So here it is...the final draft of my critical essay on a film from 1962. The film I did was Dr. No, so I hope you enjoy and learn something from what I wrote and researched!
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| Dr. No movie poster |
James Bond
was created by British writer Ian Fleming.
As of 1963 Fleming wrote eleven James Bond books in eleven years and
sold millions of copies of the books.
The novels attracted many readers from around the world because of the
adventurous situations James Bond was involved in. According to Geoffrey Boca, writer of “The
Spectacular Cult of Ian Fleming,” “each winter, he [Ian Fleming] retreats from
London whirl and writes a new Bond novel at his beach house in Jamaica,” which
is interesting in relation to the film Dr.
No because, like Fleming, Bond leaves England to head for Jamaica to
complete his assignment and help out another spy (1). Most people believe that Fleming based Bond
on himself with whom Bond shares a couple of similarities, but according to
Fleming this is not true. In fact
Fleming wrote Bond to be the “opposite of himself…Bond, Fleming writes in every
book, is “cruel”. The essence of
Fleming’s personality is his gentleness, he abhors violence” (Boca, 1). When Boca says James Bond is cruel he means that
James Bond is not afraid to hurt some people in order to figure out the truth
and complete his missions, he does not care whom he hurts in the process.
Fleming was
able to create such a likeable interesting character with Bond that many people
such as President Kennedy enjoyed reading the books. With this success of the books, Eon
Productions and producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli picked up the
rights to produce James Bond novels into a feature film. After deliberation, producers Saltzman and
Broccoli decided to produce Dr. No as
the first film, even though it was not the first book in the Bond series. The first book in the series was Casino Royale, which they later decided
to adapt to film in 1967. James Bond is
one of those book and film characters that can be both likeable and unlikeable
by people because of the way he acts towards people and always puts his
aggression out on others. There are many
reasons as to why James Bond is a likeable character with the first one being
his good looks. It is hard for a person
to be hated in a film if he has such good looks. Also he is very suave and both men and women
wish dream about him, in different ways though.
“Guns, fast cars, hot women and the free life of a spy…the life of a
suave British spy is some sort of escapist fantasy for men” (Ewing, 1). These are all reasons as to why men want to
be like James Bond because they can vicariously live a lifestyle that is. Women also fall in live with the fantasy of
James Bond because they want to each be wooed by Bond just like the women in he
books and films are. Bond’s likeability
is questioned sometimes because of his negative traits are the only things that
people notice. James Ewing noted that
“Bond is some kind of socially sophisticated sex maniac or he’s one
misogynistic SOB” (2). Most of the
negative characteristics and traits that Bond possesses all have to deal with
two things—sex and women. Bond seems to
not know the acceptable ways of courting women because he does not court them at
all, he only sees them as objects of desire that he finds attractive. “Womanizing is all well and good, but it
seems Bond has a come on line for just about every woman he meets…Bond bedded a
woman he knew was working for the enemy and then turned her in to the
authorities right after that” (Ewing, 2).
Bond’s womanizing ways disgust and turn people away from his character
because he is cold to women. It seems
that he does not have any interest in knowing how to treat women properly and
seems to only want them to fulfill his sexual needs and desires and often his
needs as a spy. 007 is one of those men who
will always remain a bachelor because he is content with just sleeping around
with different women and never getting married.
However, in On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service, James Bond played by George Lazenby, actually gets married
to one of the Bond girls that he falls in love with. This marriage is short lived because after
they are married his wife is shot and dies in Bond’s arm and cementing the fact
that James Bond will always be a womanizing bachelor. The first time that we meet Honey Ryder, we
see her emerge from the water in a white bikini through the eyes of James
Bond. The director uses point of view
focalization to show that James Bond looks towards the ocean and sees Ryder
coming out of the water and the camera follows her trek from the water to the
sand. When she throws down the shells
she has collected the camera moves back to James Bond and a smile comes across
his face and then the camera turns back to Ryder again. When the camera goes back to Honey Ryder it
is a close-up of her torso and head focusing on her wet body. The camera once again turns back to Bond and
the smile on his face is even bigger and he begins to interact with Ryder. Bond’s gaze is seen throughout the Bond
series because of the use of point of view focalizations because other
directors pay homage to this particular scene in other Bond films in the
future.
Dr. No established many iconic images
and characters that have appeared in twenty-two other Bond films. The first iconic image is in the opening
sequence with Bond walking across the screen as we see him in the scope of the
gun. While we see him walking across the
screen he abruptly turns towards the viewer and shoots his gun, and still
looking through the scope of the gun, we see blood begin to travel down the
scope. Once this happens the iconic and
memorable James Bond theme song begins to play and we are introduced to the
next other iconic image in the film. The
opening title sequence, which is similar to that in other Bond films. In Golden
Eye, the opening title begins with gun scope, similar to Dr. No, but instead of just having the
gun scope be filled with blood, a bullet is being shot at the audience as if
they were staring down the barrel of that gun.
