May I suggest that Mr. Bond be armed with a revolver?

[Cosmoline]

leadcounsel--you might prefer the John le Carré novels. The British TV adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is excellent. The field operators in those stories are actually low men on totem and get used up and tossed away pretty frequently.

 

[Gladius]

I never cared for James Bond. I always thought he was a tool, the villians were dumb, and everything was so far-fetched you'd just roll your eyes.

And Bond was always so poor at things that he was supposedly good at - martial arts were just silly looking, he fired from the hip on every occassion, and he rarely seemed to pick up the bad guys weapons, but instead would cast them aside... *really?*

I liked the Austin Powers spoof, which I think drilled the point home on how nonsense the Bond series always were.

That's the James Bond of the movies. The James Bond of the Fleming novels is actually quite a different character from the one in the films -- much less the jokey playboy, and much more dark and serious. The tech was lower and more realistic (cars that were just fast, as opposed to being gadget-laden, for instance) and more realistic villains as well. And Bond actually got hurt every now and then.

The movies are fun, but generally pretty silly (with the possible exception of the Daniel Craig movies...).

 

[amd6547]

I just read the latest iteration of the Bond novel, titled "Carte Blanche". In this novel, James is now armed with a Walther PPS and a Gemtech silencer.
In one scene, he is in a shootout...his ally, a South African policewoman hands Bond her Colt Python...He asks her if she has any speedloaders or spare ammo, when she says no, he says "ever heard of a Glock?"

 

[David E]

Hmmm, so it was a nickel M-29.......at least I got the holster right!

 

[AlexanderA]

I wonder how much the manufacturers paid for "product placement," both in the books and the movies.

A real agent would make do with whatever was at hand, and be able to use well whatever was encountered. The descriptions of guns, cars, etc., in Bond books/movies are just a form of "porn." This is all a throwback to the consumption-driven society of the 50's/60's. Back then a lot of people had cravings for things that they didn't own. This stuff caters to a sense of envy.

 

[Gladius]

I wonder how much the manufacturers paid for "product placement," both in the books and the movies.

A real agent would make do with whatever was at hand, and be able to use well whatever was encountered. The descriptions of guns, cars, etc., in Bond books/movies are just a form of "porn." This is all a throwback to the consumption-driven society of the 50's/60's. Back then a lot of people had cravings for things that they didn't own. This stuff caters to a sense of envy.

In the Fleming books, not so much. At least not earlier on; Fleming did always have his own rather elaborate sense of taste.
The movies, on the other hand -- oh yes. Big time. Why did BMW supply Bonds' cars for three (or was it four?) of the movies? And if you look close, there's plenty of other product placement as well (The Sharper Image gets in there with some frequency). Manufacturers pay a mint for that exposure. And the Bond films were an early test ground for the kind of product placement you see all the time on a lot of current films and TV shows. And -- to keep it gun related -- that includes Walther. Bond sold lots of PPK's and they understood that. Why is the P99 as popular as it is? Walther understands product placement pretty well (even if they had no part in the placement of the PPK in the original Dr. No novel).

 

[Old Bull Lee]

Gladius, you are indeed correct. Bond is no superhero in these books. He suffers a lot of physical and psychological damage from his adventures.

The adventures themselves are much more down-to-earth too, at least in the earlier novels. Most of the "villains" are merely gangsters or Russian spies and the conflicts are pieces of the Cold War.

 

[Bovice]

I think the new bond films coming out are pretty good. I had to laugh at the return of the PPK in Quantum of Solace. Notice how it only made a few appearances, though. The rest of the time, he was using P226s swiped from other MI6 agents. Maybe Bond will be moving away from Walther?

 

[amd6547]

"....A real agent would make do with whatever was at hand, and be able to use well whatever was encountered. The descriptions of guns, cars, etc., in Bond books/movies are just a form of "porn." This is all a throwback to the consumption-driven society of the 50's/60's. Back then a lot of people had cravings for things that they didn't own. This stuff caters to a sense of envy...."
I consider the Fleming novels literature, not consumerist "porn"...Nothing in the novels or movies made me crave anything portrayed in them, and I can truthfully say that my desire to own a Walther PPK predates seeing the movies or reading the novels.
I hate revisionist elitist pop psychology interpretations.

 

[tekarra]

The Bond books are far better than the movies, at least the Fleming novels. Haven't read any of the new Bond novels.

Remember Matt Helm? In the books he used a variety of firearms.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

good thread

IIRC Bond carried a .25acp Beretta in Casino Royale.
some years back I saw a fella shoot a .25acp into the face of an electric clock about 10-12" diameter the bezel was come to find out steel about 1/32" or less thickness. distance about 6' -yes 6'. the bezel stopped all the fmj slugs and the toungue and groove pine of the wall stopped the other slugs that missed the clock (yes he was drunk I left immediatly) with them just barely in sight of being buried into the pine boards.