Saturday, 3 November 2012

Bond, villain?

WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS


Last week a number of us went to see the new Bond movie. I have to say, I thought it was brilliant - great casting, exciting set pieces, pathos, thrills and just the right touch of nostalgia. That said, there was one scene that jarred with me: the moment when Bond casually walks in on Severine's shower essentially unbidden and, you know, does his thing.


It seems it I was not alone in finding this moment awkward - the excellent Giles Coren has written a searing article slamming this and other persistently chauvinist themes in the latest Bond outing. Too controversial for his paymasters at The Times (who have recently acquired the rights to the Bond canon and launched a new Sky Bond channel), Coren posted his critique on his wife's cooking blog.
"I am ashamed, as a man, that women are still compelled in the 21st century to watch movies in which the three female outcomes are:
1) Judi Dench’s ‘M’ dies, and is replaced by a man;
2) The young abuse victim is shagged by Bond and then killed for a joke; and
3) The pretty girl who manages to remain chaste despite Bond’s ‘charms’ is rewarded at the end with a job as his secretary."
Bond is indelibly linked with Britain (for what other franchise would the Queen jump out of a helicopter?!), but is it right that our country should be so proudly associated with such a character?

What do you think? Did Bond's behaviour impede your enjoyment of the movie?

If it didn't should it have?


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