Thursday, November 22, 2012
"The Name's Bond, James Bond" - A Look at What Made James Bond Popular, Why James Bond Is Popular, and What People Can Learn From James Bond
“The name’s
Bond, James Bond”. For five decades,
that line has become synonymous with one of the most popular fictional
characters in popular culture. This fictional
character first appeared on the scope of popular culture with the debut of the
first Bond film Dr. No in 1962 and recently showed up again with the debut of
the 2012 film Skyfall. This persuasive blog
article looks to answer three key questions: 1) What makes James Bond so
popular? 2) Why James Bond is so popular? And 3) How we can be more like James
Bond?
What Makes
James Bond So Popular?
Firstly, an argument can be made that James
Bond’s exhibitions of mastery over his immediate environment is a quality that
attracts an audience to James Bond. In
referring to Bond’s mastery of his environment, I am referring to his ability
to command and conquer anything and anyone within his immediate vicinity. Bond’s mastery over everything within his
surrounding environment shows his audience that anything is possible and
reinforces his importance within the story.
As well, the audience may be further attracted to Bond because while he
exercises mastery over his surroundings, he is not subservient or dependent on
any specific thing in order to meet his overall objective. “Bond is a man that keeps up with the
times. He is a master of the current technology and gadgets, but never their
slave”[1]. From Bond’s perspective, everything serves an singular purpose to the
completion of his overall goal and their value is diminished once they no
longer constitute a purpose to him.
Secondly, an argument can be
made that James Bond’s hyper masculinity is a quality that attracts audiences
to him. Anyone who has watched a film
with James Bond can attest to the notion that he is a modern day Casanova and
being a modern day action hero. Bond’s
sense of masculinity may be the quality that attracts audiences to him the
most. This may be because his
masculinity sends different uses towards his female and male viewers. To his female viewers, Bond’s masculinity can
be demonstrated the moment he displays his upper torso or the moment Bond
seduces a woman. “He Has a Way with Women. It had to
be something. Nothing else can explain why pick-up lines like “I’m just
looking” actually seem to work.”[2] To female viewers, Bond’s
masculinity may serve a one dimensional purpose in that he may simply formulate
or reinforce the idea of what physical attributes an ideal man should
have. To male viewers, Bond’s
masculinity can be demonstrated the moment he engages multiple persons in
lethal hand to hand combat or when Bond goes through an exhaustive process in
order to apprehend a villain. To male
viewers, Bond’s masculinity formulates or reinforces their idea of what a spy
should be capable of.
Whereas Bond is more popular
among his male audiences, there has been controversy surrounding his views and
treatment of the women in his films. These
claims arise mostly from feminists who claim that Bond is anti-feminist and the
claim that Bond subjugates the women in his films through the practice of
sexual objectification. While I can
agree to the claim that Bond does have a habit of sexually objectifying females,
to the extent that their names are thinly veiled sexual innuendoes (Pussy
Galore, Honey Ryder, Xenia Onatopp being obvious examples), I do not subscribe
to the claim that Bond is anti-feminist because the social position of the
females in his films are not subservient to Bond’s social position. Rather, women in Bond films are portrayed in
a positive spotlight because they portray characters that are intelligent
instead of being inept. As well, several
actresses that have played the roles of Bond girls state that they do not feel
that their roles are subjugated or oppressed, but rather celebrated because
they have more than a visual value on the screen.
Why Is James Bond So Popular?
Firstly, an argument can be made
that James Bond’s overwhelming sense of self confidence provides a powerful
reason for his tremendous popularity.
Any person who has watched a James Bond film can attest to the fact that
his sense of self confidence is a defining characteristic of James Bond. “When things get hard and go wrong, it
doesn’t cause them to throw in the towel, it only pushes them harder”[3] This is a sense of self
confidence that has enabled him to accomplish feats that extend beyond the laws
of logic and feats that extend beyond the laws of physics. This is not to say that James Bond has not
experienced hardship or difficulty in the pursuit of his tasks, but what
separates Bond from nearly every other living person is his can do attitude and
his sense of utter resilience. If faced
with a monumental task or a series of monumental tasks, a person would be
tempted to give up when faced against overwhelming odds of failure. Recreate the scene in Goldeneye where Bond is
sitting in the cockpit of a plane that is seemingly plummeting towards the
bottom of the mountains, assuring his demise.
Now, almost any other person would be looking for a means of escaping
from the plummeting plane. But instead
of simply giving up and resigning himself to his seemingly ill fate, Bond
toggles with the controls, achieving to angle the plane upwards within the last
crucial moment, and avoiding a short and brief demise.
