done.
Why?
Nothing wrong with being white and proud. But white, black or any race and believing one race is superior to another is racist.
If you read @Khans post, nobody is having a go at him for being white and proud. People are (rightly) criticising him for posting racist, bigoted bullshit.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Once you change Bond's ethnic background, he is no longer a product of Fleming's 1950's world, and this is reflected in several of the books, as you rightly mentioned above.
By all means, EON could change this by casting a black actor as Bond, because this is modern Britain, and the Bond film franchise has modernised so a black man could be an MI6 agent today, but if the caption on the poster read - `Idris Elba is Ian Fleming's James Bond 007', it would be a blatant lie.
Yes, he would be playing `James Bond', but he wouldn't be playing `Ian Fleming's James Bond'....
Because the race of the modern James Bond doesn't define him anymore the same way it did in the 50s. It's possible for a black guy to come from the same background as Bond now so his skin colour is now no more important than his hair colour or eye colour.
So what I'm getting is because it's 2014. It's okay for anyone to play anyone?
But once you go down this route, this is a definite departure from Ian Fleming's original creation, and until now, this is about the only thing that hasn't changed with the modernisation of Fleming's characters in the franchise.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I think we're just going round in circles at this point (unless Khan has some more stormfront copypastas to enlighten us with), which is why my participation has dropped off a lot. Bond 7 will almost certainly be white exactly becaues of the furor this created. Which I'm perfectly fine with. So people can rest easy.
And no, accusations of racism arne't be thrown "at the drop of a hat". People can certainly want to keep Bond white without changing having any racist tendencies. A Malian friend of mine thinks Bond should stay white as well (although he's the most casual of fans). In the 9 pages of this thread only one person has been accused of racism (and by proxy those who quoted his post approvingly) and that was because he literally said that one's race determines one's personality.
And they are living in that nation today. Unfortunately we are discussing a character that was written way back in 1952, in a different era, and not in today's modern, accepting society......
We're discussing a character that has evolved. A character that exists in the 21st Century, not 1952.
Where this argument falls somewhat flat is as follows:
1. Live and Let Die has already been made as a movie. Unless they are going to remake it, the issue is moot.
2. Fleming's books have already been made into movies. If you're planning to remake them, that's one thing. Otherwise the issue is again moot.
3. If you're planning to remake them, then by definition it implies that the the movies (e.g TSWLM) do not follow the novels. Which again suggests that Fleming's creation has been hacked to death already in the movies, and it has in more ways than one.
So the above purist argument can be debunked.
The key questions are as follows:
1. Can James Bond be played by a black man today? The yes crowd says yes, and I tend to agree. There's nothing about today's James Bond that suggests the role cannot be played by a black man or minority.
2. Should James Bond be played by a black man? Some of the yes crowd say yes. I don't agree on this one personally. I think James Bond should be played by a white man.
Why? Purely because of the history of this storied franchise, in movies and books. I am of the opinion that if you want to reimagine the character's skin colour, then you can go ahead and recreate a suitable character (i.e. Ice Cube for XXX 2 as an example - although I admit a bad one).
There is no need to reimagine his skin colour (although it should not matter), and there are several suitable white actors (on another thread) that can pick up the mantle much better than any black actor I have seen mentioned, including Elba. That is purely a statistical numbers question, as I have said time and time again.
So the distinction is 'can' vs. 'should' in my opinion. Yes, he can be played by a minority, given how the purist Fleming interpretation has already been bastardized. I don't agree that he should though, and that' a purely a personal preference.
Ok, Rocky. A black actor couldn't play Rocky. For one thing the Italian American background of the character is important, it's part of what defines him (the Italian Stallion) and for another thing, only Sylvester Stallone should ever play Rocky.
But with Bond his background is never really adressed in the films and even if it was, it's possible for a black guy to come from the same background. Also, Bond's character and appearance has changed drastically over the years to the point where at times, he's been barely recognisable as Fleming's Bond. He's been a jokey playboy and he's been a brutal killer. He's been pretty, rugged, dark haired, light haired, blue eyed, brown eyed, lean, buff, sarcastic, campy, cold, caring, etc. The character has changed so much over the years and casting a black actor to play him wouldn't be deviating any further than the source material than making films like DAF, MR, TMWTGG, etc.
It's the same with a Batman for example. He's changed loads, in appearance and character, and his race isn't an important part of his character. It doesn't affect his background or anything. So a black or Batman would be fine imo. It's not needed, it doesn't have to happen, but I wouldn't mind if it did. Same with Bond.
Agreed. So this would be James Bond 2014, but not Ian Fleming's James Bond. Can you not see the difference?
Heh heh! Mind the doorknob on your way out, Nancy!
I don't think Timmer was saying that LALD or GF needs to be remade, but his points were that Bond as a character written by Fleming had gone through certain experiences as a character which would never had worked had he been anything other than white at the time. And like it or not, the character of Bond, right the way up until SF, hasn't really been modernised at all, unlike the characters around him, and the world around him.
And the point Timmer was making is that yes you can update the Bond character to a modern day black MI6 agent, but this is a radical departure from the old-fashioned Fleming character.
Why are people finding this so hard to grasp???
How's the fourth reich shaping up?
Yes, absolutely. I understand that quite clearly.
However, a legitimate counterargument has been made by several others in several posts on this thread that in the 50 years of the movies, the character has been reimagined and tweaked quite considerably by 6 different actors. There are definitely different interpretations and they are reasonably significant. If anyone can't see that then they are not being reasonable. Even Roger Moore changed his own interpretation during the 13 years that he was Bond.
So while the purist argument is valid it is not the best one to use in this case to support the case. It is certainly a valid argument but I don't think it's the best one.
Now we're getting into personal opinions about what is and is not significant and that again is not going to get us anywhere.
At the end of the day, Bond smokes. It's a part of his character. They have removed that and made a big deal out of it in the pretitles of TND. I personally found that annoying. I find his sexism being toned down annoying (as I've said that is one of the reasons that I don't support a minority actor for the part, because I think his sexism will be even further toned down in that instance and I like his sexism very much. To me it's something that defines him as does his hard drinking and smoking).
That's what I've been advocating but all the responses I get to that are "Easier said than done." Please. If Pierce could get his own rival spy series made. A spy series starring Elba could easily be made. And with his popularity from The wire. I don't see how it could fail.