Friday, February 06, 2009

Quantum of Solace

Daniel Craig's explosive debut as James bond in Casino Royale did nothing short of skyrocket the already high standards set by Sean Connery even higher. The producers followed that up with a movie that's a first in many aspects. The first ever direct sequel in the history of the 46 year old franchise, Quantum of Solace takes place just under an hour after Casino Royale ends, and hits the ground running. The movie begins with a high octane car chase around the picturesque but dangerously curved roads around Lake Como. James Bond is on the run from a Bunch of Mr. White's thugs, with Mr. White secured in the car's boot. The cars swerve in and out of traffic, not quite managing to avoid vehicles coming in from the opposite direction. What i personally liked in this bit was something most people hated. the shaky camera work. The best part about this movie is it's wide open to interpretation, if you have the patience to do so. According to me, the shaky camera work in a way symbolises James Bond's inner turmoil. After all, it was only a few days back that the man lost the girl he loved, a few hours after he discovers she's a traitor.

The car chase ends with James Bond opening fire for the first time during the chase. Everything settles down to David Arnold's pulsating background score. Bond then finally drags Mr. White into an underground interrogation Chamber. The Interrogation is headed by the boss M herself. The interrogation ends not very satisfactorily, with M finding out the hard way that her personal bodyguard is a traitor working for Mr. White's organization. Bond chases the traitor and it ends in an adrenaline charged fight in an art gallery under disrepair. The leads obtained there lead James bond to Haiti. Another brutal fist fight and a dead body later, James bond runs into the female protagonist of the film, the feisty Camille Montes, played by the dishy Olga Kurylenko. Camille is a part of the shady organisation Mr. White works for and she's pursuing a personal vendetta of her own - to kill deposed Bolivian Dictator General Medrano for what he did to her family. This kicks off another exciting James Bond adventure that is high on action and deep on symbolism.

Many people have claimed they have been unable to make either head or tail of the plot. Ina nutshell, here it is. James Bond, while wanting revenge, is also keen to uncover more details about the organization that killed Vesper Lynd. Camille, is after General Medrano because he tortured and killed the rest of her family. so she infiltrates Dominic Greene's organisation, just to get close to Medrano. Now you might ask what connection Dominic Greene has with General Medrano. Greene is part of the shadowy criminal organisation, Quantum that James Bond is after. His plot is to take over the world's most precious resource, water. He has salted away most of Bolivia's water supply and literally holds the country to ransom. The deposed dictator, General Medrano strikes a deal with Greene, giving him what he wants for helping him back to power. Greene also strikes a deal with the CIA, who're led to believe they're in for a supply of oil. General Medrano thinks likewise, that Greene is after oil. Dominic Greene never explicitly committed to anything even close to oil, which underlines his genius. Now, since all these are interwoven so intricately, they all rush towards an explosive finale.

Director Marc Foster, more than anything, has thematically showed James Bond's journey towards solace in this movie. Nothing is explicitly said. Everything is implied. In that, Quantum of Solace is absolutely brilliant. Firstly, There are major action sequences, mostly chase and fight sequences in all four elements - Earth, Water, Wind and Fire. This, very subtly underlines Mr. White's audacious claim during the interrogation, "We have people everywhere". then throughout the movie, we see hints of James Bond clinging on to the past, without ever explicitly saying it. Initially, while he stoutly denies Vesper is important, we see him slyly pocketing a photograph of Vesper and her lover, Yusef Kabeera. Later on in the movie, Bond is sitting at a bar in an airplane, getting drunk, unable to sleep and staring blankly at the photograph and Vesper's Algerian Love knot necklace. We finally see that James bond has literally let go of the past, when we see the necklace in the snow as the picture fades into black. James Bond has achieved closure.

Just before the climax sequence in the desert, we see a lingering shot of a reptile curling itself around a rock, sunning itself. It's so reminiscent of Ian Fleming. Fleming would have described this sequence in great detail in page one of his book, if he were still alive. Lastly, James bond drags Dominic Greene from the car and leaves him alone in the middle of the desert with nothing but a can of motor oil. While he never says it out loud, James bond has given Greene a choice. He can either choose to die of thirst, like he's caused the deaths of a lot of Bolivians, or he could choose to swallow the motor oil and choke to death, just like he caused the death of Agent Strawberry Fields.

Now, coming to the performances themselves, Daniel Craig is nothing short of magnificent as James Bond, fast becoming, if he hasn't already, the best ever actor to take over the role. I have expressed my views on the same, and now reiterate them. Daniel Craig is a phenomenal actor and fleshes out the character like it has never been done before. He is the best. Period.

Coming to the bond girl, if you thought Vesper Lynd was a strong Bond girl, take a good look at Camille Montes. She pursues her goal, that of killing the General with a ferocity and bloody minded determination seldom seen before in the series. She is very rarely distracted from her path and we can see by the anguish that is etched deep into her face when she tells Bond about her tragedy, that it haunts her for every moment that she is awake, the only respite coming in the moments when she's sleeping, if she manages to sleep.

One of the most profound and satisfying sequences of the film was played out between James bond and Rene Mathis (Giancarlo Gianinni). Mathis is lying on the road, bleeding to death, when James Bond holds him in his arms, to make the passing on a bit more comfortable. Then when he is dead, you can clearly see James bond is fighting hard to hold his tears back even after he dumps Rene Mathis' lifeless body into a nearby garbage dumpster, Mathis' last words ringing in his ears, "Forgiver Her....vesper....forgive yourself!"

This gets even better in the final sequence. James bond is awaiting Yusef Kabeera in an apartment in Kazan, Russia. He's ready with his Walther PPK, knowing very well that one quick bullet to the head would put an end to his pain. then after James Bond warns off Yusef's latest conquest, Corrine, Yusef looks at bond, fear writ large all over his features and he whispers, "Please! Make it quick!". In that instant, James Bond realises that a quick death would serve no purpose. He walks out of the building a while later and is greeted by a waiting M. "Is he still alive?" she asks. when he replies "Yes.", "I'm surprised!", she remarks in response. The audience titters away, their attention span only sufficient to last them the duration of an already too short movie. They fail to realise that she's surprised James Bond left him alive because she knows what this man has put James bond through, that this man is singlehandedly responsible for the death of James Bond's true love.

As James Bond is walking away into the darkness, away from it all, M, in a desperate plea, says "I need you back Bond.". James bond looks over his shoulder, a small smile playing on his lips. We slowly see him returning to the spy we saw in Casino Royale, that very embodiment of the literary and cinematic James Bond that has endlessly fascinated the world for close to 5 decades and will continue to do so for more decades to come. We know James bond has truly arrived when the iconic gun barrel flashes across the screen. James Bond has earned his stripes.

1 Comments:

Blogger lovestruck said...

So what's the take on the new bond movie skyfall uh?

1:26 PM  

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