James Bond is undergoing some major changes behind the scenes and will soon be doing the same on screen. Daniel Craig has played Bond for the final time, and now the Broccoli family is stepping back from producing the iconic franchise, having sold to Amazon MGM. This is a unique moment and the perfect opportunity to take 007 back to his origins as a hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking, Cold War-fighting super spy. Amazon, if you’re listening, let’s see a period piece.
The Cold War Is A Goldmine For Spy Stories
Over and over you see it, people rank Sean Connery as the best James Bond, even now, nearly 55 years after playing the legendary British spy for the final time in Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. It’s not just that Connery defined the character first, but because Connery Bond movies were contemporary with the heating up of the Cold War in the 1960s, they have a classic adversary: the USSR.
Bond doesn’t go head-to-head with the Soviets much, but the Cold War is still ever-present. That presence was also felt through all of the Roger Moore Bond era, as well. It’s time Bond goes back to that era with a story (or a series of stories) set in the 1960s, where Bond will be free again to smoke cigarettes, shag women, drink, and gamble with impunity. M, played by Judi Dench, calls Bond “a relic of the Cold War,” in Goldeneye, so let’s dust that relic off.
There Would Still Need To Be Some Updates
While the 1960s would make for a very cool backdrop, complete with awesome gadgets and everything else we love about the early movies, it’s clear we can’t have a hero act like Bond did then all the time. Obviously the one area that would still need a more modern touch would be how Bond behaves with women. It’s frankly pretty gross how poorly he treats most of the Bond Girls in the Connery era and it simply wouldn’t work (and shouldn’t work) for a modern audience. Everything else, though, is fair game.
Bond gracefully lighting a smoke as he stands at the bar waiting for his martini oozes class and sophistication. While most of us deplore smoking these days, it still seems like the epitome of “cool” to many. Bond smoking in the 2020s would seem out of character, but setting the movies in a decade when everyone and their grandmother (almost literally) smoked, well, it’s just too perfect. Losing some modern sensibilities would be fun as hell.
Now Is The Time To Go Back To The Past
There has never been a more perfect time in the history of the franchise to get back to Bond’s movie and literary roots. The Daniel Craig era brought back the stone-cold ruthlessness of the character Ian Fleming created in the books, but it lost a lot of the charm and class of the character. All jerk, no playboy. There’s no reason we can’t get both, especially by setting the movie in the spy’s heyday when West and East faced off across the globe. Plus, the fashion and the cars were just so much better. Amazon, we’re excited to see where the Bond franchise could go, so please consider this idea.