The Ruger Blackhawk is a six-shot, single-action revolver manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Co. It is produced in a variety of finishes, calibers, and barrel lengths.
114-459: In the early 1950s, Westerns were popular in movies and television. Colt had discontinued the iconic Single Action Army prior to World War II , and few single-action revolvers were available to meet market demand for cowboy-style revolvers. In 1953, the new firm of Sturm, Ruger & Company introduced the Single-Six , a .22 LR rimfire single-action revolver. The Single-Six proved to be
228-690: A Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in either 1953–as described by a Russian dossier about Bond in From Russia, with Love —or 1954, as described by Bond's obituary in You Only Live Twice . Bond lives in a flat off the King's Road in Chelsea . Continuation authors John Pearson and William Boyd both identify the location as Wellington Square. The former believed the address
342-521: A Rolls-Royce . Sir Fitzroy Maclean was another figure mentioned as a possibility, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the Balkans , as was the MI6 double agent Dušan Popov . In 2016, a BBC Radio 4 documentary explored the possibility that the character of Bond was inspired by author and mentor to Fleming, Phyllis Bottome in her 1946 novel, The Lifeline . Distinct similarities between
456-416: A "Mark II", a term which was never used. Bond replaces the engine with a Mark IV 4.9 L and commissions a body from Mulliners that was a "rather square convertible two-seater affair." He paints this car battleship grey and upholsters it in black. Later, against the advice of Bentley, he adds an Arnott supercharger. In 1957 Fleming had written to Rolls-Royce's Chairman, Whitney Straight , to get information about
570-561: A "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West". Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a shootout or quick draw duel. The Western genre sometimes portrays
684-489: A 3 in (76 mm) long, thin vertical scar on his right cheek; blue-grey eyes; a "cruel" mouth; short, black hair, a comma of which rests on his forehead. Physically he is described as 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) in height and 76 kg (168 lb) in weight. During Casino Royale , a SMERSH agent carves the Russian Cyrillic letter "Ш" (SH) (for Shpion : "Spy") into the back of Bond's right hand; by
798-691: A Ruger .44 Super Blackhawk in the 1981 novel Licence Renewed by John Gardner . Additionally, in the 1997 video game Goldeneye 007 , one of the weapons, the Cougar Magnum, is based on the Ruger Blackhawk. Western (genre) The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and
912-537: A birth date of 11 November 1920, while a study by Bond scholar John Griswold puts the date at 11 November 1921. According to Griswold, the Fleming novels take place between around May 1951, to February 1964, by which time Bond was aged 42. If the quality of these books, or their degree of veracity, had been any higher, the author would certainly have been prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. It
1026-482: A black oxidised Ronson lighter. The cigarettes were the same as Fleming's, who had been buying his at Morland since the 1930s; the three gold bands on the filter were added during the war to mirror his naval Commander's rank. On average, Bond smokes sixty cigarettes a day, although he cut back to around twenty-five a day after his visit to a health farm in Thunderball : Fleming himself smoked up to 80 cigarettes
1140-728: A boy, Fleming devoured the Bulldog Drummond tales of Lieutenant Colonel Herman Cyril McNeile (aka "Sapper") and the Richard Hannay stories of John Buchan . His genius was to repackage these antiquated adventures to fit the fashion of postwar Britain ... In Bond, he created a Bulldog Drummond for the jet age . William Cook in the New Statesman During the Second World War , Ian Fleming had mentioned to friends that he wanted to write
1254-559: A day. Bond occasionally supplements his alcohol consumption with the use of other drugs, for both functional and recreational reasons: Moonraker sees Bond consume a quantity of the amphetamine benzedrine accompanied by champagne, before his bridge game with Sir Hugo Drax (also consuming a carafe of vintage Riga vodka and a vodka martini); he also uses the drug for stimulation on missions, such as swimming across Shark Bay in Live and Let Die , or remaining awake and alert when threatened in
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#17327718208801368-585: A drophead. However, Mulliner's price was too high and Silva eventually had the body built by Henri Chapron, with the work completed in July 1958. In 2008 the coachwork on this car was modified to match the proposed Mulliner conversion more closely. According to academic Jeremy Black , Bond is written as a complex character, even though he was also often the voice of Fleming's prejudices. Throughout Fleming's books, Bond expresses racist , sexist and homophobic attitudes. The output of these prejudices, combined with
1482-473: A good name.' Casino Royale , Chapter 7: Rouge et Noir Bond's drinking habits run throughout the series of books. During the course of On Her Majesty's Secret Service alone, Bond consumes forty-six drinks: Pouilly-Fuissé , Riquewihr and Marsala wines, most of a bottle of Algerian wine, some 1953 Château Mouton Rothschild claret , along with Taittinger and Krug champagnes and Babycham ; for whiskies he consumes three bourbon and waters, half
1596-432: A keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument ... when I
