5/5/2023 0 Comments Spectre film translationBut its shortcomings cannot be blamed on the possibility that its predecessors may have left too high of a standard to be matched. With these two excellent revisions of the Bond formula it can seem that Spectre had a lot to live up to. He is a phenomenal villain because his presence is aligned perfectly with the existing emotional subplot that entails James’s growing distrust towards M and the result in an emotionally resonant story with a satisfying conclusion. As Silva’s history unfolds it reveals his understandable scorn towards M that allows him to come across as a genuinely hurt human being as opposed to a bland caricature of evil. The main hook lies in the introduction of a realistic villain with reasonable motivations. The films main goal is to expand upon the maternal relationship that 007 has with his supervisor M by introducing Silva, a villain who wants to target M while placing strain on her already tenuous relationship with Bond. Skyfall can be best described as the true successor to Casino Royale because it elaborates on this new incarnation of 007 by delivering a thought-provoking story that delves more into the history of James Bond. A precursor that oversees good action is a well-developed central character because emotional attachment forces the audience to really care whether he or she makes it out alive. This is a basic law of effective storytelling and it is one that filmmaker Steven Spielberg has been perfecting for years. For through the exposure to Bond’s humanity the film is intensified for audiences since they are introduced to a hero that has the potential to be broken either physically or emotionally and as they are watching their hero embark on a perilous journey, because of his exposed vulnerabilities the peril feels more significant. Whether or not fans were consciously aware that they were processing these questions is irrelevant because based on the overwhelmingly positive responses to this realistic Bond it can be assumed that an emotional impact was elicited on at least a subconscious level and this can be reflected by the critical and box office successes that the film garnered that can be easily surmised by calling it the “Rebirth of Bond”. Is it really worth being a womanizer if you have to initially witness the woman you love drown in front of you? With this information apparent does it not become obvious that Bond’s perpetual infatuation with women is in part a coping mechanism that reflects the betrayal of his true love? Instead the film bravely attempted to illuminate Bond’s vulnerabilities by posing a simple question: what consequences befall a man who lives incessantly close to danger? The film was the first in the series to postulate the potential real world consequences of being James Bond and through this exposure to Bond’s humanity it left audiences, particularly men, questioning whether theoretically taking on the 007 persona was worth all the emotional baggage that goes along the way. For the first time Bond’s alcoholism and misogynistic womanizing ways were not set up to be comically glorified as the pinnacle of male machismo. Here was a film that introduced audiences to a Bond that felt remarkably more human that any of the ones that came before. Thankfully this is not the only Bond in existence nor is it the one that was introduced in 2006 when audiences saw Casino Royale for the first time. One would have thought that after 24 films he would have shown at least a single scar. He drinks the finest scotch only before he beds even finer women and it seems that no matter how many times he gets punched in the face he always manages to avoid any form of facial disfigurement. He is a man whose adventures entail the thwarting of evil plots of maniacal villains through liquor soaked stunts and breezy one liner conversations that only seem to skim the surface of any real significance. Who is 007, and more importantly what does his character represent? To some, 007 represents a fanciful embodiment of the masculine psyche.
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