8 replies to this topic

[indy_chic]

I assume everyone has seen the film but just in case - spoilers ahoy!


I notice there are a couple threads around about Judi Dench's "M" character but I just wanted to see how everyone interpreted the character's last scenes with Bond.

There are moments in CR, QoS and Skyfall where M has come across as a "mother" figure to Bond. Someone who becomes a voice of reason and offers guidance to him, and in some scenes, even protects him. With that in mind, I thought it was interesting that she had died near the tombstone of Bond's parents - could her death be symbolic of Bond becoming an orphan again? Was she the only "family" he truly felt he had?


 

[Dustin]

I suppose the Service is Bond's ersatz family, with the head of that taking the place of highest authority in his judgement. Is M a 'mother'? That's difficult to decide when Bond constantly rebels against an authority one would rather expect from a father figure. One might argue as an orphan and a later SIS recruit M for Bond symbolises a lone mother who had to take the place of father figure too. At any rate she knew about the various forms of emotional manipulation to make her pupils go through hell and back for her. How many handlers can claim to have agents at their disposal who are willing to die for them?    

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

Yes, I see her as Bond's mother in a way. He's her favourite, she says so in TWINE ("He's the best we have, 'course I never tell him."), and just take a look at the conversartion at the end of Casino Royale: "You don't trust anyone, do you James?" / "No"/ "Then you've learnt your lesson". Sounds very much as a maternalist comment.

[thecasinoroyale]

Good topic indy_chic. 

 

There are so many layers to M's death I think for Bond - one of the big ones I felt poignant was in the globe where M has faced danger and death amongst enemies, the place she dies was in Bonds arms, but in the Bond chapel, amongst his land. The only place Bond has called home and the only mother he can probably really remember dies there, amongst his birth mother's grave too.

 

It's a moving scene, and there really is something tragic about Craig's Bond losing not just his first love Vesper in 'Casino Royale' but also M, his mother figure who's guided and trained and trusted him also in 'Skyfall'. This Bond has really gone through it and must have a shell as hard as nails now, but I wonder in future films if/how Judi Dench's legacy will be continued, if any? A picture, a'la Bernard Lee in 'TWINE', or him referencing her in some way, as Pierce Brosnans' Bond did to her about the drink in 'GoldenEye'?

 

A very deep moment indeed.

[seawolfnyy]

I could see in Bond 24, Bond sitting at his desk dulling working on paperwork and a quick glance at the bulldog. Then we hear the first few chords of Adele's Skyfall just like the references in OHMSS.

[thecasinoroyale]

Like that idea...

[indy_chic]

Me too, I hope there is a moment like it in the next film.

Interesting comments guys! 
 

[The Shark]

I could see in Bond 24, Bond sitting at his desk dulling working on paperwork and a quick glance at the bulldog. Then we hear the first few chords of Adele's Skyfall just like the references in OHMSS.

 

Better to quote Thomas Newman's M theme. Most people would mistake the chords from Adele's Skyfall for You Know My Name, since they're nearly identical. 

[Iceskater101]

Hmm, I never thought about her death resulting in the church and near the graves of Bond's parents. I do see M as a mother figure to Bond, I mean she has always been brutally honest with him but yet she is willing to protect him because I think she genuinely cares about him. I have always seen M as a mother figure to Bond and I am so sad that she is dead.