Connery’s 007 was a rapist, says director of latest James Bond movie
‘We forget his deception, intimidation and sexual violence to accomplish his personal goals’
‘People are coming around to accepting that that stuff is no longer acceptable’
FOR many filmgoers, Sean Connery as James Bond remains the ultimate ladies’ man, but Cary Fukunaga, the director of the new Bond adventure, has an alternative take – Connery’s 007 was a rapist.
“Is it Thunderball or Goldfinger where, like, basically Sean Connery’s character rapes a woman?
“She’s like, ‘No, no, no’, and he’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes’. That wouldn’t fly today,” said Fukunaga.
The director of No Time To Die is understood to be referring to a scene in Thunderball (1965) between Connery and Molly Peters.
Peters plays Patricia Fearing, a nurse at a health farm. When they first meet she firmly rejects his advances, including pushing him away when he forcibly kisses her.
But after he nearly dies on a traction machine nicknamed “The Rack”, Bond says he will complain to her bosses.
A frightened Fearing tells him: “You wouldn’t tell Doctor Wade? Please, I’d lose my job.”
“Well, I suppose my silence could have a price,” Bond replies.
Fearing backs away, saying: “You don’t mean … oh, no!”
“Oh, yes,” says Bond, and pursues her into the steam room, where he immediately removes her clothes.
Connery is similarly forceful in Goldfinger (1964), where he wrestles with Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, pinning her to the ground until she finally succumbs to his charms.
Fukunaga was speaking to The Hollywood Reporter to promote the next Bond film which has its world premiere next week.
The magazine also spoke to Barbara Broccoli, the producer, about the misogyny issue in Bond films. Her late father, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, produced the franchise until his death in 1996.
“I think people are coming around – with some kicking and screaming – to accepting that that stuff is no longer acceptable. Thank goodness,” she said.
“Bond is a character who was written in 1952 and the first film came out in 1962. He’s got a long history, and the history of the past is very different to the way he is being portrayed now.”
Dr Lisa Funnell, a professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Oklahoma, is the author of For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond.
Writing on her website, Dr Funnell said that her students found the Thunderball scene to be “especially troubling”.
“On multiple occasions, Patricia Fearing rejects the physical and verbal advances of Bond, making it clear that she is not interested in sexual activity. Bond does not accept her rejections or respect her bodily autonomy, and eventually blackmails Fearing into sleeping with him.
“In popular culture, James Bond is known for his sexual magnetism and ability to attract women. This scene in Thunderball challenges the way we remember Connery’s Bond, while forgetting his use of deception, intimidation and sexual violence to accomplish his professional and personal goals.
“In the #Metoo era, it is important that we see the full picture and examine the messages being relayed through popular culture and its icons about gender, sex /sexuality and power.”
Dr Funnell told The Daily Telegraph: “Affirmative consent is strikingly absent in the Connery-era James Bond films.
“While the early Bond films and their source novels were products of their time, the ideas conveyed through them about sexual violence were never OK.”
However, she added, “the assumption that the James Bond films have progressed (simply because time has passed) is incorrect.”
She pointed to Skyfall, in which Daniel Craig’s Bond seduces a woman who had been forced into sex work.
In his interview, Fukunaga said Craig’s final outing as 007 would have a more respectful view of women.
“You can’t change Bond overnight into a different person. But you can definitely change the world around him,” he said.