1710-608: A maid. After being sent down from Eton, Bond was sent to Fettes College in Scotland, his father's school. On his first visit to Paris at the age of 16, Bond lost his virginity , later reminiscing about the event in " From a View to a Kill ". Fleming referenced his own upbringing for his creation, with Bond alluding to briefly attending the University of Geneva (as did Fleming), before being taught to ski in Kitzbühel (as
1824-673: A member of the Special Operations Executive , claimed that the name could have been linked with him. Bond's code number—007—was assigned by Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of First World War : the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram , which was coded 0075, and which
1938-647: A moment. Three measures of Gordon's , one of vodka , half a measure of Kina Lillet . Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel . Got it?' 'Certainly monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea. 'Gosh, that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter. Bond laughed. 'When I'm ... er ... concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold, and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I think of
2052-408: A neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department." After Fleming met the ornithologist and his wife, he described them as "a charming couple who are amused by the whole joke". In the first draft of Casino Royale he decided to use the name James Secretan as Bond's cover name while on missions. In 2018 the family of James Charles Bond, who had served under Fleming as
2166-465: A new car for Bond. Fleming wanted the car to be a cross between a Bentley Continental and a Ford Thunderbird . Straight pointed Fleming to chassis number BC63LC, which was probably the inspiration for the vehicle that ended up in the book. This car had been delivered in May 1954 to a Mr Silva as a Mulliner-bodied coupé. After he rolled the car and wrecked the body, Silva commissioned Mulliner to convert it to
2280-481: A number of occasions, famous examples being Support Your Local Sheriff! , Cat Ballou , Mel Brooks 's Blazing Saddles , and Rustler's Rhapsody . George Lucas 's Star Wars films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended for Star Wars to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. The Jedi , who take their name from Jidaigeki , are modeled after samurai, showing
2394-559: A pint of I.W. Harper bourbon, Jack Daniel's whiskey, two double bourbons on the rocks, two whisky and sodas, two neat scotches and one glass of neat whisky; vodka consumption totalled four vodka and tonics and three double vodka martinis; other spirits included two double brandies with ginger ale, a flask of Enzian schnaps and a double gin: he also washes this down with four steins of German beer. Bond's alcohol intake does not seem to affect his performance. Regarding non-alcoholic drinks, Bond eschews tea, calling it "mud" and blaming it for
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#17327718208802508-452: A popular art form. Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas , spurs, and buckskins , use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using frontier justice. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds. The first films that belong to
2622-606: A popular seller, leading Ruger to develop and market a centerfire revolver similar to the Single Action Army: the Ruger Blackhawk. Ruger introduced the Blackhawk in 1955. Chambered for the .357 Magnum , the Blackhawk was a simple and strong design, and it sold well. In 1956, as Smith & Wesson was introducing the new .44 Magnum , Ruger quickly developed a variant of the Blackhawk in the new cartridge. Ruger achieved wide popularity with this firearm. The Blackhawk
2736-570: A setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived in arcade games focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films and Electro-mechanical games such as Dale Six Shooter (1950), and Sega 's Gun Fight (1970). The first of these games
2850-688: A sheriff in fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming . Originally aired on the A&;E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by Netflix in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017. AMC and Vince Gilligan's critically acclaimed Breaking Bad is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set in New Mexico from 2008 through 2013, it follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston ), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystal meth to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into
2964-490: A spy novel. It was not until 1952, however, shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris , that Fleming began to write his first book, Casino Royale , to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials. Fleming started writing the novel at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica on 17 February 1952, typing out 2,000 words in the morning, directly from his own experiences and imagination. He finished work on
3078-485: A way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold." Others, such as journalist Ben Macintyre , identify aspects of Fleming's own looks in his description of Bond. General references in the novels describe Bond as having "dark, rather cruel good looks". In the novels (notably From Russia, with Love ), Bond's physical description has generally been consistent: slim build;
3192-562: Is a Secret Service officer, code number 007 (pronounced "double-O[ / oʊ / ]-seven"), residing in London but active internationally. Bond was a composite character who was based on a number of commandos whom Fleming knew during his service in the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War , to whom Fleming added his own style and a number of his own tastes. Bond's name may have been appropriated from
