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feel right at home. If you’re a dedicated 007 fan, not so much.
The Bond series debuted in 1962, and by the third film, “Goldfinger,” in 1964, 007 was an international phenomenon that, it seems, will never die on screen or at the box office. The producers plan to keep it that way with a canny morphing of Bond, as needed, every few years.
“Spectre” is the 24th official Bond-series film. All have been hits, and the past seven, four with Brosnan, three with Craig, each had a better U.S. box office than the one before. “Skyfall” (2012) made $1.1 billion worldwide, and “Spectre” already is breaking that film’s European records. It gets better; indications are “Spectre” cost more than $300 million, making it one of the most expensive films ever.
Much of 007’s success is built on familiarity and tradition; the gun-barrel opening, the instantly recognizable “James Bond Theme,” the mandatory “Bond … James Bond” and “shaken, not stirred,” the token sexual conquests, M, Moneypenny and Q.
These ingredients disguise an equally essential aspect of the Bond success, willingness by producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, daughter and stepson of original Bond co-producer Albert R. Broccoli, to evolve, to reinvent the series by tweaking the formula and overhauling the character. Sometimes a new actor inspires the changes. Other times, the changes inspire finding a new actor.
Sean Connery’s Bond in the first few films resembled the secret agent created in 1953 by former British intelligence officer Ian Fleming for 12 novels and a few short stories. But even in the first film, “Dr. No,” changes began. Connery’s Bond had a wit that Fleming’s serious, sometimes introspective hero never imagined or wanted. He also was colder and more aggressively sexual.
The series immediately established a new kind of ruthless hero, a faster, slicker style of action film, and an open pleasure in sex. In 1962, audiences were shocked when Bond calmly shot an enemy who had run out of bullets; movie heroes just did not do that. Fleming’s Bond was a romantic who often fell in love with his conquests, usually women with some physical or emotional injury. Connery’s spy was the love ’em and forget ’em type, an eye-widener to audiences used to sexless Hollywood heroes whose rare carnal shenanigans were merely implied.
Only a few years later, with film nudity and overt sex quickly becoming common, the Bond films went the other direction; by “You Only Live Twice,” in 1967, Bond’s many female “conquests” were mainly token, jokey PG affairs, smarmy and sexist but hardly carnal. Likewise with violence, Bond’s early groundbreaking action was soon outdone by more violent movies such as Sam Peckinpah’s Western “The Wild Bunch” (1969), so 007’s action became more about spectacle and stunts, with the violence more impersonal and “family friendly.”
Not all the changes worked.
When the huge success of 007 spawned scores of film and TV imitators, the producers made Bond a parody, starting with “You Only Live Twice.” An attempt to take Bond back to his adventure roots with “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969), starring George Lazenby, produced a good film but decreased box office, ending that experiment.
By the time Moore took over the role in “Live and Let Die” (1973), Bond films were substituting slapstick for excitement. When “Star Wars” made box-office magic in 1977, the series promptly sent 007 into space for “Moonraker” (1979), a move than horrified original Bond fans but delighted many new ones.
Audiences seemed to tire of Moore’s silly 007 after the wretched “A View to a Kill” (1985), and the Bond films made a return to a tougher, more believable, more romantic Bond with Timothy Dalton in “The Living Daylights” (1987). The film was a worldwide hit, but U.S. audiences missed Moore’s lighter approach, and Dalton starred only once more as Bond. In 1995, he was followed by Brosnan, whose audiencepleasing balance of action and Bondian wit consistently brought the series huge gains in box-office receipts, if not always in respect.
In spite of that success, Broccoli and Wilson grew tired of producing the same Bond film every few years. Sensing audiences were ready for a more serious Bond, they took a tremendous risk, dumped Brosnan for Craig and made “Casino Royale.” They had guessed right again; worldwide box office jumped more than $160 million.
They never looked back but apparently continue looking forward. A lighter tone is slipping back in. The action and the hero are moving even more into superhero territory. For now. But as sure as the final words on the film credits say “James Bond Will Return,” trust that James Bond Will Change, with the times.
* Sean Connery also starred as Bond a seventh time in “Never Say Never Again” (1983), but that film was not part of the official series by EON Productions.