Postcolonialism - Paul Gilroy!

Here below are trailers from four different eras of James Bond films:

An extract from You Only Live Twice (1967)

An extract from Live and Let Die (1973)

An extract from Die Another Day (2002)

An extract from Skyfall (2012)

Across the four James Bind trailers, we can see Gilroy’s idea about racial otherness and civilizationism in different ways. In the Conney era (You Only Live Twice), Bind travels to Japan and even disguises himself as a Japanese citizen. This clearly separates him from the people and the culture around him.Japan is shown and depicted as strange, secretive, and different, while Bond stays the “normal” white British hero. This shows racial otherness because it treats non-western culture as something weird rather than equal. It also fits Gilroy’s idea of civilization since Bond is used to represent western logic and order, while the East is shown as foreign and untrustworthy.

In the Moore era (Live and Let Die), race is shown through fear. Most of the antagonists/villains are Black, and the filmmakers use voodooo and superstition to make them seem threatening. This makes the story about a white hero saving people from “uncivilized” others, which shows a clear binary worldview. It suggests that white-western culture is safe and advanced, while anything different is dark/risky.

By the Brosnan era (Die Another Day), the idea of minorities begins to become political. The villain here is from North Korea, and the movie uses that to create fear of foreign power. It doesn’t focus on race as much as older films, but it still showcases West vs East.

Finally, in the Craig era (Skyfall), the focus shifted more towards threats inside Britain (internal threats) but traces civilizationism remain. The trailer shows Bond defeating “home” and British values from chaos. Although race isn’t central here, the idea of western order vs instability remains. Across all four trailers, Bond stays the face of civilization, calm, white, and controlled. While his enemies, often foreign or culturally different, represent the “other” that must be defeated.