Film Posters: Representation (exams from 2024) GapFill

The first ever James Bond film was  GoldfingerDr. NoSpectreThe Man with the Golden Gun, released in 1962. Ursula Andress was cast as Bond’s first love interest after several actresses were deemed to be not  voluptuousfastwhiteintelligent enough by the film’s producers. Andress’s skin was tanned and her voice was dubbed over so she would come across as convincingly Jamaican. Similarly, make-up was applied to Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman to make him look appropriately Chinese for the film’s titular villain. These decisions to cast white actors in  Asianlove interestleadethnic minority roles clearly demonstrates the ways in which mainstream film producers would favour casting and storytelling which catered to  a massa heterosexual white femalea heterosexual white malea homosexual white female audience. The  civil rightsBlack Prideracial equalitywomen's movement in America was yet to have any direct effect on social economic policy or the human rights of black Americans, and the second wave of  men's rightsMarxismfeminismGay Pride, which discussed issues such as sexuality, marital rights, rights in the workplace and sexual violence, would not reach the mainstream until the 1970s. The James Bond franchise is retrospectively considered to be highly  evilpatronisinginspiringmisogynistic in its depiction of women and racially problematic. The Man with the Golden Gun is considered by many to be one of the franchise’s most troubling instalments. In terms of the representation of women, Britt Eckland’s love interest is a clumsy spy who spends the majority of the film’s action sequences wearing only a bikini. In both the poster and these film sequences, Eckland's character is sexually  objectifiedconstructedhumiliatedperformed to cater to the  male gazemass audienceproducersJames Bond fans. The villain’s main henchman is a dwarf named Nick Nack. The film has received retrospective criticism for turning this character into a series of  name-basedheight-baseddarkracist jokes, culminating in a sequence where Bond is able to lock Nick Nack into a small suitcase. Furthermore, audiences have criticised the ways in which every single Asian character is stereotypically skilled at martial arts or objectified for being  exoticAsianbeautifulrude. In more recent years, the Bond franchise has made some effort to address these issues. In 1995, Judi Dench was cast as Bond’s superior, M, the  false heroherohelperdispatcher of most Bond films according to Vladimir  Katz'sBlumler'sBarthes'Propp’s character types. There have also been efforts to diversify the central cast with black actor Naomie Harris playing the traditionally white character of Moneypenny. Daniel Craig’s most recent incarnation of the character is significantly more damaged and  emotionally vulnerablefriendlyviolentmisogynist than previous versions of the character. He suffers from alcoholism and old age, and appears to care more genuinely about his love interests, for the most part. However, the franchise still receives criticism for glamorising a fundamentally flawed character with a history of mistreating women and members of ethnic minorities. In a society where toxic  behaviourheroismfemininitymasculinity and men’s mental health are big talking points, many audiences believe that there is no longer room for a white, male action hero who kills people without pity or remorse.