3306-523: Is a character created by the British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the protagonist of the James Bond series of novels , films , comics and video games . Fleming wrote twelve Bond novels and two short story collections. His final two books— The Man with the Golden Gun (1965) and Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966)—were published posthumously. The character
3420-589: Is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western was The Virginian (1902) by Owen Wister . Other well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey , from the early 1900s, Ernest Haycox , Luke Short , and Louis L'Amour , from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such as Leigh Brackett , Elmore Leonard , and Larry McMurtry , have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in
3534-455: Is a measure of the disdain in which these fictions are held at the Ministry, that action has not yet—I emphasize the qualification—been taken against the author and publisher of these high-flown and romanticized caricatures of episodes in the career of an outstanding public servant. You Only Live Twice , Chapter 21: Obit: Fleming wrote On Her Majesty's Secret Service while Dr. No
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3648-512: Is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns, high fantasy , science fiction, and horror. The protagonist Roland Deschain is a gunslinger whose image and personality are largely inspired by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, the superhero fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. The Western genre has been parodied on
3762-443: Is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like. The character played by Humphrey Bogart in noir films such as Casablanca and To Have and Have Not —an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with films such as Colorado Territory and Pursued . In many of Robert A. Heinlein 's books,
3876-424: Is commonly used to deliver a coup de grace shot to mortally wounded large game, having the ability to dispatch even an elephant with a conscientiously placed close range shot to the head. The wide availability of .44 Magnum cases and bullets make the .44 Magnum chambering far more practical than .454 Casull or .480 Ruger, while allowing for similar ballistics in custom loadings. The Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum
3990-420: Is killed on their wedding day by Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld . In the penultimate novel of the series, You Only Live Twice , Bond suffers from amnesia and has a relationship with an Ama diving girl, Kissy Suzuki . As a result of the relationship, Kissy becomes pregnant, although she does not reveal this to Bond before he leaves the island. Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett noted that, "within
4104-413: Is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms . The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered
4218-405: Is one of the most accurate big bore pistols for target shooting, typically returning 5 shot groups that are one ragged hole from a rest at 25 yards. Work is commonly performed on the action of these revolvers to give a light, crisp trigger pull, thereby contributing to accuracy. Over the years the Blackhawk has appeared in a wide variety of models. These models include: James Bond illegally owns
4332-485: Is orphaned at age 11 after his parents are killed in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix . After the death of his parents, Bond went to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond, in the village of Pett Bottom , where he completed his early education. Later, he briefly attended Eton College at "12 or thereabouts", but was expelled after two halves because of girl trouble with
4446-536: Is scrambled eggs." Fleming was so keen on scrambled eggs that he used his short story, " 007 in New York ", to provide his favourite recipe for the dish: in the story, this came from the housekeeper of Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce, May, who gave her name to Bond's own housekeeper. Academic Edward Biddulph observed that Fleming fully described seventy meals within the book series and that while a number of these had items in common—such as scrambled eggs and steaks—each meal
4560-757: Is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often prostitutes ), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking ( beer , whiskey , or tequila if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value". Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber identified seven basic plots for Westerns: Gruber said that good writers used dialogue and plot development to develop these basic plots into believable stories. The American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in
4674-412: Is usually punctuated with a Western music score , including American folk music and Spanish / Mexican folk music such as country , Native American music , New Mexico music , and rancheras . Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid , desolate landscape of deserts and mountains . Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting
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4788-625: The Daily Express newspaper. There have been twenty-seven Bond films; seven actors have played Bond in the films . The central figure in Ian Fleming's work is the fictional character of James Bond, an intelligence officer in the " Secret Service ". Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander . James Bond is the culmination of an important but much-maligned tradition in English literature. As
