Dr No. x Casino Royale

Casino Royale (2007) http://www.lovefilm.com/lovefilm/images/products/7/55887-large.jpg

Dr No. (1962) http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000FIKU7K.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

The Casino Royale cover shows a long shot of the recent James Bond in the foreground holding a gun; the background has a bigger female figure. However, this background is a silhouette and within the silhouette there is a dark image of a casino lit up with yellow lighting and below the casino is silver car, which is parallel with James Bond suit and the grey background of the DVD cover. The target audiences for many of the James Bond films are men aged between 15-25 years old. Daniel Craig is not looking towards the audience this is similar in the 1962 Dr No DVD cover.

The Dr No DVD cover is part of a ultimate edition. The DVD cover is split into 3 sections and the top and bottom sections are in a grey monochrome color scheme. The middle shows a colored picture, which shows a Bond girl in a bikini and has just come out of the water; she fulfils the Mulvey’s ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ quality. The foreground shows a medium shot of Sean Connery holding a gun and is looking in a different direction away from the audience.

Both DVD covers show the main protagonist holding a phallic object in the shape of their gun and also has some representation of a female. The iconography of guns and women become conventional of the Bond films.

‘United Artists’ distributed Dr No where as the most recent Bond film; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Columbia Pictures distributed Casino Royale. Both institutions produce Hollywood films, which can be seen with the use of expensive cars, gadgets and sets.

The genre for the Bond films can been identified by the iconography within the DVD covers. One icon can be identified as the gun; the gun symbolizes violence and action, the female who is an object of the male gaze, or the Bond girl, is another icon, which conveys to the audience that the Bond film can be considered an action film. Casino Royale also employs and fast car, which is often, a visual medium used in action films.

The Bond girl in the Dr No DVD cover conforms to the Mulvey theory of being an object of the male gaze and furthermore hold to quality of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’. Furthermore, Bond being the protagonist reinforces patriarchy this also shown by the way that Bond is always holding a gun on the DVD cover.

The audience for the Bond films can vary, the target audience can been seen as males aged between 15 to 25 years old. A secondary audience can be identified as an older generation who enjoy watching the James Bond films since they began in 1962. Through the DVD cover women are not targeted however, the storylines try to engage women as they often show Bond having relationships with women.

The Bond films are well known to reinforce patriarchy values and undermine women. Casino Royale subverts the undermining of women the silhouette of the women figure is bigger than Bond, however, with his gun in his hand as a phallic symbol and the expression on his face he is conveyed to be more power and thus reinforces patriarchy. The Dr No DVD cover shows the female as a object and is present for the male gaze, this by itself reinforces patriarchy. Again Bond is shown to be holding a gun as a phallic object, giving him more power than the female.

Both covers show Bond in the foreground and a female in the background, this can convey a narrative of Bond having to overcome his promiscuous nature to save the world one more time. It also shows that the character of Bond does not see women as important thus also reinforcing patriarchy.

In conclusion, the Bond DVD covers convey patriarchy ideologies and values. Bond is shown to be the most important person on the cover, often in the foreground and holding a gun as a phallic object to reinforce his patriarchal status. The females are objectified and in the Dr No cover the female is wearing a bikini however, the most recent DVD cover only shows a silhouette of a female. Finally, these representations and ideologies conveyed through the DVD covers appeal to the male audience who are so fond of the action films with girls and fast cars.