The real problem was that somehow the franchise seemed to believe Bond’s misogyny was a defining characteristic, rather than simply a reflection of the time the character and films were created. But clearly M was not talking to Bond at all, but to critics of Bond and his mid-century origins.
(Moneypenny does point out that Bond’s behaviour could qualify as sexual harassment, but it is in the service of a flirty gag about him having to make good on his innuendos.)īut just which Bond was M talking to? The Bond as personified by Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton since 1962? An argument could be made that Connery’s Bond is problematic to modern eyes, but Roger Moore’s less so, and Dalton was perhaps the most female-respectful version of the character in no way a misogynist. But this was quickly exposed as lip-service, the film operating as usual with women treated as sex objects or damsels in distress. M was now a woman, and she got to call James a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur”. The film was also a first attempt to reject Bond’s chauvinist roots. After an agonising six year absence, GoldenEye was seen as a return to form - Pierce Brosnan was terrific, the very epitome of the charming, handsome, irresistible Bond. Yet the real problems started back with GoldenEye (1995). I have written before about my dislike of the Craig-era Bond films, due to their dumbing-down of the character and questionable treatment of women. He is a fertility god, a Dionysus of the modern era
James Bond is more than a (sexist) secret agent. Shutterstockīut it is this constant retconning where everything starts to go a little awry, especially when it comes to the world-view of Mr. There are many ways in which this is dangerous, not least of which is attempting to ignore that bigotry exists. No, I’m talking about the carefully curated revisionist history attempting to re-contextualise, Orwellian-fashion, the recent iteration of Bond as already-and-always-egalitarian. Like most of us in Australia, I have yet to see the film - and as a lifelong fan, I’m excited to see. I don’t mean that No Time To Die has gone full-feminist. It appears to be part of a coordinated plan, one that can only be described as the woke-washing of Daniel Craig’s Bond, especially when it comes to the character’s famed sexism. All the necessary credentials to signify the franchise’s new crowd-friendly feminism were present: Daniel Craig sporting a hot pink dinner jacket, Lea Seydoux paraded as the first Bond girl ever to return in a 007 movie sans the male gaze, and director Cary Fukunaga deriding Connery’s Bond as “basically” a rapist. On September 29, Bond’s 25th adventure No Time To Die had its world premiere.
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