Childhood was a time when I was enamoured by the adventures of the Famous Five, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew series. As I grew up the fascination shifted to something more visual like television programmes like the Giant Robot, Street Hawk, and Knight Rider. The world of video games also opened up in the form of Road Rash and the Need for Speed series. One of the big screen spectacles which grabbed my attention was the James Bond movies. The Crown Cinema hall in my hometown is where I saw many of the Bond movies. I remember waiting in the serpentine queue to grab the tickets and looking at the posters and the colourful movie stills kept in the bulletin board. James Bond is like Sherlock Holmes – the created became more popular than the creator. James Bond still lives in the public memory (The release of the 25th movie - No Time to Die - is delayed because of the pandemic) the UK was able to exert its soft power over the world through the James Bond franchise. The flag of the UK is emblazoned in almost all the gadgets used by Bond. So you can see Bond using a parachute with the Union Jack imprinted on it in the Swiss mountains or driving a car with the UK flag painted on the bonnet of the car. Bond movies became more like an advertisement for UK tourism. The colonial memory was also rekindled through Bond movies like Octopussy which was shot in Rajasthan, India. 007 exists also as an example of the commodification of memory with thousands of dollars/ pounds earned through the sale of 007 memorabilia. There are different ways the movie retained its place in the collective memory. The movies showcased exotic locations from around the world. The movies had gadgets and technology which were futuristic - a watch equipped with a laser ray or a car which can be converted into a weaponized submarine. The portrayal of the bonding between Bond and M is another way the movies have stayed in public memory. The movie Skyfall takes the fans for a trip down the memory lane. Skyfall is the name of his childhood ancestral home in Scotland. M becomes more like a surrogate mother to him. There is also an observation made by a researcher Janet Woollcott who talks about the way women are specularised and made objects of the male gaze. The one-liners from the Bond movies have stayed popular ( My name is Bond, James Bond) and they are almost as popular as Shakespearean quotes. One of the reasons why every cinephile remembers Bond movies is because of the sheer number of movies released. We were not allowed to forget Bond. Lest we forget the creator Ian Lancaster Fleming whose death anniversary is today. They are almost as popular as Shakespearean quotes. One of the reasons why every cinephile remembers Bond movies is because of the sheer number of movies released. We were not allowed to forget Bond. Lest we forget the creator Ian Lancaster Fleming whose death anniversary is today.
References:
1) Ian Fleming:- A personal memoir of the Man who created James Bond – Robert Harling
2) Geopolitics, Gender and Genre: - The Work of Pre-title/Title sequences in James Bond Movies – Linda Racioppi and Colleen Tremonte
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