'The Man Missing His Golden Gun' - in a Woke Move, Amazon Prime Chooses to Remove James Bond's Weapons

AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File

If you wanted to build the quintessential fictional character that embodies the leftist trope of the “toxic male,” you would be hard-pressed to find a better avatar than James Bond. Find the male trait the activist set has railed against, and 007 has that tucked away inside his elitist tuxedo. 

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Violent? Of course. Sexist? You betcha. Racist? In the past, I’m sure he was by their standards. He is rapacious, capricious, cold-hearted, and perhaps worst of all, he does not care about social sensitivities. So to see an entertainment platform try to tamp down one of these elements of the beloved generational character is perplexing.

Over the weekend, it was noticed that on Amazon Prime, they had a series of new series of promotional images for the collection of James Bond films on the platform. The key art for each title is rather unimpressive, with the actors heavily photoshopped and the titles all using a white font. They are so far removed from the original posters for the movies that these look at first glance like the rollout of a summer fashion line for men. (Behold the Spectre sport shirts, with our new Thunderball line of men’s briefs!)

 Also noticed: Every single gun originally portrayed was either airbrushed out or the image was cropped to remove the weapon from being visible.

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This is such a daft decision, and yet it was rather blatant. Now, some of the coverage hinted this was initiated at the Prime UK site (although these examples were seen stateside), so that might suggest the squeamish weapons laws in Britain were a catalyst for such. But instead of excusing the move, it only underscores the idiocy. 

If you are motivated to obscure a gun from a movie poster out of some sense of concern, what do you do with the actual product that contains said weaponry displays? How are you protecting anyone or shielding them, while still offering the very product that sees this nefarious weapon actually being used?


But the baffling part is that for Amazon Prime to make this move defies the fact that it produces the very type of content that generates these “dangerous” film artworks. They have produced the series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” as well as “The Terminal List,” starring Chris Pratt. When you create content with copious use of weaponry, how are you serving any kind of safe agenda by merely erasing a gun from key art?

The more dastardly component to this reality is that Amazon purchased MGM Studios four summers ago. This means that the James Bond intellectual franchise is now under its ownership, and a new Bond film is in the planning stages, with Director Denis Villeneuve tabbed to helm the feature. Fans are worried now that we may see the beloved rake of a character neutered to some degree, if this is the approach from the squishes at Amazon.

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Since the online uproar over the woke-washing of the super spy, the streaming platform has quietly shifted, removing these impotent images. Instead, they opt to now have a screencap from each movie, with the title included. But staying true to their sensitivities, none of the shots selected dare to have a gun seen in the frame.

I guess we can now go watch a film with “James Bond: Crisis Negotiator.”

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. 

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