It's OK To Let Bond Die

From Thunderball, on Bond being informed of the emergency meeting:

Moneypenny: Ah-huh - in the conference room. Every 00 in Europe has been rushed in, and the Home Secretary too.
Bond: Somebody's probably lost a dog.

Can anyone possibly imagine an irreverent quip like that from Bond (or any hero figure) today?? Most are humorless, or what comedy there is is forced and phony. Far as I'm concerned, Bond died on 9/11 when it was decided to re-invent him as Loser-Bond, 'cause he so baaad, as the times seem to require. The new Bond doesn't know the difference between cockiness and mean-spiritedness. Craig was the anti-Bond, repressed and joyless, a poser. But I won't judge those who had commercial demands to be met.

The original Bond - the Bond of the books - was a character who answered to himself; entering into the service a compromise. Unlike Bourne, he questioned himself on following orders to kill on another man's say-so. Ultimately, he would have shaken those shackles because he knew he had a duty to himself as well as Queen and country. You see, killing without losing your humanity is a tricky feat; one lives in rarefied air.

Mundo Nulla Fides
(Have no faith in the world)

That Latin phrase was embossed on the letterhead of real life spy Sidney Reilly, one inspiration for Bond. That more nuanced view of the world has taken hold and is only getting stronger every day. From the film Shooter:

"There is no head to cut off. It's a conglomerate. If one of them betrays the principles of the accrual of money and power, the others betray him. What it is is human weakness. You can't kill that with a gun."

Killing bad guys through targeted attrition to make us "safe" is outdated and archaic thinking. Years ago I saw a hilarious article on the number of movie posters showing one lone figure who will save the world for us! That illusion is more than tired too. As I explained in Zatoichi Principle Addendum, no one is going to save us, no matter how much we ram that time-worn lie down our throats.

One great aspect of the Bond films actually is how they've been used to reflect the times in which they were made. Given that, the next 007 will be mandated to be a non-binary, non-white, politically-correct, sign-holding protester so he can be "inclusive" and lobby the world as to what is right and wrong on the assumption the world cannot know without him. Oh dear God, please let him rest in peace before that happens.

When asked what he was going to do after the war, Ian Fleming enthusiastically replied he was going to "write the spy story to end all spy stories!" Part of him truly believed in the Bond fantasy and its other-worldliness. Part of me does too. But how to write of a dreamer in a world that has become a raging nightmare?

At best, we have the Ukraine example. A nation full of heroes fighting to save the day. In Zatoichi Challenged, the Edo-era blind swordsman Zatoichi fights to protect an innocent couple from being killed by a Shogunate samurai sent to kill them. Unfortunately, in the middle of the battle with the samurai, another bad guy sneaks up also intent on killing the couple. Zatoichi flings his sword to kill the man, leaving him defenseless against the samurai's blade. At that point, he can only fight with his heart.

So maybe in the next Bond, he has become disillusioned (come on, who wants to die for that Boris Johnson asshole??), left the service, and committed himself to his life, as each of us has to in the end. Of course, no one else believes he will stay out of the fray (whatever fray there is) so he's attacked, and forced to defend his corner of the world. And that's all anyone can do, defend our small corners of the world, even when we have no weapons like Zatoichi against the government agent, we speak and act from the heart, that which will never die.

Don't worry about the lack of subtitles. Greatest sword fight of all time.