I waited until the several zillion people who rushed in like a flood tide to see the latest Bond film, Skyfall, had ebbed somewhat and thus it was last night that I went to see it. I must admit I felt better about myself afterwards because at last we have an elderly James Bond – well, perhaps ‘elderly’ is overstating it but he has definitely aged, perhaps ‘grizzled’ is the best word. Even so, as played by Daniel Craig, he still looks more than capable of tearing off your arm and beating you over the head with the soggy end! The only other Bond who gave that impression was Sean Connery; the rest simply went through the motions. Menace is indefinable but you know it when you see and feel it and Craig has the look of a man with whom you would not wish to get into a strop after a minor traffic accident! He is, of course, a first-rate actor and his Bond provides glimpses, in almost Rattiganesque understatement, of the inner Bond, a man with a past, a man with feelings held tightly within himself, in effect, the sort of ‘stiff upper-lipped, British chap’ we, or at least, I, used to hero-worship after the war before the fashion for ‘letting it all hang out’ took over. In fact, and rather improbably, I was reminded of the film version of ‘Tinker, Tailor …’ - another elegy to a lost England.
So, not only did we have an excellent Bond but also a superb villain played by Javier Bardem, an actor who has now created two of the scariest bad men I have ever seen on film. His almost robot-like villain in ‘No Country for Old Men’ was the stuff of nightmares and his charming, smiley, camp performance in this film was truly creepy. I was sorry to see him killed at the end because I was hoping he would return in the next film. Another one to bite the dust was the always excellent Judi Dench as ‘M’, only an elderly lady but one with as much violence within her as Bond, himself. Now we have Ralph Fiennes taking over the role and I foresee some sparks flying!
Finally, as far as the actors are concerned, a special word of praise for Ben Whishaw as ‘Q’. He really is a superb actor and there is no doubt that he will rise to the greatest heights in British theater. He has already supplied us with one excellent, moody, teen-age Hamlet and I would love to see him give it another try in, say, ten or fifteen years – ‘I should live so long, my life already’!
The film as a whole was superb and in keeping with the Bond tradition. A variety of foreign settings – I nearly fell out of my chair at the sight of Shanghai, my God, what a place! – but also several scenes shot in Britain particularly, and rather lovingly, in London which in comparison to Shanghai looked rather faded and shrunken like that old dowager in Downton Abbey. Technically, the fight/chase/fight sequences were superb but somehow, in some way, they didn’t quite thrill. I think because they were too far out and improbable, running along rooftops as Craig did in his first film was exciting because you could imagine it in real life and the disaster if he took a false step, but riding motorbikes across roof-tops was silly – and anyway, these sequence were far too long and allowed one the time to dwell on the silliness.
After the disaster that was the last Bond film this was terrific, a return to the very best of the genre – and what a genre it is! I wonder what people in the next century will make of it all?