When it opens in July, 007 Elements, a new museum in the Austrian Alps dedicated entirely to James Bond, will exhibit all sorts of familiar mementoes from the career of the suave British superspy. What it won’t include, however, is anything from Bond’s history deemed offensive to 21st-century sensibilities. Neal Callow, the museum’s creative director, said that he and his colleagues “wanted to show the legacy of the films in a modern and PC way”. But a Bond retrospective that ignores his casual sexism and racism is a bit like the Natural History Museum without the fossils. So here are a few suggested items for display (or not).
Dr No (1962)
In the first Bond movie, 007 travelled to Jamaica and enlisted the help of a black fisherman and CIA contact named Quarrel. This was the era of Jamaican independence and US civil rights, but that didn’t stop Sean Connery’s Bond off-handedly ordering Quarrel to “fetch my shoes” while he strolled off with a half-dressed Ursula Andress.
Goldfinger (1964)
Bond’s treatment of women in Goldfinger escalates from lighthearted sexual assault (slapping a woman’s rear to send her away while he has a “man talk” with a colleague) to a cut-and-dried rape, when he forces himself on a non-consenting Pussy Galore in a barn. Bond is famously irresistible to women; what is less mentioned is how violently the women often try to resist.
You Only Live Twice (1967)
If you thought Johnny Depp playing Tonto was bad, try Sean Connery “disguising” himself as a Japanese man using spray tan, prosthetic eye flaps and a wig, applied by several women in bikinis who titter obligingly at his jokes.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
One of the least loved instalments in the Bond franchise, The Man with the Golden Gun is also surely its most dwarfist: Roger Moore defeats evil henchman and dwarf Nick Nack by locking him in a suitcase. Meanwhile, Moore’s 007 enjoys japes in Thailand with the thoroughly misbegotten JW Pepper, a racist Southern sheriff.
Octopussy (1983)
Octopussy was set largely in contemporary India, though you would be forgiven for thinking Bond was swanning around the Raj. The myriad cliches include snake charmers, sword swallowers and a bed of nails. And when Bond hands a wad of his casino winnings to an Indian character, he quips: “That’ll keep you in curry for a few weeks.”
