The Awesomeness of the New Bond Trailer!

Cafe Society
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It comes from a short story of the same name, which really isn’t a ‘Bond story’ at all, but rather a story that is being related to Bond. For the movie, “Quantum” is the name of the previous unnamed organization that Mr. White worked for and for which Le Chiffre provided banking services. In the new film, they apparently have a plan to grab ahold of precious water resources (not a spoiler, this is all over the Internet and stated by the filmmakers).

Personally, I think the title is awesome, much better than the titles apparently rejected for Robert Ludlum knockoff novels like Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day.

He’s Royal Navy, so more likely Special Boat Service (though like US Army Det Delta, the SAS does take people from other services on occasion).

Craig is probably willing to do a gay sex scene, but I doubt that Eon Productions is willing to reach that far. Then again, I was astonished at how much leeway they allowed the writers in completely deconstructing the Bond-as-hero myth (to wit the dining car scene in Casino Royale) so…color me damned excited about whatever they do. This looks like one of the few bright spots in an otherwise disappointing year in cinema.

BTW, Good to see you around, Tuckerfan. I haven’t noticed you in a while.

Stranger

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I agree. The trailer is actually what is making me want to watch Casino Royale. I think I’ll rent it this weekend.

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Bond and M speculate that Goldfinger is a Jew because he is funny looking. They realize that he cannot be since the club he and M belong to is restricted.

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Nuh-uh. Rosa Klebb may have been a bisexual sadist, but of good white stock.

Actually, to the best of my recollection, only a few Fleming villains were mixed race, and for even fewer was it significant:

Casino Royale: Le Chiffle might have been Jewish or part Jewish.

Live and Let Die: Mr. Big was black. I guess there might have been a passage hinting he was part-white, but memory fails me.

Moonraker: Hugo Drax was minor German nobility, which I figure is as white as it gets.

Diamonds Are Forever: Jack Spang (Rufus B. Saye); Seraffimo Spang, Wint, Kidd… all white, unless you want to claim Fleming made a distinction between white and Italian, which I understand would not have been unusual 50+ years ago.

From Russia, With Love: Rosa Klebb (white), Red Grant (half Irish, half German), Kronsteen (Jewish, I assume), General G. (white).

Doctor No: Dr. Julius No, the first mixed-race villain (white/Chinese) for which the racial mix was significant, given the character’s history and motivation. His various goons were “Chigroes”, Chinese/Negro, who considered themselves above the Negros (though below the Chinese). Bond’s ill-fated buddy Quarrel was black with some white in him.

Goldfinger: Auric Goldfinger. Might’ve been part-Jewish, Bond speculates, but definitely Baltic, he later figures. Goldfinger’s goons, notably Oddjob, are Korean.

For Your Eyes Only (Short story collection):

  1. From a View to a Kill: Russian spy group. No racial aspect explored. I assume white.
  2. For Your Eyes Only: Von Hammerstein (German), Gonzales and thugs (Hispanic).
  3. Quantum of Solace: None.
  4. Risico: Kristatos and thugs (Greek).
  5. The Hildebrand Rarity: Milton Krest (white, American, lout, creep).

Thunderball: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Polish.Greek). Emilio Largo (Italian, I assume). Various SPECTRE goons of various ethnic backgrounds.

The Spy Who Loved Me: Horror, Sluggsy (generic American thugs).

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: Blofeld, Irma Bunt (German, I guess, though some of her history was briefly described). More SPECTRE goons of various ethnicities.

You Only Live Twice: Blofeld and Bunt, and various Japanese goons.

The Man With the Golden Gun: Pistols Scaramanga (Spanish Catalan, though the expositional Secret Service biography compiled on him pointlessly and quaintly suggests he might be a latent homosexual. No evidence of this appears in the character’s actions). Plus assorted hoods of Italian, Russian descent.

Octopussy and the Living Daylights. Short stories:

  1. Octopussy: Major Dexter Smythe. White guy. An older version of Bond, I’d guess.
  2. The Living Daylights: “Trigger”. Blonde woman. Attractive to Bond.
  3. The Property of a Lady: Unidentified resident director of KGB in London (white, I assume), Maria Freudenstein (German, as I recall).
    There are a few dated sentiments expressed here and there, but it’s incorrect to say race (let alone mixed-race) was a significant factor in most, let alone all, Fleming villains. It’s only very significant for Doctor No, arguably somewhat for Mr. Big, and for the rest not at all.