In every Bond film the opening is an animated sequence, which features
characters that will be introduced later in the film and also features multiple
women. In all the openings animated
shapes of women’s body is shown from head to toe in silhouette form. The women are shown as if James Bond himself
was looking at them moving in sexual and sensual ways that could be the women
teasing Bond with their good looks because they know they are an object of his
desire. This is seen in both Dr. No and Golden Eye. However, in Golden Eye the women’s silhouettes are
done in 3D animation making them seem more realistic than the women shown in
the Dr. No opening sequence. While women are being shown in the Golden Eye opening sequence, other
symbols and objects that are relevant to the films plot lines are featured,
like communist Russia symbols and a mask that has a golden eye. Women become an
important image in the James Bond films because Bond is a very sexual person
and loves any women that are pretty whether she is good or bad for him.
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| Sean Connery |
When it
came to casting James Bond, it called for someone who could command the screen
while also being suave and sexual. The
front runners for the part of James Bond in the beginning were, Cary Grant,
Patrick McGoohan, James Mason, and Steve Reeves, all of whom turned down the
role either because of other commitments or for other reasons. Sean Connery was
ultimately cast as James Bond 007. Sean
Connery was not Ian Fleming’s choice for Bond but Saltzman and Broccoli cast
him “because they liked how he was big, tough-looking man who nonetheless moved
gracefully” (IMDB). The producers and
the public embraced Sean Connery as the British spy who would help save the
world. Sean Connery used his good looks,
charm, and smooth voice to win over Bond lovers as 007. It is said by film critics and fans that they
“view George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan as
impostors” in the role of James Bond (Berardinelli, 2). Sean Connery was such a great Bond that he
reprised the role six more times after Dr.
No. “Connery’s panther-like movement
and look of an ever-ready sexual predator, made him Bond worthy…with his
leisurely smile, deadpan wit and impassive manner, Connery epitomized the early
Bond to such an extent that it seemed near impossible task to replace him”
(Black).
Along with
Sean Connery as the iconic Bond in the film series, the Bond girl, and the
villains also became staple characters in the series that would set the
standard for the other films in the future.
The first Bond girl is Honey Ryder played by Ursula Andress. Honey Ryder set the standard of how a Bond
girl should look in the films. Bond
girls should be extremely beautiful and sexy women that men lust over. It also happens that Bond girls are given
“exotic and far out names like Honey, Kissy, Pussy, Bibi, Lupe, and Jinx” to
name a few (Black). Honey Ryder’s
entrance, which happened to be almost halfway through the film, was an
attention getter for both James Bond and viewers. Honey Ryder, enters the film by emerging from
the Caribbean waters on Crab Key Island wearing only a white bikini that shows
off her assets and wielding a knife and a bag of shells. When Honey Ryder comes out of the water she
is singing the song, “Underneath the Mango Trees” which is one of the songs
from the opening title sequence that is played after the iconic James Bond
theme song. Ryder agrees to help Bond
out on Crab Key Island for his search of Doctor No and his secret lair. At nightfall, the two are attack by the
supposed “dragon” of the island and they are captured and brought under Doctor
No’s control. James Bond near the end of
the film searches for Ryder as she is in danger because the maze of a lair is
about to blown up due to nuclear weapons.
Bond and Ryder are reunited at the end and share a passionate kiss that
is familiar in all Bond films as an ending.
For many Bond fans, Honey Ryder is considered to be the best looking and
most memorable Bond girl to have ever graced the screen. She is able to capture the attention and make
James Bond become entrenched in her good looks and everything that she
does. These characteristics are what
makes a Bond girl because James Bond should be entirely entrenched in who she
is and always desire her like Bond does of Honey Ryder in Dr. No.
Doctor
Julius No sets the stage for villains that James Bond has to defeat in order to
save the world. Doctor No is hired by
SPECTRE, which stands for SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence Terrorism,
Revenge and Extortion, to help topple and ruin the United States Space Program
by disrupting Project Mercury which was the first human spaceflight. Doctor No uses his location on Crab Key to hide
his secret plans of using a radiation beams to disrupt the space launch. Another feature that makes Doctor No
memorable is that he has metal hands because constant exposure to radiation
that has caused the loss of his hands.
During the film, it is evident that Doctor No shares certain traits with
James Bond because they “both have a cool, calculated demeanor but both fight
for two competing ideologies” (Ewing, 3).
Doctor No remains calm believing that he will outsmart and prevail
against James Bond and complete his mission.
The only time Doctor No loses his calm, in the film is at the end when
James Bond is messing around with the nuclear reactor and defeating the plans
that Doctor No set up to sabotage the United States Space Program. Doctor No set the standard high when it came
to other villains and foes that James Bond was later to fight against because
he outwitted most people that he faced and did it with his wits instead of just
power.