4902-746: The American ornithologist of the same name , although it is possible that Fleming took the name from a Welsh agent with whom he served, James C. Bond. Bond has a number of consistent character traits which run throughout the books, including an enjoyment of cars, a love of food, drink and sex, and an average intake of sixty custom-made cigarettes a day. Since Fleming's death in 1964, there have been other authorised writers of Bond material, including John Gardner , who wrote fourteen novels and two novelizations; Raymond Benson , who wrote six novels, three novelizations and three short stories; and Anthony Horowitz , who has written three novels. There have also been other authors who wrote one book each: Kingsley Amis (under
5016-1342: The Atari 2600 and Gun Fight (1978) for the Bally Astrocade were derivative of Midway's Gun Fight . These early video games featured limited graphical capabilities , which had developers create Westerns to the most easily recognizable and popular tropes of the gunfighter shootouts. Western radio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as Empire Builders and Frontier Fighters ; juvenile adventure programs such as Red Ryder and Hopalong Cassidy ; legend and lore like Red Goose Indian Tales and Cowboy Tom's Round-Up ; adult Westerns like Fort Laramie and Frontier Gentleman ; and soap operas such as Cactus Kate . Some popular shows include The Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933), The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942), Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954), Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), and Gunsmoke (first broadcast in 1952). Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed. Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include League of STEAM , Red Bird , and Arkansas Traveler . Within
5130-483: The Canton de Vaud . The book was the first to be written after the release of Dr. No in cinemas and Connery's depiction of Bond affected Fleming's interpretation of the character, to give Bond a sense of humour that was not present in the previous stories. Bond spends much of his early life abroad, becoming multilingual in German and French because of his father's work as a Vickers armaments company representative. Bond
5244-537: The Grand Canyon , Yosemite , and the giant redwoods , due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the Great Depression . After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined. The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called
5358-525: The RCA Building at Rockefeller Center (then housing the headquarters of British Security Co-ordination – BSC) in New York City and a Norwegian double agent who had betrayed two British agents; it is suggested by Bond scholar John Griswold that these were part of Bond's wartime service with Special Operations Executive , a British Second World War covert military organisation. Bond is made
5472-457: The space opera series Firefly used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. Anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop , Trigun and Outlaw Star have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example, Kelly's Heroes
5586-512: The "Flattop" models, because their adjustable rear sights were not protected by "ears" extending up from the frame as later became standard. From 1962 through 1972, Ruger made the "Three Screw" Blackhawk in various calibers, so called by the number of screws visible on the side of the revolver. The Flattop and Three Screw Rugers were modernized compared to the Colt Single Action Army, in that they had adjustable sights instead of
5700-419: The "Golden Age of the Western". It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including Robert Aldrich , Budd Boetticher , Delmer Daves , John Ford , and others. Some of the popular films during this era include Apache (1954), Broken Arrow (1950), and My Darling Clementine (1946). The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time. During
5814-432: The 1960s and 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns from Italy became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of Sergio Leone 's storytelling method. After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992), and Geronimo (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity. When television became popular in
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#17327718208805928-416: The 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity of televised Westerns , and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections. Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of
6042-458: The 1970s. These games and drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys. When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based, Mainframe computer game The Oregon Trail was first game to use the West as
6156-582: The American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier ". Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to Wild West shows like Buffalo Bill Cody's . The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western fiction , and were firmly in place before film became
6270-570: The American frontier, the gaucho literature of Argentina , and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback. A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of
6384-499: The Colt's fixed sights, and they used wire coil springs instead of the Colt's flat leaf springs . Bill Ruger chose coil springs due to their greater durability, saying that it solved one of the primary weaknesses of the Colt design. The early models of the Blackhawk still operated the same way as the Colt, in that the hammer was half-cocked to load and unload and that the firearm was not safe to carry with all six chambers loaded due to
