The Movie Thread | Page 16 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

This Bond is in a half-way house responding to the call for more gadgets again and the old bon mots….. and it seems to be being castigated for it by some critics…….It’s still Craig so it still has some grit but there are some nice jokes too. M and Q have two of the best…..( though Q’s depends on you having seen Goldfinger).

Bond is a formula…….24 of them, 24 times…….MMM saw it all coming because basically they are all the same film. You know he won’t die……..you know he’ll get the girl……and save the day….. a few gadgets…. close shaves……nasty villain……strong henchman with a quirk…….a car chase…….

They’re better at entertaining than they are at suspense……Though Casino Royale stands out in that regard.

The film feels episodic, (they all do)……A linkage of sumptuously filmed locations where an events takes place…….Mexico……Austria……Italy…….Tangier

 MMM said: ‘If this wasn’t covered by the Bond 007 brand and everything that brings maybe folk would be less forgiving.’

But I think the opposite is true. If this was the first ever film to feature the James Bond character ……un-weighted by history, expectation previous incarnations and so on……I think it’s critics would be more forgiving.

Whatever……I liked how it’s up to date in respect to our modern day fears of a Snowdon revealed Orwellian society…….yet it still finds a place for a Cain Vs Abel theme something as old fashioned as a 60s red digital countdown.

……….Spectre is what it says on the tin…….it’s a James Bond film! …….And easily in the top ten of the series.

MMM….can I call you ‘M’ for short?

In Skyfall………after Bond dies in the pre-credits……..to rise again…and walk on water, (ice) in the last confrontation, he’s chasing the game, being manipulated and always a step behind. Most un-Bond-like, all the modern gadgets and fire-power are in the hands of the villains……..Bond makes do with his old car, his father’s shot-gun and some ingenuity………In the end he kills the villain with the most basic of all weapons a knife. But the villain, Raoul Silva, an anagram of which is, ‘a rival soul’, achieves his goal. For the first time in any film…….Bond fails…….M is killed. …………Her death brought about by the actions of perhaps her adopted son. ‘Think on your sins’…….an anagram of ‘Your son isn’t in HK’

Might explain M’s comment, “Orphan’s make the best agents 007′, said with a far away look. And that might explain why after all his angst and efforts to take vengeance for her leaving him to rot in Hong Kong he was finally unable to kill her. 

Maybe this sub-plot was left on the cutting room floor….or isn’t fleshed out in order to intrigue us.

All I’m saying here is that for a Bond film, Skyfall has a literary and artistic depth, (which I’ve posted about before), twists and turns and a most un-Bond-like failure…… so I’m surprised, given your specific criticisms of Spectre….namely that it was so routine and predictable that you reserve your harshest criticism for Skyfall that was not……..  ‘Damn you 007’ if he does and ‘Damn you 007’ if he doesn’t!  

Anyway…….Bond’s not for you……Or these films aren’t …..ces la vie.

Did you know the Kincaid character was due to be Connery…….probably right to to decide against it in the end…….But what a moment that would have been! 

Because it’s Remembrance Sunday a Footnote:

Before you think I’m getting too carried away with the anagrams and such…….Cyphers and codes are at the heart of spying and in fact Fleming’s choice of Bond’s number originated from telegram 0075 ‘The Zimmerman telegram’ that brought the US into WWI. An unbreakable german code which the British broke and passed on to the Americans……

The only cross atlantic cable was controlled by the British, but the German Embassy was allowed by the UK and the  US to transmit coded messages. Telegram ‘0075’ was offering Mexico help in getting back Texas, Arizona and New Mexico if they’d attack and distract the US and keep them busy and thus neutral in Europe.