Posted on 05/31/2008 8:48:37 AM PDT by Rummyfan
IIRC (been a long time since I read it), The Puzzle Palace notes that while spying indeed existed for a long time, it was the James Bond character which prompted governments to hugely increase their intelligence agencies, as world leaders influenced by 007 began speculating that maybe, after all, their enemies did have vast secret networks supporting super-spies - and "even if they don't, we should have our own".
By the way, I just saw the newest Bond movie, a remake of Casino Royale, today—and I loved it.
It is very noir, very gritty, but with some flash. The opening chase scene is as good as any Bond opening I’ve ever seen.
I’ll even accept the new Bond man, Daniel Craig, as much closer to the original Bond concept of Fleming.
He bleeds (lots) from his various scrapes with the villains, is very fit (a new concept in films for a special operator) and can do a lot of his own physical bits, and plays Bond with the right touch of unemotionalism for a agent with the 00 designation.
The ending where he tells the criminal mastermind, “we have to talk” before shooting him in the leg with a sniper rifle and then cooly walking up to the guy crawling to get away and introducing himself, “My name is Bond, James Bond.” is perfect.
You don’t have to reject John Wayne to appreciate Paul Newman in Hombre.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.