Dangers Behind Images In James Bond Films

James Bond is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming – Fleming wrote twelve novels and 2 short story collections, in which Bond appeared in. Bond is the longest running English language film franchise to date, making billions per film in the box offices, here and around the world. In this essay I will be picking out the semiotics to show the dangers behind the images as well as the different emotions portrayed by the girls used in the posters.

From Russia with Love was the second James Bond film, released in 1963. Sean Connery who was seen as a major sex symbol back in the 60’s played him. All Bond actors have been sex symbols of their time. The film is about Bond falling in to an assassination situation willingly, involving a naïve Russian

The part of the sign Saussure calls the ‘concept’ or ‘meaning’ (mental impression/association of the ‘thing’) he named, ‘signified.’ The part he calls the ‘sound-image’ (the mental ‘linguistic sign’ given to the ‘thing’) he named the ‘signifier’. Saussure explained that the connection between the signifier and the signified and what they are signifying their concept is arbitrary. ‘The Fate of Meaning: Charles Peirce, Structuralism, and Literature’ By John K. Sheriff- 1989, quotes “The first of the basic principles to which Saussure refers is that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. The term "arbitrary," he points out, "should not imply that the choice is left entirely to the speaker." Rather it means that the signifier-signified relationship is "unmotivated"; that is, there is no "natural connection" or any intrinsic reason why a particular sound-image should be linked with a particular

The first signifier I found in this was the typical James Bond pose which I had seen in the previous poster from Dr. No, that you would expect from such a heroic figure – gun in hand, the seductive but confident look in his eyes with his arms crossed, looking very smart and immaculately dressed in a suit with his hair combed to one side slickly. The connotation of this being that you can expect danger in this film, as well as a smart secret agent, who also comes across as a charming handsome man. The next signifier I found was the use of the seductive women who are dressed in skimpy clothing, focusing on the womans breasts in nearly every image in which they are used – does this signify that sex will play a big part in this film? We know that Bond is known as Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from previous films, so the audience will take that in to account when looking at the women on this poster? The woman sat behind Bond is looking at the audience, signifying that she must play a bigger role than the rest of the women featured on the poster, when I looked at the poster, I figured out straight away that she would be Bonds love interest in this film. The fact that she is placed behind him but sort of sat on his shoulder stereotypically makes Bond look like a dominant male. There have been many arguments over the past years that the guns that feature in the James Bond posters are used as a phallic symbol, used to show the size of