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Bond's actions symbolically and literally elevate Mathis above the bad guys left lying on the ground. Leaving him as he expired at street level is what would disrespect and diminish the character.
This.
When you think about it, it is unusual.
I suppose Bond was trying to make it seem like a mugging and wanted to hide the body to but himself some more time. However, we don't see him tidy the policemen's bodies off the road. Though, we can surely presume he did; even though his last line to Camille is "Let's go".
I think the honest truth is that it was a symbolic gesture. It's Bond's attempt to give Mathis some kind of burial. In hindsight it wasn't necessarily the most respectful, but it must have made sense in the moment.
I haven't had a friend gunned down in cold blood next to me before, so I doubt Bond (who was still as good as a rookie) was thinking that straight.
However, it's a beautiful moment between Craig and Giannini. What makes it so interesting is the tenderness before the moment of death followed by the moment Bond disposes of the body. There's a coldness to it, but also some heart lurking in there. There's a similar moment with Mr White's death in SP.
Notice the position Mathis is left in as seen from above. An important sacrificial lamb.
And to quote Mathis himself: Being dead doesn't mean one can't still be helpful.
You know, my gut reaction was to feel you are reading too much into this; but with some thought, and that screen grab, I think that your take on this may be valid; it could have been part of Forster’s vision.
Maybe Forster might feel compelled to explain someday.
It might though be as simple as Bond feeling a need to remove the body from the street out of respect for Mathis ie to engage the act of putting the body somewhere out of public sight, even if a dumpster was the best he could do, hence the comment "he wouldn't mind"
That's how I see it Matt,but not placing Mathis in the dumpster and just throwing him in was weird.
I always think it was because he was in a hurry, but who knows.
Would have been better if it were a compactor, or a grinder.
Mathis was on Grinder ?
Wow takes all sorts,i thought he was straight !!
He is torn between mission and indulgence. A (the?) theme of QOS is his tightrope walk between orders and vengeance, duty vs. gratification. He wants to not care about Mathis but he still does so. He doesn't think folks like Mathis (and, like himself) deserve care, yet he's compelled to want it anyways. He must be both rough and tender. He is, after all, both the hero and the assassin. He is the lying spy and also the savior. He's in a morally grey world-weary paranoid Bourne/Parallax/Condor the-world-is-shit story, while also in a mythic, proto-superheroic, almost-magic, elemental-energy infused struggle between good and evil, simultaneously.
That's why we find Bond special, over the years (generations). He is a gritty man worse than any of us, and a transcendent symbol we all wish we could aspire to. Both.
He's not sure what treatment Mathis and he each deserve in the end, but he is compelled act as if they both deserve elevation and the garbage heap, together. He's not sure whether to forgive (which, recall, was Mathis' immediately prior entreaty to this scene) or damn the bitch, as he must act out both impulses right now. It's about Vesper, Mathis, himself. It bleeds all over everything else in this interesting story.
QOS does have some ambitious and interesting theming going on, if one can only focus on it between the camera shakes.
Now...what was the theme of that daft boat anchor? I have no idea what that was all about ;-)
Excellent analysis, @pking_3 . I miss the depth that you used to go into on a regular basis in the old IMDB board.
Is this a very recent ad? He looks a bit…old?
I like his very distinguished look. He looks world-weary. Just by going by his appearance in this photo, it looks like the end of the circle of the young Bond created back in '06.
Thought it must be. A bit strange with the gray-ish hair, isn't it? I know lighting doesn't help, but still.