Product Description

The James Bond epic is the most popular film series in silver screen history: it is estimated that a quarter of the world´s population has seen a Bond feature. The saga of Britain´s best-loved martini hound (who we all know prefers his favorite drink "shaken, not stirred") has adapted to changing times for four decades without ever abandoning its tried-and-true formula of diabolical international conspiracy, sexual intrigue, and incredible gadgetry. James Chapman expertly traces the annals of celluloid Bond from its inauguration with 1962´s Dr. No through its progression beyond Ian Fleming´s spy novels to the action-adventure spectaculars of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. He argues that the enormous popularity of the series represents more than just the sum total of the films´ box-office receipts and involves questions of film culture in a wider sense. Licence to Thrill chronicles how Bond, a representative of a British Empire that no longer existed in his generation, became a symbol of his nation´s might in a Cold War world where Britain was no longer a primary actor. Chapman describes the protean nature of Bond villains in a volatile global political scene -from Soviet scoundrels and Chinese rogues in the 1960s to a brief flirtation with Latin American drug kingpins in the 1980s and back to the Chinese in the 1990s. The book explores how the movies struggle with changing societal ethics -notably, in the evolution in the portrayal of women, showing how Bond´s encounters with the opposite sex have evolved into trysts with leading ladies as sexually liberated as Bond himself. The Bond formula has proved remarkably durable and consistently successful for roughly a third of cinema´s history -half the period since the introduction of talking pictures in the late 1920s. Moreover, Licence to Thrill argues that, for the foreseeable future, the James Bond films are likely to go on being what they have always been, a unique and very special kind of popular cinema.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #647540 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-15
• Released on: 2000-05-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
For a theoretical study it is surprisingly entertaining. Chapman demonstrates that there is more to the 007 franchise than just girls, guns and globe trotting. He views each film as an exercise in camp. -- Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

There are two kinds of academic texts: the kind that contains photographs of Ursula Andress wearing a bikini, and the kind that do not. Licence to Thrill falls, fortunately, into the first category. -- Giles Coren, The Times London

Thoughtful, intelligent, ludicrous and a bit snobby. Bit like Bond, really. -- Stephen O'Brien, SFX Magazine

Review

"There are two kinds of academic texts: the kind that contains photographs of Ursula Andress wearing a bikini, and the kind that do not. Licence to Thrill falls, fortunately, into the first category." -- Giles Coren, The Times (London)

"Thoughtful, intelligent, ludicrous and a bit snobby. Bit like Bond, really." -- Stephen O'Brien, SFX magazine

"For a theoretical study it is surprisingly entertaining. Chapman demonstrates that there is more to the 007 franchise than just girls, guns and globe trotting. He views each film as an exercise in camp." -- Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

About the Author
James Chapman teaches at the Open University and is author of The British at War: Cinema, State, and Propaganda, 1939­1945. He is also joint editor of Windows on the Sixties.

Customer Reviews

One of the Best of its Kind
The trouble with being a fan of something (and I mean a real fan - short for fanatic) is that we read everything on our subject and often know when the author is faking it, or if he knows his stuff. This Chapman guy knows his stuff, and I agree with most of what he says. I have a few quibbles here and there, but generally it is a good read. Being a fan of the series is, however, a prerequisite for understanding what he is saying, and I really like the way he often compares the Bond novels with their film counterparts. Stay away from the Steven Jay Rubin books, and get this (now if we could only get British author John Brosnan to update and edit his James Bond In The Cinema Book...)

Recommended for Bond fans & popular culture students.
Licence to Thrill is a cultural review of the James Bond movies and provides an excellent survey of the changing Bond image in movies; from its start with the 1962 Dr. No to its progression beyond Fleming's spy novels to classic films. Bond became a symbol of a Cold War world where Britain was no longer the ruler: this examines how movies reflect and affect social change through images of politics and culture.

Licence to Thrill
Interesting review of the Bond movies beginning, as it should, with Ian Fleming and his novels. Overall the book does a good job of looking at different reasons how each 007 movie reflects the time it was released. Misses a few points here and there but a solid effort by the author to capture the fascination with Bond, James Bond.