Agent James Bond is always (that is, always) fresh, clean-shaven, elegant, and bold. He can easily fight evil and perform super-secret operations, and beauties strive to fall into the arms of the brave Agent 007.
Recently, I rewatched a couple of movies from Bondiana and wondered why Ian Fleming’s character, invented in wartime, stays relevant now. I decided to break James Bond’s personality into pieces. And it was fun!
About James Bond.
Ian Fleming is the author of the novels about the secret agent. Fleming’s extraordinary intelligence, talent for learning languages, and adventurism came in handy when he worked in naval intelligence. He had no equal in thinking up various special operations and writing brilliant reports. Working in intelligence satisfied Fleming’s passion for adventure and everything unusual, but the future writer increasingly thought about changing his activities.
After retiring, Fleming lived for some time in Jamaica, where he created the character of Agent James Bond. James Bond was named after the British ornithologist, and the character was loosely based on Fleming and real-life English spies. The author penned 14 novels about Agent 007, which made him popular and rich. The writer’s works have been translated into 30 languages and published in multi-million copies.
Overall, the author created an image of a tragic character with a dark past. Bond gives the impression of a gloomy person, devoid of a sense of humor, but at the same time, he never kills his opponents for pleasure or personal gain. He is guided by his duties as an intelligence officer and a sense of duty to his homeland.
James Bond is a typical Byronic hero, and I already have a fantastic article about Byronic personality.
Agent 007 transformation.
A few words about how the image of Bond on the screens changed are necessary.
Seven actors have played Bond roles. The first James Bond actor in the cinema was Sean Connery. Many viewers consider his image to be canonical. Roger Moore, who is called the longest-playing Bond, is a different matter. The actor played this role in 7 movies. Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan made an impressive contribution to the franchise. According to critics, Dalton’s image is closest to the literary source – his Bond turned out to be quite cruel and dark. All the actors, except for the sixth Bond, Daniel Craig, had dark hair.
But if you love Bondiana, you have noticed how Bond turned from an ardent sexist into a more or less human character over time. About 30 years ago, after years of turning every Bond film into another boring spy thriller, the producers finally realized that after the Cold War and women’s struggle for their rights, they couldn’t make films as they used to. They rebooted the franchise and invited Pierce Brosnan. The result was the stunning GoldenEye, moderately old-fashioned and moderately innovative.
Casino Royale really shook things up in 2006, becoming one of the best Bond movies in over fifty years. It gave a fresh boost to the franchise, leading to more traditional spy flicks like Quantum of Solace and 007: Skyfall.
While preparing for this article, I read many Google queries with the following message – How to have a personality like James Bond, or how to be so cold hearted like James Bond? It sounds like an interesting question: Why do men want to be like him, and should women look for such a life partner?
How to develop a personality like James Bond?
8 reasons why we love James Bond.
Confidence
Bond is highly self-confident, which is one manifestation of sexuality for most women. In addition, this directly affects his work—self-confidence often gives better results than doubts or a purely rational approach. Both men and women perceive mild self-confidence better than modesty or shyness. His high emotional stability and vitality distinguish him from an ordinary office worker.
Calm
Agent 007 is almost always calm, even when enemies try to kill him. It also increases his perceived sexuality. Have you ever seen him trembling or fidgeting? Bond does not fidget. He deliberately speaks slowly, without haste. This behavior, combined with other characteristics, looks charismatic.
Authority
He has a determined look, which fascinates some women. Bond does not smile much, which also makes him sexy. As studies show, expressing happiness does not make a man more seductive. On the contrary, he has commanding body language and is not afraid to take up more space, and Bond’s good posture increases trust and a sense of power.
Consistency
You can rely on him. If Bond takes on a task, we are sure he will complete it. We are also sure that he will complete the task most unexpectedly, be it a tank chase through the city streets or the use of flying machines and ingenious devices. We are sure you will not be bored with him because a series of adventures and romantic events await us. There is no Bond film without a “love story” because this is one of the elements designed for a female audience.
Physical Appearance
All the actors who played Bond were tall. It is no coincidence. Researchers have found that a man who is 168 cm tall must earn $175,000 more per year to be as attractive to women as a man who is 183 cm tall.
And one more thing… Of course, the super spy wears fashionable suits. The bow tie and tuxedo compositionally complement the portrait of a lover in the corresponding episodes. As we can see, impeccable style is a necessary part of the armory of a modern knight of the cloak and dagger.
Wit
Bond is not a merry fellow but rather a wit. He is ironic and has a sense of humor but lacks self-irony, which, after a certain point, almost always evokes pity for the ironic person. His reaction to the situation is quick, and his humor is laconic, as is his speech in general. These simple signs create the impression of intelligence, although we rarely see his reasoning to judge for sure. But for the image, it is pretty enough. It is especially easy to achieve the effect of “smart” against the background of not very smart opponents.
