8 replies to this topic

[Q-Zar]

Watching the extra's on "Austin Powers in Goldmember", they said Austin was based on a kind of gentleman spy the British used to have.
In short, it was someone from aristocracy who would have his normal life + do some spying (without pay), simply for Queen and Country.

I wondered if Bond was like that, because he seems to have a sophisticated life (I can't imagine why a regular spy would know everything about alcohols and such), and doesn't do much when he's not spying.
Is he from a high society and being patriotic, or is it just a job ?

[Four Aces]

Watching the extra's on "Austin Powers in Goldmember", they said Austin was based on a kind of gentleman spy the British used to have...

Gentlemen spies? Yes. Austin Powers? No.

Most English-speaking First World countries would hire gentlemen types to be their "spies", Yalies and such. This is also true with organizations like the U.S. Dept. of State. As a generalization, the "spies" were from the better universities [Ivy League, etc.] Even the FBI used to require all agents to either have a law degree or and accounting degree, with no exceptions.

Such is no longer the case, primarily due to a lack of interest from such "gentleman" moneyed families, demographic changes, etc.

These "spies" of course were not "swashbuckler" types as depcited by Bond, Austin Powers, and other such nonsense, but are "managers" of networks they try to build in a given target country.

The UK network builder, I opine, is much more adept than his U.S. counterpart, for a variety of reasons.

4A

[Jim]

James Bond craves to be a gentleman but will never achieve it. He is a thug with pretensions of being a gentleman, the opportunity for such pretence being the one beneficial offshoot of being in the profession he is.

In other words, being a manipulated government assassin enables his fetishes which themselves, in their indulgences, give him the opportunity to ignore the revolting nature of his profession

[Loomis]

Most English-speaking First World countries would hire gentlemen types to be their "spies", Yalies and such.

"English-speaking First World"? Ugh, repulsive expression. A chap who no longer posts here, who went by the alias "Derringer", used to use it - I had no idea it was so prevalent on your side of the pond, Four Aces.

[Qwerty]

Certain actions of the Bond of both the novels and the films can give people the criteria to make him sometimes a gentlemen spy, and sometimes not at all.

As Jim has already mentioned, the job he has, the requirements of it, and what he is forced to do....and then what he chooses to do while on the mission, can make him either a gentlemen, or not at all.

[Xenobia]

While I have to concur with most of what Jim has said, I do believe given his father's profession, and his mother's family's wealth, Bond probably would have been a gentleman had he not been a spy.

But, Bond is not a gentleman spy. He is a hired assassin, with some breeding.

Scaramanga's remarks in are not that far off.

-- Xenobia

[Max Zorin]

I think he just happens to be a cold, blunt instrument of the government with extremely good taste.

[SnakeEyes]

Jim once again tells it like it is.

Bond is simply a used killer. A lacky for the Goverment, denied existance, but permitted on his long travels to indulge into his fantisy of being refined by having enough time and cash to act as such.

Scaramanga (as Xen said) is very close to the mark indeed in the TMTGG film, but Roger lies so that Goodnight gives him a goodnight.

[Turn]

Gentlemen don't use ladies the way Bond does in many cases. Kind of gives a different meaning to blunt instrument, doesn't it?

And it's interesting to hear Grant mock him as an English gentleman in the carriage of the Orient Express. "You may know the right wines, but you're the one on your knees," is a great line.