Honey Rider
FILM: Dr.No (1962)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Beachcomber located in Jamaica; makes a living selling seashells in Miami.
EMPLOYER: Self.
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “I put a black widow under his mosquito net, a female, and they’re the worst. It took him a whole week to die.” “Did I do wrong?”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Bond falls for Honey’s child-of-nature allure – plus the fact she looks great in a white bikini!
JILL MASTERSON
FILM: Goldfinger (1964)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Kept woman. Villain’s plaything (although she tells Bond she’s only paid to be seen with Goldfinger) and card cheat accomplice.
EMPLOYER: Auric Goldfinger.
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “I’m beginning to like you Mr Bond – more than anyone I’ve met in a long time, James.”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: She looks great in a black bikini – and later in Bond’s pyjama top.
PUSSY GALORE
FILM: Goldfinger (1964)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Personal Pilot
EMPLOYER: Auric Goldfinger
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “Do you want to play it easy – or the hard way?”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: She looks great in the hay (literally). Almost certainly looks pretty good in a bikini.
DOMINO DERVAL
FILM: Thunderball (1965)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Kept woman. Villain's plaything.
EMPLOYER: Emilio Largo
MOST MEMORABLEDIALOGUE: (to Bond) "Promise me you'll kill Largo." (Fair enough - the villain's killed her brother after all!)
ATTRACTION FACTOR: She looks great in a black & white bikini.
FIONA VOLPE
FILM: Thunderball (1965)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Assassin
EMPLOYER: SPECTRE (SPecial Executive or Counterintelligence Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) – Execution Branch
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “James Bond, who only has to make love to a women and she starts to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue – but not this one! What a blow it must have been – you having a failure.”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Looks great clad in black leather biker’s gear – unless of course you’re the driver of the car she’s about to incinerate with her rocket-firing motorbike!
TRACY BOND – nee Vincenzo
FILM: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Doesn’t need one – she’s a Countess!
EMPLOYER: N/A
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “You’re very sure of yourself – aren’t you? Suppose I were to kill you for a thrill!”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: She’s loaded – she’s a Countess!
MARY GOODNIGHT
FILM: The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Staff Intelligence – Hong Kong
EMPLOYER: British Secret Service
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “Oh darling I’m tempted – but killing a few hours as one of your passing fancies isn’t quite my scene.”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Looks great in all kinds of bikinis – and a baby doll nightie!
ANYA AMASOVA
FILM: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Spy (Agent Triple X)
EMPLOYER: KGB
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond, who has just been wounded) “Why don’t you lie down and let me look at it!”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Looks great in and out of any number of uniforms.
OCTOPUSSY
FILM: Octopussy (1983)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Smuggler and Circus owner
EMPLOYER: Self
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “…and you are James Bond oo7 licence to kill! Am I to be you’re target for tonight?”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Heads a large female group of international smugglers. Unfortunately she doesn’t live up to her name.
PAM BOUVIER
FILM: Licence To Kill (1989)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Contract Pilot
EMPLOYER: CIA
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “It’s Ms Kennedy – and why can’t you be my executive secretary?”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: She handles a pump-action shotgun like no woman you’ve ever seen!
NATALYA SIMONOVA
FILM: GoldenEye (1995)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Computer Programmer
EMPLOYER: Russian Government – ‘Goldeneye project’
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “You think I’m impressed? All of you with your guns you’re killing you’re death – for what? So you can be a hero? All the heroes I know are dead.”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Can tell the difference between a floppy or hard disk in the dark!
WAI LIN
FILM: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Secret Agent
EMPLOYER: Chinese People’s External Security Force
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) “…it’s mostly dull routine of course, but every now and then, you get to sail on a beautiful evening like this – and sometimes work with a decadent agent of a corrupt Western power.”
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Martial Arts Expert. Petite powerhouse of a woman. Allows a man to lie back and think of England while she does all the work – beating the bad guys into submission!
