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To What Extent Do Bond Films Follow A
Standard Formula To Deliver Pleasure?
Illustrate Your Answer By Comparing One Early & One Late Bond
Film.
Karlie Burkhill
Within this essay I will include a brief description
of Bond films and will lead to how Bond films deliver pleasure, it will
then use the examples of the early film Dr. No and the more recent
Bond film Goldeneye to express the methods used for pleasure
deliverance.
James Bond can be seen a s a popular hero a form of
cultural phenomenon, Bond is said to be:
“..more
than ‘literature’s most popular spy’ ...is arguably the most
popular - in the sense of widely known - figure of the post war
period, if not this century.”
(Bennett & Woollacott, 1987: 11)
It is very difficult to think of a similar character
who has been continuously popular and to the same level over the same
period of time, Bond is seen as if he was a real person .
Bond films can be said to follow a certain formula
which relates to each novel and ultimately each film, there is a stock
formula . In each film there is a concept of a plot, the regular and
repeatable factors which reoccur these include the locations, events and
characters; the plot which is a designated sequence of events which occur
but not necessarily in the same order and the narrative, is the way the
plot and story are used to tell the story in a different way (Bennett
& Woollacott, 1987) . This all leads to the concept of the ‘Bond
Phenomenon’, the films open with the traditional theme and logo which
includes the credits with silhouettes of naked women, there is then the
briefing of Bond for the mission, a flirt with Miss Moneypenny, the
gadgets from Q, the trip to an exotic location; the long awaited ‘Bond,
James Bond’ a game of skill, the meeting with the girl and combat with
the bad guy. Bond eventually
over comes the girl and the bad guy and the film concludes with ‘James
Bond will return in...’.
Above was a basic description of the formula Eco
(1981) looks into this with more detail, he states that the Bond formula
is a variant in the typical traditional fairy tale,
he believes that in the novels and subsequently in the films that
there are nine moves which occur but not necessarily in the same order:
A - M gives a task to Bond.
B - The villain appears to Bond.
C - Bond gives first check to villain or vice versa.
D - ‘The girl’ shows herself to Bond.
E - Bond posses the girl or begins her seduction.
F - Villain captures Bond
then the girl or at the same time.
G - The villain tortures Bond and sometimes the girl.
H - Bond beats the villain, killing him or his
representatives.
I - Bond possesses the girl whom he then losses, she
either leaves him or is killed.
The whole factor of the Bond formula is to attract an
international audience, various lines are added to attract American
audiences; also within the films countries such as Russia cannot be
constantly put down especially as they want to sell the film to them.
The formulas are both similar, the predictability of
the films is one part of the success and popularity of the Bond films,
other factors which add to the pleasure of Bond films are; the high tech
gadgets which are given to Bond by Q which show British ingenuity and seem
to be vital for the assignment, these are present in each Bond film but
have developed into a major feature in the more recent films, the gadgets
also relates to the idea of boys and their toys and are often seen as
jokes in the films, they can open up contradictions in the images of
patriotism, professionalism and sexuality (Barker & Beezer 1992).
Bond films generally open with a spectacular stunt
which in some cases can be seen as completely unbelievable but still Bond
has the ability to achieve the impossible, also through out the whole film
there are various stunts with amazing explosions and up to date special
effects, which are often located at exotic places or countries.
Eco (1981) suggests that there are five levels of
analysis they are values, where Bond represents Englishness; a sense of
fair play and sophistication for example the English cars and the scenes
of London, play where the film is predictable and is seen to be played as
a game and following a formula, Manichean ideologies where there is a two
fold view of the world such as good and bad there is no in between or
fuzziness, montage where contrasts are included to convey meanings and the
fifth level is literary techniques where all of the characters are basic
which starts the plot quickly so all characters and villains are
identified quickly.
Through out Bond films there are also binaries,
these are used to convey beliefs whether political or ideological,
some of these are Bond vs M, Bond vs the villain, the free world vs USSR,
loyalty vs disloyalty and Bond vs women just to name a few. Bond vs women
is a commonly discussed part of Bond films, the girls are usually scantily
clad and are in some way sexually abnormal, for example Pussy Galore is
seen to be a lesbian and Honey Rider a virgin, they are all expressed as
being sexually available to Bond who then restores then to normality by
seducing them.
The Bond girls names are also sexually hinted such as
Honey Rider, Pussy Galore, Plenty O’Toole and Goodhead.