6498-625: The Dreamy Pines Motor Court in The Spy Who Loved Me . Bond was a car enthusiast and took great interest in his vehicles. In Moonraker , Fleming writes that "Bond had once dabbled on the fringe of the racing world", implying Bond had raced in the past. Over the course of the 14 books, Bond owns three cars, all Bentleys. For the first three books of the series, Bond drives a supercharged 1930 Bentley 4½ Litre , painted battleship grey, that he bought in 1933. During
6612-672: The Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the Russian Revolution , the Russian Civil War , and the Basmachi rebellion. Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in the space Western subgenre of science fiction. Peter Hyams 's Outland transferred the plot of High Noon to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently,
6726-627: The Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights —were published posthumously. Fleming based his creation on a number of individuals which he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war". Among those types were his brother, Peter , whom Fleming worshipped and who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during
6840-524: The Prairie , McCloud , The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams , and the short-lived but highly acclaimed How the West Was Won that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such as Lonesome Dove (1989) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . Also, new elements were once again added to
6954-613: The Super Blackhawk can, in fact, handle more powerful loads than any .44 Magnum lever action rifle and substantially more powerful rounds than any double action .44 Magnum revolver. Buffalo Bore makes a heavy load that is in excess of 1500 ft-lbs muzzle energy. These facts make the Ruger Super Blackhawk one of the top choices for handgun hunting. It is capable of reliably taking down deer, elk, caribou, moose, lion, grizzly or brown bear and even cape buffalo. It
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#17327718208807068-684: The UK, and Bond was "the ideal antidote to Britain's postwar austerity, rationing and the looming premonition of lost power". This extravagance was more noteworthy with his contemporary readers for Bond eating exotic, local foods when abroad, at a time when most of his readership did not travel abroad. On 1 April 1958 Fleming wrote to The Manchester Guardian in defence of his work, referring to that paper's review of Dr. No . While referring to Bond's food and wine consumption as "gimmickery", Fleming bemoaned that "it has become an unfortunate trade-mark. I myself abhor Wine-and-Foodmanship. My own favourite food
7182-470: The War he kept the car in storage. He wrecks this car in May 1954 during the events of Moonraker . Bond subsequently purchases a Bentley Mark VI drophead coupé, using the money he won from Hugo Drax at Blades . This car is also painted battleship grey and has dark blue upholstery. Fleming refers to this car as a 1953 model, even though the last year for the mark was 1952. It is possible the 1953 year refers to
7296-419: The Western formula, such as the space Western , Firefly , created by Joss Whedon in 2002. Deadwood was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired on HBO from 2004 through 2006. Hell on Wheels , a fictionalized story of the construction of the first transcontinental railroad , aired on AMC for five seasons between 2011 and 2016. Longmire is a Western series that centered on Walt Longmire ,
7410-826: The Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey . These featured veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they included Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the Sioux (dancing). The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short Kidnapping by Indians , made by Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn , England, in 1899. The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on
7524-705: The Western states and cowboy themes. Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture. After the death of Remington Richard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre. Some art museums, such as the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming and the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art. With anime and manga ,
7638-478: The Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being a Crime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series Better Call Saul . The neo-Western drama Yellowstone was streamed from 2018-2024. Western fiction
7752-418: The biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as the leading man in director Raoul Walsh 's spectacular widescreen The Big Trail , which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including
7866-618: The classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely Kid Colt, Outlaw , Rawhide Kid , and Red Ryder ) or more modern ones as Blueberry ), cartoons, and parodies (such as Cocco Bill and Lucky Luke ). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the fantasy , horror and science fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in Preacher . More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g., Jonah Hex and Loveless ). Video game Westerns emerged in
7980-577: The closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States , particularly the Southwestern United States , as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada . The frontier is depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled by cowboys , outlaws , sheriffs , and numerous other stock gunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern
