An Illiberal Bond for the Masses

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2008)

Listen to me. Quantum of Solace is a brilliant, complex thriller. The film speaks to globalization, transnational capital, class disparity, corruption, and paranoia. The strategy of speed, location, and fragmentation underscores this theme. Absolutely breathtaking. Roger Ebert argues that Bond must "stand above" the darkness in our world. I feel that Quantum of Solace consciously resists that (liberal) ideology. Other critics say that they like the "new Bond," but only in terms of changes to the protagonist, e.g., Craig's Bond is more psychologically complex than Connery's and Moore's. Yet why can't the Bond project be politically complex? This film goes beyond espionage and despotic fantasy and instead calls attention to corruption at the highest level (legislative, military, corporate) as well as critiques philanthropy, "rights," and other strategies complicit with status quo politics, all in a very real yet Bond-like way.