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James Bond: heroic spy or womanizing killer?
Renew America ^ | 11-25-12 | Matt C. Abbott

Posted on 11/26/2012 8:06:12 PM PST by ReformationFan

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As a theologically and politically conservative Protestant Christian who's been a Bond movie fan since I was 10 years old, I found this article interesting.
1 posted on 11/26/2012 8:06:24 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: ReformationFan

What’s wrong with being a womanizing killer?


2 posted on 11/26/2012 8:11:08 PM PST by mnehring
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To: mnehring
What’s wrong with being a womanizing killer?

Ted Kennedy didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

3 posted on 11/26/2012 8:16:42 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Labor unions are the Communist Party of the USA.)
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To: ReformationFan
I heard a talk radio show say that the actor or the director or someone close to the Bond films was asked who would make the best Bond.. Obama or McCain?

"Obama," replied the dork. Then he added something about how McCain couldn't handle that macho role and Obama could.


4 posted on 11/26/2012 8:17:09 PM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: mnehring
What’s wrong with being a womanizing killer?

You have to build your Presidential Library in Arkansas and make it look like a mobile home?

5 posted on 11/26/2012 8:17:59 PM PST by Repeat Offender (What good are conservative principles if we don't stand by them?)
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To: ReformationFan

In the early books he was both but with a real conscience. For instance in “Dr. No” Bond tells Felix Leiter that you know me too well for that”. In response to a question about if Bond had killed someone.

Of course if need be he definitely would kill.

Also in “From Russia With Love”, Bond asks the Gypsies to stop the girl on girl fight.

The most immoral Bond to me was in “The Man With the Golden Gun” which had just about zero to do with the book’s storyline. Bond simply murders the gunsmith who made Scaramanga’s gun. I think Cubby Broccoli was pushing an anit-gun message in that movie.


6 posted on 11/26/2012 8:18:19 PM PST by yarddog (One shot one miss.)
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To: ReformationFan; Perdogg

Call in the crew..

“I haven’t seen all the Bond movies; only four (I think) in their entirety, including the latest, Skyfall, plus scenes from a couple of others”


7 posted on 11/26/2012 8:27:12 PM PST by GSP.FAN (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: ReformationFan

I remember when DR NO was released when I was in High school. The newspaper reviews and critics at that time were AGHAST at the rank sadism and womanizing in the film.

Cold blooded MURDER by the hero, 007! “That is a Smith & Wesson. You’ve had your six.” Pop, pop, pop. pop.

Sadism by DR NO! Too much skin from Ursula Andres!

Ect.

It is so mild by today’s standards.
...................................


8 posted on 11/26/2012 8:33:00 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (The parasites now outnumber the producers.)
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To: ReformationFan

I really have never liked Bond for that very reason.

However, my husband says he does fall in love but those are the girls that die...

then at the end of the movie he is with someone and we are led to believe that he is in love...however by the next movie she is gone and you are then left to think, oh darn, didn’t work out.


9 posted on 11/26/2012 8:37:04 PM PST by Beowulf9
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To: ReformationFan

You know, i saw on tv, they have medicine for Low-Testosterone these days. Sounds like the writer needs a dose.


10 posted on 11/26/2012 8:55:13 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: ReformationFan

You know, i saw on tv, they have medicine for Low-Testosterone these days. Sounds like the writer needs a dose.
A “chaste spy”? lol


11 posted on 11/26/2012 8:55:30 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: ReformationFan

To some extent the womanizing smoking drinking gambling Bond was what Fleming was as well. Obviously not exactly but Fleming drew from his own experiences as well as those he knew from his own past. The movie Bond simply extended the character into a cartoon like fantasy. Not sure if Fleming would have approved of the direction the movies took Bond after he passed away or not. I think he was on the set for the first 3 movies.


12 posted on 11/26/2012 8:57:12 PM PST by xp38
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To: ReformationFan

To cut this short: It is not How you fight that matters. Reality dictates that (unless you want to lose). It is WHY you fight that matters.

There was even a Star Trek episode involving the Gorn and a gun made of bamboo that addressed this - under the auspices of uber-lib Roddenberry.


13 posted on 11/26/2012 9:08:28 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

What an azz. Despite all of McLame’s faults, he fought in real combat. Obama is a feminine wannabe thug. McLame would kick his - and that moron talk show host’s - azz.


14 posted on 11/26/2012 9:13:46 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: piytar

It wasn’t the “moron talk show host” he was quoting a news item about someone closely associated with Bond movies making the comment. I do not remember the name of the individual and I did not know who he was. In fact the talk show host had the same opinion as your opinion.


15 posted on 11/26/2012 9:23:02 PM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: yarddog

‘The most immoral Bond to me was in “The Man With the Golden Gun” which had just about zero to do with the book’s storyline. Bond simply murders the gunsmith who made Scaramanga’s gun. I think Cubby Broccoli was pushing an anit-gun message in that movie.’

Bond doesn’t kill the gunsmith(Senhor Lazar, as they would say in Portuguese since this scene is set in Macau). He just threatens him to find out Scaramanga’s whereabouts. In the very next scene, Lazar is alive and passing the gold bullets to Maud Adams’ Andrea, Scaramanga’s mistress.


16 posted on 11/26/2012 9:24:17 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: Beowulf9

You might like “The Living Daylights”. That’s the most romantic film in the series for me(even more so than “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”). Dalton’s Bond and the innocent Kara have a sweet chemistry that’s atypical for the series.


17 posted on 11/26/2012 9:25:59 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: ReformationFan

The article’s last paragraph reveals all.


18 posted on 11/26/2012 9:26:04 PM PST by fattigermaster
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To: ReformationFan

I think the writer is naive in the extreme. I can agree with the womanizing being a definite moral flaw in the Bond character, but on the other hand, although the “spy game” is fictionalized, there is some truth to the never ending deception that I’m sure plays a major role in clandestine warfare - and, warfare is what it is.

Often, the Bond character was after needed information from many of the women he “communed with”. Of course, the most unbelievable part of the Bond mystique is the constant womanizing - but that’s Hollywood, not reality.

However, I think people forget that “spying” is also warfare just as much as front line combat. The killing of other spies and their allies is on the same moral plain as killing in “special ops” or in open warfare with infantry and tanks.

But, the killing is just part of warfare. The spies are soldiers just like the other branches of the military. So, maybe it’s “shame” on Bond for the fornication, but the killing? I don’t think it’s any different than the fighting and killing from that of the Navy Seals, or Army Rangers, or any Marine Infantry Division


19 posted on 11/26/2012 9:28:46 PM PST by rusty schucklefurd
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To: fattigermaster

I thought Abbott’s point was pretty good:

“Could it be that Hollywood is actually becoming less politically correct? Will Hollywood start promoting positive portrayals of men and women who struggle with same-sex attraction but strive to live chaste lives; or who live as ex-gays?

“Nah...wishful thinking on my part.”


20 posted on 11/26/2012 9:29:29 PM PST by ReformationFan
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