8094-670: The clubs near London. Moonraker , Chapter 1: Secret paper-work Only once in the series does Fleming have a partner for Bond in his flat, with the arrival of Tiffany Case , following Bond's mission to the US in Diamonds Are Forever . By the start of the following book, From Russia, With Love , Case has left to marry an American. Bond is married only once, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service , to Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo , but their marriage ends tragically when she
8208-439: The coachwork, which in this case would probably make it a Graber -bodied car. In Thunderball , Bond buys the wreck of a Bentley R-Type Continental with a sports saloon body and 4.5 L engine. Produced between 1952 and 1955, Bentley built 208 of these cars, 193 of which had H. J. Mulliner bodies. Bond's car would have been built before July 1954, as the engines fitted after this time were 4.9 L. Fleming curiously calls this car
8322-752: The conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g., True Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order
8436-428: The culture, such as spaghetti Westerns (Italy), meat pie Westerns (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India). Being period drama pieces, both the Western and samurai genre influenced each other in style and themes throughout the years. The Magnificent Seven was a remake of Akira Kurosawa 's film Seven Samurai , and A Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo , which itself
8550-542: The downfall of the British Empire . He instead prefers to drink strong coffee. When in England and not on a mission, Bond dines as simply as Fleming did on dishes such as grilled sole, oeufs en cocotte and cold roast beef with potato salad . When on a mission, however, Bond eats more extravagantly. This was partly because in 1953, when Casino Royale was published, many items of food were still rationed in
8664-407: The earlier British film A Daring Daylight Burglary ), Edwin S. Porter 's film starring Broncho Billy Anderson , is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and William K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to The Great Train Robbery ". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set
8778-463: The early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color. Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes in demographic targeting along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included Hec Ramsey , Kung Fu , Little House on
8892-439: The first few pages [of Casino Royale ] Ian had introduced most of Bond's idiosyncrasies and trademarks", which included his looks, his Bentley and his smoking and drinking habits. The full details of Bond's martini were kept until chapter seven of the book and Bond eventually named it " The Vesper ", after his love interest Vesper Lynd . 'A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet .' 'Oui, monsieur.' 'Just
9006-426: The genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g., Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime), Trigun (1995–2007 manga), and Outlaw Star (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such as Koya no Shonen Isamu , a 1971 shonen manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or El Cazador de la Bruja , a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico. Part 7 of
9120-576: The gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice , freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny , and the national history and identity of the United States . Native American populations were often portrayed as averse foes or savages . Originating in vaquero heritage and Western fiction , the genre popularized the Western lifestyle , country - Western music , and Western wear globally. Throughout
9234-486: The hammer resting upon the sixth chamber. In 1973, in order to eliminate accidents occurring from the hammer jarring against a round loaded in the sixth chamber, Ruger introduced the New Model Blackhawk. The New Model Blackhawk did not require the hammer to be half-cocked for loading and unloading, and it employed a transfer bar mechanism which prevented the cartridge under the hammer from being fired without
9348-464: The harshness and isolation of the wilderness, and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific settings, such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, the saloon usually emphasizes that this is the Wild West ; it
9462-466: The heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress . Similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or Clint Eastwood 's Unforgiven , about an old contract killer ) are more morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress
9576-676: The history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres. The classic Western is a morality drama , presenting the conflict between wilderness and civilization . Stories commonly center on the life of a male drifter , cowboy , or gunslinger who rides a horse and is armed with a revolver or rifle . The male characters typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crowned Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas , vests , and cowboy boots with spurs . While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives include buckskins and dusters . Women are generally cast in secondary roles as love interests for
9690-401: The illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearby Albuquerque , much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between
