What makes Bond the man that he is? Is it nature or nurture, or some blend of both? While the movies which roll through the cineplex now are more standalone in nature, it seems obvious that to understand today's James Bond, there needs to be some reflection on the historical Bond. Where does he get his motivation? What purpose (or joy) does he get out of accomplishing it? What is his motivation for accepting life-threatening risk? Bond has too often been evaluated critically from the view of his sexual conquests rather than the accomplishing of his goal and the ultimate satisfaction of his free world-saving missions. In these pages, we will consider what it is about Bond that makes him tick, and subsequently, what about Bond is in fact redeemable.

Our journey will start with the James Bond we first met on screen in 1962, fifty years ago, as Sean Connery suavely drops that line, "Bond. James Bond," in the midst of a card game. Many of you will be introduced to George Lazenby, the one-shot Bond in the middle of the Connery era, who deserves his own chapter at some point but will merely be a footnote. We'll follow Bond through the '70s and '80s with the "saintly" Roger Moore, establish a change for a more gritty, realistic Bond with Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, and leave you waiting breathlessly for Skyfall (November 2012) as Daniel Craig returns for a third time carrying his license to kill.

Whether Bond is merely the blunt instrument of his government or the assertive do-gooder is up to you to decide. But the fact remains that no single character has stood the test of time and experienced such prolific success as Bond, James Bond.

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