Dr No Essay

In 1962 a legend was born. The small, low-budget, British Film ‘Dr No’ was expected to make a modest profit, but not much more than that. Instead, what the producers got was the rights to what is now an almost instantly recognisable cinematic empire resulting in a further 21 films and countless other products and franchises. What I aim to find out is how the relationship between the audience and the screen, and what the consumer expect to see has changed and how Directors of the latest Bond films have risen to the challenge of creating a British super-spy for the 21st century.

The Bond films were adapted from the unpopular Novels written by ex-Naval intelligence operative, Ian Flemming. It had been decided that in order to make this film a success, an actor with a large public following and a clean

Firstly, since the time of Pierce Brosnan the themes and contents have been slowly americanised through a dramatic increase in long, drawn out action sequences and car chases. Bond was originally created as a model of British society, class and culture while still managing to be a fast and effective killing machine. He is now seen to spend the majority of his time chasing criminals around the world in fast cars and engaging in gunfights, which seem to make up most of the content of the films. This could not be further from the original ideas in which Bond got into the occasional scrap coming out just as he went in with a witty remark fitting to his character. This was one of the conventions that made James Bond unique but it has been seemingly pushed aside. The stories need padding out with a greater focus on a story rather than just the action, action, action style that the films have taken on over the years. This was a great strength of the old films and I believe that with the right writers and storylines Bond can once again become a true British