Secondly, an argument can be
made that James Bond’s high stress tolerance level provides another powerful
reason for his tremendous popularity.
Any person who has encountered or experienced a high stress environment
can attest to the constant temptation to crumble under the immense
pressure. But whereas anyone who has
experienced a high stress environment can attest to the constant temptation to
crumble, any person who has watched a James Bond film can argue that James Bond
not only maintains a calm composure under a high stress situation, but actually
seems to thrive within that high stress situation. “Life is
tough for everyone; get over it.”[4]
A popular quality and a
defining characteristic about James Bond is his ability to maintain a calm and
cool composure during a stressful environment.
Imagine the final poker match between James Bond and the villain Le
Chiffre in the movie Casino Royale.
During that final match, all the players bet all the chips (“went all
in”), raising the value of the victory (“vig”) to one hundred and fifty million
dollars. Now, Bond also has to deal with
the fact that the money that he is playing with belongs to the British
taxpayers and that if he lost, he would have had a direct hand in funding
global terrorism. Combine this fact with
the fact that Le Chiffre has an ace full house, almost guaranteeing Le Chiffre
victory. Almost any other person would
be showing indications of high stress, but Bond not only maintains a sense of
calm, but also remains poised and composed and later reveals his hand to have a
straight full house, making Bond victorious.
How Can We
Be More Like Bond?
Firstly, one thing that we can learn from watching
James Bond films is his brief reliance on the tools that he utilizes in order
to achieve his goals. But one thing we
can easily discern about Bond’s tools is their short time span of use to
him. Now, Bond clearly demonstrates to
his audience that while he depends on various tools to aid him in his pursuit
of a goal, that he is not subservient to the tool itself. As well, Bond clearly demonstrates his little
need of a tool once it has served its purpose by aiding him in his pursuit of a
goal. Now, Bond’s casual attitude can be
applied within the contexts of post - secondary education. Once a tool has served its purpose to us in
our pursuit of goals such as meeting paper deadlines or studying for tests, we
can put the tool aside because the tool has no more immediate value to us. I make this argument because as college
students, we have the greatest number of technological tools readily available
to aid us in our learning. Yet, the same
technological tools that aid us in our learning may sometimes have a negative
effect on us because we may utilize the tool for non-educational purposes.
Secondly, one thing that we can learn from
watching James Bond films is to have more self-confidence while embarking on a
difficult task. Self-confidence is what
allows Bond to attempt and succeed in his plan, not matter how bold or audacious
they seem. Bond’s self-confidence is
what motivates him to see things through.
Bond’s self-confidence is also what keeps him calm and poised in the
midst of a dangerous situation. As well,
Bond’s self-confidence is what drives him to make the best out any situation
that befalls him. Anyone that has
watched James Bond in action can attest to the notion that no matter how
audacious or risky Bond’s plan seems to be, that Bond will always manage to get
through a situation no matter how dire it seems to be. “A man can be counted on to complete the
mission, whatever it may be. Anyone can start something, but very few can
consistently finish.”[5]
Now, Bond’s self-confidence can be applied within the contexts of real life by
always finishing what you started and never losing your composure in the
pursuit of a task. Now I am not saying
that we will encounter the same types of situations that Bond has faced in the
past, far from it. What I am saying is
that everything is a based on a matter of perspective and that if we had more
self-confidence like Bond, then we would be able to encounter and surpass
nearly any obstacle that befalls us.
[1] Schafer. (2008, November 13). 6 Lessons in Manliness From James Bond. Retrieved from http://artofmanliness.com/2008/11/13/6-lessons-in-manliness-from-james-bond/
[2] Time Staff (2012, November 9). 5 Things We Still Love About James Bond. Retrieved from http://entertainment.time.com/2012/11/09/video-5-things/
[3] Schafer. (2008, November 13). 6 Lessons in Manliness From James Bond. Retrieved from http://artofmanliness.com/2008/11/13/6-lessons-in-manliness-from-james-bond/
[4] Schafer. (2008, November 13). 6 Lessons in Manliness From James Bond. Retrieved from http://artofmanliness.com/2008/11/13/6-lessons-in-manliness-from-james-bond/
[5] Schafer. (2008, November 13). 6 Lessons in Manliness From James Bond. Retrieved from http://artofmanliness.com/2008/11/13/6-lessons-in-manliness-from-james-bond/
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