Fansided

Christmas, family, and 007

By Alexander Lunde

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 17: VHS cassettes are displayed in the 'Eighties Room' of the IKEA house on October 17, 2017 in London, England. The room is in the 'IKEA House Party' which is an immersive week-long series of daytime experiences and evening house parties to celebrate 30 years of IKEA in the UK. The house, open from 19th-21st October, will give visitors a unique snapshot of IKEA's impact in homes in 20th and 21st century living from the 80's to present day with a peek into the future and look back at landmark moments across the decades and our changing tastes. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 17: VHS cassettes are displayed in the 'Eighties Room' of the IKEA house on October 17, 2017 in London, England. The room is in the 'IKEA House Party' which is an immersive week-long series of daytime experiences and evening house parties to celebrate 30 years of IKEA in the UK. The house, open from 19th-21st October, will give visitors a unique snapshot of IKEA's impact in homes in 20th and 21st century living from the 80's to present day with a peek into the future and look back at landmark moments across the decades and our changing tastes. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 17: VHS cassettes are displayed in the ‘Eighties Room’ of the IKEA house on October 17, 2017 in London, England. The room is in the ‘IKEA House Party’ which is an immersive week-long series of daytime experiences and evening house parties to celebrate 30 years of IKEA in the UK. The house, open from 19th-21st October, will give visitors a unique snapshot of IKEA’s impact in homes in 20th and 21st century living from the 80’s to present day with a peek into the future and look back at landmark moments across the decades and our changing tastes. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 17: VHS cassettes are displayed in the ‘Eighties Room’ of the IKEA house on October 17, 2017 in London, England. The room is in the ‘IKEA House Party’ which is an immersive week-long series of daytime experiences and evening house parties to celebrate 30 years of IKEA in the UK. The house, open from 19th-21st October, will give visitors a unique snapshot of IKEA’s impact in homes in 20th and 21st century living from the 80’s to present day with a peek into the future and look back at landmark moments across the decades and our changing tastes. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) /

For me, movies will always be as much a part of Christmas as family, great food, and socks (again!).

I was born in Canada. When I was 9 years old, our parents had moved outside of the Greater Toronto Area into a small town. The kind where your nearest neighbour is 500 meters away. Yes, me and my brother used to play outside. At the time though, Christmas Break was two weeks long. So that meant a lot of watching movies.

Bond on VHS

It was on our second post-move Christmas that my parents got us five 007 films on VHS. The first one we watched was You Only Live Twice. I remember the shock of seeing Connery, an actor I always thought of as Indiana Jones’ dad, being the one who saved the world. I was hooked on Connery charisma, on the grandiosity of the Blofeld’s volcanic lair, and on Blofeld himself.

Since I was 10 years old, I’ve loved the fact that James Bond fought to keep England’s citizens safe. He could also be cold and vicious when the situation needed it. He was tough yet debonair, a lover and a fighter. For me, he was the right new hero to have just before puberty.

During the rest of the Christmas season, it was turkey, hot chocolate, then 007 and Star Wars. We went through all five of the Bond films that my parents bought that Christmas. As the year went on, whenever we had the time, our family continued to buy or rent nearly every other film of the franchise at the time.

This was just before Goldeneye, when Pierce Brosnan proved there was life for a British agent after the Cold War. One crucial difference between Goldeneye and most other action films released that year was the release date. It was released on November 17th.

Bond Became a Family Ritual

At the time, I didn’t know that it did this because of Licence to Kill’s disappointing box office take in the summer of 89. The more profound, personal implication was that when we saw the new Bond movies, we’d be seeing them in November. Just as importantly, we’d see them as a family. Then, during the Christmas break, we’d re-visit and reconnect with the rest of the James Bond series.

I think it’s important to have pop cultural rituals like this. Things you do together like play hockey, a multiplayer death match, or watch movies with the ones who are important to you. Things you do with other people give us a needed bonding experience. They also give you treasured memories so that, each time you return to the thing, you get those gauzy memories of what you’ve done before meld with the experience of doing it again now. It’s a simple, but to my mind, profoundly comforting thing.

It’s important, in a world where change can come suddenly and rapidly, to have something familiar and revitalizing that you can count on. This is even more true in countries with cold winters.

Bond in Theaters

The first Bond that we saw in theaters as a family was Die Another Day. That’s a rather disappointing one to start with isn’t it? On the other hand, four years later we caught Casino Royale in the theaters. As we all left the theaters, I don’t remember exactly what we said, but I remember the excitement. Daniel Craig had surpassed our expectations. He, and everyone else involved in the production had successfully brought Bond into the 21st century.

You’ve also got to remember where franchise film-making was in the mid 00’s: Some film franchises ended on a high note (Lord of the Rings). Some had sequels marred by polarizing creative decisions (The Matrix), or were about to hit creative stagnation (X-Men,  Pirates of the Caribbean).

Yet within a year of each other, both Batman and James Bond were back. They were hungry, with conviction and new ideas about how to depict their characters on-screen. Casino Royale was my favourite action movie of 2006. Collectively, my family agreed that we’d never been more excited at the prospect that James Bond will return.

Sharing 007 With My Wife

In 1962, it was the 50th anniversary of Dr. No’s release in theaters. This is when EON decided to release Skyfall. My wife hadn’t seen any of the James Bond movies. I knew that I wanted to take her to see Skyfall, but she hadn’t seen any of the previous James Bond films. So I decided that the best place to start would be with Casino Royale. She loved it, and now James Bond is something that I share with her.

This year, You Only Live Twice will turn 50 years old. It’s not my favourite, but it will always have a special place in my heart. It was my first taste of everything Bond could be, or the globe-trotting excitement of visiting different countries, foiling sinister antagonists, and the alluring appeal of Bond women. It’s the right time of year for me and my wife to start working through the older Bonds soon. I’m looking forward to getting to enjoy them again, and to share them with her.

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