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Has Bond himself become too formidable in the past 30 years? (i.e., "One-man army Bond")
donnydraco
America
One of the more fascinating facets to action cinema lies in the rendering of the hero's power. Viewers tend to focus more on character, but in this genre, the reactive "skill-sets" are nearly as vital, as they must be carefully calibrated to the tone and style of the film proper. The balletic, euphoric carnage of JOHN WICK or Tarantino epic like KILL BILL, for instance, would undermine a more grounded actioner.
If there was one quality to the modern era of 007 of which I'm wary, it would be the nearly-omnipotent nature of Bond himself. From GOLDENEYE on, Bond (d)evolved from stealthy and/or gadget-laden assassin to a sort of Rambo-in-a-tux. This was problematic enough for me in the Brosnan era (the machine-gun-in-each-hand personage of TND), but downright jarring in Craig's gritty, character-driven tenure. His was a run of "heightened realism", and yet for every visceral scene in which Bond both dealt and received damage (e.g., the stairway sequence in CR), there'd be another in which this newfound verisimilitude was undercut (e.g., the parachute-landing in QOS).
For me, the worst manifestation of this came in SPECTRE, when the "first-person shooter" element that marred the Brosnan era returned. Having escaped lobotomy, Bond exits Blofeld's base and effortlessly shoots down Blofeld's henchmen. No tension, no suspense, just point, shoot, and repeat. Sadly, Fukunaga continued this in the otherwise technically-perfect NTTD; Bond, Nomi and Paloma are seen decimating entire private armies. And sure, it's stylish and fodder for good fun, but it all has a distancing effect. No matter how handsomely-crafted, say, the stairwell ascension is, the stakes are lowered when Bond can just roll over a dozen or so baddies, as if they were bowling pins. It has me pining for the days when Lazenby's Bond had to rely on Draco's mafioso to annihilate Piz Gloria, or when Dalton's Bond had to strategically take on Sanchez's cadre in LTK. It's not enough to have 007 bleed, if you rarely believe he can be killed.
Does anyone else think Bond should revert back to a lethal-but-vulnerable combatant?
If there was one quality to the modern era of 007 of which I'm wary, it would be the nearly-omnipotent nature of Bond himself. From GOLDENEYE on, Bond (d)evolved from stealthy and/or gadget-laden assassin to a sort of Rambo-in-a-tux. This was problematic enough for me in the Brosnan era (the machine-gun-in-each-hand personage of TND), but downright jarring in Craig's gritty, character-driven tenure. His was a run of "heightened realism", and yet for every visceral scene in which Bond both dealt and received damage (e.g., the stairway sequence in CR), there'd be another in which this newfound verisimilitude was undercut (e.g., the parachute-landing in QOS).
For me, the worst manifestation of this came in SPECTRE, when the "first-person shooter" element that marred the Brosnan era returned. Having escaped lobotomy, Bond exits Blofeld's base and effortlessly shoots down Blofeld's henchmen. No tension, no suspense, just point, shoot, and repeat. Sadly, Fukunaga continued this in the otherwise technically-perfect NTTD; Bond, Nomi and Paloma are seen decimating entire private armies. And sure, it's stylish and fodder for good fun, but it all has a distancing effect. No matter how handsomely-crafted, say, the stairwell ascension is, the stakes are lowered when Bond can just roll over a dozen or so baddies, as if they were bowling pins. It has me pining for the days when Lazenby's Bond had to rely on Draco's mafioso to annihilate Piz Gloria, or when Dalton's Bond had to strategically take on Sanchez's cadre in LTK. It's not enough to have 007 bleed, if you rarely believe he can be killed.
Does anyone else think Bond should revert back to a lethal-but-vulnerable combatant?
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Comments
TSWLM & TND did start it, but SP perfected it. ;)
But he shot it. Dude you have an anti-machine gun fixation... it's okay for a moment like in TSWLM, but extended firing in other movies makes you nutz.... ;)
I said cycle of Bond and a woman taking on the bad guy and his forces that started in LTK and through the Brosnan era was predictable back then. It came back in QoS and had a variant in SF and then in NTTD.
I'd argue that LICENSE TO KILL should have been the template for these sort of conflict dynamics. Bond and Pam don't succeed because they're impervious to machine-gun spray, but because they're calculating and, at a few junctures, just plain lucky. From the underwater/plane escape to the cocaine-grinder deathtrap, I actually believed that Dalton was constantly on the razor's edge, which is why that film, though not without flaw, is infused with far more tension than most of the Brosnan/Craig installments.
Seriously, Bond has to mow down at least 50 henchmen in NTTD (to say nothing of Nomi and Paloma's comparable tallies). How is this otherwise-dramatic movie better off for it? The effect produced is akin to reading a few chapters of Fleming on your Kindle, before the screen shifts to a DOOM or WOLFENSTEIN level.
I agree, btw. that Bond doesn't need to be an Olympic athlete in addition to all his other skills. He is knowledgeable on everything, charming, a very good shot and driver and has an incredible pain tolerance and drive to succeed. That's already more than enough. He doesn't also need to be super-naturally fast and strong and the greatest hand-to-hand combatant in the world.
It's the best FPS gaming I've seen without my hands at the controls! If anyone proves a great marksman, let it be Bond, especially a Bond who's as energetic as Craig. And if the actor does it well, then I'm in action Bond heaven. In fact, the Bond-plus-army formula, as seen in YOLT, TB, TSWLM, TLD, ... has led to some epic climaxes which I enjoy just as much, but in the end, I prefer to see Bond do most of the work himself. If that requires the extra-special talent of being an amazing shootist, well, then let's go for that. An intense fight centred around Bond, like in the sinking house in Venice, works better for adult me than Bond plus frogmen or Bond plus US soldiers.
The other complaint, about the attempts at heightened realism versus the fantastical, is one I can certainly agree with, except that I once again don't see that as a problem in itself. This conflict has been around since the early days. FRWL: gritty cold-war thriller, but the boat battle was a bit much. OHMSS: Bond operates in a pretty naturalistic environment, but mass hypnosis is not out of the question. FYEO: we keep both feet on the ground for most of the film, but a pleasant drive in the country in a hat on wheels, shaking off some cars with muscles, is just as fine. So yes, the parachute touchdown in QOS isn't offensive to me, whatsoever, not like Q's scenes in LTK.