Ian Fleming Never Mentioned James Bond’s Ethnicity. But He did Offer a Few Clues…

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[Perdogg]

Anyone who thinks to diverge even slightly from this now officially accepted view, to be held by everyone everywhere in the world on pain of excommunication, is a racist. We know this because of the recent experiences of children’s author Anthony Horowitz, who briefly committed heresy over the weekend when he dared to suggest that Elba was perhaps too “street” to play a suave, Eton-educated, Senior-Service-trained, half-Swiss, half-Scots secret agent.

[48th SPS Crusader]

James Bond is white.
Tired of everyone changing everything.

[LaRueLaDue]

“Daniel Craig is perfect. I really think he’s as good as Connery.”

I agree. Craig has brought a brutal streak to Bond that makes him a bit closer to the character in the books. Connery had some of that, but I think Craig is better at portraying blatantly brutal.

Now, if they could just remake the movies to match the books... (The books are nothing like the movies. “From Russia With Love” is the closest, and even then it is not very close...)

[Swordmaker]

So does this mean they've dropped the "Gay Bond" idea?

If they go back to that idea, does that mean they will replace the sexy nude female silhouettes in the opening credits with gay guys prancing over the screen alternating with more gay he-men lifting bar bells? Most of the audience would walk out before they finished the producer's credit and got to the Director. . .

[yarddog]

Craig actually does look sort of tough but I bet in his younger days Connery would have beat the crap out of him.

[RansomOttawa]

Ian Fleming Never Mentioned James Bond's Ethnicity.

Not strictly true. More than once a female character (like Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, for example) remarks that he looks like Hoagy Carmichael, only with a crueler appearance. Carmichael was, of course, Bond's template for the character's physical appearance:

There are plenty of indirect allusions to his ethnicity. His eyes are blue or grey. This would be extremely unusual for someone of non-European ethnicity. Fleming always consciously describes the black, Chinese, Middle Eastern, etc. characters that Bond encounters, but if he is left undescribed, then it is conspicuous by its absence. Implication: In Bond's world, non-Europeans tend to be the exception, not the norm.

Also, how likely is it that a black man in the Royal Navy would have achieved the rank of commander by the end of WWII?

[RansomOttawa]

"Why do they call you Red?"
"Maybe it's because I'm Irish."

- Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, The Shawshank Redemption

[yarddog]

I wonder if they have edited “Dr. No” since I read it. He describes the brutality of the Negro combined with the intelligence of the Chinese and he actually calls them Chigroes.

I bet very few people know that Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians” was at first “Ten Little Niggers”. I think the newer versions are just something like “And Then There None”.

[yarddog]

They are both leftist Jackasses but at least Freeman can act.

[RansomOttawa]

The current guy is actually a pretty good Bond, although the movies themselves aren’t good. They don’t keep my attention and I have not finished any recent ones.

Interestingly enough, Casino Royale is the most faithful that a Bond movie has been to its novel since the 60s. The first four movies (Dr. No, From Russia, With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball are more-or-less straight retellings of their novel, albeit with a few changed premises and the addition of Q and his gadgets. Adding the science-fiction motif and Blofeld's base under the fake volcano in You Only Live Twice brought that to an end, and apart from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, subsequent Bond movies retained at most a scene or two taken from the novels they are named after.

The setting of Casino Royale was updated to the present, and the card game at the centre of the plot was changed from Baccarat to Texas Hold'em because it was fashionable. But the premise of the movie—the villain Le Chiffre is acting as a banker for terrorists (originally the Russian agency SMERSH in the novel), but has a weakness for gambling, so Bond, an expert gambler, is assigned to play against him, clean him out, and discredit him—that's pure Fleming.

Daniel Craig is arguably the closest actor to play the character as Fleming originally envisioned him: a "blunt instrument": basically an ordinary man who gets into rough situations because his job requires him to kill for his government. Most actors have played Bond as more of a bon vivant, a connoisseur of fine food, drink, cars, and women; on the other hand, it seems apparent that in the novels Bond is a pretty dark character, practically a nihilist. He only seems alive when he's in action, and all the indulgences in gambling, smoking, drinking, and women are what he does between assignments, because he's bored. Timothy Dalton was a darker Bond, too, but his tenure never really had the chance to develop the character.

[PLMerite]

"Up next, a James Bond frequenting bath houses."

Half-way there.

[T-Bone Texan]

I thought Craig is a homo.

[RansomOttawa]

I wonder if they have edited “Dr. No” since I read it. He describes the brutality of the Negro combined with the intelligence of the Chinese and he actually calls them Chigroes.

From my c. 2000 edition:

The Chigroes are a tough, forgotten race. They look down on the Negroes and the Chinese look down on them. One day they may become a nuisance. They've got some of the intelligence of the Chinese and most of the vices of the black man. The police have a lot of trouble with them.

So I would say not. Typically that isn't done for adult novels, and this isn't the worst thing you'll read in one, anyway.

[octex]

Some of the older films are embarrassingly campy and do not age well.
*************************
I read the Bond books when they first came out in paperback in 1960s-70s. The Connery movies tracked closely to the written books, which contained some of the campy innuendo.

The Roger Moore movies were more loosely tied to the script, and not as good. Brosnan was good. The guy that wore the kilt in one movie was a loser; he knew it and quit. I’ve seen one Craig movie and wasn’t impressed.

I suppose we’re different generations.

[joshua c]

Exactly. How about Pierce Brosnan playing Malcolm X?

[LS]

Right. After Goldfinger UA decided the franchise was all about flash-bang gee whiz effects. Worked for Moore, who is a poor Bond, but destroyed Connery’s character. I love the scene where Craig has the guy in the office and the guy says, “You’re not a double O, a double O needs two kills and you” BOOM.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Fabulous musician and writer. Wrote “stardust” among other songs

[needmorePaine]

I read the Bond books when they first came out in paperback in 1960s-70s. The Connery movies tracked closely to the written books, which contained some of the campy innuendo.

The Roger Moore movies were more loosely tied to the script, and not as good. Brosnan was good. The guy that wore the kilt in one movie was a loser; he knew it and quit. I’ve seen one Craig movie and wasn’t impressed.

I suppose we’re different generations.

I never read any of the books, so I don't have that perspective. It may be generational thing, but I don't have a bias against older films in general. There was a time when they were all I watched. Most Bond films, regardless of the actor, just never really clicked with me until this latest iteration.

[LaRueLaDue]

Yeah, that was great!

I assume you have read the books? In them, Bond is not a cut-and-dried good character...

[tanknetter]

Your Band of Brothers comment madee think of a WWII movie that DID revise historical behavior in the name of inclusiveness. Captain America: The First Avenger which featured:

The oversexualized black guy.

The beer-swilling Irish-American brawler

The Japanese-American who’s a wiz with electronics

And the nutjob Frenchman with the high-explosives obsession

(why is it always the French guy with the explosives fetish?!?!?)

Still not sure how Marvel got away with that sort of stereotyping.

[LS]

Yes, I read all the books as a kid, also all the John Carter Mars books.