9804-675: The influence of Kurosawa. The character Han Solo dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the Mos Eisley cantina is much like an Old West saloon. Meanwhile, films such as The Big Lebowski , which plucked actor Sam Elliott out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, and Midnight Cowboy , about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage. James Bond (literary character) Commander James Bond CMG RNVR
9918-469: The larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as spaghetti Westerns , maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such as neo-Westerns or space Westerns . For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with
10032-788: The late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite. Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as: The Lone Ranger (1949–1957), Death Valley Days (1952–1970), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961), Cheyenne (1955–1962), Gunsmoke (1955–1975), Maverick (1957–1962), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963), Wagon Train (1957–1965), The Rifleman (1958–1963), Rawhide (1959–1966), Bonanza (1959–1973), The Virginian (1962–1971), and The Big Valley (1965–1969). The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
10146-485: The literary descendants of the knights-errant , who stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian romances . Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight-errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds, and bound to no fixed social structures, but only to his own innate code of honor. Like knights-errant,
10260-461: The major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. An exception was The Big Trail, a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity
10374-563: The male lead; or in supporting roles as saloon girls, prostitutes or as the wives of pioneers and settlers . The wife character often provides a measure of comic relief . Other recurring characters include Native Americans of various tribes described as Indians or Red Indians, African Americans , Chinese Americans , Spaniards , Mexicans , law enforcement officers , bounty hunters , outlaws , bartenders , merchants , gamblers , soldiers (especially mounted cavalry ), and settlers ( farmers , ranchers , and townsfolk). The ambience
10488-683: The manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". Golden Kamuy (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the Russo-Japanese War , specifically focusing on Hokkaido and Sakhalin , and featuring the Ainu people and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes. Western comics have included serious entries, (such as
10602-456: The manuscript in just over a month, completing it on 18 March 1952. Describing the work as his "dreadful oafish opus", Fleming showed it to an ex-girlfriend, Clare Blanchard, who advised him not to publish it at all, but that if he did so, it should be under another name. Despite that advice, Fleming went on to write a total of twelve Bond novels and two short story collections before his death on 12 August 1964. The last two books— The Man with
10716-432: The pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre". The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from Tom Mix and William S. Hart . Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928,
10830-579: The protagonist in The Lifeline , Mark Chalmers, and Bond have been highlighted by spy writer Nigel West . Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist Dr James Bond , an expert on Caribbean birds based at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies , first published in 1936. Fleming,
10944-422: The pseudonym Robert Markham), Sebastian Faulks , Jeffery Deaver and William Boyd . Additionally, a series of novels based on Bond's youth— Young Bond —was written by Charlie Higson and later Stephen Cole . As a spin-off from the original literary work, Casino Royale , a television adaptation was made, " Casino Royale ", in which Bond was depicted as an American agent. A comic strip series also ran in
11058-637: The settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in his Tunnel in the Sky , settlers set out to the planet New Canaan, via an interstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, in Conestoga wagons , their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding a Palomino horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines. Stephen King 's The Dark Tower
11172-462: The start of Live and Let Die , Bond has had a skin graft to hide the scars. In Fleming's stories, Bond is in his mid-to-late thirties, but does not age. In Moonraker , he admits to being eight years shy of mandatory retirement age from the 00 section—45—which would mean he was 37 at the time. Fleming did not provide Bond's date of birth, but John Pearson 's fictional biography of Bond, James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 , gives him
11286-464: The tales of Bond's actions, led journalist Yuri Zhukov to write an article in 1965 for the Soviet daily newspaper Pravda , describing Bond's values: James Bond lives in a nightmarish world where laws are written at the point of a gun, where coercion and rape are considered valour and murder is a funny trick ... Bond's job is to guard the interests of the property class, and he is no better than
11400-602: The trigger being pulled. The New Blackhawk was seen as limiting firearms accidents and legal liability. Ruger then began offering a retrofit program, offering free transfer bar conversions to earlier variants of the Blackhawk. It is worth noting that the Super Blackhawk is capable of operating with much higher pressure handloads than factory produced ammunition in .44 Magnum. Factory produced loads such as Federal Champion 240 gr JSP loads are right around 800 ft-lbs muzzle energy. Loads in excess of 1200 ft-lbs muzzle energy are commonly produced by handloaders for this caliber and
