Michael Armstrong vs. James Bond
- Similarities
- Differences
- The Women
That Arresting Rhythm: Opening Credits and Murders
Tatiana Romanova: "Oh James, will you make love to me all the time in England?"
"Darling Moneypenny, Let me tell you the secrets of the world."
Bond begins the film with the forward brunette from the rowboat, flirts shamelessly with Miss Moneypenny, but ends up with Tatiana Romanova, a woman who thinks that she is working for Russia but is really a pawn in SPECTRE's plot to murder Bond. Like all Bond Girls, she begins by working for the villain but after meeting Bond, she is won over by his goodness and sexuality and joins his side, the good side, proving her loyalty to Bond when she shoots Rosa Klebb. 28. Initially, she writes to M claiming that she wants to defect to England and that if Bond will join her in Istanbul and help her make it back to London then she will help him gain a Lektor, an electrodecoding device. She shows up naked in Bond's hotel room bed, and deflects Bond's attempts to get information with offers of sex. Their relationship is entirely sexual; Tatiana is frequently shown in slinky nightgowns or in nothing at all and often her body is fragmented into erotic pieces like her breasts or her lips, typical of male-dominated voyeuristic cinema 29.
Fragmented images of Tatiana's
sexuality
The film ends with the two of them riding away in a speedboat in Venice but the audience knows that the union is impossible since in Goldfinger and every subsequent Bond film a new girl will exist 30. No one expects Bond to end a film in a serious, long term relationship and the women never seem very concerned about it either. Though Tatiana and Bond have been playing husband and wife on the train and he has given her a ring as part of the disguise, she willingly gives it back (he does not even have to ask for it) as they ride away to safety at the film's closing. Thus it is clear that Tatiana is just along, literally, for the ride.