The Bond girls are said to free the male sexuality,
they also are said to make the films popular with women because of their
‘liberated sexuality’ especially when the films first were released in
the 1960s, they offered a sense of sexual desire without the fear of
marriage or punishment, a form of escape from domesticity. This sexual
freedom in the progressive ‘New Wave’ films of the same time where
sexuality for reasons other than procreation offers the audience a
comparative freedom and could be a reason why the films are so popular
with men and women. (Bennett & Woollacott 1987).
Following on from the Bond girls is the Phallic code which has been
related Freudian opinions of Bond which can be a conscious or unconscious
form of pleasure, the guns are seen as phallic symbols and various remarks
are made about the gun that Bond uses (Baretta) and its size! These
factors are supposed to relate to and appeal to our desires.
Also relating to the phallus is the way that Bond is always
tortured in some way of phallic castration, such as the lasers, circular
saw or Dr. No’s metal claw all aimed at Bonds groin; these show
‘eroticisation’ of the torture scenes with Bond’s genitals being the
potential victim! With the Freudian ‘male gaze’ Bond has developed
into a figure of social acceptance whilst at the same time rejecting
marriage, domestic sexuality and in some ways introduced a form of
liberated masculinity. (Barker & Beezer 1992).
This can be linked to Mulvey (1981) who discusses the
scopophillic instinct where people gain pleasure from looking at another
person as an erotic object such as them being in a vulnerable position or
state of undress, this not only for male pleasure.
Both Freudian and Mulveys (1981) ideas can be linked
to Barthes (1977) who states that there are hidden pleasurable meanings in
some of the signs which are demonstrated in the film, another form of
pleasure is available to the audience; this called ‘jouissance’.
Bond films also follow a imperialism code, where in
all cases the villains are conspiring to threaten the peace and the
security of the ‘free world’ which is represents as Britain or the US,
where every time Britain is superior to the other nations.
Bond competes with Russia majority of the time and outwits them
despite them having a superior organisation, he competes against SMERSH,
which is a Soviet organisation and SPECTRE which is concerned with
international threat of some form. The
west is seen as having freedom and individualism where as the comparison
country has bureaucratic rigidity (Bennett & Woollacott 1987).
The villains in all Bond films also seem to have some
form of physical defect or disability such as Dr. No has claws for hands
due to an accident with chemicals.
A main part of all Bond films which is considered
pleasurable is intertextuality, this where there is a system of references
to other texts within a single text; an example of this is in
The Spy Who Loved Me, the villain is called Jaws and has
metal teeth this is in relation to the film Jaws which was released at the
same time, also Pussy Galore played by Honor Blackman is related to the
Avengers along with Roger Moore’s association with The Saint.
People seem to enjoy relating actors or subject to other things they know
This intertextuality in films has been considered a
reason for women’s pleasure in Bond films, they are said to find romance
, this is in association with the pleasure found in women’s fiction, a
form of romantic fiction which is linked with the females identity and
their appearance (Bennett & Woollacott 1987).
Romance is particularly important in structuring women’s response
to Bond, this may be the form of escapism and fantasy which is expressed
and played on in the films.
It is more complex then males identifying with male
heroes and women identifying with heroines,
personal and external fantasies of the fiction need to be
identified. Amis (1965) has
stated that male readers including himself want to ‘be Bond’, males
want to have the popularity, charm and irresistibility from women that
Bond has, he has the gadgets and excitement that every man would surely
want.
“James Bond
is who every man wants to be, but knows he damn well can’t be”
(Ian Fleming 1995)
All of
the Bond films after the credits finish with:
James Bond will return ....., this is to add suspense and is the
first part of promotion for the future coming Bond film.
All of these factors together add to the pleasures
which are gained from watching Bond films, these factors will now be
related to two different Bond films, Dr. No and Goldeneye.
Dr. No was the very first Bond film and was made into a film
in 1962, it does not open with the now familiar Bond shooting at a black
background and red dribbling down the screen, but is a prime example of
the Bond formula which has previously been mentioned.
It begins with part B - Strangways and his assistant
Mary Trueblood being killed.
A - M assigns Bond to his mission.
B - there is a tarantula left in Bonds bed.
C - Bond making his first check to the villains,.
D - Miss Honey Rider then appears to Bond on the
beach at Crab Key.
B - Honey Riders canoe is destroyed and Bond takes
her under his wing.
F - both are captured and are taken to Dr. No’s
headquarters.
G - both are subjected to torture.
Dr. No
is then killed through a variety of stunts and clever escape techniques.
E - Bond and Honey Rider are stranded in a boat.
I - film ends, Bond is destined to lose Honey Rider
as later in The Man With The Golden Gun that she marries and has
two children.
