"And Then You Have All the Rest"

"Fleming initially doubted the casting of Connery, remarking, 'I'm looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stuntman,' adding that the muscular 6ft 2in Scot was 'unrefined'. Fleming saw David Niven as Bond, an ultra-smooth gentleman spy, equally at ease in five-star restaurants and torture chambers, knowing instinctively which fork and which weapon to use. Connery’s Bond was a rougher diamond, but blessed with a wry sense of humour that diffused the violence, inviting the audience in on the joke."

At The Guardian, Ronald Bergen writes an obituary for Sean Connery.

"And Perennially Raised Eyebrow"

"The common criticism of Moore's approach to Bond is that he made the series sillier and less serious—which is thought to be what audiences were looking for in the dismal 1970s. The first part of this isn't really fair. The series was changing, it's true: the gadgets got bigger, the jokes got broader, and the action frequently moved to the United States, because of the size of the American market. (This last aspect proved temporary, thank God.) But all of these things are true of Diamonds Are Forever, in which Connery himself adopted a lighter take on Bond. If the series was going in that direction, it wasn't Moore's fault."

Isaac Chotiner in Slate writes an appreciation of Roger Moore, who died at age 89.

Dr. Yes

"This is an older, stiffer world, with Britain just five years removed from food rationing and America still in an era of Kramdens, Eisenhowers, and finned Caddies. It is a world unfamiliar with the catchphrases 'Shaken, not stirred' and 'Bond, James Bond,' where no ears have ever heard Monty Norman’s four-note Bond motif and no eyes have ever taken in Maurice Binder’s amniotic credit sequences of lissome women undulating in silhouette to lavishly charted John Barry arrangements.
"But it is also a world in transition. Transatlantic jet service is newly available to commercial passengers, thanks to the carriers B.O.A.C. and Pan American. G. D. Searle & Company, a pharmaceutical concern, is awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market one of its products, Enovid, as a birth-control pill for women. A scrubbed, fit group of U.S. military test pilots has just been introduced to the public as the Mercury Seven, America’s first astronauts. And the undeclared Democratic front-runner in the next presidential election is only 42 years old."

David Kamp in Vanity Fair marks the beginning of the James Bond movies.

As does Steven Zeitchik in the Los Angeles Times.

"This World Is Not Enough"

"Finally, Bond battled South American drug smugglers in the '80s, media consolidators in the '90s, and environmental criminals in the next decade, thus enabling the series to capture the zeitgeist in ways that a strictly anti-Soviet secret agent never could. But many of the plots still have resonance because these stateless villains are often seeking possession of weapons of mass destruction; this is a fear that has been exacerbated—rather than ameliorated—by the Soviet collapse. Even if this history shows the canniness of the filmmakers’ commercial instincts, the movies themselves—especially of late—live in an unchanging male fantasyland and are completely without artistic merit. A true Bond fan must ruefully concede as much. My greatest fear used to be that the series would end, but now that thought is oddly appealing."

In The New Republic, Isaac Chotiner reviews Sinclair McKay's The Man With The Golden Touch: How The Bond Films Conquered The World.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

"'I mean, Ian liked danger. He liked cars. He liked guns, although he didn't like shooting,' said his niece Lucy Fleming.
"'And he liked girls, and he liked gambling. So, you know, it's all there. Those are Bond ingredients, aren't they?'"

Anthony Mason on CBS News Sunday Morning reflects upon the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth.

I Never Joke about My Work, 007

Upon the centennial of Ian Fleming's birth, Duncan Graham-Rowe in New Scientist lists gadgets from James Bond movies that have been invented in reality.

The Bond Girl Next Door

The Los Angeles Times runs an obituary for the longtime Miss Moneypenny, actress Lois Maxwell.

And The Onion reports the reaction to her death.

Shaken, Not Stirred

"Whether on the page or screen, the Bond we have come to know over the last five decades is neither particularly sensitive nor open to psychological probing. As M tells 007 in the new film, 'I would ask you if you could remain emotionally detached, but that's not your problem, is it, Bond?'"

Bryan Curtis in Slate takes a second look at Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.

And Justin Shubow, also in Slate, explains Bond's license to kill.

Replacement License

"With a new actor on deck for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the first-time director Peter Hunt took a chance to re-establish Bond as the brutish agent described in Fleming's early novels. The director also slowed the action down enough to allow this characterization to take hold. While Connery remains the prohibitive favorite for many fans, it took just this one movie for Lazenby to make the character his own."

As the world awaits Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond, Dan Oko in Slate presents a heretical view of the character's cinematic past.