JINX
FILM: Die Another Day (2002)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Secret Agent
EMPLOYER: NSA
MOST MEMORABLE DIALOGUE: (to Bond) Ornithologist, huh? There’s a mouthful (looking south).(to Bond, while tied up with deadly laser beams spinning randomly around her) James!! Turn them off!! Turn them off or I’ll be half the girl I used to be!!
ATRACTION FACTOR: Doesn’t beat about the bush! This lady casts from the hip and lands what she wants!! Deadly with a pistol and in unarmed combat – but drop-deadly gorgeous in an orange bikini!!!!
Vesper Lynd
FILM: Casino Royale (2006)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Double Agent
EMPLOYER: Mi6 and QUANTUM
MOST MEMERABLE DIALOGUE: "I'm the money"
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Vesper is a fairly dark charachter and her personality intrigues Bond. Her independence and self freliance also impress Bond, who ends up slowly falling in love with her. QUANTUM exploit this by using Vesper as bait.
Camille
FILM: Quantum of Solace (2008)
JOB DESCRIPTION: Ex Bolivian government agent
EMPLOYER: Bolivian Government
MOST MEMERABLE DIALOGUE: "You lost someone you love?"...(Bond) "Yes, yes i did."...(Camille)"You ever find the person who did it?"...(Bond)"NO!"...(Camille)"Let me know when you do. I'd like to know how it feels."
ATTRACTION FACTOR: Bond is attracted to Camille because of her stregth in light of everything she has lost. Shem also has a deep vulnerability from her families killing, which Bond finds attractive.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
My Own Work
1. Do any of the women’s in the JB films have significant entrances or exits?
Ursula Andress originally was going to appear in the altogether on the beach but she had such a significant entrance that even with long range fuzzy arty shots with a tele-photo lens it was still visible and so she had to cover it up with white bikini bottoms and a very broad belt.
2. What do the women in the JBond films have in common?
Most leading Bond women are subservient to a master, like in the real world back then before society upset the status quo. Bond’s gay character makes them feel safe and they get a little of their self-esteem back, not much but a little, and try and reward him in the only way they know how, but he is in denial about his sexuality, and like a customs officer searching a suspected drugs mule, he is expected to go through the motions.
3. How are females portrayed within the JB films, including female villians?
The female villains are portrayed as butch lesbian types, not very nice looking and with all the feminine charm of a homophobic all-in wrestler in a prison communal shower with no soap dishes attached to the walls! One exception was the Italian beauty Luciana Paluzzi who played Fiona Volpe in Thunderball, who was much better looking and sexier than the main Bond girl. However, she was a very nasty murdering bitch and got her just deserts by being shot accidently by one of her henchmen, not long after Bond got inside her character.The Grace Jones May Day character in A View To A Kill was also a butch lesbian type, but her feminine side eventually shone through when she saved Bond in a mine rigged with a bomb, and straddled the nuclear warhead in symbolic surrender to Bond's pseudo masculinity. Rosa Klebb was the epitome of a Bond bad girl; ugly, butch, psychopathic and no redeeming qualities whatsoever, like a Dalek with a migraine!
4. Do the portrayal of female characters match women of their time?
Yes, back in the Swinging 60s when the Bond saga began, women were either airheaded bimbos, or, with the advent of social welfare and many new careers open to woman in social work and teaching, they were often butch lesbian types who adopted a masculine persona and dressed like Canadian gold prospectors, listened to Joan Baez records and threw away the little pink razor!
5. What are the females relationships like with Bond?
Most leading Bond girls are pitiful pathetic women under the spell of a geriatric control freak and are too idle to do anything off their own bat, so they have to wait for someone like Bond to come along and free them from their bondage. The millionaire lifestyle apparently sapping all their strength and will so they can’t escape from the bad guy, who they wanted to be with in the first place let’s not forget, for the lazy glamorous aforementioned millionaire lifestyle! It’s similar to married women on housing estates in Basingstoke, and the novelty of white goods, laminated flooring, package holiday to Spain, and the husband's company Vauxhall Vectra with alloy wheels soon wears off and they either turn to Mills & Boon as a way of escaping the drudgery of being a kept woman to a lardy rep with a goatee, or go part time at Tesco, hoping to meet a cash rich electrical contractor with a 4X4 double cab pick up truck renovating his own detached cottage in rural Hampshire!
6. Also any opinions on the female characters in Doctor No, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Golden Eye and Die Another Day.
Or
any other general opinions on women in the James Bond films would be very useful.
All Bond women are depicted as useless bimbos if they’re the leading lady, and butch types trying to be nastier than the men if they work for the baddies. Miss Moneypenny has been waiting for so long for Bond to sweep her off her feet that she must be very frustrated and somewhat deluded. M changed to a woman but the character is not deep enough for the gender to make any difference, M is just a civil servant. Pussy Galore was probably the only one with any self respect, albeit with a name like that, but even she fell for the Bond spiel!In reality Bond hankered after the henchmen, Oddjob, Tee Hee and Jaws, and was often helpless in their arm(s) only fighting them off so as not to reveal his true sexuality to the femme fatale who sat watching, too lazy to even get up off the bed and smash a table lamp over the baddie's head to assist her rescuer!
Ursula Andress originally was going to appear in the altogether on the beach but she had such a significant entrance that even with long range fuzzy arty shots with a tele-photo lens it was still visible and so she had to cover it up with white bikini bottoms and a very broad belt.
2. What do the women in the JBond films have in common?
Most leading Bond women are subservient to a master, like in the real world back then before society upset the status quo. Bond’s gay character makes them feel safe and they get a little of their self-esteem back, not much but a little, and try and reward him in the only way they know how, but he is in denial about his sexuality, and like a customs officer searching a suspected drugs mule, he is expected to go through the motions.
3. How are females portrayed within the JB films, including female villians?
The female villains are portrayed as butch lesbian types, not very nice looking and with all the feminine charm of a homophobic all-in wrestler in a prison communal shower with no soap dishes attached to the walls! One exception was the Italian beauty Luciana Paluzzi who played Fiona Volpe in Thunderball, who was much better looking and sexier than the main Bond girl. However, she was a very nasty murdering bitch and got her just deserts by being shot accidently by one of her henchmen, not long after Bond got inside her character.The Grace Jones May Day character in A View To A Kill was also a butch lesbian type, but her feminine side eventually shone through when she saved Bond in a mine rigged with a bomb, and straddled the nuclear warhead in symbolic surrender to Bond's pseudo masculinity. Rosa Klebb was the epitome of a Bond bad girl; ugly, butch, psychopathic and no redeeming qualities whatsoever, like a Dalek with a migraine!
4. Do the portrayal of female characters match women of their time?
Yes, back in the Swinging 60s when the Bond saga began, women were either airheaded bimbos, or, with the advent of social welfare and many new careers open to woman in social work and teaching, they were often butch lesbian types who adopted a masculine persona and dressed like Canadian gold prospectors, listened to Joan Baez records and threw away the little pink razor!
5. What are the females relationships like with Bond?
Most leading Bond girls are pitiful pathetic women under the spell of a geriatric control freak and are too idle to do anything off their own bat, so they have to wait for someone like Bond to come along and free them from their bondage. The millionaire lifestyle apparently sapping all their strength and will so they can’t escape from the bad guy, who they wanted to be with in the first place let’s not forget, for the lazy glamorous aforementioned millionaire lifestyle! It’s similar to married women on housing estates in Basingstoke, and the novelty of white goods, laminated flooring, package holiday to Spain, and the husband's company Vauxhall Vectra with alloy wheels soon wears off and they either turn to Mills & Boon as a way of escaping the drudgery of being a kept woman to a lardy rep with a goatee, or go part time at Tesco, hoping to meet a cash rich electrical contractor with a 4X4 double cab pick up truck renovating his own detached cottage in rural Hampshire!
