Perhaps the bravest aspect of QoS is that, after the hard-earned success of CR, the film-makers did not merely attempt to regurgitate that formula. They have developed the themes evident in CR but in a different context, with an individual style and a supreme flair. The overarching atmosphere of melancholy and despair incorporating the themes of loss and, most importantly, trust is rendered beautifully in the film’s stand-out moments. These include the death of Mathis which becomes something of a defining moment for Craig’s Bond: a minute of reflection and emotion to be discarded moments later as he has to compartmentalise such feelings to move on.
But if CR’s main moment was the shower scene with Vesper, for me the similar QoS moment was Bond’s cradling of Camille in the hotel as they almost become enveloped in flames. One really senses that Bond is reaching out for a replacement for Vesper (a notion explored with a wonderfully awkward moment later on when Bond kisses her) with his innate protective instinct coming to the fore. He couldn’t save Vesper. He can save Camille.
One of the strongest aspects of the Craig films is the travelogue feel reminiscent of the 1960s pictures. The locales are captured with ease, and thankfully we don’t linger too long as we move on to the action which uses the scenery as a backdrop. There are a whole host of luxurious images in South America (the desert scenes are gorgeous) Siena and Bregenz. QoS is the most visually arresting picture in the series.
There is one man who dominates this film and that man is Daniel Craig. He has been given room to breathe here, to flesh out the profound sense of loss and betrayal he has suffered. One concern I had was that the end of CR was an attempt to say the old boy is back. Thankfully, this is not the case. Craig is still a very human, flawed individual, hunting down those responsible for Vesper’s fate. The genesis of the character is still developing and in lots of subtle moments – Bond stealing the photograph of Vesper and her boyfriend, for instance – Craig demonstrates this superbly. The sardonic humour, in which Craig excels, is evident but the sneers match the seething turmoil and rage that burns within. Craig embodies the part; the part doesn’t embody him.
Craig is, of course, a great actor and what we have in his Bond is the most complex and interesting 007. He is not Fleming’s Bond, no one can be, but he does incorporate some of the best aspects of Fleming’s character. Craig’s features do lapse “into a taciturn mask, ironical, brutal and cold”. Yet the shielding impulse is also there, best exemplified with Bond’s protection of Camille and holding Mathis as he passes away. It isn’t purely Fleming’s Bond, but it is the best interpretation of that character we have ever seen.
The supporting cast add an even greater sense of depth to the film. Amalric’s bulging eyes and vicious smile make for a delicious villain without becoming a cartoon. There is a genuine sense of malevolence just below the skin; consider the scene in which he leaves Camille to be raped and thrown overboard by General Medrano. Camille is a fascinating match for Bond, ably embodied by Olga Kurylenko, without becoming an ‘equal’. Her backstory gives her a determined motivation with barely suppressed anger almost to match Bond’s own as she seeks retribution for what Medrano did to her family. Jesper Christensen is scene-stealingly good as Mr White, and one can only hope that he re-surfaces next time round. Craig and Dench share some magnificent chemistry and Dench’s M has a major role to play in the development of Craig’s Bond. One interesting point about her M is the ambivalence towards the United States and the CIA in particular. This is part of the worthy geo-political subtext to the film.
The conclusion to the film is remarkable and, from the dropping off of Greene in the middle of the desert, to the ultimate confrontation with Vesper’s boyfriend, we see Craig’s Bond at his best. One cannot emphasise enough just how powerful a performance this is.
There are, I understand, reviewers who complain that this is not a Bond film. Ignore them: this is a brilliant film (most importantly), but also a brilliant Bond film. Moneypenny and Q are not here. This is a good thing – they’d clog up the storytelling. Yet there are lots of little Bond touches, and the style of the Austrian scenes is as Bond as I have ever seen. Consider also BOnd;s refusal to stay in a clapped out hotel despite it suiting cover. It is a different *type* of Bond, so I suppose traditionalists may be somewhat disappointed, but that doesn’t make it any less Bond than what has gone before.
And while Craig deserves some sort of award for his ground-breaking interpretation of the character there is another man who deserves significant praise. Marc Forster has crafted a beautiful film, fast-moving yet intelligent, full of action yet action with a point. This is lean and mean, an adult thriller which gives the audience the benefit of the doubt – there is a gratifying lack of exposition. The splicing of action scenes with events in the location, the palio in Italy with the street-chase, the performance in Austria with Bond’s escape/chase, is striking. This is high-quality film-making.
There are lots of other little things I liked: the sense that the deeper machinations of the plot are only just being uncovered, the haunting undertone, the feeling that ‘Quantum’ has infiltrated the world’s governments and secret services at a very high level. There was, however, one problem: we never hear how MI6 discovered Mathis’s innocence. It is explained away well enough, but I would have appreciated just thirty seconds of clarification.
The producers could have been forgiven for being contented to take the easier route, however this is a film as brave as CR. The character has been pushed even further. But what is truly impressive is that this has been achieved without wallowing in self-obsession. There might have been a temptation to turn inward, to explore Bond’s character so much that it became a character study rather than anything else. But this has grit. This has edge. This is the new Bond. Hopefully he is here to stay.
Edited by Lazenby880, 01 November 2008 - 11:47 AM.
