| Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) | |
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+9Santa Perilagu Khan Makeshift Python CJB Prisoner Monkeys j7wild Largo's Shark bitchcraft Control 13 posters |
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Control 00 Agent
Posts : 5206 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : Slumber, Inc.
| Subject: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:56 pm | |
| - Quote :
- http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/james-bond-hate-14306026#ixzz2B85lCNqn
Everyone loves him. Why? He's a boring, tasteless rapist. He always was.
James Bond is undergoing a pop-culture jubilee. The opening ceremony at the London Olympics identified the assassin as equally iconic as the Queen. Everybody is heaping praise on the new Sam Mendes-directed movie Skyfall. Daniel Craig is one more well-received Bond from passing Sean Connery for the title of Best Bond Ever. Even the Vatican is in on the Bond-love. It has spent as much time on Bond's fiftieth anniversary as on the five-hundredth anniversary of the Sistine Chapel. All my friends love Bond. I'm pretty sure my editors love him. Am I the only one who will point out the obvious? That is, James Bond is a boring, tasteless rapist, and the only reason people go to see Bond movies is because they've already seen Bond movies.
What other reasons are there for seeing a James Bond movie? The action? The women? The stuff? The gadgets? The problem is that James Bond movies are terrible at all of them. An appraisal:
The action: A James Bond movie has never been the best action movie of its given year, and it's had twenty-three occasions to try. If you compare any James Bond movie to any old Steve McQueen movie, or more recently to the Bourne series, the comparisons never favor Bond, no matter which Bond is performing. It's not that there are no bright spots, but they're rare. About one-third of the movies have decent action sequences. No more. Those are not good odds.
The women: The new Bond is supposedly much more sensitive to women, what with Judi Dench playing M, but the scenario still reminds me of Two and a Half Men. All the women are either bimbos or crones. I've never understood the appeal of Bond girls. They're oddly prudish while being prurient, a British equivalent of Italian veline. Other action movies manage to have great women characters. At the top of the list would be The Thomas Crown Affair with either Faye Dunaway or Rene Russo. A recent episode of Homeland, with Claire Danes's subtle smile at the terrorist's door, was infinitely more erotic than anything in any Bond movie. Also: If you want to see attractive women, there are many, many outlets for seeing them naked. Bond's sexuality is not healthy, to put it mildly. The best James Bond movie, by far, is Goldfinger. It contains the best villain and really the only woman who is not a complete cipher, Pussy Galore. James Bond rapes her. Debatable, maybe, but I don't know how else to describe this scene, even taking the most charitable possible view. How many date-rapes can we specifically lay at the feet of this two minutes of film? Ten thousand would, I think, be a conservative estimate.
The "stuff": The original James Bond, from the novels, was written for postwar England, as fantasy for a battered population still suffering under rationing. Readers consumed James Bond because he was able to afford the better things in life — good food, good wine, good clothes, trips to exotic locations, and money to gamble with. The vaunted "Bond style" is really a misnomer. Bond doesn't possess any style at all, properly speaking. He possesses a price point. He eats and drinks and wears exactly the second-most expensive things in every category in the world. It does not take any brains to know that you're going to look good in a bespoke Tom Ford suit. That's why they cost what they do. The English gentleman type, which Bond does a poor imitation of, goes to a family tailor, has sentimental attachments to particular, often unknown, purveyors of Spanish riding boots, and wears family watches that ancestors wore into battle. Bond just buys the latest cool crap. His suavity is all purchased.
The gadgets: I have only one word to say about the gadgets: Skymall.
So, to sum up, the action is lame; the women are aimed at the fourteen-year-old boy demographic; the stuff is aimed at people with more money than judgment; and the gadgets are silly. When I was a kid growing up in Alberta, Canada, Bond showed me that there were men admirable for things other than keying beer, bush-fking, and bar brawling, and I'm grateful. But James Bond is what sophistication looks like to people who don't have any. Fifty years is enough. It's time to move on.
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bitchcraft Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3372 Member Since : 2011-03-28 Location : I know........I know
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:10 pm | |
| Its author, Stephen Marche, is a douche bag. Skyfall set records everywhere...while his article will be forgotten by sundown.
Last edited by Mrs Aural Sects on Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Largo's Shark 00 Agent
Posts : 10588 Member Since : 2011-03-14
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:11 pm | |
| - Quote :
- The best James Bond movie, by far, is Goldfinger. It contains the best villain and really the only woman who is not a complete cipher, Pussy Galore.
How many Bond films has Mr. Marche seen? I'm betting about four. Here's what he thought of DJANGO UNCHAINED: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/django-unchained-oscars-15102190 |
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j7wild Head of Station
Posts : 2038 Member Since : 2011-09-10
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:26 pm | |
| Stephen Marche?
That name is so effeminate! |
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Prisoner Monkeys Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 2849 Member Since : 2011-10-29 Location : Located
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sat Mar 23, 2013 11:12 pm | |
| I stopped reading after this: - Quote :
- Everyone loves him. Why? He's a boring, tasteless rapist. He always was.
I can't recall a single scene in any of the films where Bond had non-consensual sex with someone. |
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Control 00 Agent
Posts : 5206 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : Slumber, Inc.
