George Lazenby as James Bond

George is neither over-rated nor under-rated. He only did one bond role in his entire life which was 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. The movie starts with Bond saving a girls life. The girl ends up being the daughter of one of Europes biggest crime syndicates. instead of turning the criminals in, bond decideds to befriend them so he can get to know the girl better and also work his way up to bigger criminals such as Ernst Stavos Blowfeld. This plan works, Bond infiltrates into Blowfeld's criminal organization Spectre, and saves Spectre and the Soviets from having complete domination of the Earth.

in the brief prologue to this action packed film, James Bond gets married to the daughter of the crime syndicate. this is the only time in book or film history that bond gets married. The movie ends with Bond and Mrs. Bond's marriage. They are driving through the swiss countryside on their honeymoon.

watch this scene, because it is the final scene of the movie and possibly the most important film moment in james bond history:



The scene is so important to establish James Bond as a character. Bond finally puts his sexual escapades behind him, and decides on a women to hold his attention for the rest of his life. But thirty seconds in film time past their wedding, bond's wife is dead on the side of a swiss road. it proves to bond that given his career as a spy, he will be unable to truly love anyone because he will always put them in danger. it is the same problem that peter parker confronts when he has to withold the truth of his identity from Mary Jane, even though telling the truth would definitely get him laid.

therefore for bond, the only women he can truly love is the Queen, in his duty on "her majesty's secret service." and that is why the title is so fitting for this role. george lazenby sets the stage for James Bond, because he is the actor that endures bonds most emotional moment. it is the moment that bond realizes that he will never be able to truly love anyone.

Something really interesting to keep in mind is the camera angle employed at the 1:05 mark of the scene. We see the police officer pull up in the background. as soon as the officer gets beside the car, the camera angle shifts to the view of the officer. because of the shift in camera angle, the audience becomes the officer and bond is pleeing to us... the police man/audience. From the officer's point of view, it looks like a drunk bride and a car that had a rock hit its windshield. Bond tries to escape the situation of having to show his dead wife to the police officer, by lying to the police officer saying "it's alright. it's quite alright really. she's having a rest." the audience knows much more than the police officer, and they will not be as easily duped. james bond is playing a role for the police officer, and he continues to play this role. we know that as long as James Bond can play this role, he will never truly have to confront his wifes death. if the police officer stays, and gets into a conversation with Bond, Bond can continue playing the role of the husband with a drunk wife. This inability to truly express his emotions, and having to play a role instead, is the male chauvinistic message that george lazenby conveys. and it is a quality that bond maintains even to this day. in the recent casino royale movie, after James bond's girlfriend dies, his words are "the job is done, the bitch is dead, its time to move on." again, Daniel craig continues the george lazenby emotional disconnect, and refuses to handle the death of his girl friend with emotions.

But, in the final seconds of the clip he begins to cry. However, this crying is not something that the police officer has the ability to pick up on. if you watch the 1:48 mark of the movie in mute, you will notice that bond hides his face in his wife's gown so that the officer can not see him crying. Again, refusing to show his emotions and therefore continuing his role as the happy husband. However, the audience has the ability to hear the whimper. And therefore the audience realizes that James Bond is trying to hide the fact that he is crying. But that's all we see! we don't see bond cry, we just see bond hide the fact that he is crying!

This is important because it is the only scene in James Bond history where Bond cries. it shows that he is uncomfortable displaying this level of emotion to others. he sets the male-chauvinistic standard that it is not alright for men to show themselves crying.

Roger Moore as James Bond

Normally I would write something that has something to do with this blog, but due to the startling inactivity shown by myself, I'm going to go off on a tangent to get myself back into things. Poor Roger Moore! He's consistently named the worst bond... hang on, I have something to say before we say any "Moore":

George Lazenby, the man who played bond in "Her Majesty's Secret Service" was once divorced for punching his pregant wife in the face and breaking her nose while his son was dying of cancer.

You should probably read that twice. George Lazenby later went on to work for AIG Financial Products.

Roger Moore was consistently named the worst bond. Let's try to dispel that rumor with a one movie citation: Live and Let Die. Let's break down some of the things Moore did in this movie with a critical eye towards the "bond-ness" of the actions and the strange view of morality said actions impose. I believe this movie was both a revolution within the bond franchise, and more importantly, one of the greatest trans-racial documents produced in recent times. In short, I want to argue that the actions depicted in this movie paved the way for mainstream acceptance of both African American culture and drug culture as both feasible alternatives to the nuclear family model of the 50's, and legitimate issues to the conservative white community. I would also like to touch upon what impact I feel this movie may have had on the African American community in the United States at this time. As a clear example of "Blaxploitation", Live and let die serves as shallow thesis for the equalization of rights in 1970's America.

Lets start with what is inevitably the most interesting part of any James Bond movie: The girl. We're introduced to Rosie fairly early in the film, and she meets her untimely demise just as quickly. Why is Rosie important? Because she was an idiot. She was ideologicaly driven and all the more incompetant because of it. She was painted as a useless agent whos only saving grace was her good looks. As an African American woman and an undercover CIA agent, she truly embodied the vision of the "outsider". However I think the directors were very clever here: they weren't afraid to depict her as a stereotypical "dumb woman", and they weren't afraid to depict her as a "fearful zealot" of her religion as well. Risky! Archetypes like that are what drive controversy and I don't believe for a second that they're actual phenomenon. There's just as many dumb men and fearful non-zealots. I'm not anti woman or anti voodoo priest. I am pro woman and pro voodoo (as a hobby, not as a belief). Just so we're all clear.

Anyways, the directors make her stupid. She's the first African American woman to ever be a bond girl, and she's horrendously incompetent. Racism? No! This is the sincerest form of anti-racism there can be! Bond girls are always idiots, and they gave her no special treatment. Is it possible Stephen Colbert's "I don't see race" philosophy was shared by the casting director in charge of bond girls? Is it shared with the writer in charge of her part? I postulate that yes, it is. It totally is.


Now let's look at Roger. What a douche! And that's my argument: that he was, in fact, a douche. Bond, despite all his chiseled features and government funding, is a total asshole. Just admit it so we can continue on with this post. Okay? Great. What I'm saying is that Roger Moore does just fine in this respect. In one key scene Bond gives Rosie a choice: either die by the hands of a voodoo priest and tell me what you know, or die because I shoot you in the head after we just had sex in this jungle clearing. He seriously bangs her, then threatens her with death. Guess what? She dies after a voodoo priest uses a robot scarecrow to shoot a blow-dart in her neck. Later, on a boat, he jokes about her being a moron then tells the man he's sailing with that "at least she's good looking"... before he slaps her ass and sends her down into the boat. Several seconds later he follows her, and most likely has 1970's sex with her, which is like the sex we have now, only without protection and with more hair.

Roger Moore is often accused of being a sillier, less intense and more boring version of Sean Connery. I think that anyone who has carefully studied Live and Let Die would disagree. I'd like to end this installment of "Live and Let Die as Socio-racial commentary" with the promise we'll get into the nitty gritty in about a weeks time.

To be Continued...