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No Armour Left: 007 In The Post 9/11 Era

A guest article by Craig Arthur

That was a really good read. Sadly, it's really late and I'm about to retire to sleep, so I'll comment more tomorrow. But I enjoyed this article. Well done Craig.

A must read, simply one of the best articles ever here at CBn.

Extremely well written, with a superb range of examples cited from across the history of the Bond franchise. Certainly worth reading for all.

All I can say is "Bravissimo."

Superb, absolutely superb.

Although I'd question whether "Dalton's two outings as Bond did rather poorly at the box-office" - I've always been under the impression that THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, for one, was a solid hit. I'd never argue that it was a super-smash, but I'd hardly say it did "rather poorly". Still, it's a very minor quibble.

A terrific article, brilliantly written and full of thought-provoking points and fresh observations, e.g. that "the closest person to Dalton-Bond in the Brosnan-Bond universe is Alex Trevelyan".

An absolute must-read.

I can only add my applause to all the above. A great read (which has inspired some thoughts for the current DAD thread!!!). And it's refreshing to see the character and franchise acknowledged for it's style and theme (so many references to Hitchcock and The Third Man). Do many neutral or non-Bond-fans dismiss the books and films as simply throwaway entertainment, when in fact there is a lot more going on than just the adventures of a secret agent.

Gread read!

Very well-written and thought provoking article. Well done, Mr. Arthur!

Good article. I wonder if I can publish some words about my 10 years with James.

The author echoes Paul Greengrass' sentiments on the audio commentary for "Supremacy." Greengrass states Bond would never question the system he's sworn to uphold and protect & to a certain extent it's true. He'll bend & break the rules in order to complete his mission/get to the truth but he'd never tell his masters "no, I won't do it."

I always thought it would be great to place Bond in a situation where he's truly expendable or misused/misled to achieve a dubious objective. The possibilites for internal & external conflict are limitless. I just wonder how brave EON truly are.
Craig and CR are Bond in a post 9/11 world but I think they'll only take the character but so far without risking alienating the fanbase.

Bond 22 should be interesting, especially if we see a contemporary variation on SPECTRE or Benson's The Union.

Great article.

Great article! Craig showed it to me before, and I'm glad he's updated it.

An excellent read and very well written. Well done, Craig.

A second beautifully written, elegant, erudite and thoughtful article from Mr Arthur - I enjoyed it very much, and would like to read more of the same.

Incidentally, the Octopussy circus scene seems to echo a line in Ian Fleming's notebooks:

'A masquerade ball in which the benign clown is the Russian killer and the crowd thinks that a real fight is part of the buffoonery.'

It would be interesting to know if the film-makers were aware of this. Anyway, I think this and the Goldfinger passage about the crowd wanting to see the plane crash show something of Fleming's bent of imagination - and, indeed, it's rather Hitchcockian. Another line from his notebooks is rather reminiscent of the The Third Man:

'Fight in a fun fair with a man on the rollercoaster being shot at by another on the Big Wheel.'

I think the theme of elevation as a symbol of modernity and our primeval urge to see it fall down is rather interesting. There was so much written about September 11 2001 that said it was 'like watching a Hollywood movie'. I wonder why so many films feature such events - if there's something in us that wants, as you say, to see such things happen, or threaten to happen. And as well as the lift scene in CASINO ROYALE, the film features an extended fight on a crane. Perhaps something in us wants to watch things fall - or be close to falling.

Yet another stunner of an article from Mr. Craig. Love the integration of a wide variety of examples in both this and the previous James Bond Vs. The Devil With Thick Spectacles article.

Magnificent.