50 Years of 007 - For your eyes only: Bond... James Bond!

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50 Years of 007

For your eyes only: Bond... James Bond!

Licesed to kill, shaken not stirred, Ian Fleming’s evergreen British secret service agent - cradled by the affection of Money Pennys, expedited by Qs, nurtured by Ms, hounded by the SPECTREs and loved by numerous darlings of the silver screen and his cut-and-dried line for the gorgeous ladies was: I’ll be right back – BOND has been one of the most influential-fictional characters of the past five decades and counting, making us believe in the immortal line – growing older but getting younger.

Faizul Khan Tanim

Shaken by Dr. NO (1962-Sean Connery),titled as the first Bond film, and stirred at Skyfall (2012, Daniel Craig, the newest bond), and the epic James Bond films featuring the Walther PPK; clad in the three-piece suits; driving the explosive Aston Martins, Bentleys and BMWs; sporting the Rolex Submariners or Omega Seamasters... Bond was on the loose in 22movies. He is always fully loaded with his creative ammos and artilleries and would still poise the world even under the abuse of Vodka Martinis, Bollinger and Dom Perignon Champagnes. The Bond film franchise today, is the second most financially successful English language film series.   

Bond Movies through the Years:
From Russia With Love (1963-Connery),
Goldfinger (1964-Connery),
Thunderball (1965-Connery),
You Only Live Twice (1967-Connery),
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969-George Lazenby),
Diamonds Are Forever (1971-Connery),
Live and Let Die (1973-Roger Moore),
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974-Moore),
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977-Moore),
Moonraker (1979-Moore),
For Your Eyes Only (1981-Moore),
Octopussy (1983-Moore),
A View to a Kill (1985-Moore),
The Living Daylights (1987-Timothy Dalton),
Licence to Kill (1989-Dalton),
Golden Eye (1995-Pierce Brosnan),
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997-Brosnan),
The World is Not Enough (1999-Brosnan),
Die Another Day (2002-Brosnan),
Casino Royale (2006-Craig),
Quantum of Solace (2008-Craig)
Skyfall (2012-Craig)

We know that James Bond is a protagonist of the Bond series, a Royal Navy Commander, (Companion, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve) CMG, RNVR, a fictional character created by British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming [1908-1964] in 1953.Fleming wrote twelve Bond novels and two short story collections before his death, although the last two books – ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ and ‘Octopussy and The Living Daylights’- were published ‘posthumously’.

Bond’s code number 007, comes from the English spy and polymath John Dee, who would sign his letters to Elizabeth I with 00 and an elongated 7,to signify they were for her eyes only. The number was also assigned by Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of World War I - the breaking of the German diplomatic code.Subsequently if materials we regraded 00 it meant it was highly classified and, as journalist Ben Macintyre pointed out in various articles, "To anyone versed in intelligence history, 007 signified the highest achievement of British military intelligence."

Although Bond resides and take most of his assignments from the London MI6 headquarter but risks his life actively and internationally, running after the most notorious criminals from anywhere and everywhere in the globe and beyond. Let us take a look at the Bonds who gave this character the much-wanted ego, charisma and height to become such a lethal weapon.

Sean Connery (Bond appearances: 1962-1967; 1971; 1983)
Six feet one-and-half inches, Scotsman, considerably one of the best Bonds, and gained the nickname ‘gentlespy’, was arguably the best in the 1965 Thuderball. With a box office success of $141.2 million,this film is memorable for its underwater pyrotechnics and gadgets – Bell Textron jetpack, underwater breather, modified Rolex Submariner and more.

George Lazenby (1969)
The only non-British (Australian) actor and probably the most infamous Bond to have destroyed the fame of a 007 agent. He also acted in the only (thank God) and the worst Bond film till date On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (worse than Brosnan’s Die Another Day and Craig’s Quantum of Solace). Lazenby is the second official actor to portray the British secret agent, following Sean Connery, and proved to have failed to impress the loyal Bond fans with quotes like, “This never happened to the other fellow!” The other fellow (accredited to) being Connery, this is actually a joke for the audiences referring to Lazenby’s debut as Bond. As Connery had been able to seduce every woman he met, Lazenby, being the new Bond meets Tracy in the film who runs away from him. Bond is slightly perplexed, because he is after all Bond... James Bond and women usually melt with this phrase.

