As of the time of writing, Sean Connery passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I've had some complicated feelings about it. I really like a lot of films that Connery is in, and he is a remarkable actor, one of the best I've seen in terms of occupying the lens with his physicality. However, as a person, he was, at best, a misogynist and a womaniser; my own mother suffered his verbal abuse once for asking for an autograph in the 1960s. Many of Connery's iconic films have dated poorly and really need to be viewed in context to be enjoyed at all. I'm not the kind of Film Graduate who ascribes too closely to the concept of separating art and artist, and I also believe that few individuals are worthy of idolization, but I'm still uncomfortable when James Bond slaps a woman, or outright rapes her in some of the early films. This one isn't really a superhero thing sorry, just some stuff that was on my mind as I watched old Connery films that I don't really have another forum to get out of my head and out into the world.
If you want to enjoy a version of James Bond which follows a strong narrative and has a solid core of canon, what you want is the novels, especially the Ian Flemming ones, which tell the story about as best as one could want. Of course, this isn't enough for many, as most fans are focused on the films, as they are more easily found and digested, and tend to be better versions of the stories, as Flemming was not the best writer. It is hotly debated as to whether or not the Bond portrayed by different actors is the same individual, up until the Daniel Craig era, of course, with most fan articles I could find coming down on the "yes" side of the discussion. In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, it is revealed that Bond (from the novels) was the original with Connery, Moore, Lazenby etc. being versions recruited by MI-5 to continue the myth in later years. Basically the same tack as the 1967 Casino Royale, which is an amazing film and I love it.
My own personal take is pretty similar, but with a few twists. In the world of the films, I do believe that the Connery incarnation is the "original" Bond and that Moore, Dalton and Brosnen were agents given new names to play on the legend. However, I contend that Lazenby is not playing a new agent with the same codename, but the very same Bond as Connery, the "This never happened to the other fellow" line not withstanding. The deciding factor, for me, is Teresa Bond (ne Draco), the woman Bond marries just before she is killed in a revenge attack by Blofeld (played by Telly Savalas! Man, this film is underrated!). This seems like it may be something of a non-issue, until, the next film in the series, Diamonds Are Forever, opens with Bond going on a murder-rampage of Blofeld's men like nothing seen before in the series. Looks like a revenge-driven reckoning to me. Even in the books, the jump in tone after On Her Majesty's Secret Service is marked, as Bond finally had someone to love, and lost them to his own hubris and his greatest nemesis. That On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the few stories where Bond loses contributes to this shift in tone.
Also of consideration to my "Head-Canon" is 1983's Never Say Never Again, in which it is strongly hinted that Connery is the original Bond, and has been brought back into action because his successor (Moore) isn't delivering in the same way. Sure, Never Say Never Again is just another Thunderball remake, but Blofeld (Max Von Syndow!) is never named and SPECTRE exists across most films in the franchise, so it doesn't require a great deal of mental contortion to get it to fit. Remember, none of the Bond Films are intended to connect narratively to more than a handful of the others, so this entire exercise is fraught from the start. If making sense of of the Bond series in a logical manner is something you "need" to do, I believe something along the lines of assuming each actor is Bond, but in a separate universe that runs more-or-less parallel could probably work, but I haven' thought too deeply about it. Honestly, I only really watch the classic Connery/Lazenby films regularly myself, so maybe I'm missing something vital, oh well.
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