This class is taken … not stirred

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, July 17, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

The dapper British spy who defined class in the 1960s is now in college in Las Vegas.

Yes, that's Bond ... James Bond -- and he's the featured subject of a new summer class at UNLV. About 70 intrigued students have signed up to study the classic-action film series.

Some are fervent 007 followers. Others were just looking for a cool A.

But professors who offer this and other summer classes that look like cake walks say there's substance lurking under the fun titles, and students, once they get into classes, find they're not always the easy credits they hoped for.

"I figured it would be easy," said E.J. Moore, a sophomore majoring in psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "I figured you watch a film and then talk about it. But the syllabus looks hard."

In fact, Kai Murphy's film class won't be as easy as people think.

"Unfortunately, (the class) always starts out easy, but the truth comes out later," Murphy said.

On the first day of class, Murphy warned students about attendance.

"If you're not here for class, guess what? You're going to be very close to failing," Murphy told students.

For three nights a week until the middle of August, Murphy will go over every detail of the Bond films from Q's gadgets to Ursula Andress' dress size.

In that time four term papers will be due.

Murphy said the point of the class is to show students how the Bond films were the precursor to the modern action blockbuster.

Students will also dissect the slow metamorphosis of the Bond character from misogynist to sensitive male, Murphy said.

"I actually try to challenge them and get them thinking about how the movies were made and how they changed through time," Murphy said.

If the art of cool isn't your game, there are other offbeat subjects -- such as sex, sugar and liquor -- to study in UNLV classes.

Sex in Cinema is one of the hot film courses. It drew about 66 students, said Francisco Menendez, chairman of the film department. Films such as "Basic Instinct" and "Body Heat" are used as examples of how sexuality is used to tell a story.

"You kind of confess that the title is meant to entice, but when you get to it, there's a little more meat," Menendez said.

Menendez said that courses like these are being added to beef up the film department, which has grown from seven students in 1990 to 300 now.

Another class, titled Sugar Art, is also meant to entice. The class teaches cocoa painting, how to shape sugar into baskets, chocolate carving and marzipan sculpture, among other techniques.

"The only disaster we've ever really had is someone burned themselves on the pulled sugar, which is generally very hot," said John Stefanelli, chairman of food and beverage management.

While no one scored an F this summer in the culinary art class, about a quarter of the class went home with a C, Stefanelli said.

Another popular course is Beers 367. A side benefit to the class is -- you guessed it -- sampling different beers. In just 15 days a class of about 30 students will go through 900 ounces of the suds.

But there's more to it. Students are required to learn how to make the beer, market it and perform quality control tests on the product -- again showing that nothing worthwhile is easy.

"It's like anything -- you have to love it," Stefanelli said. "If you don't you probably won't do well in the course."