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How has Bond influenced you?
After reading the discussion about Bond slapping women, I wondered how many of us have actually been influenced by a Bond film in some way.
Whenever I order red wine with fish, I always think back to FRWL.
Whenever I order red wine with fish, I always think back to FRWL.
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* out in the open, it's CR'67
* indoors, it's CR06
Well that should have told me something........
Basically the Bond films opened up my life for me, and in a few different ways. First, a bit of background - I grew up in a very conservative place which was also very blue collar. We were comfortable but didn't have the money to take vacations or have really nice things. It was the kind of place were we would dream of being a truck driver or an electrician when we grew up. It was also a very "white" place where food, drinks, movies, and culture had no foreign influence at all. People's dads would talk about how films like Smokey and the Bandit were the greatest films ever made, no one had ever seen a Bruce Lee film because who would watch a film with a Chinese guy in it, and because The Godfather featured Italian families it was "weird".
In fact, the worst insult that could be levelled at anyone or anything was that it was "weird", and what was "normal" was very limited. I remember when I was around ten a classmate's father came in to talk about how he was an artist and taught us how to draw a simple drawing using a charcoal pencil, and how you could smudge the lines for an interesting effect. People's parents complained about it!
Another thing that made people's parents angry (so we learned to copy those attitudes) was anyone who had money, liked nice things, or dressed well. They would be sneered at with a "They think they're so *special*!" mixture of mocking and anger. I guess it would be like when people these days decry someone for being an "elite".
So I had a very limited worldview and was very happy with it as I was taught to like and dislike (strongly!) certain things. Then, when I was 11 or 12, a local station showed a double feature of GF and DAF one Sunday afternoon. My best way of describing the experience is saying that it was a revelation - it was wish fulfilment but for wishes that I didn't even realize that I had. No other film had ever made me as excited or happy to watch it, and I saw Star Wars when I was 8! I was terrified that my father would come in and make me shut the film off, but he was out so I could watch the films in their entirety. Imagine my surprise when my mother told him I watched those films and I found out he really liked Bond films!
It was a huge relief to me, but also confusing. It should have been everything that my dad and the people I knew hated - here was an "elite" who liked good food and drinks! Here was a guy who wore a suit all the time! Here was (in GF, anyway) a strong woman who stood up to a man and was competent in her own right! Here was a hero (in the beginning of GF) making out with a girl who wasn't white (if you can believe it, a Latina or Italian woman wouldn't be considered white in my neighborhood)! Here was a film that showed that travelling outside of your town was something cool and glamourous!
Something that really interests me as an adult is to see how much guys who don't want to be anything like Bond, or have a lifestyle like his, enjoy those films. But what those two films I saw when I was 11, and then all the Bond films I saw after that, taught me was that there was a whole world out there beyond what I was conditioned to like. I really wonder that if Bond films never existed if I would have grown to like good food and drinks, be attracted to strong women, enjoy travel, like dressing well, etc. They also made me want to try things that only "elites" did, like skiing, scuba diving, playing golf, riding a jetski, etc.
I also wonder what would have happened if I saw a different Bond film at the beginning. I think one of the things that was so appealing to myself and the people who I grew up with was how utterly in control Connery was. Our parents were always angry about something, complaining about how other people (banks, politicians, their bosses) had power over them - this probably led to their feelings about "elites". Because Connery was such a force of nature I can see how people would live vicariously through his character - imagine being in control of your life! Imagine making things happen instead of other people dictating what happens to you! Imagine walking into a room and automatically having women attracted to you and other men respect you!
This sounds a bit melodramatic, but I would say that the Bond films have probably influenced me more than any other thing in pop culture to be the man I am today. And a good thing, too - all the things that my father or friends would decry as being (forgive the language; it's the word they used) "faggy" have actually made me more successful with women then they could ever hope to be. Dressing well, being well read, thinking in complex rather than simple terms, enjoying good food, treating women with respect instead of thinking they're put on this planet to serve men, enjoying travelling to exotic places, learning new skills all the time, getting into good shape and taking pride in my appearance, enjoying a variety of drink instead of just beer (and knowing how to pair them with food to accentuate certain flavours), etc...
Yep, I could never begin to express how grateful I am for being home that one fall afternoon...
I suppose you could also say Bond has influenced me to religiously check this forum :p
Now, decades later it doesn't really have that kind of effect so to speak, we still go to the theater to see each new release and we have our hopes and expectations, (and sometimes disappointments) but now it never really goes further than that.
And back to Connery, and with what @SharkBait said, I, too, smoke like a mule.
I didn't start skiing because of Bond. But in winter, when I do ski down the slopes , I do hum the James Bond theme :p
And I'm kidding about the mule thing...
