Bond is Cinema

While deciding on a topic for my first semi-official piece of film criticism (thank you, Chad!), I quickly realized the thought process was more about making sure there wasn’t something other than James Bond to write about. If you get to know me, it’s only a matter of time before I bring it up. I’ve foisted all these movies- yes, all of them- on friends and family and perfect strangers for years despite my otherwise sensible taste and nature. Mind you, I’m not one to hang my hat on just anything, nor am I a total curmudgeon- I’d just usually rather find the things to enjoy in a movie than not. And it’s this optimism combined with the requisite franchise adoration of a millennial child that positioned me to become hopelessly obsessed with the world’s greatest super spy, warts and all. As it happens, he’s also the ideal topic as an introductory statement piece. After all, the case can be made that the Bond franchise, for better and worse, is something of a microcosm of cinema itself. It encompasses a great many of the cinema’s characteristics- its spectacle, its charm, its disappointments. To borrow from villain Carl Stromberg, “to me, it is all the world; There is beauty, there is ugliness, there is life, and there is death.”

It’s worth noting that Bond wasn’t my first love. Lucasfilm, the Ghostbusters, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (among others), all beat him to the punch by several years. Clearly, my affinity for on-screen adventure manifested early, so it’s no surprise that when I found a random VHS tape in a box my grandparents had donated to our household, I was immediately captivated. It was titled Moonraker and it depicted a tall, handsome hero with a space suit and pistol, surrounded by a dangerous and alluring mix of characters suspended in the zero gravity of a massive space station. I couldn’t watch it fast enough, and I was rewarded immediately upon starting it up. The brassy theme song roared to life, the iconic gun barrel dripped its trademark blood, and I watched in awe as this character I had known for all of thirty seconds was thrown from a plane and into a mid-air fistfight. Capping it off was the smoky and evocative title sequence performed by none other than Shirley Bassey. And that was just the first ten minutes!

I would never be the same again. Over the next several years I gleefully tracked down and familiarized myself with the remainder of the franchise- at that time totaling a quaint sixteen films. And this was where my obsession with the movies really began. Here was a franchise that spanned multiple decades, multiple iterations. It had survived- and in many ways, overtly catalogued- the constantly changing landscape of culture and entertainment. It had perpetually signified the many shifting attitudes on topics ranging from politics and sexuality to fashion and design. And it managed to do it all with uniquely cinematic flair. 

As I pored through the sprawling series, I didn’t realize just how much about the medium I was learning by osmosis. Hunting the racks at every video store in town exposed me to countless other titles. The advent of DVD special features was an exponential leap- they opened a window into artistic intentions as well as the physical crafting of the films themselves. I would gape at the backgrounds of on-set interviews, trying to understand the camera dollies and lighting rigs (this, in turn, would guide me toward Movie Magic, the short-lived 90’s docuseries about visual effects that all but sealed my fate as a career technician). Director commentaries shed light on storytelling technique and cinematic language, while also conveying the collaborative and oftentimes bohemian nature of the process. Poster galleries and tie-in advertisements for everything from toy cars to cologne preserved the series’ ephemera and shed light on the underlying capitalism driving its success. Somewhat insidiously, I was being schooled in some fundamental truths about the art and business of filmmaking, all of it so utterly fascinating to a burgeoning aficionado.

And then came Goldeneye. The dawning of a new era. I eagerly awaited opening night. When the lights finally dimmed and those familiar white dots danced across the screen, I was swept away on another breathtaking mission brimming with an exciting new sense of plausibility; Bond was no longer just a time capsule sitting on a shelf, a tape to be rewound. He was alive and operating in the very world I lived in. All it took was a trip to the theater to check in on him, and thus my penchant for multiple theatrical viewings was born. 

Years and years have gone by, and I have undertaken many a venture within the world of filmmaking. Throughout that time, Bond has been there to help remind me of why I do it. When I feel stuck creatively, I remember that From Russia With Love was a chaotic production that battled its way to success through the cutting room. If I’m feeling nostalgic, The Man with the Golden Gun still evokes that cozy first viewing from under a blanket while home sick from middle school. The score from Tomorrow Never Dies still stirs my sense of adventure. The cultural faux pas and cringey choices of You Only Live Twice or Live and Let Die remind me how far we’ve come as a society, and how very far we still must go. If I despair at the low turnout for a screening I’m projecting, I think back to how meaningful it was watching The Spy Who Loved Me in repertory with only a smattering of dedicated fans at a weekday matinee. And recent entries No Time To Die and Skyfall have shown that there is still room for new depth and innovation even when it seems like everything has been done. Rather appropriately, Adele sums it up- “I know I’d never be me without the security of your loving arms, keeping me from harm.”

I could go on and on, and I likely will in future installments. One can expect more from me on James Bond and beyond- there’s plenty more where this came from, about all kinds of movies. But it felt right to identify my personal sentimentality about this first, since that seems to be an important component of my film criticism in general that I’ve noticed. And with an effort to be as honest as I can, I may as well cop to this massive soft spot right from the get-go. To me, James Bond simply is cinema. He always has and always will be. Both will be there for me like an old friend. Both hold the best and worst of us and both have provided me with a lifelong journey of discovery that I now happily share with you, if you’ll have me. (If you couldn’t tell, I’m something of a romantic.) I look forward to my ongoing contributions to the site and hope I bring some interesting perspective for you. So, with that let’s raise a martini to the movies! 

And oh yeah- 

James Bond will return.