A Peek Through the Door of a Secret World!

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2012)

As I was born in 1960, & my father was a huge fan of James Bond, both the books & films, James Bond is amongst my earliest memories of movies. I grew up loving & idolizing 007. As a young boy, who would not want to be the man to win all the battles & save the world? As a teenager, who would not want to be the man who got all the girls? Yes, James Bond was the man, no doubt about it. Sean Connery's (the best Bond) smooth & suave demeanor, was the definition of virility & sophistication that just about every man wished he could be. George Lazenby's physical approach to Bond, & apt portrayal was promising, but faced the insurmountable task in following Connery. He was given maybe the best Bond film ever made (certainly if Connery was Bond), but was highly maligned. One has to wonder how he would of molded the role had he choose to play Bond more than once? Roger Moore's tongue in cheek portrayal of Bond, which later turned more into him sticking his tongue out at the audience, while he blatantly winked away. Timothy Dalton's quietly sincere interpretation of 007, which I thought was a very good Bond, but maybe to sincere after Moore's bastardization of his later Bond films. Pierce Bronson, the man who I felt never quite fit in the role, then given later films that would further 007's downhill surmise.
Then there is Danial Craig! Not since Sean Connery has there been a Bond so all commanding of his screen presence, & hence, the silver screen it's self. Craig, who looked at first glance to be an unlikely & unwise choice for Bond, after the succession of pretty boys with their pretty gadgets, as the superspy. Danial Craig who made Bond believable again, through pure physical charisma & an acting ability far above any other Bond since Connery, in fact, he rivals Connery in many ways. Craig whose tough as steel persona & physique, yet a vulnerability underlying his commanding presence. A Bond driven by past torments, who only lets you see glimpses of his core nature. The coldest killing machine of a Bond that ever was, but yet a warmth inhabits his performance.
If there was a doubt that anything I just wrote about Daniel Craig is true, it surely has been put to rest & cemented by his latest film "Skyfall." The most intimately personal look at James Bond ever given a houseful of Bond lovers at the theater, with possibly the exception of the last 10 minutes of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Here Bond is stripped naked of all his armor, to show us a man who has been tormented all his life in one form or another. Here is Bond, a man unsure of himself, looking for resurrection & redemption, & here he finds it all in one film, "Skyfall." "Skyfall" is certainly one of the greatest Bond films ever, it has all the action & intrigue of the best Bond. Yet, one can not compare it to other great Bond films such as "From Russia With Love," "Goldfinger," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," & Craig's own superb, "Casino Royal." For it is a different breed of Bond, letting us inside his secretive world. Even it's villain "Silva," Javier Bardem's ("No Country for Old Men") tremendously maniacal performance as a man driven by psychotic revenge, is another door unlocked to the secret world of the 00's. His villain certainly is the most complex of any Bond film. His acting unquestionably the greatest of anyone to play a Bond villain, even Telly Savalas as "Blofeld, & Gret Frobe as "Goldfinger," fall to Javier's, "Silva." Finally, Judi Dench's "M," is the third door that opens in this most revealing of all Bond films. Her tough as nails persona gets deconstructed brick by brick, board by board. She mirrors the self crisis that Bond is experiencing, am I all that I was, or seem to be? Can I overcome all that I fear? So here it is, a film like no other Bond film ever made. A film of self doubt. A film of self reliance. A film of determination to overcome any obstacle in one's way. At once an intimate film, but that is huge in it's execution, drive, suspense, & thrills. A film with a few surprises not mentioned here, & lastly, a film that will secure Daniel Craig's place as a great Bond, & the making of more Bond films in the foreseeable future!