The Cultural Life of James Bond, Edited by Jaap Verheul (Amsterdam University Press, 2020, Pp

The Cultural Life of James Bond, edited by Jaap Verheul (Amsterdam University Press, 2020, pp. 334) JAMES SHELTON Arriving as No Time To Die continues to be delayed, The Cultural Life of James Bond serves as a timely reminder of the variety of ways in which Bond scholarship of- fers researchers unique perspectives on the franchise’s impact on worldwide culture. The Cultural Life of James Bond's unique array of viewpoints should serve as an inspiration for scholars in the feld, while simultaneously o ering future researchers a number of alternative angles through which Bond can be interpreted. !he te"t makes a conscious attempt to bring together perspectives from beyond the previous remit of Bond scholarship, though $aap %erheul’s introduction does review existing literature and identifes areas of prior investigation undertaken by Bond scholars &Bennett and 'oollacott, ()*+; Lindner, -..)/. As %erheul states, the aim of his book is to identify the sustained increase in Bond criticism 0 with particular reference to !ony Bennett and $anet 'oollacott’s 1understand- ing of the $ames Bond phenomenon as a mobile signifer2 &(+/. !he frst section of the book pays tribute to the phenomenon’s increas- ingly transnational confguration, while also tracing its historical origins to dis- cern and deconstruct the conventional association of $ames Bond with imperial and masculinist 1Britishness2. !he frst chapter, $ames 3hapman’s 1!he 4orgotten James Shelton is /n independen( s01olar /n) Lec(urer in English /( +u02ing1/mshire *ollege 3roup$ Volume 4 · Issue 1 · Spring 2021 ISSN 2514-21 ! DOI# 10$24! %&bs$ 1 Dis(ribu(ed under ** +, 4$0 -. Bond2, undertakes the task of rehabilitating the ()56 3B7 production of Casino Royale from the margins of Bond scholarship8 3hapman does this by frst identifying a series of 1errors and myths2 &-+/ related to the television episode before subsequently re-contextualising it, arguing that any analysis which locates a 1one hour drama2 &-9/ within the wider context of the :on ;roductions’ Bond flms will naturally be problematic. By establishing the contexts within which the ()56 Casino Royale was produced, 3hapman provides a fascinating analysis of the Americanisation of Bond which takes place. As 3hapman concludes: 1=h>istori- cally it represents an alternative direction that Bond might have ta#en 0 as the other initiatives to launch Bond on television in the ()5.s demonstrate 0 but in the event did not2 &?*/. !he theme of reconte"tualisation continues in the following chapters by Mi#olaj Bunicki and Ajay Cehlawat, who reposition analyses of the Bond phenomenon’s 1global reach2 &Bunic#i, 6(/ towards Eastern Europe and Bollywood- centric contexts, respectively. Bunic#i’s analysis is similar to 3hapman’s in seek- ing to provide a productive reading of :astern :uropean analogs to the Bond flms, while Cehlawat discusses the way by which the codes of action, melo- drama, and Bollywood flm are variously adhered to or removed within the Bond canon, with references to flms such as Agent Vinod &()++D-.(-/, Don &()+*D-..9/, and Don 2 &-.((/. !he latter two chapters within this section 0 those of @elis Behlil et al. and Euw F. $ones and Andrew Eigson 0 ta#e broader approaches to analysing the Bond flms in terms of their transnationality, with Behlil et al. focusing on the nature of the Bond flms as 1runaway production=s>2 &*(/ 0 a 1transnational, post-4ordist mode of flm production in the ()9.s2 &*6/ that allowed both investment and risk to be spread across multiple countries. !his analysis positions the flmic Dr. No as the beginning of 1a peculiar e"oticism; a colonial imagery of the Clobal South dreamed up, written, and produced in Britain at the twilight of Empire2 &*5/. Behlil et al. then use this model to analyse the portrayals of !he Crand Bazaar of Hstanbul in Skyfall and the celebration of the Fay of !he Fead in @exico 3ity in Spe!tre. $ones and Eigson also focus on transnationality, with a particular spotlight on the Faniel 3raig-era flms. !heir analysis builds upon 3hapman’s &-..+/ by identifying the #ey factors behind the franchise's successful transnational appeal. !he conclusion of the chapter argues for another way by which critical analyses of the Bond flms can be resituated 0 in this case, away from a Britishness which focus group research has identifed as compromised by 1the use of fast-paced action and special efects, qualities many associate with American blockbusters2 and 1the fact that the Bond flms are oIen dubbed into local =international> languages2 &(()/. 2 In(ern/(ion/l Journ/l o4 J/mes +on) Studies · Volume 4 · Issue 1 · Spring 2021 !he second section of the book provides multiple analyses of particular facets of the Bond character. !he frst chapter, !oby Miller’s 1;aradoxical Mas- culinity2, synthesises Ernest Mandel &()*6/, Antonio Cramsci &()+*/, and J.'. 