Bond. From the old to Skyfall. First up: Goldfinger

A few years ago, my daughter gifted me a collection of five James Bond DVDs.  For once, a gift that I could truly enjoy.  How could I ever forget the small mortar/pestle for the kitchen that she once gave me as her precious gift! ;)

But, I never watched any of the movies in the collection.  For one, I didn't own a DVD player.  And the television set I owned was an old 14-inch cathode ray tube device.

Her Christmas gift was ... a 26-inch flat-screen TV.  "You can exchange it for something bigger if you want" she said.

But, why would I want to exchange it when in one stroke the images had already doubled in size!

And then she sent me another gift: a DVD of the latest in the Bond series, Skyfall. She knew that I had been waiting for that movie, and also that I hadn't watched it, for various reasons, in the cinema hall.

Now, the box of Bond DVDs was all the more appealing.

So, I was off the store to buy myself a DVD player. And bought one.

My daughter felt that finally I had come to my senses after all.  "So, did you watch Skyfall yet?" she asked.

I then explained that I was starting with her gift from a few years ago.  "Do you remember you giving me a collection a couple of years ago?"

The response suggested that she had pretty much forgotten about it.  I bet she remembers the mortar/pestle though :)

"I am going to watch those movies first,  which includes a fair sampling of movies by different guys who played Bond.  And then, I will end the series with Skyfall" I explained.

She probably thought to herself that I might be missing a couple of marbles.

It was a late afternoon.  I closed the blinds to shut off the feeble Oregon sunlight as much as possible.  It was Goldfinger time.

More than anything, the movie was awfully comical.  When Sean Connery strutted around in his shorts, it seemed to be shorter than even what Chrissy always wore in Three's Company.  Bond's bathrobe was incredibly short.  But, the Bond Girl looked awesome as ever.

I had to pause and take a photo of this scene:

How quaint everything seemed!

As the movie neared the scene when Pussy Galore assembles her all-women flying crew, I remembered an observation from a commentary that I had read/watched a while ago: Pussy Galore was gay!

What I saw in the Bond girls was adventure, power, and a sexuality that was bold - and maybe a little bit bent. In Goldfinger I saw something I'd never seen on TV. Somehow, at age nine, I realized something that still escapes most people today. Pussy Galore was gay.  And it thrilled me. That blond pilot she's talking to? I wanted to be her when I grew up.

A Bond Girl, but a perhaps a bisexual Bond Girl?  And female pilots when, as the commentary points out, there were practically no female professionals of any sort in the mainstream television shows of the day?  It does seem to be a different kind of a feminism, when we watch between the frames, so to speak.

Next up, whenever that might be: Diamonds Are Forever.  Thanks to my daughter for the TV. For the old DVDs. And for the latest one. And for the many more to come.

Thanks for the mortar/pestle, too.