Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in the film ‘James Bond: Dr. No’, 1962. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

One of my favorite James Bond scenes in recent times is the interrogation scene from the Sam Mendes film ‘The Man Hood’. sky fall (2012). The film’s antagonist Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) is being interrogated by M (Judi Dench), who is still the formidable head of MI6. Silva has a grudge against M because when he was an active MI6 agent under her command in Hong Kong, she betrayed him and handed him over to the Chinese government, who then horribly tortured him. When I first saw this scene in the theater, I still thought the dynamic between M and Silva was a nod to Mary Shelley FrankensteinThe title of the film itself is the name of the Scottish castle in which Bond grew up – it has to be said that it was a classical Gothic setting.

British author and James Bond creator Ian Fleming at his desk in his study in 1958. | Photo credit: Getty Images

A collection of Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 books at an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

This similarity between the film and Shelley’s novel forms the cornerstone of Monica Germana’s excellent essay ‘Sometimes the Old Ways Are Best: Technology and the Body in the Gothic Readings of Sam Mendes’. sky fall.’ This essay is part of a recently published collection James Bond will return: Critical perspectives on the 007 franchiseThis comprehensive collection, edited by Claire Hines, Terence McSweeney, and Stuart Joy, goes through the 007 canon in chronological order, beginning with an essay about the first Bond film (Dr. No.1962) and concludes with an essay about the most recent one (no time to die2021).

A scene from ‘No Time to Die’. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Confrontation between old and new

As Germana notes in his essay, the Frankenstein parallels also work very well with the film’s other overarching concern: the clash between the “old ways” of espionage and warfare versus the new ways (hacking, electronic surveillance). In the face of a technologically astute supervillain like Silva, Bond ‘retreats’ into a kind of defensive Luddism, abandoning the gadgetry that contemporary Bond fans are used to. He also goes back to the classic Aston Martin of the Sean Connery-era, even as M dislikes the remains of this ostentatious car. In the film’s climax, when Silva uses his techno-magic in his relentless pursuit of M, Bond finally kills his adversary with an old-fashioned hunting knife. The essays are entertaining not only because of the depth of analysis but also because of the way they bring together visual, textual and design elements in their reading of the 007 films.

A poster for the film ‘Doctor No’. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

For example, here’s looking at the visual similarities between Germana Silva and real-life hacker Julian Assange, particularly their blonde hair.

“Seen as a response to MI6’s ruthless exploitation of its own agents, Silva’s cyber attack points to the subversive politics of data hacking, a fact underlined by Silva’s perceived similarities to WikiLeaks hacker Julian Assange. Since ‘illicit’ code-cracking brings together ‘formal institutions… that were previously able to dominate access to information and… dissidents who, with increasing confidence, are able to circumvent traditional networks through technology’, the film, arguably, traces a fine line between insurgent hackers and cyber terrorists.”

Limited edition replica of the gun in the film the man with the golden gun (estimate £6,000 – £9,000) and a first edition book of the same name (estimate £4,000 – £6,000) are on display at Sotheby’s. | Photo credit: Getty Images

The editors have done a fine job in balancing theory-heavy essays with other entries that focus more on the practice and politics surrounding filmmaking. The Bond franchise, based on Ian Fleming’s novels, is a kind of complex synonym for Britishness, but the business of filmmaking is rooted in a Hollywood ethos – the resulting narrative tension is evident in the films (especially in the 21st century when Hollywood’s scale means producers are looking for ‘bankable’ stories). The clash of British versus American values ​​is partly responsible for some of the franchise’s notable failings, e.g. the dark shadow (2015). James Smith’s essay ‘It’s Always Been Me: Spectrality, Hauntings and Retcon in the dark shadow‘ skillfully analyses the film’s narrative conundrums and failings. ‘Retcon’ or ‘retroactive continuity’ is a term originating in the comicbook industry, used to describe a situation where the writers of a long-running media franchise alter previously established truths or realities, thus ‘overwriting’ the works of their predecessors.

Why did ‘Spectre’ fail?

the dark shadow‘s retcon is not just clumsily done in terms of scale – every previous villain in the Bond era is depicted as a pawn of the same organisation – but also in terms of tenor. The overall direction of the Daniel Craig-era films involved reinventing 007’s more problematic gender-related and geopolitical themes. the dark shadow It seems like it wants to wrap up that entire section of the story, but the execution is often poor.

An Aston Martin DB10, built specifically for the dark shadowAnd the James Bond costume on display at the London Film Museum. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

As Smith writes, “The retcon is illustrated for the audience in other absurd ways: Blofeld takes pains to decorate the ruins of MI6 headquarters with A4 printout photographs of Bond’s deceased friends and foes, which unfortunately gives more the impression of a site-specific art project than some macabre act of revenge. Meanwhile his attempts to make Bond a zombie prove strangely ineffective, with Bond landing on his feet even after a hole has been blown through his brain.”

Actor Roger Moore on the set of ‘Octopussy’. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Claire Hines, one of the book’s editors, is similarly astute in her essay, which is a study of costume and gender performance. octopussy (1983), is one of the most visually interesting films of the Roger Moore era. I also enjoyed Stuart Joy’s exploration of revenge themes for your Eyes Only (1981). For fans of the Bond franchise, James Bond will return It’s a must read. For everyone else, it offers an interesting foray into the Bond story.

Actor Roger Moore poses on set as 007 with a Lotus Esprit Turbo for your Eyes Only1981. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

James Bond will return: Critical perspectives on the 007 franchise; Edited by Claire Hynes, Terence MacSweeney, Stuart Joy, Columbia University Press, ₹2,733 (Kindle).

The author and journalist is working on his first non-fiction book.