The Mission
Despite his fickle nature and arrogance, Bond is a true patriot. To ensure that not a single hair falls from the Queen’s head, Bond is ready to break his back. His fight with notorious villains (some of whom sometimes look like caricatures: for example, Javier Bardem’s character with his hair burnt with peroxide or Dr. No) is sometimes dull. Still, Bond’s selfless fight for the peace of the Queen and the country looks worthy. Work in MI6 sometimes throws Bond to different corners of the globe, where he literally has to survive, but no difficult situation will force Bond to betray his country.
Strength and Endurance
In addition to humor, courage, and numerous romances, Bond boasts excellent physical attributes. It seems that he is a Superman. Bond can withstand the cold in GoldenEye, hold off the siege of the family estate in Skyfall, laugh in the face of the enemy during brutal torture, as in Casino Royale, and shoot accurately from a pistol in Dr. No without wrinkling his suit or ruining his hair.
No task is beyond the agent’s control. Bond is well-versed in the art and is a master of skiing, parachuting, flying a helicopter, and climbing mountains.
4 reasons to stay away from Bond.
Bond and reality are not compatible.
James Bond is the ideal hero. He is the quintessence of British style, masculinity, and humor. Men want to look up to him, and women are really into him. Indeed, some of the hero’s adventures are impossible: Agent 007 is surprisingly fresh, shaved, and elegant after numerous fights and chases. Titanic mental and physical work remains behind the scenes.
Such detachment from reality sometimes discourages even fans of the saga. Unsurprisingly, in the 2000s, the saga of super-agent James Bourne, where the events are as close to authentic as possible, gained popularity. Bond’s producers responded clearly to this trend by making Bond more human and vulnerable in Casino Royale.
He’s a pathological liar and manipulator.
Bond’s profession has forced him to act like a pathological liar for his safety (if not the entire UK’s). His 00 status also gives him certain privileges outside the law, which he uses to his advantage. In some situations, he can easily manipulate people for his benefit.
For example, in Thunderball, he only tells Domino about her brother’s fate when it suits him to share the news of his brother’s murder. He has also been known to manipulate women for important information or intimacy.
All his relationships are concise.
Bond’s profession prohibits long-term relationships. Even the prequel films with Daniel Craig show him as a lone wolf with a withdrawn and gloomy character. In the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Bond marries a woman named Tracy, with whom he runs away, but on the day of the wedding, she is conveniently killed. According to Ian Fleming, Bond was surprised that human relationships could collapse overnight.
Also, James Bond is known for his promiscuity: In each film, he has an affair with at least one woman. In total, he made love to 55 women in 23 films.
Bond is boring.
In an interview for the release of Spectre, Monica Bellucci, who at 50 became the most mature girlfriend of the famous spy, said that she was flattered by the invitation to the role: “Bond is the perfect man. Do you want to know why? Because there are no such men in life.” There is confusion here: it is unlikely that a real woman would want to deal with an old-fashioned sexist in life who was already over thirty in 1962, especially knowing that half of his ex-girlfriends died.
Bond is like a Barbie for guys, and they both popped up around the late ’50s. For him, a girl is just another gadget, like a jetpack or a scuba device.
The era of white heterosexual men ruling the world is fading away. James Bond`s image balances the old and new worlds, trying to make the most of both. Several questions inevitably arise in my head: Can Agent 007 be LGBT, or can he be black? And hey, could Bond even be a woman?
Final words.
I believe that Bond is much more than just a symbol of sex or fashion. This image is universal: an English gentleman—what could be better? James Bond should always be an invincible loner, never get married and never turn into a daddy, never grow old and never get fat, keep quiet, perform his feats, maintain irony about everything, and make people fall in love with him.
Still, this story is bound to fatigue; at times, the audience might drift away from Bond. But this period will pass, and the crowd will need to be inspired again by the impeccability that is unattainable in life—after all, such men do not exist in nature.
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That’s a cool post! I used to love James Bond movies when I was younger.
Great analysis of the James Bond character with some interesting facts thrown in! Who knew that shorter men had to earn more to get the same attention from women as tall men!? I didn’t.
What a fantastic breakdown of the character! And I agree with each section, I think all of them combined are why people still love the character today.
What a fun post! I, too, love James Bond. He is just amazing and does everything so flawlessly. Such a classic character in my opinion!
I enjoyed reading your article. I am a James Bond movie fan, though I missed some Bond movie franchises. I never realized he had bedded 55 women. That was quite a feat.
This is good to know. I am not really a fan but my parents are so, I grew up watching the films. It is interesting to know these. I enjoyed reading your post. I think James Bond is not different from the typical men we know.
Bond as a character has changed so much over the years. I think that his promiscuity puts me off his character. I used to watch the movies when I was a lot younger but I’ve not seen the most recent movies. I find most men think his character is great though.