6. Also any opinions on the female characters in Doctor No, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Golden Eye and Die Another Day.
Or
any other general opinions on women in the James Bond films would be very useful.
All Bond women are depicted as useless bimbos if they’re the leading lady, and butch types trying to be nastier than the men if they work for the baddies. Miss Moneypenny has been waiting for so long for Bond to sweep her off her feet that she must be very frustrated and somewhat deluded. M changed to a woman but the character is not deep enough for the gender to make any difference, M is just a civil servant. Pussy Galore was probably the only one with any self respect, albeit with a name like that, but even she fell for the Bond spiel!In reality Bond hankered after the henchmen, Oddjob, Tee Hee and Jaws, and was often helpless in their arm(s) only fighting them off so as not to reveal his true sexuality to the femme fatale who sat watching, too lazy to even get up off the bed and smash a table lamp over the baddie's head to assist her rescuer!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
El Bloggeroo numero uno
Ursula Andress as 'Honey Ryder' in Dr. No (1962) is often considered the first and quintessential Bond Girl, although Eunice Gayson, as 'Sylvia Trench', and Zena Marshall as 'Miss Taro' are seen in that film before her and therefore preceded her as Bond Girls.
There have been many attempts to break down the numerous Bond Girls into a top 10 list for the entire series; characters who often appear in these lists include Anya Amasova, Teresa di Vicenzo and Honey Rider, who is often at Number 1 on the list.
Roles and impact
Often Bond Girls who have trysts with James Bond are later discovered as villainesses, e.g. Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) in Never Say Never Again (1983), Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) in The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) in Die Another Day (2002).
To date, only two Bond Girls have actually captured James Bond's heart. The first, Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), married Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), though she is shot dead by Irma Bunt and Ernst Stavro Blofeld at story's end. Initially, her death was to have begun Diamonds Are Forever (1971); but that idea was dropped during filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service when George Lazenby renounced the James Bond role. The second was Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale (2006). James Bond professes his love to her and resigns from MI6 so they can have a normal life together. Later, he learns that she was actually a double agent, working for his enemies. The enemy organization Quantum had kidnapped her former lover and was blackmailing her to secure her cooperation. Apparently, she did truly fall in love with Bond, but as Quantum closed in on her, she committed suicide by drowning herself in a canal in Venice.
With the exception of "doomed" Bond girls, there is no explanation offered as to why the love interest in gone by the next film and is never mentioned or alluded to again.
There have been many attempts to break down the numerous Bond Girls into a top 10 list for the entire series; characters who often appear in these lists include Anya Amasova, Teresa di Vicenzo and Honey Rider, who is often at Number 1 on the list.
Roles and impact
Often Bond Girls who have trysts with James Bond are later discovered as villainesses, e.g. Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) in Never Say Never Again (1983), Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) in The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) in Die Another Day (2002).
To date, only two Bond Girls have actually captured James Bond's heart. The first, Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), married Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), though she is shot dead by Irma Bunt and Ernst Stavro Blofeld at story's end. Initially, her death was to have begun Diamonds Are Forever (1971); but that idea was dropped during filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service when George Lazenby renounced the James Bond role. The second was Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale (2006). James Bond professes his love to her and resigns from MI6 so they can have a normal life together. Later, he learns that she was actually a double agent, working for his enemies. The enemy organization Quantum had kidnapped her former lover and was blackmailing her to secure her cooperation. Apparently, she did truly fall in love with Bond, but as Quantum closed in on her, she committed suicide by drowning herself in a canal in Venice.
With the exception of "doomed" Bond girls, there is no explanation offered as to why the love interest in gone by the next film and is never mentioned or alluded to again.
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