James Bond turned ninety years old this week. Actually, that’s not quite right. Sean Connery, the Scottish actor who will forever be linked with the iconic British secret agent, had his ninetieth birthday. Tributes came in from other Bond actors and the general public around the world.
I found this article especially interesting: Columnist Mark O’Connell notes that until the first Bond film, “cinema was the commonplace realm of jingoistic war movies, ailing backlot westerns, biblical excess, and tired thrillers.” Then came 1962’s Dr. No, which “transformed cinema itself.”
O’Connell describes Connery’s James Bond as combining “a jet-set sense of physicality and sexuality.” By the third Bond film, “the prototype was now a golden template of movement, style, physicality, sex, and design.”
An article on James Bond trivia estimates that Bond has slept with fifty-five women in his various movies (so far). The secret agent has clearly resonated with audiences: adjusted for inflation, the 007 movies are the top-grossing film franchise of all time.
A decade that changed the world
If I were to ask you to name the most pressing issues facing us today, I doubt James Bond’s influence on our culture would be on your list.
You might point to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin and the violent protests that have followed; according to authorities, three people were shot early this morning and one of them died.
Or Hurricane Laura, which is expected to slam into the Louisiana and Texas coasts tonight as a Category 3 storm. Or the spike in coronavirus cases as universities begin the fall semester.
These are crises worthy of great concern, to be sure. However, while we focus on the headlines each day, there’s another story in the background that affects each of us in ways few of us seem to notice.
In 1960, two years…
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