Why do we still love James Bond
On Monday 26 October, another new James Bond movie will hit our cinema screens and the publicity machinery seems to be in overdrive. Spectre is the twenty-fourth in the continuous film series based on Ian Fleming’s British superspy and is produced by Eon Productions for MGM/Sony.
Professor James Chapman, from our Department of The History of Art and Film, has commented on the hype surrounding forthcoming film Spectre, the success of the Bond franchise and why it remains central to our culture and society.
Professor Chapman said: “Bond’s legacy is certainly part of the films’ continuing appeal. Whatever we may think of them as films, there’s no question that the Bond series represents a remarkable production achievement. When we consider that cinema is 120 years old (the first public exhibition of motion pictures was in 1895) and Bond has been around for 53 of them (the first Bond movie was Dr No in 1962), then the Bond films have spanned nearly half the entire history of cinema."
Watch Professor Chapman discuss the Bond franchise below:
Watch an ITV interview with Professor James Chapman about why we still love James Bond: