Motifs in the James Bond film series

The James Bond series of films contain a number of repeating, distinctive motifs which date from the series inception with Dr. No in 1962. The series consists of twenty four films produced by Eon Productions featuring the James Bond character, a fictional British Secret Service agent. The most recent instalment is the 2015 film Spectre, which was released in UK cinemas onOctober 2015. There have also been two independently made features, the satirical Casino Royale, released in 1967, and the 1983 film Never Say Never Again.

All of the Eon Bond films feature the unique gun barrel sequence, created by graphic artist Maurice Binder, which has been called by British media historian James Chapman the trademark motif of the series. As Bond walks across the screen, he is viewed by the audience through the barrel of a gun trained on him by an unknown assailant. Bond wheels around and shoots directly at the gunviewer, followed by the assassins blood spilling down the barrelscreen. It was originally filmed in sepia by putting a pinhole camera inside an actual .38 calibre gun barrel, with stunt man Bob Simmons playing the part of Bond. nb This is accompanied by the opening bars of the James Bond Theme, composed by Monty Norman, orchestrated by trumpeter and composer John Barry and Burt Rhodes.After Maurice Binders death in 1991, Daniel Kleinman was responsible for the gun barrel sequence up to and including Casino Royale. Design house MK12 supervised the graphics for Quantum of Solace. Chapman has suggested that the sequence is a significant part of the James Bond mythos because it foregrounds the motif of looking that is central to the spy film genre. The gun barrel imagery sometimes carried over to the film posters used to promote Bond films, including as a familiarising element on the introduction of Timothy Dalton for The Living Daylights. ........

Source: Wikipedia