A.J. Black, author of Myth-Building in Modern Media and Star Trek, History and Us, has written an engaging critical study on the life and career of Sean Connery in his latest book The Cinematic Connery. A presence in cinema for the entire second half of the 20th Century, Connery's work on the screen is a mirror into a large slice of film history. Readers will be treated to a perceptive account of Connery as one of the last movie stars who continues to captivate audiences.
The passing of Connery on October 31, 2020, felt like the end of an era despite his long absence from public view since his final film appearance in the 2003 comic book adaptation The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Yet in another sense, he never left the public imagination. As the original actor to play James Bond, by far his most iconic role, his immortal status was assured.
As Black presents throughout, Connery was much more than Bond. Outside of the original run of five Bond films he made (Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), and brief reprises in 1971 (Diamonds Are Forever) and 1983 (Never Say Never Again), he left behind a wide and diverse body of work that explored many aspects of his persona. Whether it be the vengeful detective in the 1973 film The Offence, the cold-blooded manipulator in Marnie (1964), or the tough Chicago cop in Brian De Palma's 1987 film The Untouchables, he always showed an impressive range and a willingness to take chances.
A proud native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connery's working-class youth was marked by the Global Depression of the 1930s and the privations brought on by the Second World War. He pursued body building and football (soccer) but found his true calling in acting. He began performing on the stage, worked on television productions, all of which led to meaty roles in feature films.
Fate and his own determination led Connery to starring in the first James Bond film Dr. No, the movie that made him an international star. Black traces Connery's early career in which he took on a variety of different guises on film from comedic sidekicks, small time hoods, and romantic leads. His work had caught the attention of producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman who were developing a feature film based on the spy novels of Ian Fleming. When they requested that Connery take a screen test for the part, he refused, his bull headedness convinced them he was their Bond.
Connery's newfound superstardom left him with a lifelong ambivalence about the role. In time he soured on the physical and psychological toll of the big budget productions, especially the loss of privacy that came along with it. He also got into public feuds with the producers over his salary. On a more positive note, playing Bond allowed Connery to raise his profile in the film industry. He actively sought to establish himself outside of the 007 genre, working with Alfred Hitchcock on Marnie and Sidney Lumet on the 1965 military prison drama The Hill, a movie he often declared his favorite:
Lumet's picture is the first film in Connery's resume which truly distinguishes him from the role of Bond. Despite how intense, loud and expressly colonial it frequently becomes, Lumet's picture is an exercised in contained tension, repression, fury, and failure. (59)
Connery made five films with Lumet, a director who tapped into the darker corners of his personality.
As Black argues, the murky cultural milieu of the 1970s was mirrored in Connery's post-Bond roles such as the primitive future man in John Boorman's 1974 film Zardoz, an aging Robin Hood in Robin and Marian (1976), and even being game for the campy 1979 disaster movie Meteor. Some of his most popular work from the decade were old fashioned Kipling inspired colonial adventures like The Wind and the Lion and The Man Who Would Be King, both from 1975, films that would be received much differently today.
In his early 50s, Connery reprised Bond for the 1983 film Never Say Never Again in a strategic choice to revive his career which was stagnating by the early 1980s. Although the film was a mixed bag (considered non-canon), the world welcomed Connery back as a more seasoned 007. Things picked up from then on, culminating with his Oscar winning performance in The Untouchables. His comedic turn as Dr. Henry Jones in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade delighted audiences and introduced him to a new generation.
Connery remained an A-lister through the 1990s, playing off his 007 persona in Michael Bay's 1996 blockbuster The Rock. He often took on the role of mentor in films like Finding Forrester (2000) and the two Highlander movies (1986,1991) in which he appeared. In 1990 he starred in two highly acclaimed films about the end of the Cold War: A defecting Soviet submarine commander in The Hunt for Red October and a dissident writer in The Russia House. In 1999, approaching 70, few batted an eye when Connery was paired with much younger female co-star Catherin Zeta-Jones in the heist film Entrapment.
Black avoids Connery's personal life for the most part because it's been covered elsewhere and primarily approaches him as a cultural figure. Neither does the book shy away from the darker aspects of Connery's personality such as problematic statements about women, including accusations of abusive behavior from female co-stars and former partners that would undoubtedly imperil his star status in the current climate. Black writes:
something about Connery the actor and the man, appealed in an era just before the internet, of social media, of the rapid cultural and political change it would render, and the swift advance of gender identity and women's rights that were never going to square with Connery's image, singed into the minds of multiple generations since Dr. No, of powerful, unashamed alpha maleness (256).
The Cinematic Connery is a valuable contribution to film and cultural studies. In crisp and engaging prose Black offers fresh insights on Connery's most famous roles, but also provides an equal amount of attention to the lesser-known parts and more obscure films. As a symbol of 20th Century masculinity with all its appeal and faults, Connery the movie star will forever be a lens through which to comprehend the era's cinema and culture. Black's thoughtful and well- balanced analysis of Connery will be an excellent resource for fans and film scholars alike.
Link to the Publisher:
https://www.polarispublishing.com/book/the-cinematic-connery
