8. Daniel Craig As James Bond
Opinions abound in terms of who was the best bond ever. Many have Sean Connery as the best, others Daniel Craig; opinions differ on Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, with few mentions of George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton as the best. Of all of the Bond actors, Craig plays the lead character in a serious and cerebral manner. There are notable moments of humoursuch as his response to "M" during a free association psychological test in the first hour of Skyfallbut these are delivered in a subdued manner in contrast to the one-liners of Moore and Brosnan (with the exception of Craig's "I got into some deep water" line at the end of the film). Even in the comedic film Happy and Glorious (directed by Danny Boyle for the London 2012 Olympic Games), Craig's Bond is decidedly stoic. Interestingly, in a recent tease for Bond 24, Craig offered, "Hopefully we'll reclaim some of the old irony, and make sure it doesn't become pastiche. I can't do shtick, I'm not very good at it." This was also reported in the Telegraph. Of course, the debate about the best Bond is subjectivedetermined, in part, by the script that the actor has been given and the mood of the times in which the film is shot. The current Bond diverges from the campy and techno-gadget focus of pre-Craig films and instead offers a more serious and psychological portrayal of the Bond universe. If this tendency is going to continueand the box-office success of Skyfall certainly indicates it willthen Craig is the obvious choice for a more serious James Bond, even if he does play up the irony in Bond 24.
Scott A. Lukas
Contributor
Scott A. Lukas has taught anthropology and sociology Lake Tahoe Community College for sixteen years and in 2013 was Visiting Professor of American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He has been recognized with the McGraw-Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association (2005), the California Hayward Award for Excellence in Education (2003), and a Sierra Arts Foundation Artist Grant Program Award in Literary–Professional (2009). In 2006, he was a nominee to the California Community College Board of Governors. He is the author/editor of The Immersive Worlds Handbook (2012), Theme Park (2008), The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nature, and Self (2007), Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade, (co-edited with John Marmysz, 2009), Recent Developments in Criminological Theory (co-edited with Stuart Henry, 2009), and Strategies in Teaching Anthropology (2010). His book Theme Park was recently translated into Arabic. He appeared in the documentary The Nature of Existence and has provided interviews for To the Best of Our Knowledge, The Huffington Post UK, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and Caravan (India).
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