Bonding

Craig....Daniel Craig. With the recent release of the film Quantum of Solace, things have changed for James Bond. Gone are some of the things associated with the classic Bond ("Bond....James Bond") and his penchant for martinis which were "shaken, not stirred." A recent Newsweek magazine article (see the link here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/168849) discloses a lot of information about the evolution of the fictional secret agent 007. I was in elementary school when my parents took my sibling and me along to watch a double feature of Dr. No and Thunderball, forever getting me confused at that age about which film came first (it was Dr. No.)

While I didn't understand why the first version of the film Casino Royale was such an odd film (with a good musical soundrack, and several well-known actors of that time, however) I learned it was remade because the original was done the way it was because of property rights.

While there were several good James Bond "opening songs," I'd have to agree with some who have written about such things (including Newsweek's recent articles) that the honor of best opening theme belongs to Live and Let Die, written by Paul and Linda McCartney (that's SIR Paul McCartney to most of us, and a former Beatle as well.) McCartney still performs the song brilliantly years later.

Like many females of my age who saw the first James Bond as Sean Connery, it's pretty darn hard to accept any other, but having seen the remade Casino Royale with Daniel Craig, I can say that Craig is probably number two on the list of best Bonds. I know there are some who will disagree with me. Some of the females who first became aware of James Bond during Roger Moore's take on that role, insist that Moore is the quintessential Bond. Admittedly, I haven't surveyed that many people, and it's been mostly females, but I've wondered about who guys think is the real Bond.

James Bond was in the first film I saw on my own as a teenager (You Only Live Twice) when films were not so strictly rated as they are now, so it is part of my on personal history of adolescent transition. But by that time, I had already "Bonded" with Sean Connery. I would look back and think "This is the same guy who was in the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People?" which I saw with my mother as a child of five (and didn't remember much of Connery's performance.)

Before conclusions are drawn that it was my mother who wanted to see Sean Connery as Bond, all I can say is that she was fonder of Roger Moore as an actor as I remember (she liked his television series, The Saint.)

I did not see Daniel Craig's turn as 007 in Casino Royale until it was on pay-per-view (I rarely go out to movies any more.) I saw few of the Bond movies during the years following Connery's portrayal of the man in Her Majesty's secret service. But Craig seems like a good fit for the role which is has been around for quite some time, starting off in the mind of writer Ian Fleming and growing to a cultural icon over the years, especially in the 1960s.