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Why wouldn't Bond cry?
Having said that, narratively I realize that Mendes had to lock the scene down and move on. Having Bond show rage (like in CR) wouldn't have been appropriate in this instance, because the perpetrator was already dead. Moreover, they had to close it out and move to the 'Bond is back' finale with retro throwback to MP & M in classic office. So I understand why they did this.
At the end of the day, it was a minor moment in an otherwise excellent film, so I'm nitpicking. As long as they leave the crying with the Craig era, I'll be fine.
Seems like the most natural reaction to me. She was always the person he could count on, even when he thought he couldn't, and she showed him more care than most people he's ever known. She took him from a reckless man and molded him into her "legacy," the man we know him to be. It was her that helped him see what Vesper did to save him, when he was denying it, it was her that stood up for him when others didn't trust him, and she saved him from killing squads who wanted his head because she trusted him to do him job. And in her last moments, the only person she wanted to help her take down Silva was Bond, as it's always been Bond.
I don't see them as just a boss and employee, though on the face of it, that is what they are. Bond and M in this incarnation were always trying as subtly as they could to share their appreciation and respect for each other, as they knew it'd be unprofessional to express it more overtly. But in M's final moments you can see all the care and respect she has for Bond, and how happy she is that he has become a man who they both could be proud of. They're both past it and don't exactly fit into how the world as it is now, but they keep on going because that's what they have to do to keep their people safe, at all costs. Tennyson's poem is just as much a story about Bond as it is M, two people of vintage facing modernity with reluctance, but marching on all the same. It's why M gives Bond the bulldog, the best and most symbolic thing she could push his way. It's the symbol of endearing stubbornness, telling Bond to keep going, keep surviving, as she molded him to do. She wasn't his surrogate mother by definition, but she was the closest thing he had to a maternal figure since he was a boy, and there's probably a part of him that feels guilty and angry in the moment, thinking he could've done more to protect her. But that's the inevitability of time, eh?
Wrapping all this together, Bond would be a robot if he didn't get emotional.
Like I said, I wouldn't have expressed it in front of Kincaide, or at least I would have tried to hold back. That's one of the reasons I can't stand the Baku breakdown in TWINE (apart from the horrendous overacting by the principal) - because I wouldn't have reacted that way.
Again, I'm nitpicking. I'll never like the scene, but it's such an insignificant moment in an otherwise superb effort. They handled it well enough given how they'd built the whole thing up over so many films. In a way, the tears were meant to be for us (i.e. Bond was crying for us) as we said goodbye to a well known character.
Obviously Mendes and many others disagree with me.
As I said, QoS was well handled, but it was Kurylenko who really nailed that scene, when she looks away.
I understand the possible utility of keeping a clear head on the job, keeping your chin held high for duty's sake, but for Bond the job/mission here was done, and all he was left with was a woman dying in his arms who meant more to him than probably anyone else in his life, because he is so reluctant to let people in. He keeps a very small circle of people in his life that actually mean something to him, and that he keeps around: M, Moneypenny, Q, Mathis and Vesper. Three of those are dead by the end of this film, and you can imagine where his head is at, especially since he thought he was betrayed by the latter two and eventually learned to forgive himself and them to move on.
It's like expecting Bond not to get emotional when Tracy dies (which I know many have a problem with, curiously). These people are his world, the only ones that count. He will break, he can't not feel it.
I agree. I really don't get the raving about the cinematography with SF. As you say, some pretty shots, but overall I just don't get what is so special.
There's also a UK/US cultural difference as well. Stiff upper lip and all that.
I have no problems with Tracy or Vesper. That's expected, and quite frankly, the way it was depicted in OHMSS was spot on. Similarly in CR.
I just found it a little curious that Bond appeared to shed more tears for his boss than for either of those two, who were far more important to him emotionally. That's my point, in a nutshell. I would have preferred if Mendes focused on Craig's eyes tearing up....kept the focus there as he attempted to hold it back. It would have been far more powerful imho, and Craig can emote beautifully without having to bawl. Not with the same rage he showed in CR, but more sadness.
I recall Campbell saying they agonized over the emotional elements and how to bring them to the screen in CR. I respected that when I read it. I realized he understood the importance of subtlety.
Except I was sick of Dench's M and really ready to see the back of her.
I don't really care about M enough frankly. Maybe Bernard Lee, but not any of the others.
I wanted a Bond movie and got tiresome unconvincing psychodrama
It just makes perfect sense to me that he would be broken by the two women who meant the most to him, for different but equal reasons, that's all. Quite normal, even for a military man, as I always get the feeling that this Bond wouldn't have seen eye to eye with his old superiors on many important aspects of how one should carry oneself.
I won't get started on the military bit of things, as that only gets me offset. I know many people who've gone through that sort of thing and I'll never approve of "authority" figures shouting at people to break their psyches and teach them to treat their enemies as non-human so they can kill them more effectively. That's why I've always liked Bond: he takes his orders, but when he kills he feels it and often wishes it could've been another way. He doesn't let his training overtake him or his heart, and keeps the fundamental core of himself functioning so that he doesn't become a robotic killing machine like some of the villains he faces.
Still, as ever it was interesting to see your perspective, @bondjames, and you back it up well.
I can understand that. I think one of Dan's biggest strengths is that he makes any emotion he expresses feel natural. His pain, anger, rage, fear, etc. all feel believable.
Give me Laz's one take on Bond over Dan any day, in terms of emotional range.
@Getafix
I agree.... I don't see so much range in his emotions. Since Vesper's death he feels a bit like depressed all the time (which is of course not unbelievable). However, I don't really see so much variety in his character and don't know whether he is sad or angry or both. Maybe, grief and sadness directly converts into anger and rage.
I know that this is a special emo-Bond concept but I wish that we at some point in time move on to films with a more relaxed Bond character and without him being too much involved emotionally.
We haven't really seen much of that coiled intensity in the last two outings, and that's a shame because he does it very well. Instead we now get the goofy expressions he makes in the plane in SP, which are quite a come down, at least imho.
As @GBF says tho, my overwhelming image with Craig's Bond though is just of someone who's pissed off all the time. Angry.
I agree, but some very cool stuff in QoS, which I prefer to Spectre.
My opinion of SF also drastically changed following SP. It's gone from good/maybe great to one of my very favorites.
Definitely !
Qos #4 and SP #12 on my rankings ,so pretty good placings for both of them,but QoS is a much better film IMO.
Agreed.