How Sherlock Holmes and James Bond Are Perceived as Heroes in The Society

They are both spies and fictional literature characters. James Bond is more athletic and skilled fighter compared to Sherlock Holmes, but Sherlock Holmes is more intelligent than James Bond. When it comes to character Sherlock is portrayed to be more outstanding than James Bond. Holmes can be considered asexual while James Bond is a womanizer. 

Comparison between James Bond characters in the books and the films

Reading all of the Fleming books and short stories as well as a few of the later Gardner books plus watching all of the movies, we can safely say that the character and the fictional “world” he inhabits has morphed significantly over the years. The original books (and to some extent the later ones as well), as well as the first two Connery films, were much more grounded in the reality of the cold war. Bond was not an infallible superman, and he was forced to use his natural cunning and quick reactions to evaluate situations and get himself out of danger. He was also much more inclined to be physically brutal when he felt it necessary. There were few gadgets and less gunplay in the books than in the later movies. To sum him up, the character as written initially was by today’s standards quite misogynistic, prone to violence, abused alcohol and stimulants, smoked an incredible quantity of custom made cigarettes, drove recklessly and seemed to have a suicidal streak in him. On the flip side, he was incredibly loyal to his friends, allies and above all the service which he worked for, he was honest about what he had to offer the women he was with and would place himself in harm's way to see they were not harmed. He very much epitomized the post-WWII male self-ideal. The perfect example of the man whom women wanted and men wanted to be.

With the release of Goldfinger, the movie Bond began to veer from the books. Each successive release saw more gadgets, more light comedy, and less believable villains and situations for Bond to defeat. This trajectory continued right through the Roger Moore era, and except the two Timothy Dalton outings, did not end until Pierce Brosnan’s last film. It was the recent Casino Royale with Daniel Craig which brought the character back to its roots (or at least as close as was possible and still have the movie be popular with audiences). Craig, like Connery, played the character with a sense of real menace which the other actors were not able to convey. It is quite easy to imagine someone like Sean Connery punching the hell out of some guard, or Daniel Craig beating his target to death (as he does in the opening to Casino Royale). It is less easy to imagine Brosnan or Moore doing the same.

Comparison between Casino Royale: The Movie and The Book. 

Ian Fleming first wrote casino royale in 1953 then sixty-three years later it was adapted into a film. The movie opens with James Bond earning his 007 status by collecting his first two kills. (Chief office that was selling MI6 secrets and his contact.) The novel describes his first two kills as a Japanese sci-fi expert in NewYork which does not match up in the movie. Both the book and the movie deals with her Majesty most exceptional double O agents taking down Leshifra, dangerous accountant that cooks book for terrorists. The logistics of the case against Leshifra are primarily the same in the book and the movie.

Leshifra loses someone else money and has to win a high stake card game to win the money back. James Bond is the best card player that MI6 has hence been the best hope in beating Leshifra. In the movie, Bond begins his assignment investigating a bomb maker in Madagascar after which he tracks down Alex Demetrios who in turns leads Bond to the suspect Leshifra. In the book, we first meet Bond already on Leshifra’s tail in Casino Royale a fictional town which in the movie takes place in Montenegro. Movie Leshifra is a mathematical genius and a private banker to terrorists around the globe. We first meet him when a mysterious man named Mr. White introduces Leshifra to an African American warlord. Leshifra agrees to handle the warlord's money but quickly loses it by short selling stock in an airplane company. The book Leshifra is not a banker to terrorist but the shady official accountant to Russia. The money he loses comes from Russian espionage infrastructure specifically SMERSH by investing it in a line of brothel throughout France. In the book the game is baccara, and in the movie, it is last hand poker. During the game, in both the book and the movie when Leshifra realizes that bond would beat and an attempt is made on his life. In the movie, his drink is poisoned, and in the book, a guy points a gun in his head but knocks him over. In both bond meets a trusted CIA agent who becomes his counterpart. In the book, he presents himself before the game and does not play cards himself, and in the movie, he is a poker play but does not present himself to Bond until he is cleaned out and needs to buy in back to the game. 

In the movie, Vesper Lynd is portrayed as a strong, intelligent, willed, upwardly, a mobile employee of the treasury. In the book shes an assistant to the chief of section S. He serves as an escort to bond to the card which bond protest that she serves no purpose but a distraction to his work. In the movie bonds attitude towards women is less explicitly explained and he works for a woman something different in all the bond franchise compared to the book where women are infuriated and opposed as a sex object by Bond. The movie displays a change in gender politics as compared to the book. From the comparison, the movie is an upgrade of the book making the movie amazing.