James Bond to the people of Ireland..

theCRAIG

This was a topic that interested me greatly all my life...on how the people of ireland see james bond...being just miles from the country that associates themeselves to extraordinary lengths,England...do people of ireland feel closer to James Bond then an american or European should..?

Personally it makes me feel proud to be irish..being so close to the country that owns 007 both through literacy and film,although many critisise his modern appearances as "american"

Just a question..any feedback is appreciated ;D

Timmyboy

I think that James Bond in all of his guises is fun and generally action filled. Only got to see him once at the movies as a young lad and that wasn't a real one (it was the Sean Connerry one where Sean came back via some other producers or the like) but it was still great.

The key features, good looking people, great places, action, drama, world threatening distasters needing James to remedy it, new technologies, fast cars were just then a boys dream come true.

Looking forward to the next one.

Just for the record I feel that that new guy who's name I now cannot remember is doing a very good job in the role.

paulieeye

theCRAIG wrote: »

Personally it makes me feel proud to be irish..being so close to the country that owns 007

this confuses me. why exactly does it make u proud to be irish???

WatchWolf

What the hell is this guy talking about?

Nervous Wreck

theCRAIG wrote: »

Personally it makes me feel proud to be irish..being so close to the country that owns 007 both through literacy and film,although many critisise his modern appearances as "american"

Proximity to the country in which the character is set makes you proud to be Irish? That's really weird.

I hate James Bond films because they are boring and shit. I would feel this way no matter where I was from though.

krudler

theCRAIG wrote: »

This was a topic that interested me greatly all my life...on how the people of ireland see james bond...being just miles from the country that associates themeselves to extraordinary lengths,England...do people of ireland feel closer to James Bond then an american or European should..?

Personally it makes me feel proud to be irish..being so close to the country that owns 007 both through literacy and film,although many critisise his modern appearances as "american"

Just a question..any feedback is appreciated ;D

same country that made the Carry On movies, and they're sh1t :pac:

Sound of Silence

At least consider Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

He happened to actually be Irish.

krudler

Sound of Silence wrote: »

At least consider Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

He happened to actually be Irish.

Bram Stoker too.

johnny_ultimate

Heck, I'm not even proud of any of the crap Ireland pours out, let alone the mindless junk the neighbouring kingdom makes.

Pride is overrated, frankly.

indough

Sound of Silence wrote: »

At least consider Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

He happened to actually be Irish.

how was he irish?

psicic

indough wrote: »

how was he irish?

Vaguely remembered history - someone else might post more - but Conan Doyle at least considered himself to be quite Irish.... in a very of-it's-time British Empire sort of way. He was born in Scotland, but his mother was Irish, his father was of Irish extraction and his family was considered Irish Roman Catholic. It didn't mean he wasn't a big supporter of the British Empire - though in the end he supported home rule for Ireland and lashed money to various causes, including Roger Casement's defence when on trial.

As for the op's question, Harry Palmer was better than Bond, and George Smiley was better than both... and I don't particularly feel proud to live near their fictional home... just as I don't particularly lament our fictional distance from Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, Arkady Renko or Aeon Flux(I'm counting the last two as a spies).

Sound of Silence

indough wrote: »

how was he irish?

Other than the fact that his entire Family were Irish?

Irish blood, English heart, and all that...

FloatingVoter

Sean Connery - Scottish
George Lazenby - Australian (very under-rated actor)
Roger Eyebrows - English
Timothy Dalton - Welsh
Pierce Brosnan - 'gwan the Irish
and Daniel Craig - English

...oh and Woody Allen (NYC) - in the better Casino Royale.

We can all claim Bond as one of our own. I had a few dry martinis with him there while the KGB drugged the Irish team last night.

indough

Sound of Silence wrote: »

Other than the fact that his entire Family were Irish?

Irish blood, English heart, and all that...

that does not make him irish. there are enough famous and successful people born here that we don't have to go claiming other peoples

D-FENS

FloatingVoter wrote: »

...oh and Woody Allen (NYC) - in the better Casino Royale.

We can all claim Bond as one of our own. I had a few dry martinis with him there while the KGB drugged the Irish team last night.

David Niven played James Bond in Casino Royale, just saying

On the plus side, great to see our neighbors help restore Irish pride last night with a draw against France. Having said that, France are also very close to us, so that's like 2 points in the euro's for Ireland!

Nervous Wreck

D-FENS wrote: »

David Niven played James Bond in Casino Royale, just saying

Jimmy Bond!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061452/

D-FENS

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

Jimmy Bond!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061452/

BuilderPlumber

Just came across this thread. As a person who saw all the films and read all the original Fleming books, Bond is portrayed very differently by the different actors.

Certainly, the portrayal by Roger Moore, George Lazenby and EVEN Sean Connery ditched the dark, troubled hitman persona of Ian Fleming's books (the world was not ready for a state sanctioned Love/Hate style hitman at the time! Fleming's troubled and often ruthless Bond often reminded me of a combination of Nidge, Fran and Darren from Love/Hate). Timothy Dalton added in elements of Fleming's original character (but with an emphasis that he only kills when he has to: however, wouldn't this be the same as Nidge?) and Daniel Craig perhaps comes closest of all to the Bond of the books? Pierce Brosnan seemed to be a continuation of Roger Moore's Bond in many ways.

So, James Bond to the people of Ireland? Comparisons between Bond and Love/Hate?

James Bond v Nigel Delaney: Bond works for the British Secret Service and stops villains from holding the world to ransom. Nigel Delaney (Nidge) works for himself. Both will stop at nothing to get their mission complete and will only kill when needed. Both have been portrayed as complex, emotional men who have a conscience. One is a law enforcer, the other a criminal: but only a couple of times did Bond go up against a Nidge type as the main villain (i.e. Mr Big/Dr Kananga and Franz Sanchez).