3onnell &())5/ to highlight the difculties in identifying a precise masculinity of the Bond franchise; @iller argues that !he series is defnitely guilty as charged &and valoriGed/ for its sexism, racism, imperialism and consumerism 0 but frequently in a chaotic manner that is more complex and contradictory than critical or welcoming accounts of a colonialist, snobbish, or phallic hero will allow. &(?(/ Miller applies this analysis to the portrayal of Bond by both Sean 3onnery and ;ierce Brosnan, where Bond comes to represent 1a weird mi" of hyper-"ourgeois individualist, technocrat and empty signifer2 &ibid./. !he following chapter by @oya Luc#ett focuses not on masculinity be femininity, rethin#ing 1Bond Cirls2 as characters 1framed as creatures of their time with limited capacity to progress and develop2 &(5./. Hn their respective chapters, Lorrie ;almer and Anna :verett then bring together the two previous areas of discussion &transnationality and gender/. 4or ;almer, Bond evidences a measure of 1orientalism2 and racial other- ing &(*?/8 for :verett, ethnicity is the #ey to interpreting the franchise 0 although this analysis is grounded in a slightly problematic reliance on contemporary news sources. 'hat :verett ofers, however, is a variety of possibilities for engag- ing with the Bond franchise on a number of race-related levels, ac#nowledging 1$ames Bond’s complicated cinematic treatment of race and otherness, white male privilege and toxic masculinity, Anglo-American racial supremacy and cool Britishness2 &()-/. :verett’s chapter evidences the very real need for future discussion of many of these issues, but its basis in popular culture sources evidences a concomitant need for further theoretical development. !he proceeding chapter by Seung-hoon $eong illustrates the potential for a fruitful comparison of the Bond and Bourne franchises, but the generalisations on representations of Bond’s past in Skyfall make for complicated claims that are inventive but do not always feel fully supported. Hn general, both :verett and $eong’s chapters read as though the Bond franchise is being marshalled to support a particular theories rather than the other way round. !he third and fnal section of the text ofers a variety of surgically-specifc approaches to the trans-medial nature of the franchise. 3hristopher Eolliday’s chapter ofers a fascinating interpretation of the potential interactions between J. Shel(on · The Cultural Life of James Bond, e)i(e) '6 J//p Ver1eul 7 Bond and art cinema traditions, identifying 1ofen overloo#ed points of intersec- tion2 between the two. Eolliday’s conclusions are bold 0 that an intersectional analysis 1ofers the study of British national cinema rather than a false dawn2 &-66/ 0 but they are sufciently grounded in a broader analysis of British cinema. Similarly, $an-Christopher Eorak’s chapter on the flms’ title sequences concludes that these sequences crucially important in that they 1are successful as series brandingr &-99/, even through the transition from analog to digital methods of production. 4urther specifcity is ofered in the ne"t chapter by @eenasarani Linde @urugan, who discusses Shirley Bassey &singer of three $ames Bond title songs/ within the context of 1Black cultural production2 and the wider context of 1both empire and patriarchy2 &-+(/. Hn the following chapter, $oyce Coggin identifes global casino culture as one of many important signifers of Bond, noting with particular reference to Skyfall that the Bond canon employs its casino set- tings 1to communicate Lnowness’ =M> by negotiating its relationship with the past and the future from its situation in the present2 &?.6/. Jeferences to casino culture, Coggin argues, lin#s 4leming’s original conception to modern iterations of the character. !he fnal chapter in this section is an analysis of the 1Adaptive 4i- delity and 4ictional 3oherence in the %ideogame Adaptations of Goldeneye2. As with other chapters in this section, the analysis benefts from specifcity, imbri- cating a discussion of transmediality, production context, and 0 in relation to the -.(9 remake of the ())+ #oldeneye video game adaptation 0 nostalgia. Han Bryce $ones and 3hris 3arloy argue that the #ey to the video game’s successful adaptation is primarily 1fctional coherence28 the way in which the games ofer a 1suc- cessful eviction of the $ames Bond character and universe2 &?(-/. Nverall, the strengths of The Cultural Life of James Bond fall within two de- fned areas. Hn the frst case, the variety of perspectives ofered by the collection demonstrates the possibilities for a wider scope in analysing the Bond franchise; in the second, the specifcity demonstrated by a number of the chapters within the collection showcases the ability of dedicated scholars to utilise the same franchise as a fulcrum for discussion of highly precise and individuated enquiry. As such, The Cultural Life of James Bond ofers not only a variety of specialised perspectives but should also spur scholars on in evidencing the potential for future specialised research.

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