Skyfall: Is Bond a Relic of the Cold War?

By Moira Sullivan

The Bad Bond Girl - Sévérine - Bérénice-Lim Marlone

Judi Dench called James Bond  a “misogynist dinosaur” and “relic of the Cold war” – in her debut opposite Pierce Brosnan’s Bond in GoldenEye. In Skyfall this antagonism continues. According to "M", “orphaned children make the best agents”, and in this film she winds up becoming more of a maternal symbol than ever. Not exactly what you expected but this is Judi Dench’s last Bond film.
Sam Mendes is the mastermind behind Skyfall who has crafted a brilliantly entertaining film.

In the opening scene James Bond is in hot pursuit of a French rogue named Patrice (Ola Rapace). The  M16 agent Eve played by Naomi Harris is ordered by M to take aim at Patrice even while he struggles with Bond on the top of a moving train. The rogue gets away and Bond takes a bullet. Later we learn that Patrice works for a master hacker who sets off bombs triggered by remote programming. M is targeted and the rest of the targets are on a microchip.  Acquiring it pits Bond against Patrice one more time in Shanghai. It is also time to meet the good Bond girl and the bad one. Eve shows up again as the nice Bond girl and works behind the scene while Bond tries to score on the bad Bond girl. The morose Bérénice-Lim Marlone plays Sévérine, the bosses girlfriend and slave, who can lead him to the owner of the microchip.  
Bond was not so happy about how expendable he seemed to be for M. This fits in nicely with the main villain in the film, Raoul Silva played by Javier Bardem, an ex 00 agent M at one time found expedient.

The younger equivalent of Q ( Ben Whishaw)  knows about computers and hacking and is able to follow the path of Silva through his expert skills.

Cold War Relic? 

We eventually travel to Bond’s family home, with Sean Connery’s old 007 Aston Martin to Skyfall, located in Scotland, where his parents died in an accident while the young James hid in a secret pathway called a "priest hole". Albert Finney plays Kincade, the gamekeeper of the Skyfall manor.  

Ralph Fiennes as  Gareth Mallory, debuts as the new head of foreign intelligence in Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Skyfall is set in Shanghai with exquisite art direction, Turkey, England, Scotland and an island in Japan. 

Adele sings the Bond theme song “Skyfall” and Eve doubles not only as a 00 agent but in the end as the new "Miss Moneypenny".

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 11/14/12
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