The Life and Times of James Bond: Temporalities of Loss and Pathos in Daniel Craig’s Iteration of the Hero

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Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 As Barbara Broccoli reveals in an interview with Deadline, Bond’s demise had been on the horizon for years, as Craig himself, after the premiere of Casino Royale (2006), suggested that the character should eventually die (D’Alessandro 2022).

2 “Cinematic remaking” is defined by Kelleter and Loock as “an evolving cinematic formatting practice –that is, a practice that generates media-specific modes of variation and organizes them in historically variable categories”, such as the remake, the sequel, the spin-off, the prequel, the franchise and the reboot, among others (2017, 130). The term “multiplicities” encompasses the same “textual pluralities (…) [that] invite viewers to appreciate the new in the context of the familiar and already approved, sanctioning readings that crisscross textual borders” (Klein and Palmer 2016, 1).

3 According to Klein and Palmer, multiplicities “volatilize the original by underlining its insufficiency, by announcing that there is a ‘more’ that the urtext does not contain”, while “the existence of an original text undermines the claim to self sufficiency of what follows” (Klein and Palmer 2016, 4).

4 It is important to highlight, as Chapman does, that it was truly Goldfinger (1964), the third Bond film, “which really set the standard for the rest of the [film] series”, setting aside the otherwise “more Hitchcockian narrative of suspense and pursuit” in From Russia With Love (1963).

5 As a part of their critique of Eco’s analysis, Bennett and Woollacott add a nuance to this notion, stating there is a “dialectic between certainty and uncertainty, knowledge and ignorance, produced by the ways in which 'ways-of-telling' devices position the reader and organise the realisation of the plot which account for the peculiar pleasurable excitation experienced by the reader” (1987, 94). As they add, the foreknowledge that the hero will survive and complete the mission “renders this troubling excitation securely enjoyable” (Bennett and Woollacott 1987, 94). This very understanding, rooted in repetition and difference, can be expanded beyond the limits of Bond narratives.

6 As Jason Sperb identifies, the Bond franchise is characterized by a process of continuities and discontinuities through which “the Bond films consistently disrupt their own rhythm” (Sperb 2009, 54).

7 Bond also marries Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice (1967) during a mock ceremony to maintain his cover. She, however, manages to survive.

8 While M, Moneypenny and Q were mainly interpreted by the same actors throughout the decades, Felix Leiter and Blofeld constantly shifted actors, much like Bond himself.

9 The gadget storage room found in Die Another Day unearths several devices from Bond’s earlier years, awakening both spectator and character memory, and making a direct acknowledgement to the franchise’s 40th anniversary. Although this moment shows Bond remembering the workings of the different gadgets, and he is told to take care of his 20th watch (corresponding to Die Another Day as the 20th Bond film), the scene is not staged as a instant of narrative coherence nor dramatic gravitas: as Bond activates different antiquated gadgets and wreaks slight havoc in the storage room, leaving Q to tidy after him, the scene is played for humorous effect, and spectator gratification and recognition. A precursor to this scene can be found in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in which George Lazenby’s Bond resigns from MI6 and collects his belongings. In this case, Lazenby gathers different gadgets and souvenirs from the previous Sean Connery films in a gesture that seeks to tie both actors together under the same character and reinforce Lazenby’s legitimacy.

10 Although his analysis focuses on the first seven Bond features, Higgins states that his “observations (…) retain explanatory force for the entire Bond series, at least until the revisionist trend that was launched by Casino Royale” (2017, 2).

11 Since Proctor’s article, the term “reboot” has expanded, coming to describe different phenomena of “cinematic remakings” or “multiplicities.” In this sense, Daniel Herbert and Constantine Verevis’ (2020) edited collection, Film Reboots, gathered a series of analysis “of the most notable films (and some television programmes) to have gained attention in the press and popular discourses as ‘reboots’” (2020, 5, emphasis added). Following Joe Tompkins’ consideration of the reboot as a “critical industrial practice” (2014, 382), Herbert and Verevis identify it as a term that “gains different meanings and significance in the separate but interrelated spheres of production, textuality, circulation and reception” (2020, 4). Within that intersection of spheres, “the reboot seeks to recalibrate a franchise: the reboot is the singular textual embodiment of this effort” (Herbert and Verevis 2020, 9). This article, however, utilizes Proctor’s delimitation of the reboot as a narrative restart that disavows prior continuity. This definition is aligned with the narrative strategies of Casino Royale, and becomes useful for understanding the temporal reconfigurations brought forward by that film.

12 This distinction follows Verevis (2006), who, in his seminal book Film Remakes, established a guiding differentiation between the industrial, the textual and the critical aspects of remakes.

13 However, From Russia With Love had already suggested a narrative continuity with Dr. No through the return of Sylvia Trench, Bond’s previous love interest, and SPECTRE’s desire to avenge the death of their agent, Dr. No. After establishing vengeance as the film’s initial driving force, the narrative is quickly immersed in the workings and intrigue of that current mission, leaving Dr. No and his death as a take off point.

14 A childhood that can be equated to the villain’s past, as Silva also suffers the abandonment of his motherly figure, M.

15 The labyrinth is, in itself, an evocation to Scaramanga’s maze in The Man With The Golden Gun. Now, instead of confronting the hero with his own image, as Scaramanga’s wax dummy did, Blofeld’s maze confronts him with his interiority.

16 His father’s hunting knife (Skyfall) and pictures and documents from his and Madeleine’s infancy (Spectre) can also be added to the list.

17 In this case, however, it is the villain, Silva, who sees the grave, not Bond.

18 While, in the literary Casino Royale, “Bond’s betrayal by Vesper serves as the one central agent in the character’s conversion away from his own neurosis and towards the exterior story world of people and events” (Sperb 2009, 51), this adaptation alters Vesper’s meaning and potency, turning the relationship between the characters into the enduring foundations of the Craig iteration.

19 Dodds points out the importance of adventure for Bond’s constitution as a character: fieldwork is not only vital for the narrative, but “is essential to Bond’s identity, and his craft depends on his ability to negotiate a diversity of places and contexts in which his physical and social skills will be tested” (2014, 218).

20 For studies on Bond’s body, see Cox 2014; Funnell 2011; Fussfeld Cohen 2016; Tremonte and Racioppi 2016.

21 The authors highlight that the use of “serial” and “series” “does not line up with the more established distinction between (episodic) series and (ongoing) serial. The latter distinction approximates the formal episodicity of serial figures versus the linear development of series characters (…), but it fails to account for the material and media-technological changes at stake [their] distinction, which transcend any single narrative line of progression” (2018, 83).

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Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco

Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco (Montevideo, Uruguay) holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Universidad ORT (Uruguay) and an M.A. in Contemporary Film and Audiovisual Studies from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain), where she is currently developing her Ph.D. dissertation focused on reboots, requels and revivals. She is a member of the CINEMA Research Group of Pompeu Fabra University, and an editorial assistant of the academic journal Comparative Cinema. She has published articles in Adaptation, Communication & Society and El profesional de la información.