Bond to die for

"Almost a third of Bond's lovers have died",since Sean Connery began the longest running film series ever when he played 007 for the first time in the landmark 1962 film Dr. No reports a new study in The Times (via The Guardian) and "the mortality rate is on the rise".The British newspaper has spent the last week or so watching the whole 22 film series and worked out that 51 of Bond's lovers have bit the dust, beginning with the third Bond movie Goldfinger with the golden muder of Jill Masterson. Which is still probably the most shocking and effective Bond girl demise of them all. His lovers in the first two movies Dr. No and From Russia With Love got away scot free but "in Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, he looked on as two women were assassinated and another was devoured by piranhas".(SPOILERS FOLLOW IF YOU HAVE YET TO SEE QUANTUM OF SOLACE) I'm bringing this up because there's something about the new Bond series that I really enjoy and that's the consequences of Daniel Craig's actions and how it shapes and morphs his character. We aren't seeing Bond girl characters thrown into these movies for no other reason than that a Bond movie needs that titillating female character to fullfil the audience expectations, these ladies are characters that a serving a purpose to the story. They aren't just eye candy and then fish fodder, once Bond has had his way with them. In Quantum of Solace, we are introduced to the character of Agent Fields, who naturally, Bond manages to seduce and then who unfortunately finds herself in a sticky demise of having her whole body, inside and out, being drowned in oil.. a direct homage to Goldfinger and an outing that made a lot of the audience go a little squeamish at the screening I attended. But it's the Judi Dench line as M that gets me and made me really like her character arc and what they did with her for Solace. She tells Bond that Fields was barely more than an office worker, given her first on field assignment. This wasn't a Vesper Lynd, or a Pussy Galore. This wasn't the best of the MI6. This was just a pen pusher at a desk, who you think got the job because her pretty face and legs won over the guy conducting the interviews and because of the lack of numbers (we are in a recession after all), she was given the task to collate these reports in a slightly more dangerous mission that she would usually be given. I loved that it brought a sense of the real world to Bond and how guilty he must feel for letting such an innocent girl die on his watch. And how guilty M must feel for given the assignment to such a rookie, a risk that has proven fatal to the young girl. Not everyone in the organisation is like Bond, not every girl is a Vesper Lynd, unlike the depiction of many Bond girls in the past. Subverting the formulaic and rigid formula of Bond and taking it in a slightly new and interesting direction is going to be the key in keeping this new Bond franchise fresh and interesting.