Me and Mr Bond

Last Sunday, I went to see the latest Bond flick, Casino Royale.

I have a soft spot for Bond films, and this has sometimes been difficult for one or two of my lady friends. For some reason, they have felt that if I watch a Bond film, I am wishing to use Bond as a role model. This is odd. Because if I watch a Bugs Bunny cartoon, they do not claim that I admire Bugs Bunny as a role model.

But Bond is different. These people seem to think that if I watch Bond, this means that I want to be a gun-toting sex-machine who coerces women into bed and throws lesser men off cliffs. Well, that's what Bond is, right?

Yes, but Bond inhabits a two-dimensional cartoon-like universe, where the bad guys always have poor aim and the women always, well, give Bond what he likes, even if it takes him two or three attempts. Bond, like Bugs, is entertainment. (And then the argument goes that such entertainment is a pointless waste of money. But let's save that for another blog entry.)

This is where Casino Royale starts to get disturbing. It starts to attempt to give Bond psychological depth. It starts playing into the hands of those who want a psychological reality in which they can demonise him. And I start to seriously dislike the dude.

I didn't dislike the film, apart from the lengthily drawn-out ending. For me, Bond films are strongest when Bond is at his weakest. The drama is in the struggle against the odds; superheroes who effortlessly crush all before them do not make for compelling narrative. This means that I like the George Lazenby film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where Bond gets out of his depth and needs to be rescued. I like parts of Goldfinger because Bond is, frankly, a lousy agent who gets absurdly lucky at the last moment.

In this way, Casino Royale is interesting because Bond is learning his own weaknesses. But then come the cross-references that act as reasons, or excuses, for behaviour in other films. Casino Royale, low on gadgets and high on pumped-up fisticuffs, teaches Bond not to trust, not to love, and to be a ruthless killer and sexual predator.

Perhaps in Bond film 22, Bond should be the bad guy.