Director Matthew Bauer
Starring Gunnar James Bond Schäfer, James Alexander Bond, James Bond Jr.
Score 6/6

An energetic exploration of male identity via the lives, personalities, and adventures of a diverse band of men, real men across the globe all sharing the same name – James Bond.

My decision to watch The Other Fellow was based purely on its title, and the title took my head to a quote from the 1969 movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring George Lazenby. Was I disappointed that this wasn’t about George Lazenby? No. If you ever go to a Film Festival, you should choose a movie based on your thoughts of how a given title grabs your attention. If you ever do, I’d be interested in hearing about the movie that you watched. Before we get to far into things, I’d just like to take a moment to address the argument that crops up every few years about whether James Bond should be played by a black actor. Well, I do get the whole point that ‘Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond character as white’. However, after watching The Other Fellow I can safely say that there are already black men out there in the world by the name of James Bond. So, technically if a black actor ever gets to play the role of James Bond, they won’t be the first ever black James Bond.
It was interesting hearing the story of how Fleming chose the name James Bond for his spy, how it affected the American ornithologist James Bond and hearing about the letter his wife Mary Wickham Bond sent Fleming. I loved hearing how much of hinderance and help a name James Bond can be. From how its not a good idea to give the name ‘James Bond’ to the police when you don’t have the idea to back it up and how frustrating it must be to find reviews for your work in the theatre around the time a new James Bond movie is released. To somebody like Gunnar James Bond Schäfer who has embraced the name, runs a James Bond museum in Sweden and sees Ian Fleming as a sort of a father figure.