1) When I am driving in a tense situation, or packed roadway, especially if I need to pass cars and hurry along, I get in a Bond mode. It helps. ;)
2) And, when younger and well dressed for the occasion, I wore a special dress at a formal or semi-formal event, I very much enjoyed turning a few gentlemen's heads. And I would sometimes feel - even if just for a moment - that I was in a movie (preferably a Bond film). I rarely did the dressing up bit, but I do remember that. Always wanted to be a Bond girl (albeit, one that lived).
And I have always wanted to ski! And yeah, the opening ski stunt in TSWLM was inspiring! But alas, I have not ever skied (is that spelled right?) and now I cannot due to two knee surgeries. But the apres drinks - or snuggling up in a warm cabin while it's snowing outside (brushing up on my Danish; only I'm the Danish - ha!) ... I could handle that just fine, thank you very much. On my wish list still.
Thinking of Natalya in GE ("thank you very much"), I do use some Bond expressions in my life, including (if appropriate) "boys with toys."
But, the good thing is that Bond has had nothing but a positive influence on my life, and for that I feel very lucky.
Apart from that I'm being told I watch the movies too often and spend too much money on Bond-related items.. ;)
Sometimes I do think that's a big part of the Bond fixation for me. A fascination with the kind of "high life" lol
I know it's just a movie and every life has its pros and cons, but of course for most of us that kind of life really is a dream and so it's nice to have it!
Now, I'd be wrong if I said that was the ONLY reason I enjoy Bond - I love the action, characters, plot, politics and many other things, but it's certainly one of them.
Other than that... I don't know really. More British? lol ^_^
I'm also influenced a bit by Bond's style when buying new clothes or shoes. After QoS I bought my first pair of Dessert Boots.
I also remember that during my military service sometimes I really felt like Bond during the exercises. Driving in military cars, be in uniform, being on "a mission". I really liked my dress uniform (in reminiscence of the few moments we see Bond in his), so there were not many occasions to put it on. I think Bond also influenced me to do my military service in the first place (in Germany it would have been easy to reject it).
However, the greatest influence in my life has been recently. I've been through a tough time the last couple of years and although I'm nearly over it, my self confidence took a battering. Just recently I was feeling a little low, and just watching a Bond movie helped me feel better, like having an injection of confidence into my body! It wasn't the movie itself that helped me feel better, it was Bond - the way he acts, talks, walks, he oozes self confidence. Don't get me wrong, I'm generally a very positive proacive person who doesn't believe in "needing to have" things in order "to feel" a certain way. All I'm saying in this instance is Bond helped make achieving the state of mind I wanted easier to attain, NOT that is was essential!
However even those films that show Bond struggling have had a positive impact. Take Skyfall-for me, an incredibly inspirational film, especially with where I am in my life and what has happened recently. At the beginning he is the Bond we have always known - cool, competent and supremely confident. Beforelong he has lost it, weighed down with inner demons, finding solace in alcohol and full of self doubt. Yes, even Bond is human, and goes through what we all have to in life. Then he rediscovers his confidence and gets back to his best. He doesn't let life beat him. Extremely motivating for me. Bond, more than ever, is truly helping me get back to my best!
Good luck out there in the field though. ;)
Ian Fleming didn't just create a character who has inspired generations, he has left a legacy that has covered the past, present and inevitably the future, which has employed thousands of people and provided so much enjoyment; this is why it is important for his work to stay a much anticipated part of the cinema experience.
James Bond is Ian Fleming’s alter ego, he is, the true representation of who and how he wished to portray himself as a man inside and outside the bounds of conformity and reality.
By writing the story’s he fulfilled his own potential of the way life could be lived without the restrictions of the time, and endeavored to make every effort to have a reasonable piece of that reality; this he has successfully conveyed back to his audience with the hope of appreciation and plenty of encouragement to others of a more adventurous nature.
All human beings absorb the influences around them and choose the ones they feel comfortable with; James Bond is an idea of a man attaining the best from his life and everyday opportunities. In many ways he is a good influence, in other ways it needs to be reasoned that he is a fictional persona who could break the rules of life, which we cannot, without experiencing many unpleasant consequences.
James Bond influences people, but as with Ian Fleming, they need to use their own imagination to become and develop their own unique personality, for that is the attraction for others to be interested in them, their atmosphere and the creativity they bring when you are in their company.
For an individual to be free from the bonds that others resent in their lives, they need to seek employment or a situation, which suits their personality, and try to work away from the jobs and circumstances that restrain their particular skills or gifts.
Ian Fleming, really achieved this in becoming the creator of James Bond, he was able to pursue all of the areas of life that held interest for him; this is the experience that inspires and promotes individualism amongst the audience of everything Bond and anyone who has become slightly addicted.
Well I know that but I got bored and I couldnt be bothered going out and playing Football.I'd love to be like Q.
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