8/21/2007 - Sean Connery on smackin' bitches

Out of all the James Bonds (Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig), Sean Connery's is probably the favorite of most of the fans of the series. A lot of that fondness probably is due to the fact that that he is the "original" Bond... most people tend to favor the original actors of iconic characters as they probably think they're the represent the "authentic" version of that character, while the others that follow are merely imitators. One exception may be the Batman series, where people have taken to Christian Bale's version of the Dark Knight. Personally, I still like Michael Keaton's Batman.

Back to Sean Connery, I think people have a certain affinity to his male chauvinistic Bond. All the Bonds are fairly chauvinistic, but Connery's almost reveled in the politically incorrect environment of the 60's. If you watch the old movies, you wouldn't believe the stuff he got away with, even if it was a movie, and even if it was James Bond slapping the butts of the various Bond girls. I think Sean Connery took some of this Bond attitude to his real life. He stated in an interview that "it's not the worst thing in the world to slap a woman now and then" and Barbara Walters called him on it. You'd think that maybe he would shy way from those comments, but no... he regrets nothing! Now, I don't condone what he's advocating, but I do admire his honesty in the matter. In fact, the character of Bond he created may not be too far off from himself after all.