Most people who claim to like James Bond are wrong, just like most fans of Mad Men are completely missing the point of the show. But how can somebody be wrong about what they like?
Let’s talk about that.
You may have heard in the news recently that 007, a number which lives on in infamy, will be played in the upcoming 25th James Bond movie by a woman of color.
Whoa! Ian Fleming’s original character was a man, and so that’s just how James Bond should be portrayed; surely authenticity to the creator’s original vision is more important than some kind of character that accurately reflects the world it purports to portray, right?
Well, wait, no; actually that’s not true. You see, nobody who claims to be a fan of Ian Fleming’s original character actually likes that character, that’s why Sean Connery and Roger Moore routinely rank as people’s “best” Bonds while easily being the least accurate portrayals of the original character, which brings me back around to my point: most people don’t really like James Bond as he’s written, they like how Hollywood portrays him, which is incidentally as a charismatic sociopath with a government expense account, but that doesn’t work if 007 is someone who doesn’t look like me.