One thing
that the James Bond films have been able to accomplish very well is having
relevant story lines that go along with what is happening in the world at the
time in 1962:
Not only does Fleming write with
great skill and verve, but there is a startling topicality about his work. Bond’s world of spy fantasia has proved to be
no fantasia at all but a mirror of what is going on in the world. We know now that the Russians do build
missile bases in nearby Caribbean islands (Dr.
No)… (Boca, 84).
Fleming uses his stories to show the public that the things
in his novels and subsequently films may truly be happening in the world. Bond films, like Dr. No, play on the fears that people have. One of the fears is that there may actually
be a villain like Doctor No, trying to plot against the United States Space
Program, as there is in the film. Dr. No is a great example of using
events that are going on during the time of the film to set up the scenes of
the film. “The U.S.-Soviet Cold War had
worked its way into the fabric of everyday life in both countries, fueled by
the arms race and the growing threat of nuclear weapons…”
(www.history.com). The threat of nuclear
weapons became ever increasingly real when the Soviet Union launched a “R-7
intercontinental ballistic missile—Sputnik…[and showed] the demonstration of the
overwhelming power of the R-7 missile—seemingly capable of delivering a nuclear
warhead into U.S. airspace…” (www.history.com).
Nuclear warfare was such a threat to Americans that they began to worry
about everything that the Soviet Union happened to be doing with their space
program. Also in 1962 the Cuban Missile
Crisis became world headlines as President John F. Kennedy believed that the
Soviets had armed the country with nuclear missiles pointing toward the United
States. It is amusing to see the
similarities between the United States and Soviet Union conflict in relation to
the film Dr. No.
During the
Cold War, Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union, decided to place nuclear
missiles in Cuba and help another communist country. Khrushchev stated that Kennedy and the United
States had violated an air and space agreement that was a part of an
international treaty. But Kennedy,
“blocked Cuba, halted the shipment of new missiles, and demanded the removal of
existing installations” which led to Khrushchev removing all missiles from Cuba
and thus ending the immediate threat of nuclear warfare (Kagan, 915). James Bond can be seen as similar figure
during the time of Dr. No was made
and when the story takes place. James
Bond can be related to John F. during the placement of the film because of his
calm and collected nature during a time of national terror. James Bond himself during his mission trying
to defeat Doctor No also remained calm and collected always knowing that he
would be able to figure out how to solve the problem. Along with Bond having the same personality
as Kennedy he also had the same good looks that also help him with women. Many women thought that John F. Kennedy was
very good looking and that helped with his popularity. James Bond is also a good looking man and
this helps him with the women also.
Writer Ian
Fleming and film director Terrence Young in 1962 were able to create a film
that would change film forever. Dr. No set a new standard for film genre
featuring spies while also setting the standard for the future James Bond films
to come. James Bond and the Dr. No film created iconic images and
characters that movie viewers were able to remember for years after the film
was released. Sean Connery as James Bond
set the standard for the suave, smooth talking, secret agent, Bonds to come
throughout the film series. Honey Ryder set the standard for
Bond girls and how they were supposed to look as a sexual object within the
film and Doctor No was the first dastardly villain the 007 would face in order
to save the world from his plan for world domination. The James Bond film also raised discussion of
how Bond treated women and how this film set the standard for how other Bond
girls were to be objectified by other Bond’s in later films. The film was able
to use current events in order to play on the fears of the viewers and keep
them entertained with its story lines during the Cold War period. Ian Fleming’s Dr. No introduced the world to the most famous secret agent in the
world and was able to do it with three words; “Bond, James Bond” and with those
three words the film industry was introduced to the greatest international spy
that would stay around for years to come.
Works Cited
Berardinelli, James. "Dr. No." Rev. of Movie. Reelviews. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=643>.
Black, David. "The Villians." The James Bond International Fan Club. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.007.info/default.asp>.
Bocca, Geoffrey. "The Spectacular Cult of Ian Fleming:." Rev. of Dr. No. Saturday Evening Post 22 June 1963: 66-68. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cd31fe2d-cf33-4b56-a20f-ad3422ba72dc%40sessionmgr110&vid=4&hid=104>.
"Dr. No (1962)." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 15 Feb. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055928/>.
Dr. No. Dir. Terence Young. Perf. Sean Connery, Ursula Andress and Bernard Lee. Eon Productions, 1962. DVD.
Ewing, James B. "Dr. No (1962)." Rev. of Movie. Cinema Sights: Through the Eyes of Film. 21 June 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://cinemasights.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/dr-no-1962/>.
Kagan, Donald, Steven E. Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. "The Cold War Era, Decolonization, and The Emergence of a New Europe." The Western Heritage. 10th ed. Vol. 2. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
"The Space Race." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 18 Feb. 2012. <http://www.history.com/topics/space-race>.
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