12. FILM - JAMES BOND

How The Bond Films Have Changed Over 50 Years.

If we look at the Bond films through the generations we can see that there are many similarities, however there are also some differences within the repetition. The three movies we can compare scenes from are; Dr No, Die Another Day and Casino Royale.

1) Dr No - In this film we see Honey Ryder coming out of the ocean singing mixed in with shots of James Bond watching her. In this film the female is shown as being very powerless and as being a mans object.

2) Die Another Day - In this film we see the same shot as Dr No, however this time the viewer is made to feel more awkward about the shots as Bond is using binoculars to see Halle Berry coming out of the sea. Also Halle Berry's movements are more powerful and when talking to Bond see is more forceful and dominating.

3) Casino Royale - In this film we see a total reverse of parts where Bond is the person coming out of the sea with a female looking on to him. This shows him as being a more feminine character. 

We can link the last example to Judith Butler's theory of the fluidity of gender. The reason we can link this is because Bond, despite through most of the film acting masculine by doing this scene it makes him seem more feminine to the viewer. 

We can also link this to Queer theory which said, one can subvert negative stereotypes by positive stereotypes using mainstream media texts, for example, James Bond films. The negative stereotype portrayed in this is that women are powerless and are an object for men to use, however we can see that this begins to be subverted in Die Another Day where Halle Berry is made to look more powerful both through her movements, actions and attitude towards everyone else. The in Casino Royale we see that the gender specific stereotype has been flipped with Bind being the person coming out of the ocean and acting very innocent and is sepicted almost as an object.