Along with the Bond formula is the predictability in
Bond film such as when Bond is shot at he never gets injured or killed; it
can also be guaranteed that if a difficult stunt need to be done to escape
Bond will always achieve it with very little effort.
An example of this in the film is when Bond is being chased in his
car and a crane is blocking the road, Bond manages to fit underneath the
crane and the henchmen following end up falling off the side of the cliff.
Other pleasures which are experienced by watching
Bond films are the unconscious pleasures such as the phallic code, once
again there is the threat of castration by Dr. No’s claws for hands (a
disabled villain), there is also Bonds change of gun to a PPK, his
previous gun was referred to as a ladies gun and that he should change it
for a larger and more powerful masculine gun, this gun change could also
be related to M wanting to protect Bond in a fatherly figure kind of way.
There is little gadgetry in Dr. No this may be
relating to the year that it was made and at that time there wasn’t a
great deal of high tech gadgetry around, this was compensated by clever
but simple techniques such as leaving talcum powder across his brief case
dial and placing a hair across doors to see if anyone had entered the room
or Bond, Honey and Quarrel using reeds to breath at Crab Key.
The Bond girl in this film also had a sexually
related or phallic name, Honey Rider, as already stated she was considered
to be a virgin and sexually confused, Bond then took her under his wing
and transformed her back to
normality sexually once he had slept with her. Along with Honey Rider Bond
also has his way with Miss Taro who is
sexually available to Bond.
There is also intertextuality with Dr. No,
when Bond and the girl are captured and taken to Dr. No’s hideout there
is a painting of the Duke of Wellington, at the time of the release of the
film that painting was stolen from the National Gallery, a form of irony.
This relates the film to reality and to actual events that are occurring
in real life at the present time.
The imperialism in Dr. No is that he is a member of
SPECTRE which is the Special Executive for Counter - intelligence, Terror,
Revenge and Extortion which is also related to the Soviet Union and Bond
is in a contest with them a demonstration of a binary, even though they
are highly advanced Bond still manages to overcome them. (Bennett &
Woollacott, 1987)
Within this film there is racism to the villain as he
is disabled as stated all Bond villains seem to be defective in some way
or are coloured, if they are not a villain and black they are usually a
worker or servant below Bond.
In
comparison Goldeneye will now be looked at, Goldeneye was
made in 1995 and show the traditional formula such as the threats of
global domination but this time by the Russian Mafia, it also has a lot
more modern factors relating to it but still has the original Bond
formula, which is demonstrated below.
The film opens with a spectacular stunt sequence as Bond jumps off
a dam with a type of bungee rope and lands on his feet,
B - the villain appears to Bond.
C - Bond sees villain as 006 is captured this shows
Bond vs Russian Mafia, a binary. Bond
then escapes and performs an almost unbelievable stunt as he rides a
motorbike off a cliff after a plane and manages to land in the plane and
steer it from danger, this scene may be seen as being over the top but
pleasurable.
Opening sequence which is traditional, this is the
beginning to the phallic code of the film as the girls are naked and are
dancing over guns.
D - Bond meets the ‘girl’, they have a car race
an image of a strong women trying to beat him at his own game, the car
could be seen as the size of his ego!
D - Bond
meets Onnatop at a card game.
A - Bond is given his mission by M.
D - Onnatop tries to crush Bond between her thighs in
a steam room, a bizarre form of seduction.
E - Bond makes Onnatop take him to the opposition.
F - Bond is captured with Natalia another ‘girl’
who is a computer programmer.
D - they meet again trapped in a helicopter.
F - both
are captured again.
F - both escape then Natalia is captured.
G - 006
then returns as a bad guy and asks Bond whether to save the girl or his
country.
E - they
escape and Bond posses the girl.
H - Bond beats the opposition.
I - Bond possesses Natalia.
The film concludes with the same credits and finishes
with ‘James Bond will return...’.
Within this film there are a lot of pleasurable
factors, the gadgets play a large part in the film, Q has a major role
giving Bond ingenious gadgets which conveniently are needed later in the
film, the imperialism factor is not against the Russians but this time the
Russian Mafia, also relating this to nationalism 006 asks Bond to save him
‘for England’ even though he believes he was betrayed by the British
government that is why he changed sides.
Once again in the film there is a sexually hinted female name which
is Onnatop, she along with Natalia are shown as strong women and
intelligent, it has been said that Michael Apted wanted less sexism in the
new films and to show stronger women having brains rather then beauty.
There are also various statements made which have
double meanings such as James being a ‘cunning linguist’ and various
innuendoes made to Bond from Miss Moneypenny. Another strong women
demonstrated in Goldeneye is M who is now played by a women, she is strong
and firm to Bond and does not fall for his charms.
