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| | Rumor has it that James Bond is heading back to his roots -- and they are blond. Daniel Craig, a sandy haired actor, has been pegged as the star of the next Bond film, entitled "Casino Royale." The movie is due out in November of 2006. Craig stated that he downed a couple of martinis when he found out that he had been cast. Craig's name actually had been floating around for some time and was revealed after he was whisked down the River Thames in a military speedboat to a river side press conference. He replaced Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Michael G. Wilson, producer of the movie, indicated that 200 actors were considered for the part.
James Bond's permanent residence: Bond is a subject of Her Majesty, though he does not have pure English blood running in his veins. James Bond was born in the family of Andrew Bond, a Scot from Glencoe. Mother of Bond, Monique Delacroix, was a Swiss from Canton de Vand. Since the age of eleven years, Bond was brought up by his aunt Charmian Bond in the small village of Pett Bottom near to Canterbury in Kent County. At twelve years, he attended Eton, however after two semesters because of a scandal he gave up his studies. Thereafter, he joined the Fettes School, where his father had studied earlier. Now Bond lives in the luxurious London neighborhood of Chelsea. The apartment is located on Kings Road, on the first floor. One has to use a staircase to enter his apartment. We can obtain the description of the location of his apartment from Fleming's novel Moonraker. The description about the inside of his apartment can be found in the second part of the novel From Russia With Love. After leaving for a vacation, Bond acquired a country house in the Caribbean, naming it “Bashful” where he continued to live.
James Bond is 50 years old. Some remember James Bond in the form of Sean Connery, a bit bulky; – it is possible, Connery thought, that the secret agent had already crossed fifty years of age.
In February 1952 the upcoming writer Ian Fleming sat across the table in his home Golden eye in Jamaica and on an Imperial typewriter he typed chapter 1 of the spy-adventure novel “Casino Royale”. And already in the second paragraph he wrote: “James Bond suddenly felt tiredness. He always knew when his body or brain needed rest”. In this way, the bright and ruthless, elegant and ironic, secret service agent was born who treated cars like women, and treated women like cars. After 10 years, when the film “Dr. No” was released, the name “Bond, James Bond” became a household name meaning risk, pleasure, fights, chase, an indispensable presence of beautiful women, and also a martini which was to be shaken but not stirred.
But how did Bond become the most popular secret service agent in the world? Fleming, truly speaking, simply fantasized his hero: after 12 years of intense work he had written 14 novels to pacify his impetus imagination. Yes, actually the during war, together with admiral Godfrey, under the prototype “M”, he took part in spying operations against the Nazis, that were worthy of James Bond. For organizing the cover to disembark the soldiers of the allied army at Sicily, the Englishmen threw a corpse dressed in the uniform of a naval officer who had “classified documents” with him. For giving credibility to the act, Fleming put theatre tickets and love letters in the pockets of its uniform. After the war, he worked in banks and newspapers before relocating to Jamaica together with his wife and children.
The tropics change the habits of Englishmen: reviving, bathing in the ocean, breakfast in the garden with scrambled eggs and coffee, three-hours of work on the typing machine, lunch, siesta, revising what has been written, and in the evening, rewarding oneself with a party or drink.
Who was James Bond in his view? “This is the imagination, based on the experience of the author”, - Fleming once said “By definition, fiction is not real life. These are the dreams of the author that could happen”. But how can such an infantile character be compared with the characters of Stevenson? “Something, so allegorical, that it is as significant as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. The first answer to this question that comes in our minds naturally is the centuries-old struggle of Good against Evil; the reckless Mr. Bond can be compared with the serious character Marlowe by Raymond Chandler.
But we will not go deep into it, and remain at the homeland of Verloc, a tough secret service agent of Condara, and Smiley, hero of John le Carre. The question is simple enough: why le Carre, despite having the talent of an original writer and a shrewd psychologist, is compelled to write new scripts and new horror scenes while Fleming’s novels, “From Russia with Love”, “Goldfinger”, “Thunderball”, “Live and Let Die”, “The Spy who Loved Me”, despite literary drawbacks, remain great hits? Smiley committed a mistake, having chosen for himself a particular enemy, struggling with communism, i.e. the Soviet Union: the Berlin wall had fallen and so he is left without work. And we at least remember the organization “SPECTRE” which James Bond fights against. After all, such opponent never dies, it is just enough to change his dress. Russians have become silent; it means that he can strike on the yellow-faced enemies or terrorist groups.
Regarding terrorists: you must know that George Bush defines his enemies as “axis of evil”. It is more likely like an imagination rather than a reality - almost in the same manner as Ronald Reagan accused the “empire of evil” instead of naming the real name of the enemy. Bush, in the same way as James Bond, has found his Spectre. And like Agent 007, at least, in the allegorical realm, he is confident of victory.
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