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sat Mar 23, 2013 11:49 pm | |
| "He always was." "Bond just buys the latest cool crap. His suavity is all purchased." Doubt he's read much of Fleming, too. His ideas of the novels were pretty vague. Funny article, though. I bet he'll love Tyler Perry's next film. |
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Prisoner Monkeys Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 2849 Member Since : 2011-10-29 Location : Located
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:44 am | |
| Yeah, the whole thing does come across as "Ive got an opinion that says something bad about something that is popular, so my opinion must be worth hearing". |
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CJB 00 Agent
Posts : 5498 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : 'Straya
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:45 am | |
| James Bond is a straight, white male. He deserves nothing but unrelenting loathing. |
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Control 00 Agent
Posts : 5206 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : Slumber, Inc.
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:14 am | |
| Lately, a lot of critics seem to consider Bond a rapist.
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CJB 00 Agent
Posts : 5498 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : 'Straya
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:26 am | |
| Seems to stem from the nonsensical view that Bond raped Severine.
If I was having a shower and a naked chick came into fuck, I'd be all for it. |
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Makeshift Python 00 Agent
Posts : 7656 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : You're the man now, dog!
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:43 am | |
| - CJB wrote:
- Seems to stem from the nonsensical view that Bond raped Severine.
If I was having a shower and a naked chick came into fuck, I'd be all for it. But according to the media, all women are abstinent! Sex is the last thing on their minds, while men can never stop thinking of it. Chauvinistic pigs! |
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Control 00 Agent
Posts : 5206 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : Slumber, Inc.
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 3:35 am | |
| - CJB wrote:
- Seems to stem from the nonsensical view that Bond raped Severine.
Critics missed a lot of things in that scene. Ambler did a nice run-down of it in an earlier post. James Bond: serial rapist since 1953 |
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Largo's Shark 00 Agent
Posts : 10588 Member Since : 2011-03-14
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 4:28 am | |
| This "reviewer" (I refuse to call him a critic) is such a hipster. Just look at his other articles. |
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Perilagu Khan 00 Agent
Posts : 5638 Member Since : 2011-03-21 Location : The high plains
| Subject: s Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:15 pm | |
| - CJB wrote:
- Seems to stem from the nonsensical view that Bond raped Severine.
If I was having a shower and a naked chick came into fuck, I'd be all for it. Actually, it stems from the au courant view that heterosexual sex is rape. |
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Perilagu Khan 00 Agent
Posts : 5638 Member Since : 2011-03-21 Location : The high plains
| Subject: s Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:17 pm | |
| - Python wrote:
- CJB wrote:
- Seems to stem from the nonsensical view that Bond raped Severine.
If I was having a shower and a naked chick came into fuck, I'd be all for it. But according to the media, all women are abstinent! Sex is the last thing on their minds, while men can never stop thinking of it. Chauvinistic pigs! Never met one who was abstinent. Met a few who were obstinate, unfortunately. |
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Santa Q Branch
Posts : 724 Member Since : 2011-08-21
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:22 pm | |
| - Quote :
- Pussy Galore. James Bond rapes her. Debatable, maybe, but I don't know how else to describe this scene, even taking the most charitable possible view. How many date-rapes can we specifically lay at the feet of this two minutes of film? Ten thousand would, I think, be a conservative estimate.
One of those 'if he had a brain he'd be dangerous' situations. Anyway we all love 'the sweet tang of rape', you know. |
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Vesper Head of Station
Posts : 1097 Member Since : 2011-03-14 Location : Flavour country
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:50 pm | |
| A bit rich for a writer for Esquire, a magazine designed to shill decidedly middle-market, affordable 'stylish' men's products to the masses, to bag out James Bond for buying his suavity. Also the Django review is hilarious. "What America Can Learn From Duck Dynasty" |
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Captain Arthurs
Posts : 18 Member Since : 2011-04-09 Location : England and Switzerland
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Fri Apr 19, 2013 10:16 pm | |
| - Quote :
- What other reasons are there for seeing a James Bond movie? The action? The women? The stuff? The gadgets? The problem is that James Bond movies are terrible at all of them.
That must be one of the silliest things I've heard anyone say. |
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6of1 Cipher Clerk
Posts : 137 Member Since : 2011-03-21
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Tue May 07, 2013 5:09 pm | |
| - Vesper wrote:
- A bit rich for a writer for Esquire, a magazine designed to shill decidedly middle-market, affordable 'stylish' men's products to the masses, to bag out James Bond for buying his suavity.
QFT Bond films are to all intents and purposes the cinematic equivalent of Esquireism at least since GE. And used to be filmed Playboy Christmas editions before that. |
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Guest Guest
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Tue May 07, 2013 6:58 pm | |
| I suppose that we all get disillusioned with James Bond from time to time. Well, I know I do. Maybe I've been at this game too long after 20 years. |
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Carruthers
Posts : 31 Member Since : 2013-12-13
| Subject: Re: Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:41 pm | |
| What an arse that wrote this drivel. |
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| Why I Hate James Bond (from Esquire) | |
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