The Something Of Boris
In good not-so-old Bond tradition I decided to use this fine line as title for my review. Apart from being shamelessly ripped by me from Joe Cornish’s Proposed Theme Song it really has no relevance to my review whatsoever, staying in tradition with many a Bond title.The Quantum Of Solace
-I don’t know what that means.
-What does it mean?
from Joe Cornish’s fantastic Proposed Theme Song
Now, ‘Quantum Of Solace’. Until I finally managed to see it last Saturday, I didn’t have an idea about it myself. I’ve tried to stay away from the heated discussions and most of the spoiler-spiked reviews my fellow CBners provided. And so I settled down in my seat and waited for things to come. For the next one hour and 46 minutes I simply soaked up the film. And thoroughly enjoyed myself.
But right after leaving my seat, I had to collect my thoughts and impressions regarding what I’ve just seen. And the longer I thought about it, the more I felt that I’ve just met CR’s twin. CR’s dizygotic younger twin. A twin that can’t (and won’t) deny his famous, brilliant older brother. But also a twin that is set to conquer his own place, do things his own way. There are many motives, scenes, themes in CR that QOS picks up on. But QOS mostly plays its own game with them, mixes and shakes, at times even invert and contradict them. And, while myself a layman where film art is concerned, IMHO there seems to be only one explanation for this: it was intentionally written, shot, directed and edited this way.
A few examples that come to my head after seeing QOS just once (doubtlessly, there are several others I’ve just missed out on because I didn‘t take notes in the cinema):
Running time: Both films, CR and QOS, mark the extreme ranges of their franchise’s running time, the former being the longest and the latter being (nearly?) the shortest.
The CIA: CR sees Bond’s mission rescued by CIA; QOS shows Bond’s mission nearly wrecked by CIA.
The dinner jackets: CR’s is provided by Vesper. QOS’s is stolen from a locker by Bond. (Bond stealing things is QOS very own naughty pleasure
)The mirror scenes: Both times Bond is bruised . But while he can change into different clothes in CR he has to hide the traces of the fight under a (stolen) windbreaker in QOS. Also the surroundings are extreme opposites. The nursing of his bleeding nose and cuts in CR is greatly helped by a luxurious bathroom and a generous cut-glass of spirits. QOS offers no such consolation, the seedy hotel room now only occupied by a corpse and the audience of a zillion cockroaches.
The shower scenes: CR’s shower scene sees Bond consoling Vesper. Yes, QOS does have its own version. This time the shower is of fire, fed by hydrogen. And CR’s little naughty brother can’t withstand the temptation to mirror its actors, changing Bond’s position from the left of Vesper to the right of Camille.
And also the impact of both scenes is remarkable. CR’s shower scene is the (serious) beginning of Bond’s love affair with Vesper. He’d do anything to save her, rescue her. QOS is the ultimate maximum of Bond’s care for Camille. He’d do anything to save her from pain, even kill her. But he doesn’t love her.
Bodies in car boots: CR has two dead bodies in the boot of a car, put there by Mathis. QOS also has two bodies in car boots, but both are alive. One of them is White, the other (nasty trick of fate) the soon to die Mathis himself, who started the fashion in CR.
PTS/end: And lastly QOS end mirrors CR’s PTS. Once more, Bond is waiting in the dark, with a gun. But where CR starts with Dryden entering the office building in Prague in black and white and expressionist angles, QOS keeps its angles on a more conventional level but its colours drained. But of course by then QOS had already had its own art scenes in the surrealistic fight at the Bregenz Opera, something its older brother will envy; especially as the few Body Parts scenes in CR are not nearly as impressive.
On the whole I think it’s rather fitting.
What did I like most of all about QOS? Well, while I think QOS can certainly stand on its own, it’s really hard to judge it without a second look at CR. Until last Saturday I didn’t even know CR had a twin brother. But now I think they really show their potential only if seen as combination. CR did the first step in reviving Bond as a character where he had previously often been merely an expensive human prop, surprising audiences with his unexpected actions and reactions in Craig‘s first outing. QOS went not only one but several steps further in that direction. This time it’s not only Bond that has evolved but also the seemingly outplayed figure of M, the Mathis character and to some extent Felix Leiter. Bond’s universe is becoming more detailed, seedier, trickier, grittier. It’s not longer enough to look for hollowed-out volcanoes to find the enemy. Marvellous!
M has become a real Whitehall shark, pitting her wits against the cynicism of an only too believable minister of defence (Disturbing thought: Is he a member of Quantum? Far more disturbing thought: Does he agree with Quantum without being a member?!?)
Mathis is Bond’s alter-ego beyond retiring age. Looking at him, Bond seems to wonder if he should envy or pity him. While I think Mathis was underused, he still did brilliantly. Just the right amount of screen time (granted, in combination with CR) to make audiences fond of him, without getting the Bambi effect when Mathis is shot.
Well, these days talking about Mathis is talking about rubbish bins, it would seem. There seems to be a school of thought that doesn’t agree with Bond’s treatment of Mathis earthly remains, mistaking it as careless and impious. I must say that I can’t agree to this. Mathis has just died in Bond’s arms, consoled by him as best he could under the circumstances. This is something that usually is reserved to female characters. Bond is moved, is touched by this death. Enough to not let Mathis lie on the tarmac (like the two policemen Bond has just shot). He does not want his ally (there really wasn’t enough time to built up a genuine friendship between the two) to lie with his murderers. Bond remarks to Camille when challenged that Mathis wouldn’t care. But Bond does care. There really is no need to bury Mathis in the bin other than Bond not wanting him to lie in the dirt of the street. And really, compared to this street the bin doesn’t look too bad. With Mathis, the obligatory sacrifice death has reached a new level of impact. Likewise, Fields isn’t just another sacrifice victim that’s forgotten after 12 seconds. Bond goes out of his way to tell M about her, insisting on her being given a proper epitaph.
Felix is finally more than just a way to give Bond clues of his respective targets. Bond and Felix may be more than just colleagues, may become genuine friends. But if so, they are in spite of their calling, not because of it. Their respective organizations may not always be on the same side and their loyalty may become a serious threat for their friendship in the future.
There were many other things I liked about QOS:
The PTS and Siena chase, the action shown almost as if shot from the sight of Bond’s Walther.
A Bond tipsy at the Bar after four Martinis.
Setting out Green in the desert in a very Trevanian manner.
Bond in ordinary people’s apartments (London, Russia)
Bond’s advice to Camille how to breath when shooting, killing for the first time.
The (only indicated) rape scene.
The feeling of atmosphere that the different locations generate. I think QOS manages to transport this far better than most films of the series, surpassing even CR and on par with OHMSS.
Naturally (there is no such thing as a perfect Bond film) there are some things about QOS I didn’t like:
Elvis
The incomprehensible end to the boat chase.
The Main Titles being a bit pedestrian IMHO
And some minor other things I won‘t bother to go into detail about.
Jim has written in his review:
„By the end of the film, he may be “the Bond that we all know and love”, but this label is, frankly, an insult to what they have achieved with him. Whether they can develop the character further is going to be the next challenge, I suspect. Can’t wait„.
I couldn’t agree more. At the moment I’m writing this, a German tv-trailer for AVTAK is playing on the telly. And I must say, after Craig’s two outings I really do have difficulty to watch most of EON’s pre-CR outings as anything other than a ludicrous spoof and parody. Mind you, that doesn’t mean they’re not fun to watch at times and I of course can still enjoy doing so. But comparing CR/QOS to those older entries is really like comparing the old Batman tv series with Adam West to Christopher Nolan’s version.
Here is hoping that the comedy spoof days of Bond are over for good!
