The Man With the Golden Touch: How the Bond Films Conquered the World [Hardcover]

I had been looking for a copy of this book in hardcover and was pleased to treat myself for Christmas, as the suggestions were that it would explore the impact of the flims on culture, people, places etc.

In fact, reading it turned into a worrying habit of finding loopholes and omissions; I am no bond "geek" but I have watched the films and read all of Flemings novels, and it became worrying that the author seemed to forget certain aspects of the books or films in order to validate his opinion, which in turn of course leads you into questioning the validity of others things.

An example; he makes the point that Fleming's Hugo Drax in the Book "Moonraker" had a bunker in Kent with a nuclear missile in it, and suggests it was a bit too much to expect the reader not to have expected the government to know of this. However it is quite clear in the book that he was building it FOR the government and was being hailed as a national hero for doing so, what the government didn't know was Drax's real intentions for the missile!

Another example is suggesting that the two assasins Mr Wint and Mr Kidd were made to be homosexual characters in the 'diamonds are forever' film because it became acceptable to have 'camp' characters in movies, completely ignoring the fact that Fleming's book had these two people in that very context and indeed, very annoyingly ignored the fact that the two actors that played them were indeed 'partners' in real life!! Poor research.........?

The book seems to merely recount each film (we know what happens don't we?) and rather than analysing the impact of the films, concentrates on how the films were being influenced by aspects of the world at that time. Call me old fashioned but shouldn't an author be avoiding stating the obvious?

The biggest issue I had, and one reason I put it down half way through, is the author clearly has a left-wing political view in life and resists no opportunity to get this point across. In fact I would say it could of been at least 45 pages shorter if he avoided this unnescesary political commentary throughout the book, indeed in one chapter I would say I learned more about the political situation in 1970's britain than I did the film he was referring to. Also cringingly he uses the word "sauce" to describe any aspect of sexual encounters of Bond and other such ,well, bizarre phrases which left me slightly uncomfortable when reading the book.

Lastly the author does make opinions on aspects of the films and books which is of course his perogative, but really REALLY tries to labour his point when he knows he will be against common opinion. Or he simply ignores massively infulential parts of the films with a metaphorical wave of the hand; again an example being his suggestion that the boat chases in Live and Let die were boring and not good but again any film-maker refers to those scenes as the ones that set the standard for such action!!! What really got me to the point of laughing was his suggestion about the underwater scenes being slow....its underwater, what do we expect? And again, the filming and invention of these scenes are forever to be in movie folklore for psuhing the boundaries of filing such scences yet he dismisses such a thing......which is one of the key legacies of the Bond phenomenon.

All in all a self-indulgent and disappointing book.

The Man With the Golden Touch: How the Bond Films Conquered the World

This largely missed Bond book-relating to both the influence and diffrences between the novels of Ian Fleming and the the Saltzman/Broccoli Bonds, is an interesting and very Leftfield book.
Sinclair Mckay's world view and Left wing views & personal views that permeate this book-I notice other reviwers found this distracting, I personally found it to be one of the best elements of the book.
Mckay works his way through Bond's infancy, in novel form, then into movies, he discusses at length their ever evolving DNA, the changing cultural background-failure of Empire, humour, OPEC, popular actors, the avengers, the Beatles. And the fluidity of the leading man changing regularly throughout the years(ala DR Who)into younger/older/blonder.

An excellent read-well worth seeking out.

Witty, readable and solid review of the Bond movies to date with plenty of context and even subtext. The author knows his Brunt from his Klebb and knows what was happening around it.
If I had to be critical I'd say he is soft on the later Roger Moore/John Glen editions, (limp, cheap tosh if you ask me) and a bit hard on Thunderball. But who cares, at the end of the day I could not put it down. Well written, well researched and I for one love the left of centre perspective.
"Do I expect you to be bored? No Mr Bond I expect you to be entertained!"