A cultural history of the most popular and enduring film series of all time. Chapman explores the origins of the Bond films in Fleming's novels, locates them in the spy thriller genre, discusses the Bond formula and places the suave British secret agent's adventures in cinema history and film culture.
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There are two kinds of academic texts: the kind that contains photographs of Ursula Andress wearing a bikini, and the kind that do not. Licence to Thrill falls, fortunately, into the first category. -- Giles Coren The Times (London) Thoughtful, intelligent, ludicrous and a bit snobby. Bit like Bond, really. -- Stephen O'Brien SFX magazine For a theoretical study it is surprisingly entertaining. Chapman demonstrates that there is more to the 007 franchise than just girls, guns and globe trotting. He views each film as an exercise in camp. -- Mark Sanderson Evening Standard
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
James Chapman teaches at the Open University and is author of The British at War: Cinema, State, and Propaganda, 1939--1945. He is also joint editor of Windows on the Sixties.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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'It all began with a man called Ian Fleming.'1 Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
'It all began with a man called Ian Fleming.'1 Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Nicholas Casley
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a review of the second edition of 2007, the book originally appearing in 1999 and forms part of a series on `Cinema and Society'. However daunting this may sound, it is actually written in a non-academic style with a refreshing lack of jargon. James Chapman informs us that he writes "both from the perspective of a film historian and as a Bond fan." In his acknowledgements, though, he mentions that, "Most of the illustrations in this book were provided by ..." Be warned: there are no illustrations!
The author was eight years' old when he saw his first Bond movie, `The Spy Who Loved Me'. I too was eight when I saw mine, although it was `Live and Let Die'. But I do not rate Roger Moore's first Bond film as high as I do the author's choice, Moore's third, and so I felt immediately some kind of sympathetic engagement with the author who had the eye of the 1970s rather than that of the previous decade.
In his introduction, Chapman asks why we should take Bond seriously, since Ian Fleming thought we should not take him seriously at all. Chapman argues that those who disregard the views of Bond's creator are either "Fleming purists who have little time for the films", or the film fans who have rarely read the books. He naturally concentrates on the films - "sexist, heterosexist, jingoistic, xenophobic and racist" - but his book is not "yet another account of the production histories ... It is, rather, ... a cultural history ... I shall seek to place the Bond films in the contexts of British cinema history and film culture."
In the first of nine chapters, Chapman looks at Fleming's novels through the eyes of 1950s-1960s Britain with reference to critiques by the likes of Kingsley Amis, Umberto Eco, and David Cannadine.... Read more ›
The author was eight years' old when he saw his first Bond movie, `The Spy Who Loved Me'. I too was eight when I saw mine, although it was `Live and Let Die'. But I do not rate Roger Moore's first Bond film as high as I do the author's choice, Moore's third, and so I felt immediately some kind of sympathetic engagement with the author who had the eye of the 1970s rather than that of the previous decade.
In his introduction, Chapman asks why we should take Bond seriously, since Ian Fleming thought we should not take him seriously at all. Chapman argues that those who disregard the views of Bond's creator are either "Fleming purists who have little time for the films", or the film fans who have rarely read the books. He naturally concentrates on the films - "sexist, heterosexist, jingoistic, xenophobic and racist" - but his book is not "yet another account of the production histories ... It is, rather, ... a cultural history ... I shall seek to place the Bond films in the contexts of British cinema history and film culture."
In the first of nine chapters, Chapman looks at Fleming's novels through the eyes of 1950s-1960s Britain with reference to critiques by the likes of Kingsley Amis, Umberto Eco, and David Cannadine.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Jl Adcock
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Most books on Bond and the 007 phenomenon fall between two camps. On the one hand, there's the utterly pretentious tosh churned out by the likes of Umberto Eco and Simon Winder, and on the other there are the big, glossy books with lots of pictures but not much serious analysis of what Bond is about.
This cultural history of Bond in film falls somewhere between the two, to be honest. It's a workmanlike, thorough assessment of all the films (the new edition covers up to Casino Royale) but a tad dreary at times, and almost a minute disection of things which goes too far in its attempt to add academic rigour to what is really just a big entertainment franchise concerned with making popular films and lots of money.
But if you can get paid to watch, and re-watch the entire canon of Bond films and then write about them with some degree of wider perspective, then I guess you're doing something right with your career. The danger of course, is that the subject matter just isnt worth the level of investigation in the first place. Ian Fleming was typically British and upper class in his dismissal of his own work as something to read on the train as escapist fiction; but film buffs tend to take themselves a bit more seriously than that. For all the points made here, the book overlooks a couple of essential points about Bond in the cinema - firstly, the films are little more than "Carry On Spying" with double entendres and stunts; and secondly, the series has been recycling itself with less and less orginality since 1964's "Goldfinger". Spinning the analysis beyond this is impressive, but largely irrelvant in any disection of a film series that, at its heart is: empty, dated, sexist claptrap.
This cultural history of Bond in film falls somewhere between the two, to be honest. It's a workmanlike, thorough assessment of all the films (the new edition covers up to Casino Royale) but a tad dreary at times, and almost a minute disection of things which goes too far in its attempt to add academic rigour to what is really just a big entertainment franchise concerned with making popular films and lots of money.
But if you can get paid to watch, and re-watch the entire canon of Bond films and then write about them with some degree of wider perspective, then I guess you're doing something right with your career. The danger of course, is that the subject matter just isnt worth the level of investigation in the first place. Ian Fleming was typically British and upper class in his dismissal of his own work as something to read on the train as escapist fiction; but film buffs tend to take themselves a bit more seriously than that. For all the points made here, the book overlooks a couple of essential points about Bond in the cinema - firstly, the films are little more than "Carry On Spying" with double entendres and stunts; and secondly, the series has been recycling itself with less and less orginality since 1964's "Goldfinger". Spinning the analysis beyond this is impressive, but largely irrelvant in any disection of a film series that, at its heart is: empty, dated, sexist claptrap.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First Serious Book to look in to the Critical,socilogical impact the 007 films have made on society,though,the book takes nearly 60 pages to really get started it is a unbiased,kowledgeble book highly recomended for all serious Bnd fans
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm very interested in 'Bond' culture and find this book to be very informative particularly from an accademic point of view. The author stands out from other published works that either focus on gadgets, glossy photos etc. This book puts more focus and context around the social, political and artist environment from within which the original books were published and similarly evaluates the films. Some interesting box office figures too. So far a good read, despite not being the most fluidly written of books.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Tal
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bought this book as a present for my daughters partner. He is mad about James Bond so the book went down well. Good value.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I am a big James Bond fan and I think that this is the ULTIMATE book for any information on the movies, cast, crew, gadgets, etc, etc. I think that all James Bond fans out there should definately own this book.
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