11514-470: The war. Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench , a skiing spy whom Fleming had met in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Patrick Dalzel-Job , who served with distinction in 30 AU during the war, and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale , station head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cuff-links and handmade suits and was chauffeured around Paris in
11628-439: Was Midway 's Gun Fight , an adaptation of Taito 's Western Gun (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind. Atari 's Outlaw (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery. Early console games such as Outlaw (1978) for
11742-613: Was Fleming) by Hannes Oberhauser, who is later killed in " Octopussy ". Bond joined the Secret Service in 1938–as described by a Russian dossier about him in From Russia, with Love . He spent two months in 1939 at the Monte Carlo Casino watching a Romanian group cheating before he and the Deuxième Bureau closed them down. Bond's obituary in You Only Live Twice states that he joined "a branch of what
11856-516: Was No. 30, and the latter No. 25. His flat is looked after by an elderly Scottish housekeeper named May . May's name was taken from May Maxwell, the housekeeper of Fleming's close friend, the American Ivar Bryce. In 1955 Bond earned around £2,000 a year net (equivalent to £66,000 in 2023); although when on assignment, he worked on an unlimited expense account. Much of Fleming's own daily routine while working at The Sunday Times
11970-635: Was a financial failure due to Depression era theatres not willing to invest in widescreen technology. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a pulp genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such as Dodge City starring Errol Flynn , Jesse James with Tyrone Power , Union Pacific with Joel McCrea , Destry Rides Again featuring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich , and especially John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach starring John Wayne , which became one of
12084-411: Was being filmed in Jamaica and was influenced by the casting of Scottish actor Sean Connery to give Bond Scottish ancestry. It was not until the penultimate novel, You Only Live Twice , that Fleming gave Bond a more complete sense of family background, using a fictional obituary, purportedly from The Times . The novel reveals Bond’s parents were Andrew Bond, of Glencoe , and Monique Delacroix, of
12198-467: Was both cheaper and more readily available than the Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver. According to popular legend, Ruger was able to field a .44 Magnum revolver at nearly the same time as Smith & Wesson due to a Ruger employee finding expended .44 Magnum cartridge cases at a scrapyard and deducing that Smith & Wesson was about to launch a new cartridge. The 1955–1962 Blackhawks are known today as
12312-421: Was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard. — Ian Fleming, The New Yorker , 21 April 1962 On another occasion Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers'. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be
12426-403: Was different from the others. Bond is a heavy smoker, at one point smoking 70 cigarettes a day. Bond has his cigarettes custom-made by Morland of Grosvenor Street, mixing Balkan and Turkish tobacco and having a higher nicotine content than normal; the cigarettes have three gold bands on the filter. Bond carried his cigarettes in a wide gunmetal cigarette case which carried fifty; he also used
12540-470: Was inspired by Red Harvest , an American detective novel by Dashiell Hammett . Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially John Ford . Despite the Cold War , the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own take on the genre, the so-called Red Western or Ostern. Generally, these took two forms: either straight Westerns shot in
12654-476: Was one of the factors that led to the US entering the war. Facially, Bond resembles the composer, singer and actor Hoagy Carmichael . In Casino Royale , Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker , Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking ... Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in
12768-555: Was subsequently to become the Ministry of Defence " in 1941, where he rose to the rank of principal officer. The same year he became a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , ending the war as a commander. At the start of Fleming's first book, Casino Royale , Bond is already a 00 agent, having been given the position after killing two enemy agents, a Japanese spy on the thirty-sixth floor of
12882-515: Was the first Western television series written for adults, premiering four days before Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955. The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to Wyatt Earp : The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp , Bat Masterson , Tombstone Territory , Broken Arrow , Johnny Ringo , and Gunsmoke . Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in
12996-456: Was woven into the Bond stories, and he summarised it at the beginning of Moonraker : ... elastic office hours from around ten to six; lunch, generally in the canteen; evenings spent playing cards in the company of a few close friends, or at Crockford's ; or making love, with rather cold passion, to one of three similarly disposed married women; weekends playing golf for high stakes at one of
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