If you want a glimpse of how complex, nuanced and interesting online film analysis is becoming, check this out. I won’t even begin to give any form of summary, but it’s an hour long video essay on why Ireland and the Troubles there have effectively been written out of James Bond films. When I first came across it, I thought it was quite a silly question to ask: Bond films are set in all sorts of sunny, exotic locations – why would 007 ever go to Ireland? But if you think about it, relations between the UK and Ireland have been a major aspect of British foreign policy over the last fifty to a hundred years, so it’s rather odd that a film series about a British secret agent has completely ignored the subject, almost as if it did not exist. The short, simple answer is that the EON producers didn’t want to enflame tensions or offend viewers on either side of an extremely complex issue, so they understandably avoided it entirely. But what this video delves into to an impressive, intriguing extent is the politics behind this rather conspicuous absence. While I’m not sure I wholly agree with everything that is said in the video, it certainly makes for an interesting, thought-provoking watch.