• “Skyfall,” MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment, PG, released Nov. 9, 143 minutes.
RALEIGH
The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling — a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension — becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.
James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired.
That’s where it all started, with Ian Fleming’s 1953 Casino Royale novel, long since made into a film like the others, beginning with “Dr. No” in 1962, staring Sean Connery as James Bond. Fifty years and nearly two dozen films later comes “Skyfall,” worthy of attention for many reasons, not all cinematic. As a movie it breaks some new ground while preserving, as one character says, some of “the old ways.”
In 1983, when Sean Connery had another go as James Bond in “Never Say Never Again,” Johnny Carson joked that 007 would need a cyanide suppository. That quip might apply to the high-tech “Skyfall.” Judy Dench, here called “Mum” rather than M, is every bit as gray as Desmond Llewellyn, the original Q. As a British spy boss, Ralph Fiennes bears some resemblance to Pete Townshend. Daniel Craig, the latest Bond, also is showing his age, slightly resembling a recently retired linebacker.
On the other hand, the new Q, Ben Whishaw, sports a Harry Potter look. The elegant Naomi Harris has much more to do as Eve Moneypenny than the original, Lois Maxwell, who passed away at 80 in 2007. “Skyfall” also brings in Kincade, the gamekeeper at Bond’s ancestral home, played by Albert Finney, not exactly a novice.
As for story, somebody inside terrorist organizations has a list of MI6 operatives and is releasing the names. He must be stopped, but so far he’s too smart for M and her crew. Enter James Bond, thought to be dead after a long initial action sequence that combines the X-Games, Ninja Warrior, motocross, and martial arts. The revived Bond must pass tests to confirm his fitness as an agent, then hunt down the villain and stop him.
On that quest, the story is more “what else?” than “what next?” The movie packs more bang-bang than kiss-kiss, and Bond doesn’t get to have as much fun as he did in “Goldfinger” or “Thunderball.” No real equivalent here to, respectively, Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore) or Luciana Peluzzi (Fiona Volpe.) That may please feminists, but for politicos, “Skyfall” is something of a moving target.
The left derided the Bond movies as Cold War cartoons but the villains usually were from some criminal organization such as SPECTRE, playing the West and the Soviets off each other. It didn’t help that Bond collaborated with the CIA. He still does, but in “Skyfall” the villain turns out to be a renegade MI6 agent with a grudge against Mum. Viewers can judge whether Silva (Javier Bardem) measures up to Blofeld, Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger, or Drax in sophisticated malevolence.
Sylva mocks Bond as a failed agent, and his computer tricks overwhelm MI6. All will depend on James Bond, who like Paul Simon leans on old familiar ways, including a certain tricked-out Aston Martin DB5. But there’s more to the film’s respect for the past.
“There’ll always be an England,” as the 1939 song said, and England is the most consistent reality in the Bond films. Bond remains an employee of an elected democratic British government, with established and respected authority that goes back to the Magna Carta. M may be a powerful spymaster but she must face the music in government hearings, where she recites Tennyson. The new M headquarters are in Winston Churchill’s old bunker, and a British bulldog figurine, wrapped in the Union Jack, holds vigil on her desk.
In “Skyfall,” as in all the Bond films, there is no question this is all worth defending, and such defense involves espionage, exotic weapons, and secret agents like James Bond. Long before Silva, traitors in British intelligence such as Kim Philby sold out to enemies of democracy such as Joseph Stalin. So perhaps another Bond film will explore that theme in more depth.
A more recent Bond, Pierce Brosnan, said that Sean Connery once came on the set and spoke words he has never forgotten: “Are they paying you enough money?”
That raises an economic issue.
“Skyfall” grossed more than $100 million in the United States alone on its first weekend, and may earn $1 billion worldwide. It is, as they say, a hit, and creators of hits — along with the wealth they create — are worth defending, too.
Money and generally favorable reviews aside, the film has caused some to proclaim Daniel Craig as the “best” James Bond. Sorry. … It’s still Sean Connery, and the “Skyfall” theme song by Adele can’t hold a candle to Shirley Bassey in Goldfinger. Maybe they’ll do better next time. As the filmmakers say, James Bond will return.