AndyDursin wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 8:07 pm
The way things are going, killing off Bond and doing a "Doctor Who regen" (as one of the articles ludicrously put it) with a "PC 007" is something I can totally see idiots doing today. You just wouldnt expect it coming from a series that has successfully moved right along from one Bond to another in the past. We are, however, living in a very different time....
It's ironic, as Bond's screen persona in the Craig era very much embodies the 007 of the books. Yet Craig wants to kill off the character Ian Fleming wrote, because Bond presumably "affronts" people who are trying to conform our culture to their astringent (and subjective) comfort zone.
I'm reminded of something Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson said back in 2011 -- “If your start to pay attention to everybody’s concerns, you end up with something bland an boring.” Top Gear of course was frequently attacked for offensive and inappropriate humor -- yet was
also one of the most popular series in BBC history (until the BBC cut off their nose to spite their face by firing Clarkson).
Bond is arguably "out of step with the drummer" in this age when people are encouraged (if not strong-armed) into adopting a more "PC" ideology. But Bond was also out of step with the drummer in the 1950s and early 60s. A hard-drinking ruthless killer and womanizer seemed an unlikely hero in an age when "traditional morality" reigned supreme. But that was Bond's appeal -- he embodied a liberating fantasy, which appealed to the proper suburban husband, whose life consisted of working 9 to 5, paying the mortgage and supporting a wife and children.
We certainly do live in a different time today -- in which insecure people are pushing to criminalize "offensive" speech, vilify patriotism and demand men embrace more "sensitive" behavior (i.e. behave more like women). A ruthless, had-drinking character who epitomizes "toxic masculinity", is irresistible to women, drives fast cars, and (horrors!) carries a gun is just as a cathartic a fantasy today as it was 60 years ago!