3 ms·

James Bond violates the majority of these guidelines.

krapp 5y ago
I personally like the headcanon that James Bond's real job is acting as a high profile decoy/assassin to divert the villains' attention and resources by killing people and breaking stuff while the actual spies do technical work behind the scenes. How else can one explain a secret agent who constantly introduces themselves under their real name?
- HelloNurse 5y ago
  Working for an espionage agency doesn't make James Bond a spy any more than working for Mercedes-Benz makes Lewis Hamilton a mechanic. He is an assassin, and attracting the enemy's attention is an alternative to attacking them, with the same lethal outcome.
markus_zhang 5y ago
He is a fictional figure though.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y ago
  But even fictional figures have to have some resemblance to what is perceived to be a good practices. For example, you would never have a fictional top notch surgeon, who picked his nose during the surgery. Everyone understands that you just don’t do that. Yet you have a spy who violates most of the spy craft guidelines. I guess that is a commentary about how far off society’s perceptions are of what a spy is.
  - mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
    A spy's main job is intelligence gathering, not blowing stuff up and killing people. Read a memoir of a retired CIA officer and you will quickly understand that Bond doesn't resemble a spy in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I still find the movies entertaining. I consider them action movies, not spy movies. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy I think is a better depiction.
joshvm 5y ago
John le Carré famously disliked Bond and called him an "international gangster" and invented George Smiley to better represent of real-world espionage (bear in mind that both authors worked for British intelligence, though le Carré worked for both MI5 and MI6). The original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy miniseries is a slow burn, but it's very well made and picks up once you figure out what the hell is going on. It also makes the more recent movie a lot more approachable. > “At the root of Bond there was something neo-fascistic and totally materialist,” Le Carre said. > “You felt he would have gone through the same antics for any country really, if the girls had been so pretty and the Martinis so dry.”

I personally like the headcanon that James Bond's real job is acting as a high profile decoy/assassin to divert the villains' attention and resources by killing people and breaking stuff while the actual spies do technical work behind the scenes. How else can one explain a secret agent who constantly introduces themselves under their real name?

HelloNurse 5y ago
Working for an espionage agency doesn't make James Bond a spy any more than working for Mercedes-Benz makes Lewis Hamilton a mechanic. He is an assassin, and attracting the enemy's attention is an alternative to attacking them, with the same lethal outcome.

markus_zhang 5y ago

He is a fictional figure though.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y ago
But even fictional figures have to have some resemblance to what is perceived to be a good practices. For example, you would never have a fictional top notch surgeon, who picked his nose during the surgery. Everyone understands that you just don’t do that. Yet you have a spy who violates most of the spy craft guidelines. I guess that is a commentary about how far off society’s perceptions are of what a spy is.
- mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
  A spy's main job is intelligence gathering, not blowing stuff up and killing people. Read a memoir of a retired CIA officer and you will quickly understand that Bond doesn't resemble a spy in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I still find the movies entertaining. I consider them action movies, not spy movies. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy I think is a better depiction.

joshvm 5y ago

John le Carré famously disliked Bond and called him an "international gangster" and invented George Smiley to better represent of real-world espionage (bear in mind that both authors worked for British intelligence, though le Carré worked for both MI5 and MI6). The original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy miniseries is a slow burn, but it's very well made and picks up once you figure out what the hell is going on. It also makes the more recent movie a lot more approachable. > “At the root of Bond there was something neo-fascistic and totally materialist,” Le Carre said. > “You felt he would have gone through the same antics for any country really, if the girls had been so pretty and the Martinis so dry.”