James Bond v Francis Cooney: Fran the man joked about looking like famous Bond villain (and later ally) Jaws with regard to his teeth. What was said about Nidge above applies also to Fran.

James Bond v Darren Treacy: here are two VERY alike characters. Both are to all intents and purposes hitmen and troubleshooters. Bond's boss is the British government and/or on occasion other governments (he has often been partnered with US, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. agents to take down common enemies). Darren's bosses were John Boy and Nidge. Both carry out their orders very efficiently and without question. However, Bond rarely feels remorse for taking out those he kills (mainly because they are evil terrorists) but Darren often does (as he often has to kill innocent people who have witnessed something).

The first Bond I ever watched was Goldfinger and I remember in the 1980s getting all excited when a Bond film was on TV. It was rarer than now. I still love these films but I guess they have influenced everything that came along since then and Bond's character has been used as a basis often for the likes of the Bourne films, Hitman, XXX, etc. in recent times. Likewise, the Bond films borrowed from other sources such as Star Wars/Star Trek/all the other space films (Moonraker), Indiana Jones (Octopussy), Rambo (The Living Daylights) and Miami Vice (Licence to Kill) which all (apart from the space films!) also borrowed from Bond. Without Bond, action films and series right up to and including Love/Hate and Breaking Bad may not have been possible. Bond films set in motion a whole new style of action film and this in turn inspired action TV series.

jaykhunter

Since he's extremely British and I'm Irish, I don't feel any affiliation with him. That said I never warmed to him in general; the suave, sharp-tongued, impeccably dressed, highly-trained assassin ladies-man; a British George Clooney. (I actually like Daniel Craig's brute character the most as I find he's much more relateable). I don't think I'd feel too much different if I were English though. I don't feel 'closer' with say, Pierce Brosnan's portrayal!

(On a side note, why doesn't Microsoft recognise the word relateable?)

Mr Williams

James Bond is like a cartoon character I much prefer Jason Bourne.

BrookieD

krudler wrote: »

same country that made the Carry On movies, and they're sh1t :pac:

WTF - Carry on Movies are brilliant .... :P

charlie_says

It's an interesting question OP. Perhaps the reason why the troubles wasn't covered in the 007 Bond films has some reason in this:

I think we have a Catholic in the hood.

SeantheMan

indough wrote: »

that does not make him irish. there are enough famous and successful people born here that we don't have to go claiming other peoples

Only when we need them for football


In response to the OP....it's a stupid statement to say that a fictional character from another country gives you some sense of national pride.
'Harry Potter' is English, I'm sure all the kids these days are proud to be Irish because we across the sea from him.

BuilderPlumber

charlie_says wrote: »

It's an interesting question OP. Perhaps the reason why the troubles wasn't covered in the 007 Bond films has some reason in this:

I think we have a Catholic in the hood.

This is interesting that the Northern Ireland issue was never mentioned or dealt with in a Bond film. Perhaps there were reasons for this?

The films were mostly of an apolitical nature. Again, many reasons for this. It was true that the first of the Fleming books were written during the height of the pre-detente cold war. The early Bond books were anti-Soviet Union pure and simple with SMERSH as the main baddies. Later, Fleming's books took a decidedly apolitical turn with the creation of SPECTRE, an organisation of rogues from everywhere aligned to no country (this reflected the era of detente). The films largely followed the latter: ones with SMERSH originally in them were remade with SPECTRE instead (From Russia with Love) and others had private baddies instead of SMERSH (Live and Let Die, Goldfinger). Later films of course went a step further to show Soviets and Westerners join forces against common enemies trying the stir up trouble.

With this backdrop in mind, the Northern Ireland situation just like the Vietnam war, 9/11, the Yugoslav wars, the Iraq wars, etc. were all largely ignored. Sometimes, real life issues came up. For example, The Living Daylights: the Russian war in Afghanistan is dealt with and even Spiert Spionam (Fleming's more formal name for SMERSH) gets mentioned but it is also highly emphasised that it is dissident Russians. Likewise, Octopussy: we see a zealous Russian general plot to annex more of Europe. In both cases, we see the moderate Russians take care of their own bad guys with Bond dealing with the non-Russian baddies in both films.

So, I think, the films avoided controversial issues as much as possible and wanted to portray all superpowers as rational and sharing of common enemies. Furthermore, Bond often was paired with female Russian and Chinese agents who were his girlfriends in the films too!

If Northern Ireland had featured, it would have been very controversial. Whether the baddie was chosen as IRA or UVF would lead to violent protests and calls for the film to be banned. It would divide Irish and British people so I guess it was left out. Akin to why we do not see al Qaeda as the baddies in the films now either. However, in the real worlds, I'm sure the IRA, UVF and other NI groups along with the likes of al Qaeda are/were the primary focus of British intelligence.

bnt

I didn't learn that Pierce Brosnan was Irish until after his last Bond film. I'd seen him in Remington Steele years earlier, thought he was a "Hollywood Englishman" at the time!

Though I'm not the best person to be weighing in on this question, having been born less than twenty miles from where Sean Connery was ...

Agricola

I think the attraction of Bond is universal in respect of the action, fast cars, beautiful women, gadgets and easily identifiable 2d villains for him to square up to. A British audience has the added dimension of him being their own creation. British secret agent, refined gentleman type, the Aston Martin, "For Queen and Country" etc etc. That stuff might bother more republican mined cinema goers, but to the rest of us it's just a work of fiction made to entertain, so enjoy it.