Blog, James Blog

The group project that I’m involved in for class covers James Bond, in particular Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first novel featuring the spy. I’ve been well acquainted with Bond for many years now and have likely seen every film at least once at some point or another whether it was on TV or in the theaters. When I think “spy”, I immediately think of “James Bond” and all that comes along with him – fast cars, gorgeous women, super villains, guns, Q, pithy one-liners, awesome technology, martinis, misogyny, tuxedos, and so on. James Bond IS spydom.

  Admit it -- you're humming the theme right now

After reading the book, I started to wonder how much of an impact Bond has really had on the concept of secret agents and such.  After some searching (some credit goes to Wiki here), I found some pretty amazing facts. Here are some that caught my attention. Per Wikipedia:

• It is estimated that since Dr. No, a quarter of the world's population have seen at least one James Bond film.
• "Bond ... James Bond", became a catch phrase that entered the lexicon of Western popular culture: writers Cork and Scivally said of the introduction in Dr. No that the "signature introduction would become the most famous and loved film line ever". In 2001 it was voted as the "best-loved one-liner in cinema" by British cinema goers and in 2005, it was honored as the 22nd greatest quotation in cinema history by the American Film Institute as part of their 100 Years Series.
• The twenty two James Bond films produced by Eon Productions have grossed $4,910,000,000 in box office returns alone.
• Sean Connery is, far and away, the best of the Bonds. Then follows Roger Moore, Pierce, Brosnan, Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton/George Lazenby, Peter Sellers, and then the rest. This hierarchy is non-negotiable, you fools.

Perhaps not all of the information on Wikipedia is factual (*ahem*…), but the major fact that stood out to me was that it is estimated that a quarter of the world’s population has seen at least one Bond film. As of today, the estimated world’s population is estimated to be at or above 7 billion people. That would mean that at least 1.75 BILLION people have seen at least one Bond movie. Considering the franchise has lasted multiple decades, gone through numerous incarnations (radio, TV, novel, film, and has been revived by Daniel Craig in the last few years with the next film Skyfall  due out this year, Bond has certainly made a global impact and changed the way people view spies, espionage, secret organizations, super villains, and maybe even challenged female naming conventions. There have been parodies, such as the Austin Powers and Johnny English films. But Bond has also inspired numerous other spy films and television shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and I Spy. With over 20 films made so far and no apparent sign of stopping, Bond will continue to drink his vodka martinis, sleep with women, and stop world domination all while keeping a cool head.