Friday, March 20, 2009

Quantum of Solace (2008) - by Faro



“You’re right, we should only do business with nice people.”

– two CIA operative speaking to each other about ethics


The Bond films have always been defined by the leading man, and that remains true in this most recent (22nd!) installment. Sean Connery was casually and calmly misogynistic and imperialistic in a way we will forever honor and admire, George Lazenby broke the 4th Wall by saying “This never happened to the other fella”, Roger Moore came to us with campy humor and ironic sexuality, Timothy Dalton brought grit and grime and gore, Pierce Brosnan gave us precision and focus and an endearingly boyish presence, and now Daniel Craig strides forward to proclaim a new era of James Bond. Icy Blue-Eyed Control.

Whether shifting gears in his Aston Martin during the impossibly complicated driving scene that opens the film in a medias res of pure action, where his precise control is an inhuman merging of man and machine. Or in the impossibly dark image of him contrasted against the pure white staircases of his hotel in Bolivia as he is gliding in and around and over those staircases while evading other MI6 agents and still finding a chance to chat with M, at no point in this scene does he seem rushed or hurried. Or in the perfectly competent way he seduces and seeds Ms. Strawberry Field by merely asking her into the other room “to help find the stationary”; no coy or clever line, just a simple and plausible pretext to allow for what is clearly desired by both persons.

Daniel Craig has given us a Bond that is ravaged by revenge, but never loses control. He doesn’t bother to revel in anger, he just finds his target and goes on and on and on, till the “job” is done. After all, he is a licensed killer; he has the license to express his anger in the purest and most efficient way possible, so why bother with extraneous emotional displays?

When Timothy Dalton’s Bond quit the MI6 to slake his thirst for revenge, we could see him lose all sense of propriety and prior purpose in his need for personal emotional purging. Craig’s Bond, though often suffused with rage and often avoiding the direct supervision of his superiors, never wants to lose the focus and boundaries that the MI6 provides for him. He knows that without his paternal government and his maternal M sanctioning and sanctifying his actions he is just a killer. But with the proper context provided by the external control and his own internal control provided by his icy blue eyes, he can retain his humanity and remain a member of his Majesty’s Secret Service… and so becomes our hero for these modern times, our hero of control.

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