The New Bond Title
Sep 25th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 8 Comments |
In case anyone’s wondering, the new Bond film’s title, Quantum of Solace, is really cool.
A “quantum” is the smallest possible amount of something. It’s the amount that all other (non-zero) amounts are made from, by way of addition (a quantum + a quantum + a quantum + etc. = total amount).
(And without the idea of “quanta,” there would be no quantum mechanics. So, yeah. There it is.)
Anyway, I assume Bond is, in this film, in search of solace. And all he wants is just a quantum.
Which implies that if he’s got to search for even a quantum of solace, he’s in a real bad way. Most people can get a couple quanta of solace from a cup of hot chocolate or a cookie or something.
If I haven’t mentioned before, I really Daniel Craig as Bond. And the writing on the last movie allowed him to shine.
Here’s hoping the new movie is as good. It’s already got a cool title, at least.
Yeah the revamping of the Bond movies definitely was a great idea. Daniel Craig really made the character his own, and the new style brings the series back to earth. Because, honestly the latest bond movies were equating to cheesy like Batman and Robin. Just down right terrible.
The new Bond movie is likely to be cool, but more important is the accompanying release of a new Bond video game, one that will play on my Wii. :)
Somewhere I heard that “quantum” is the new terrorist/bad guy organization.
Bond became a cultural icon because it was out there (for example, cars that turn into submarines, Jaws, and volcano lairs), and to change that model, as “Casino Royale” did, is to kill that icon. Maybe it was ready to die…I don’t know…but die it did.
I’m with Jeff Stallard on this one, a bit. (Maybe it’s a “Jeff” thing)
It strikes me as so predictable to take an old icon and “update” it by making it cynical, gritty, dark etc.
I have slightly more mixed feelings about alluding to Bond’s childhood and showing us the very beginnings of his life as a spy. On the one hand, it kills the mythic quality of the character to know where he comes from. On the other hand, it was an interesting view of the whole thing.
Have you guys ever seen Dalton’s Bond? It’s pretty similar to Craig’s. Gritty, cynical as hell, dark, etc. Rogue at one point? I really enjoyed the Living Daylights, I don’t remember if he did any others. Anyway, it’s not a completely new thing. Pierce Brosnan’s bond was sort-of a return to pre-Dalton. And Craig’s Bond is like saying “No, this works.”
Someday I’ll read Ian Fleming and report back to all of you on which Bond fits best. :)
I’ve read most of the Ian Fleming books. (Most of them are not very good and Fleming is mildly racist, particularly to Koreans, and extraordinarily sexist, even for his time.) I haven’t seen Daniel Craig’s Bond, but, based on the description, it’s probably closer than other screen incarnations to Fleming’s.
Fleming’s Bond is cold and ruthless; you’re not really meant to like him, so much as admire him. In The Spy Who Loved Me, which is told from the perspective of Vivienne Michel, she is told by another character to forget about James Bond: while he’s exciting and attractive, he’s also as brutal, heartless, and dangerous as the men he fights. Fleming’s Bond is very much an antihero – a callous killer who happens to fight for the good guys. He is also very ambivalent about women. He desires them, but he’s also quite a misogynist. (In this, one suspects Fleming is inspired by himself, as with much else about Bond.)
By the by, the best Fleming Bond novels (that I’ve read) are Moonraker (far better than the movie), From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger (but the movie’s better). Fleming’s at his best when he’s writing about gambling. The baccarat scenes in Casino Royale [sic - casino is masculine in French, so it should have been Casino Royal] and the bridge scenes in Goldfinger are some of the best stuff he writes.
That’s interesting, Dalton is a bit like Craigs.
I think that Dalton was in one that had the name “license” in it… License Revoked? Licensed to Kill?
Whichever it was, it is also reminiscent of the newer entries in that it tried to turn the whole series in a darker direction, and actually develop and change it. Many of the others watch like a meriocre television series in that the sequence doesn’t mattet because the status quo never changes.