Writers: Matthew Bauer and Rene Van Pannevis
Director: Matthew Bauer
Who would have imagined that a documentary about a random collection of men who all happened to be called James Bond could be so engrossing? But The Other Fellow, written by Matthew Bauer and Rene Van Pannevis, proves that truth is stranger than fiction. The film investigates the stories of real people who have had to live with the name of a universally known fictional hero, discovering that in most cases this has been more of a curse than a blessing.
It’s the inevitable jokes every time you meet someone new that gets you down, says theatre director James Bond. It’s the burden of the eternal franchise, says another of the 007 brotherhood. When middle-aged white man, James Bond, from South Bend Indiana hears the news that a certain local man, James Bond, has been arrested on suspected murder charges, he is horrified. Much later in the film he meets his doppelganger – a young black man who was to spend time in jail. Telling a police officer your name under the circumstances can be taken as aggravating behaviour. The film’s title comes from a laconic observation on Facebook, responding to this Bond’s story: ‘It never would have happened to the other fellow’.
Meanwhile the film regularly returns to archive footage of Ian Fleming himself at his home, Golden Eye in Jamaica, being asked by an interviewer how he chose his hero’s name. “I wanted something flat,” Fleming explains. Catching sight of a favourite birding book, Birds of the West Indies, by a certain James Bond, he happily appropriated the author’s name. You’d have thought the real James Bond might have been flattered, but the retiring ornithologist felt otherwise. It is his combative wife who writes angrily to Fleming, spelling just how invasive they felt this to be and threatening to sue. This part of the story has a happy ending – Fleming apologies to the real Bonds and indeed welcomes them as guests when they pass through Jamaica.
The strangest Bond is a Swedish man, Gunnar Schäfer, who has tried to model his entire life on that of James Bond. He aims for the looks – the dinner jacket, cuff links and expensive watch as well as the cars and some of the weaponry, even getting a Venetian gondola shipped out to Nybro. Schäfer’s own father disappeared in 1959 and he speaks candidly about conflating the two mysterious male figures.
“What person in their right mind would call their son James Bond?” asks one of the many talking heads in the film. By the end, several have chosen a new name, admitting to feeling they’ve been relieved of a burden. Only one of the interviewees, a woman, goes in the other direction. After a terrifying marriage to an abusive husband, she is advised to change her name and that of her young son. She comes up with a brilliant idea to hide the boy in plain sight. Officially renaming him James Bond makes searching for him impossible.
The Other Fellow looks and sounds fabulous, deliberately recreating the tense action vibe of Bond movies. There is the soundscape of American cities, all sirens and whirring helicopters with a regular updates from rolling news broadcasts. Added to this are Alastair McNamara’s ominous music, the slick editing of Lesley Posso and the impressive cinematography by Jamie Touche.
The Other Fellow will be in UK Cinemas & Available on Digital Download from 19th May.
