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CINEMA SEEN - "Bond is Back!" By William Margold Guess that it couldn't be a better time than the present to devote my first 2007 Cinema Seen column to a character known as "007"…or as we who have enjoyed him, and, of course in many cases, envied him, for well over 40 years…have come to know him as the not-so-gentle man who goes by the name of "Bond, James Bond." With the recent release of CASINO ROYALE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), the seemingly fearless fellow is now being packaged in the smoldering golden alley cat persona of Daniel Craig, who brings an uncommon ruthlessness to a role that smacks of lost conscience brought on by a shattered heart. Craig, although capable of being beaten to numerous pulps but then healing with amazing quickness, is compelling throughout, even while the film he lethally cavorts about in struggles at times to keep up with him, finally wearing the viewer out in the process. But Mr. Bond is a man whose mastery of the moment has no equal. And he has come a very long way, baby, to now essentially allow us to join him all the way back to the moment of the brutal birth that bred what is now his mannered malice. It was at the Wilshire Theatre in Santa Monica very early into "Dr. No" (1963), when I first realized that the character of James Bond (suavely etched by Sean Connery), was not the type of spy you wanted to fuck with, because after an unsavory fellow had taken all of his shots, the seemingly annoyed secret agent calmly said, "You've had your shots. Now I'll take mine.", and then he quite matter-of-factly blew him away. Dealing out death, while at the same time defying it, has always appeared to be a rather bothersome activity for Bond. But someone has had to protect the world---perhaps even from itself---over the past four decades…and quite frankly, no one did it better. Now I've got to admit that while westerns and war movies (and currently pirate films) have usually been able to fire up my fantasies about emulating the actions in the perpetual playground that is my mind, I've never, ever fancied myself capable of living a spy's life. Indeed, there is something altogether too grown-up (and having to get dressed-up) about being a shadow warrior, whose life is a series of codes and gadgets, and of course, beautiful beyond belief ladies with names like Pussy Galore, Honey Ryder, May Day, Solitaire, Plenty O'Toole and Jinx, who, while suggesting unexpurgated sexual abandon, are about as trustworthy to deal with as trying to convince a coral snake that you'd like to wear it as a bracelet because it’s SO gorgeous. In a group shot featured on this page, the five actors who have previously played James Bond are on display (left to right: Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Connery, Roger Moore and George Lazenby). Until now, only Connery was someone who made me even slightly want to reconsider my previously-stated stance, most likely because he always made it appear that, for the most part, he really didn't give a damn. With many of the titles and events therein blurring together into what amounted to a series of bigger and BIGGER explosions, if I were pressed to pick the only truly unique, and therefore easily best of the 20 adventures (although for purists there was an earlier not-be-taken seriously, or for that matter at all, version of “Casino Royale” in 1967), I would choose "Goldfinger" (1964), and that can be directly attributed to the smug presence of its villains---of course, the title character played masterfully by Gerd Frobe, and his lethal sidekick, Oddjob (rendered by a leering cobra named Harold Sakata). And what made the whole thing even more exciting was that our country's supply of gold (at Fort Knox) was being threatened. Now, I'm not a material kind of guy, and in fact, I have always preferred sterling silver instead of the 24 carat stuff, but after all…gold IS gold…and even these jaded eyes can't resist all that glitters. And Daniel Craig "glitters" in a burnished, somewhat crudely hewn way, and therefore makes us finally care once more that, "Bond,…James Bond"…is back! end NOTE: Originally published in LA Xpress, January 4, 2007, issue. |