Roger Moore (1973-1985)
This 6’1’’007 agent was also the Saint and faced a huge challenge to revive Bond after Lazenby’s flash-in-the-pan. So, in an attempt Moore deliberately smoked cigars instead of cigarettes and drank Bourbon instead of Martini, which is actually more in-keeping with the character of Bond from the books. He portrayed the Bond character the most amount of times, seven,and he did with flying colors and replied to his critics who said he was not masculine enough, “This Bond is more of a lover and a giggler.” His best performances were in several including Moonraker, The Spy who Loved Me and A View to a Kill. 1985’sA View to a Kill however sported the most crispy script with a plot of the destruction of California’s Silicon Valley and taking the domination of the microchip market by a multimillionaire psychopath. The film features, by far, the manliest Bond girl May Day and has a brilliant quote by the psychopath Zorin: "Intuitive improvisation is the secret of a genius."

Timothy Dalton (1987-1989)
Dalton, 6’2’’,manly and most probably the only Bond which gave Q the least amount of troubles with his gadget and in fact, he is the only Bond Q appreciated the most. This Welsh Bond was also on-screen, the safest 007 agent around the insanely arousing women. Dalton's James Bond was a major transformation to a darker, moody, pitiless and more focused on the job at hand even if it was not preferred.And the 1989 hit License to Kill featured Bond’s disobeying of MI6 orders and pursuing vengeance following the mutilation of Felix Leiter, one of Bond’s greatest ally. In the process, Bond's desire of revenge costs him his greatest weapon – his Licence to Kill - and makes him an aggressive ticking time bomb.

Pierce Brosnan (1995-2002)
After a long hiatus picking Pierce Brosnan as the 007was a great choice and debatably, six feet one inches Irish man Brosnan, who was already a hit from Remington Steele, is the best looking and most charismatic Bond, well-known for his strangling techniques as Bond, his ways with women and fancy gadgets. With the amazing Tina Turner’s vocals in the title track and the cast of two of the most ravishingly beautiful Bond girls, usage of BMW, sporting of Omega Seamaster wristwatch and more, Brosnan’s first Bond movie, Golden Eye, grossed over $350 million worldwide, more than any other Bond film to that time. His second Bond film, 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, grossed even more money in the US than Golden Eye,making Brosnan one of the most successful 007 agents. Brosnan brought a new sense of class to the character, one unmatched so far.

Daniel Craig (2007-Present)
Daniel Craig is the present-day Bond, acts as an almost rogue agent, abuses his privileges and omits the standard good looks of wavy hair and boyish charms. Instead he is the most rugged Bond (closer to the Bond from Ian Fleming’s books), chiseled from deception, revenge, arrogance, anger and most often wears dirty shirts or body hugging collar t-shirts replacing grand suits worn by his predecessors – he is by far the ‘baddest’ Bond worthy to be called a true spy/agent. He is the cockiest Bond of all – a man whose presence is felt by brawn and manliness alone, and the gadgets and tech comes secondary. After all, spy thriller readers unconditionally believes that secret agents must not have recognizable features, let alone good looks. The choice of Craig as Bond was controversial when announced in 2005, and many initially didn't agree with the decision, although Connery, Brosnan, Moore and Dalton publicly supported. Despite some doubts from fans at first, Craig's performance as the super-agent in Casino Royale earned him critical acclaim from critics and fans alike. And, although Quantum of Solace did not perform well, Craig absolutely mesmerized the audiences with the latest Bond Skyfall. Of course, the success of Skyfall was also due to a darker, back-to-basics,following-the-Fleming-novel concepts. At Skyfall, MI6 headquarter is bombed to ashes and Bond faces his greatest adversary, more cunning and razor sharper than Le Chiffre, Scaramanga, Jaws, Oddjob or Blofeldand extremely powerful as he was an ex 00 agent - Silva, played by Javier Bardem, who played the part to utter perfection. No matter how hard Bond tried, he could not save one of the most dominant characters of Bond history – M, even with his no-holds-barred stunts and Walther PPK with palm print activation. In the end, the MI6 headquarters are moved to the Universal Exports building (from the earlier films), while Eve, one of the sensuous field agents, who decides to quit the field and introduces her as the new Moneypenny. A newly appointed M as well gets introduced for Bond - Gareth Mallory, who was the head of Secret Intelligence.

Bond theme songs which made BIG impact

Gadgets used by Bond