A student is screening all 24 movies in the James Bond franchise, leading up to the release of “No Time to Die” this Christmas.
Dayton Drummonds, film production sophomore, said the upcoming final chapter of Daniel Craig’s tenure in the Bond franchise inspired him to screen some of his favorite entries in the weeks before the original release date of April 10. The screenings are at 7 p.m. on Thursdays in the Dawson-Loeffler Center.
“A few weeks ago, I was looking at my calendar, and I realized that it was ten weeks until ‘No Time to Die’ was going to come out. With there being 24 Bond movies that I already knew I would be watching, I figured I might as well screen a few in the screening room in Dawson-Loeffler Center,” Drummonds said.
Drummond said his fascination with the Bond franchise didn’t begin until he was a young teenager.
“I didn’t grow up with Bond at all. I didn’t find them until I was probably 13 or 14. I had never seen one until I found ‘For Russia with Love’ on Netflix, and I’ve been all-in ever since. As of now, I’ve seen all 24 at least once.” Drummond said.
Drummond said the Bond movies can be split into distinct eras.
“The Bond movies generally act as reactions to the popular culture of the time they were made. So, for example, ‘Moonraker’ is a space movie because ‘Star Wars’ had just come out, and the Bond producers panicked.” Drummond said.
He said the movies are excellent reflections of each decade of American zeitgeist, because even though Bond is a beloved British property, the producers are almost always American.
Drummond said the most recent era of Bond, starring Daniel Craig, acted as a clean do-over from the films that came before to better represent postmodern themes.
“The Daniel Craig movies started as a soft reboot. After Pierce Brosnan they brought in Craig and cleaned out everyone but Judi Dench as ‘M’. Essentially the old continuity was completely thrown out,” Drummond said.
He said the new era films take a much more serious tone than their predecessors and contain fewer classic Bond tropes. He said the new movies also tell one continuous story, breaking away from its self-contained roots. Due to these changes, he said he considers the Craig films good spy movies but not very good Bond movies.
Drummond said he tends to prefer the older entries due to their lighthearted tone. With the limited time he had before the “No Time to Die” release, he said he wanted to give a fair portion of the screenings to what he defines as “the silly Bonds”.
However, since beginning the screenings, the U.S. release date of “No Time to Die” has been delayed from April 10 to Christmas Day 2020. This has occurred due to rising concerns over the effect coronavirus will have on the international entertainment market.
Drummonds said he was originally forced to skip around the series, having only 10 weeks before the new release.
“So far we have done ‘Dr. No,’ ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Moonraker’ and ‘Living Daylights’. Up next we have ‘The License to Kill,’” Drummonds said.
Drummonds said the plan was to continue picking highlights from each era of Bond, before graduating to the Craig series in the 3 prior to “No Time to Die”.
He said with the time added from the delay, he has decided to continue with the screenings until the franchise is complete.
“It has affected the order, but it means that I’m now able to show even more Bond. The order will become even more scrambled now. Due to the constraints of only having 10 movies, I had to skip over some that I think I’ll now go back to and screen,” Drummond said.
Billy Palumbo, visiting assistant professor of film, said this is the first time the film department has screened all of the films of a single franchise. He said he is enthusiastic about the film department screening this series and thinks there is a lot the students can learn from it.
“We like to have screenings that the students can curate. The department chair and I try to emphasize that the analysis that we teach can be done with any film. It doesn’t matter what movie you’re analyzing; you can learn from that,” Palumbo said.
Palumbo said the Bond movies are interesting because while the template of the films doesn’t change, the execution is extremely flexible.
“The Bond franchise has the potential to be customizable, especially in the newer ones. They’re characters that we know, and we can anticipate what they might do. Every few years we can put them in a new situation and see what happens,” Palumbo said.
He said the predictable qualities of these movies can be educational for film majors, allowing them to study the execution of a story they already know well.
“Sometimes film students watch things differently in that they’re paying careful attention to shot composition, editing and pacing. There is a skill found in anticipating what a film might do to further its own structure. That’s why the Bond movies, especially the older, predictable ones, can be really useful to learn from,” Palumbo said.
Palumbo said these movie screenings are an important part of the film department because they encourage analysis and conversation about aspects of films outside of the technical.
“It’s not just important to know the production side of how to set up lights and cameras and things. To actually think about the structure of a film. The way the story unfolds, and the way characters are introduced,” Palumbo said.
Drummond said as the Bond movies have progressed, many odd choices have made their way into the franchise that are worth discussing in the group.
“With many of the older Bonds, it’s good to learn what not to do. There have been some questionable decisions that I’ve discussed with some friends after screenings. None of us know why they did those things, but I guess it worked for that movie in that time,” Drummond said.
Palumbo said these screenings aren’t just helpful for film majors and can help everyone become a more attentive viewer of film.
“Popular movies are designed to be watched in a big audience. So, getting together with more people and watching them together in a theater space, like our screening room, helps you focus on them. I find that when I watch something at home, I am usually doing something else at the same time. In the screening room I am paying closer attention,” Palumbo said.
Palumbo said there is always a conversation about what was just watched. He said it is cool for him to watch these conversations take place because it represents more than the production skills he teaches in his classes. Students share what they notice and what they think is interesting.
The James Bond screenings in the Dawson-Loeffler Center will continue at 7 p.m. March 11 with “The License to Kill.”
“No Time to Die” will come to the U.S. on Christmas Day.
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