Was George Lazenby's James Bond a casualty of the Hippy Revolution?

Was George Lazenby's James Bond a casualty of the Hippy Revolution? - he said as much in an interview in a 1996 television broadcast - that he was advised that the conservative character of James Bonfd had no future in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s Hippy Revolution - flower power, The Summer of Love and flowerrs in guns, Peace, Man etc. He was told that he was going down with a sinking ship, that he had made his big name as James Bond and that was all that mattered - something that he later regretted, of course! He stated that he wished he had went on to make another Bond film (presumably DAF). If only he hadn't heeded this very bad advice!

Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care (2008) references this anti-Bond background - drugs/Rolling Stones/heroin/long hair/1967 etc.

The Harpies 1960s Daily Express cartoon strip also references this hippy scene.

See this article here for more details on George Lazenby and the Hippy Revolution:

http://movies.yahoo....-220348935.html

As someone wrote (Philip Larkin?) - it was a blessing in disguise that Ian Fleming didn't live to write about Bond in the post-1964 world of the Beatles, The Stones, Charles Manson's Helter Skelter gang, drugs, mass immigration from the colonies, Rastafarians in London, race wars, drugs, The Summer of Love, free love, Carnaby Street, the progressive Harold Wilson Labour Govt. etc. - abortion, homosexuality decriminalised, divorce made easier etc.

Wonder what Old Ian would have made of this type of Britain of the late 1960s and early 1970s?

What is the George Lazenby fan consensus on this one?

I consider OHMSS the best James Bond film ever made, so y'all know where I stand on this one.

If Laz says it, I have no reason to think he's lying. But I'll tell you, impetuous, rash decisions rarely work out well. He should have given the idea of abandoning Bond a long, hard think before doing so. Hindsight's 20/20, of course, but getting a role, any role, as the leading man in a feature film is practically impossible. The fact that Laz threw away at least one more such role is mindboggling to me, regardless of the advice he received. He was 30 at the time, not exactly a kid anymore, so immaturity is no excuse. Laz just made a very dumb decision.

As to Fleming hypothetically living much longer and continuing to write Bond novels after The Fall, what can one say? Had he continued to write Bond as he had, Fleming certainly would have been rushing directly into the headwinds of the age. Perhaps he would have kicked Bond well to the left, as he did to some extent in gratitude to JFK after the president praised From Russia with Love. On the other hand, perhaps he would have become so disgusted with vile stench of the countercultural movement that he would have just shut down Bond altogether.

Lazenby was given bad counsel and was blinded by the turtlenecked madness of the day. He was an overgrown kid with little acting experience and incorrectly thought that he had it all figured out.

Fleming, being an ageing Tory, would've probably been aghast at the state of Britain and the West in the late 60's and 70's. I imagine the character of Bond - creeping towards the big Five-Oh - would've voiced his creator's revulsion in subsequent novels.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

On the other hand, perhaps he would have become so disgusted with vile stench of the countercultural movement that he would have just shut down Bond altogether.

We don't know what Fleming would have made of the cultural upheaval of the late '60s but we do know he was a staunch anti-communist right to the end. Bond was battling the worst of KGB villainy right down to the last pages of TMWTGG.
Bond I think would have remained a good cold war soldier through the next decade, continuing to battle remnants of Nazi-ism and the Soviet menace.
What is very odd though is Amis' take on communism circa 1968 in Colonel Sun. He's not brash enough to signal any change in Bond's attitudes to his long-time Soviet enemies but he is oddly sympathetic to the Russian types in general. He portrays them as not all bad. The heroine Ariadne, though painted as rather idealistic and naive, is sympathetic to the cause, in fact she is a loyal Marxist. Bond and a senior KGB official have a great little chat at the end of the book, although Bond mostly listens as Amis pontificates via the Russian. Amis tells us in Colonel Sun that the Red Chinese are the real enemy and that we in the west should really be striving towards working with the Soviets ie Soviets might be salvagable but the Chinese are the worst of barbarians. Colonel Sun himself certainly advances that angle.
I don't think Fleming would have swallowed this yarn. Soviet Communism was very much a deadly enemy of the west circa cold-war 1968, but Amis wanted us to all just maybe get along a little better. I'm glad he didn't write any more Bond books, although I did learn quite a lot about how to drink ouzo and other Greek booze. CS is quite educational in that regard much like Fleming's efforts with sake in YOLT.
And yes Lazenby blew it. Cub and Saltz gave him every opportunity to continue and prosper in the Bond role but he got stupid as did his agent.

Fleming was a shrewd man. He would have seen through the entire countercultural movement. Bowled it out for the cultural variant of Marxism that it is. It's just the opposite side of the Bolshevik coin and Fleming would have known that. Would that have come through in future Bond novels? I do not know.

Partially I think. There was the bad advice, his arrogance and inexperience, the dwindling (but not by much) box office of the series and general lessening of interest by the general public, the fact that the star had left caused a general shift in reception of the ongoing series and his general awkward misery all through the filming of OHMSS.

All of these happening on the peak of the New Hollywood/emerging realism trends in mainstream cinema in the late 60's made the whole characterization of Bond in the films seem a bit outdated and it is feasible to see how Lazenby could have seen some sense in what he was being advised. He didn't like being the odd man out, though it was partially due to his own youthful arrogance.

But this quality shows up in the performance, and is exactly the insubordinate quality inherent in Fleming's original character. He even outdoes Connery's performance on several levels of personality and philosophical outlook.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Fleming was a shrewd man. He would have seen through the entire countercultural movement. Bowled it out for the cultural variant of Marxism that it is. It's just the opposite side of the Bolshevik coin and Fleming would have known that. Would that have come through in future Bond novels? I do not know.

I think Fleming's work bears you out Khan.
Although it does seem that Amis got suckered by the notion of romantic Marxist revolutionaries, in Colonel Sun. Now mindyou his Ariadne character does ring true. Plenty of good folk, especially those fighting fascists, might have been seduced by the whole "people's revolution" nonsense of the marxist propaganda, but Amis himself seems to be suggesting that the west need make peace with his suddenly more huggable Soviet bear, and double-down on the other Red Menance. Very odd. Poor Bond having to listen to that all drivel from "our man from Moscow", Mr. Yermalov.
Amis was somewhat prescient, but well ahead of his time. The Chinese axis is probably more of a threat to the west these days than the Russian bear, which I hear does have very favourable tax-rates. A flat-tax of 13%. You got to like that. With that kind of boost to the economy, the Russians may yet take over the world.
Re. Lazenby he lays out his thoughts quite succinctly in the little Mi6 Vault-Declassified feature which accompanies the new blu of OHMSS and which was probably included in the Ultimate edition too. Laz is interviewed before, during and after OHMSS.
Bottom line IMO, he got stupid, but still considering what a young lad he was at the time, you think Cub and Saltz, could have put their own estimable egos aside, sat the guy down and insisted that he sign on the dotted line. Show some patience, put up with some of his whining, but ultimately persevere and talk some sense into him.