"James Bond is about as relevant to young people today as Clark Gable is… Bond wears a suit. Do you know a kid today that wears a suit? I don't." -Vin Diesel
As mirrored by the tortured, incarcerated Bond we meet near the beginning of this 20th entry in the 007 franchise, the past few years have been rough on the world's favourite action hero. Just after Pierce Brosnan established himself with the well-rounded pair of Goldeneye (1995) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), he and we were under served by the inanities of The World Is Not Enough (1999). This last episode saw far too much screen time given to whiney anarchist romance and travelogue scenery while the action was left to whatever B-Unit wasn't busy filming snow peaks and orthodox churches. Now, we all agree that Bond needs the girls, the gadgets, the car and (yes, Vin) even the suits to buzz but it is, first and foremost, an action franchise. Spectacle should never ever be treated as an unfortunate distraction to the narrative. Taking three years off, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have solved this problem but during the extended hiatus, Bond has found a new enemy rather less fearsome than Goldfinger, Scaramanga or even Grace Jones. The dreaded copycats.
One has to wonder whether the producers and hired directorial hand, Lee Tamahori, really wanted to follow the clones and spoofs of Austin Powers and Jack Ryan with a conventional outing for the Christmas blockbuster dollars. The real conflict in a Bond film is not between superpowers and renegades but tradition and invention. The outstanding entries are those that either push the envelope in some aspect (Goldfinger (1964), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)) or celebrate the series staples excessively (You Only Live Twice (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)). The duds that merely go through the motions grudgingly come off as disrespectful to the fanbase, who really have made Ian Fleming's creation one of the most reliable brands the world over. So, Die Another Day comes to us a bit bruised and bloodied. Expectations have been whipped up to match the competition and delivery on this hype is going to be the producers' key problem. Die Another Day is not a very entertaining Bond when compared to the best but it produces some happy experiments by working more on the weaknesses that keep the franchise dated.
The first thing that grips you with Die Another Day is the initial toying with its icon. Previous Brosnan movies have accepted that the Cold War milieu that Bond was a response to no longer exists and that his sexual and social behaviour is as dated as that hat he used to wear in the established "barrel of a gun shoot out" opening. By merely referring to this schism Broccoli and Wilson accepted that the series had moved with the times if not caught up with them. Yet this is the first movie to actually treat Bond as a dinosaur as opposed to merely suggest and then disprove the disparagement. After some gleeful initial mayhem in hovercrafts, Bond is captured and tortured. When he is finally swapped back in some under the counter diplomacy, he is treated as a traitor. So he decides to go freelance and track down Zao (Rick Yune), the man he was exchanged for, to uncover who has been snookering him into his disavowed position. You may have noticed something here: the plot of a Bond movie that can be described in more than a sentence ending in "underground lair". The gambles they are taking with their protagonist subsequently necessitate more narrative consistency to the character arc. No-one is saying that things have developed to a Shakespearean level but it is a marked improvement.
Steps have been taken to explore Bond's relation with those around him. The only person he has a real affinity to in the film is the villain, Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a capitalist, adrenaline junkie whose plans to cause international havoc are not coupled with the words "I would have thought you, of all people would have appreciated my plans, 007". The disrespectful XXX (2002) trotted out that cliché without blinking an eyelid. Here the villain is a true match for Bond. Not a greying tycoon with an army of henchmen but a younger, virulent challenge to Bond's outmoded but effective brand of intentional chaos. A frenzied swordfight through a gentleman's club shows two opposites tearing up the establishment they both are alienated from. Bond used to be part of this boy's club and Graves is a wolf in wolf's clothing.
The girls get more to do as well, although neither Halle Berry nor Rosamund Pike make the distinctive impression you'd expect from an Oscar winner or a hungry up-and-comer. The only moment you can see the feminist critics raising a Roger Moore-eque eyebrow is when a duel between two cars stacked with gadgets really does turn into the cockfight the fencing duel was billed as. This extended piece of Top Gear tomfoolery excluded, the action sequences are refreshingly free from the gadget heavy leanings that have made other Bond's adventures somewhat predictable. Another step (whether it is forward or backwards, you be the judge) is that CGI is employed more than is the norm for the series. One can only think that this is an acceptance that the stellar stunt teams and miniature makers that were the secret lifeforce of James Bond really are facing extinction now. It is a shame that the new technology used leads to some awkward shots that wouldn't have passed quality control previously. Probably the most prominent of these is a huge symbolic pair of fingers at the detracting imitators: Bond surfing a glacial tidal wave with a metal shield and parachute. No matter how extreme Vin Diesel thinks his poor man's espionager is, Bond was base jumping and snowboarding before Vin could gurgle.
The true tribute to Fleming's dinosaur's longevity, however, is Brosnan's swagger as he enters a hotel lobby, barely clothed and bearded like Moses but itching for a shave and a tailored suit. James Bond used to represent male aspirations to be suave, debonair and forceful. The suits are better, the girls get to ride on top but men will still guiltily share those aspirations… for two hours at least.
Reviewed by Bob Carroll
Reader comments about Die Another Day
Mark Ollier (Email address withheld) writes:
A bit disappointing in many ways. The opening sequence made me think that we were going back for a more hard nosed serious Bond and this was reinforced by his escape from the hospital whilst undergoing treatment but a change in the style of the film thereafter left me puzzled. I felt that the script lacked cohesion and the jump in plot between North Korea and Graves...well it was as if there were 2 separate story ideas and the producers decided to try to "jam" them together. Most of the plot lines had been seen before - the dual with the villain, Berry arising from the sea, Bond pretending to be a bird watcher etc. As for the girls, Halle Berry goes to bed with Bond just a bit too quickly and unconvincingly and her backgound and motivation is not terribly apparent. I could not understand what Madonna was doing in it since (unless I missed something) she does not reappear and the opportunity for plot making is lost. The personal motivation for Graves is not clear either. Usually, however stupid, you know why a Bond Villain is doing something! The gadgets are ok but not convincing. A golden rule for Bond gadgets is that they must be perceived as "possible" although at the boundaries of science, so the invisible car seems less than credible, and in any case is hardly used in this film to its potential humorous or serious - so why bother at all?. It was also not made clear enough at the outset that the villains car also had weapons so that the obligatory car chase just seemed "tacked on" without the nervous anticipation in the audience. An alternative? - Bond in a shopping laden Ford Fiesta - well that would be interesting! I could go on but you get the idea. 6/10
steven (Email address withheld) writes:
dear oh dear. bond is getting tired. brosnan and the cast are great but the storyline, well i cant put it into words! previous bond movies have been bad nut not this bad. the intro is great until he is captured, i'm used to him wining in the intro and thats what makes it good. very disappointing yet i still like it coz i love bond films. Be careful 007, time to make a better film!
Scott P. [P is for Proactive] (Email address withheld) writes:
After an original open and start, with a rather disgruntled James Bond tortured, inprisoned, released in shame and mistreated by his peers, I have to say, this saga fell down with a few hurdles left to go. The idea of Bond working on the outside was fresh, and I though it spelt a darker and more delicious theme. However good old Jimmy Bond seemed determined to obey the rules when he would be better off bending them. I wanted to see a disgraced and angry 007 tearing through friend and foe with clinical presision, knowing that he had no worries of getting punished. Instead however he did what he was told by someone who had no authority over him. There and then the hopes disapeared, surely never an oppurtunity like this would crop up. Rogue James Bond sounds good, but nobody else seems intrested. It may be another 20 film's and another 5 Bond's before we ever catch another glimpse of such a chance. I don't know about you, but I have better things to do with my time than wait that long.
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