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Brosnan's Bond dealt a lot with communists


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#1 Colossus

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Posted 26 June 2014 - 02:20 AM

Just realized this for the first post-cold war bond most of his tenure was, the first one, TND with China, DAD with N.Korea. I have nothing else to really add but just wow. Looks like it was on people's minds in that era still, before of course all new enemies popped up in this day and age.



#2 freemo

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Posted 26 June 2014 - 07:00 AM

Well, he was a relic of the cold war.



#3 Guy Haines

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Posted 26 June 2014 - 07:08 AM

The film makers were always careful about Bond's adversaries, probably because of the possibility that Bond movies might one day be shown in communist or former communist countries.

 

Thus we had SPECTRE in the 1960s - definitely apolitical and not averse to pitting East against West. (Although "Red China" was twice the power behind the villains, in GF and YOLT. Did the producers believe that the Russians were more likely future Bond audiences than the Chinese?) In the 1970s we had independent operators like Kananga and Scaramanga, and multi billionaires like Stromberg and Drax. The 1980s saw Bond take on "rogue" communists such as Orlov, Zorin and Koskov, and of course drug dealers. The closest we came to an outright East-v-West conflict was in FYEO, and even that was resolved.

 

GE was post communist, but it was criticised by one former KGB man - I think it was Oleg Gordievsky - because of the number of Russians killed in it, even though the villains were also "rogues". We were back to a powerful magnate pitting East-v-West in TND, and a wealthy woman with a terrorist in tow in TWINE. And I guess having the North Koreans as the baddies in DAD - but again, rogue North Koreans - was something the film makers felt safe in doing. It's unlikely there will be a Bond season showing at a multiplex in downtown Pyongyang anytime soon, although one former North Korean leader was, reputedly, a closet Bond movie addict!

 

And now we are where we are - Bond in the Craig era fighting villains promoted by shadowy forces, appropriately because at the moment the world does seem as if it is being run from "behind the scenes", with politicians beholden to multi-national money men.

 

Some observations in conclusion. First, Ian Fleming had the foresight to create the apolitical villains of SPECTRE, also thinking that his books might reach an audience beyond the Western world. Secondly, Bond has spent more time fighting capitalists than communists, at least on screen - you don't have to be a Bond villain to be a multi-millionaire, but you almost certainly have to be a multi-millionaire to be a Bond villain!

 

And finally, a comment I remember about the film TMWTGG. It was, apparently, the first Bond shown to a Russian audience, albeit government officials. When asked about ex-KGB assassin Scaramanga's demise at the hands of 007, one KGB type in the audience said it was down to "inadequate training"!



#4 Colossus

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Posted 01 July 2014 - 08:43 PM

Good point



#5 JoeMI3

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Posted 02 July 2014 - 01:50 AM

To go along with what Guy was saying, I remember watching a documentary about Bond (seen to many, can't remember what one) and Cubby's daughter was saying about how her father didn't want to make tensions worse with our opposing nations, saying something about Bond being a worldy icon everyone deserves to love, not hate. I always personally liked the Communist enemy's more, they were mostly more real, and less of a self parody like Scaramanga or later versions of Blofeld. The Terry Salavas Blofeld was awesome, then the Charles Grey Blofeld was much more "diabolical", still love them both more than Donald Pleasance portrayal, deveated from the original character structure in the previous films. Anyways I feel like Brosnan's best villians were the GoldenEye trio,who were all tied to the Soviet Union. Xenia was an ex-Soviet pilot, Ourumov was high ranking soviet military offical, and Alec was a descendant of the Cossacks and spoke fluent Russian. The Brosnan Era was a nice transition from Cold War to Modern Terrorism. Brosnan adresses this wordly change by saying the phrase "Governments changes, the lies stay the same."

Edited by JoeMI3, 02 July 2014 - 02:03 AM.