As a boy, this man discovered Ian Fleming’s books about Bond’s fictitious escapades, and he created a fantasy in his head that the books were about his father who abandoned his family when he was a young boy. He convinced himself that if his father was still around, he would have taught him how to be exactly like James Bond, and so he molded his entire personality and lifestyle after the superspy.

Director Sam Mendes’ Skyfall and Spectre capture the maturation of Daniel Craig into that of Ian Fleming’s classic character. While Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace showcase a more brutal and relentless Bond, Mendes’s direction depicts a more physically restrained Bond. The action sequences are breezier. As Craig ages, so does Bond, and thus there is a reliance on more guns, gadgets, and intelligence behind his fighting style.

In a new video, Highbrow Magazine writer and film critic Forrest Hartman discusses Daniel Craig's last turn as James Bond in 'No Time to Die." Hartman praises Craig for his performance as 007 throughout the Bon franchise, and gives his latest film 3 1/2 stars.

Solo, a “James Bond Novel,” is the latest in a series of post-Ian Fleming books written by different authors (Kingsley Amis, Jeffrey Deaver, Sebastian Faulks, etc.). Now it’s William Boyd’s turn. Boyd, the hugely gifted author of Any Human Heart and the accomplished thrillers Restless and Ordinary Thunderstorms, certainly seems on paper like a great fit to extend Fleming’s legacy, breathing new life into this decades-old franchise. From the start of Solo, the tone feels different. 

The latest Bond film Skyfall fills viewer’s heads with delectable, admirable views of what it means to be British. There are plenty of other explanations as to why Bond films are adored by American audiences. But some of that success must be credited to the long tradition of Anglophilia in America. The American expansionist impulse has a connection to the love of Englishness, as the United States inherited, more or less, the role of the great imperial power from Britain.