There is only a small amount of intertextuality in Goldeneye,
a reference could be made to the detective programme ‘Cracker’
as Robbie Coltrane plays Valentine in the film.
Overall Goldeneye has sign of almost all of the
demonstrated pleasurable part of Bond films.
To make a comparison of the two films the years at
which they were made need to be considered, Goldeneye has
spectacular stunts and high tech gadgetry but at the time when Dr.No
was made this kind of technology was not available but the gadgets and
stunts in the film were equivalent to the year it was set in.
Both of the films contain some form of phallus,
usually the girls names and the statements made about Bonds gun size, the
difference is that in 1962 when Dr. No was filmed there were very
different views on sexuality to what they are now even though at the year
they were filmed they were still quite sexually liberated. The women in
the more recent films are stronger women such as the female M, it has also
been said that the last girl in bikini is in Goldeneye and the
future Bond films are going to become more politically correct
(1997. Ian Fleming [online] 007 News: Available from:
http://www.ianfleming.news/articles/bond19bikinis.shtml [accessed on
06/10/99]
Overall in both films there is the demonstration of
the Bond formula there are differences in the order but they still follow
the same routine which delivers pleasure, they both contain the women with
sexually hinted names and all of the women are all available to Bond.
Both films contain binaries such as Bond vs Russia which involve
the viewers so they can relate easier, they also both contain inter
textualities such as the casino and car chase scenes in Goldeneye
are present in Dr. No these both add to the predictability and for
some people the pleasure of Bond films.
Also the fact that for each film the audience is probably still
wanting to be Bond and all the advantages that come with it, such as his
irresistibility to women.
Semiotics also play a role in both films, in the way
the film makers deliberately introduces pleasures and the pleasures the
audience brings with them outside the film makers and the formula.
With all of these factors together and appealing to
the many different types of people who watch Bond films there must be
something which appeals to everyone to make them so popular with the
public.
REFERENCES
Amis, K. (1965) The James Bond Dossier
London: Jonathan Cape.
Barker, M. & Beezer, A. (1992) Reading
Into Cultural Studies London: Routledge.
Barthes, R. (1977) Mythologies. New York:
Panther Books.
Bennett,T. & Woollactt, J. (1987) Bond &
Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular Hero
London: Macnillan Education Ltd.
Eco, U. (1981) The Role Of The Reader London:
Hutchinson.
Mulvey, L. (1981) ‘Visual Pleasure & Narrative
Cinema’ in Bennett, T. Boyd - Bowman, S. Mercer, C. Woollacott, J.(eds) Popular
Television & Film London: BFI
1997. Ian Fleming [online] 007 News: Available from:
http://www.ianfleming.news/articles/bond19bikinis.shtml [accessed on
06/10/99]
1995. Bondage [online] Issues: Available from:
http://netscape.org/indy/issues/11-16-95/features2.html [accessed
20/10/99]
1962. Terence Young. Dr. No Eon Productions.
1995. Goldeneye Eon Production.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barker, M. & Beezer, A. (1992) Reading Into
Cultural Studies London: Roultledge.
Bennett, T. (1982) ‘James Bond As A Popular Hero',
Unit 21 of OU Popular Culture
Bennett,T. & Woollacott, J. (1987) Bond &
Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular
Hero London: Macmillan Education Ltd.
Harris, D. (1992) From Class Struggle To The
Politics Of Pleasure. London: Routledge
Mulvey, L. (1981) ‘Visual Pleasure & Narrative
Cinema’ in Bennett, T. Boyd - Bowman, S. Mercer, C. Woollacott, J.(eds) Popular
Television & Film London: BFI
1997. Ian Fleming [online] 007 News: Available
from:http://www.ianfleming.news/articles/bond19bikinis.shtml [accessed on
06/10/99]
1995. Bondage [online] Issues: Available
from:http://netscape.org/indy/issues/11-16-95/features2.html [accessed
20/10/99]
1997. Bond [online] Bond Formula:
Available from:http://www.sabrom.com/site/bond.html [accessed 20/10/99]
1998. Goldeneye [online] Goldeneye: Available
from: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/lofts/9500/goldeye.htm
[accessed 27/10/99]
1999. Sociology [online] Bond: Available from:
http://www.marciniak.com/other/other.html
[accessed 12/10/99]
The Times (1998) 'It’s Double Agent 007 As
Neeson Prepares to Play Rival Bond.' [CD - ROM] 29/11/98 The Sunday
Times. [accessed 12/10/99]
1962. Terence Young. Dr. No Eon Productions.
1995. Goldeneye Eon Productions.
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