Why Bond Movies Are Bad For Us, Article #3827

http://theconversation.com/casting-idris-elba-as-the-first-black-james-bond-wouldnt-make-the-films-less-troubling-35879

Ugh.

They aren't half as troubling as that article.

Quote :

Peter Bloom

Lecturer in Organisation Studies, Department of People and Organisation at The Open University

LOL

You mean they're works of fiction and not documentaries?

How do you write an article about the 'troubling' use of torture by heroes in this particular genre and not mention 24?

Sloppy.

Quote :

Spy films have a rather undistinguished legacy of romanticising otherwise less than altruistic Western foreign policy. While the CIA and MI5 were engaged in overthrowing democratically elected governments, conducting torture programs and doing all it could to support US corporate interests abroad, the popular entertainment of the 1950s, 60s and 70s was populated by films and television shows such as James Bond and Mission Impossible. These made international espionage seem both glamorous and high minded.

In SF, Raoul Silva had been tortured by the Chinese as a result of M trading him in for a peaceful handover of Hong Kong, and is presented in a quasi-sympathetic light as a disturbed manchild. I'd say Bond films of late are far from white washing the intelligence services.

In the comments section, Derek Johnston is closer to the mark.

Quote :

There are actually some interesting differences to be pointed out between British (or nominally British) and American products. American series and films have tended towards the 'there are exceptional circumstances where an exceptional person has to take exceptional measures, which sometimes means torture' narrative. 'British' products like Bond or 'Spooks' have tended (there are exceptions) towards presenting torture as brutal, nasty, and ineffective for information gathering. Instead, it is the realm of the villain, where it is used to demonstrate their villainy and sadism rather than to obtain information.

CJB wrote:

Quote :

Peter Bloom

Lecturer in Organisation Studies, Department of People and Organisation at The Open University

LOL

Looking at his profile.

Quote :

I am a lecturer in the Department of People and Organisations at the Open University. My primary research interest centre reconceptualising power, resistance and ideology – specifically in the contemporary context of capitalism. In 2009, I was awarded a doctorate in Ideology and Discourse Analysis at University of Essex for my thesis, Creating the “Chinese Market”: The CCP and the Discursive Construction of an Authoritarian Capitalism through a Maoist Governing Paradigm, 2002-2008, which was funded through the Overseas Research Awards scheme. Since this time I have amassed a growing international publishing record in the fields of organizational studies and social theory. My work has been published in Theory and Event, Journal of Political Ideologies, Journal of Political Power, Research on the Sociology of Organization, Culture and Organizations, Ephemera, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Organization and International Journal of Žižek Studies among others. I am currently completing a manuscript entitled ‘Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Globalization’ to be published by Edward Elgar Press.

Hereafter known as Dr Twat.

Bond is troubling? No one watches Adam Sandler's films then?

Hilly KCMG wrote:

No one watches Adam Sandler's films then?

As much as it undermines your point , we can only hope they do not.