George Orwell

I recently read the following George Orwell quote:

In a world where the prime necessities were money, titled relatives, athleticism, tailor-made clothes, neatly brushed hair, a charming smile, I was no good.

My initial impression was just WOW; what a great sentence.  My eyes lingered over the last four words, “…I am no good.”   The ending conveyed sense of worthlessness and low self esteem.  But its Orwell, “1984″ and “Animal Farm” aren’t exactly “feel good” reads.  But he “was no good” compared to what?

So I read it again; paying more attention to the list of social standards to which he was comparing himself.  This time, the quote struck me as strangely uplifting and slightly rebellious.  No, extremely rebellious.  Against the standards of great hair, fashionable clothes, bleached teeth, being “no good” takes on a different meaning doesn’t it. He is cheering you on to be yourself, undaunted by the materialistic world and the shallow impressions of others.  I had to share the quote with someone.

So I called my wife, who is always up for a good quote.  I got the first four words out of my mouth, and she bust into laughter.

In a world…

Just a little back story, I have a pretty deep voice and struggle with smoking.  So when I said “In a world..”, my wife thought I was aping the “movie trailer guy.”  You know the voice.  Read the quote again, and think of it being set to a big James Bond Hollywood action trailer.  Orwell goes from someone with low self esteem to James Bond, kicking the door down and defiantly saying “I was no good.”

George Orwell's Big Brother

I was struck by how this double meaning is rampant in Orwell’s works.  I read “1984″ during the Bush Administration and “Animal Farm” during the Clinton years.  Even though with those two periods of our history were staged in dramatically different environments (.com boom vs. real estate bust, war vs. peace etc.)  Both books were easily connected with the world around me.  Orwell is timeless.   He describes the horror that mankind is capable of and its equal capacity for being complacent in the face of such horror.

I ran across this quote, reading 120 page cliff note type booklet on Orwell’s “1984″.  The booklet was published in 1965.  I thought it would interesting to see how people in the 1960’s related to Orwell.   Quite interesting, indeed.

So what was the context of George Orwell’s quote?  He was describing his experiences at a British prep school.  Orwell was a poor kid that was making his way through the rigid educational system on scholarships and getting by on his smarts and the  goodwill of others.  He felt he was treated vastly different than the well to do, social elite that attended the same school.  This theme seems an ever present inspiration for Orwell.

In many ways his real life mirrored “Animal Farm” and “1984.”   At times his experiences left  him feeling  burdened with low esteem.  At other times, he could appreciate his indiviuality and see the shallowness of socital standards. In this quote, he shows he can elegantly be both at the same time.

Clearly, Craig’s performance as the womanizing sexist bastard who happens to be the world’s ultimate assassin is turning heads, with some critics even daring to commit the ultimate blasphemy by suggesting that Craig’s bond even outshines Connery’s.

This is not to say that Solace is a great film. In fact, even though it’s nearly non-stop action from start to finish, there’s very little time for the audience to breathe. Solace begins mere minutes after the events of Casino Royale, so if you haven’t refreshed your memory by watching Royale lately, you’re likely to be both confused and bewildered by the opening sequence of the film, if not the film itself.

In this, Quantum of Solace’s primary glaring flaw is darn-near unforgivable: it assumes that the audience has seen its predecessor. I don’t ask a lot of good action films, but at least tell me what the hell is going on. Every good film should stand alone on its merits. The moment your audience is forced to scratch their collective heads, they’re too busy playing catch-up to truly enjoy the film.

This is a far different kind of confusion than is presented by great storytelling, by keeping the audience guessing as to what will happen next. Quite simply, this is shoddy storytelling that keeps them guessing as to what just happened! Solace has joined a myriad of other films in a fad that keeps the camera so tight into the action that much of what’s on screen is little more than a barely discernible blur, something that Transformers (2007) suffered from as well. It seems as though director Mark Forster has picked up a few of his action cues from Transformers‘ Michael Bay. Believe me, this is not a good thing.

In a nutshell, Solace begins with a rapidfire car chase in the streets of Siena, Italy, who’s busy trying to escape the very well-armed henchmen of Mr. White, who happens to be in the trunk of his Aston-Martin. Once he delivers his bounty to interrogation, Bond and M are caught in the middle of traitorous deception, which sends both Bond and the audience around the world to Bolivia, where he must infiltrate another organization with an environmentalist front, also as an assassin, all in the attempt to find out who killed his girlfriend from the first film. Along the way, he meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who has a grudge of her own to carry.

Together, they’re hot on the trail to shut down the seemingly ubiquitous Quantum, an organization that’s hell-bent on some kind of world domination thing (is there any other kind of evil organization in Bond films). Quantum is run by the rather unimpressive Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who for the moment, has his eyes on a piece of desert property in Bolivia.

Dame Judi Dench returns as M, who always manages to be a bright spot in any film she appears in; even though she spends much of Solace scowling at Bond or her other MI6 underlings.

Of course, there’s plenty of technology and gadgets to keep our favorite MI6 double-0 agent happy, and yes, he manages to find time to bed a couple of babes.

Quantum of Solace disappoints on a number of levels, most notably that it retreads on the tired old vengeance story line, which almost never makes for a good film. The last time we saw vengeance as a key plot point in a bond film was back in 1989 in the Timothy Dalton-era Licence to Kill, which was arguably a low point in the series.

Thankfully, Solace doesn’t dip to that kind of lowbrow filmmaking, but it never manages to rise above mediocrity, and is riddled with almost as many wasted opportunities as with bullet holes. Neither good nor bad, Quantum of Solace presents the best Bond actor since Connery in a story that’s nowhere near the calibre of its star. Perhaps we could have stood to wait a year or two for a better script.

With Casino Royale, 2006 Daniel Craig took up the reins of Ian Flemming’s James Bond, Agent 007. While there are many new firsts in the latest Casino Royale, this writer thought this a fitting time to look back to start of Pierce Brosnan’s reign as everyone’s favorite original action hero, Agent 007, James Bond.

GoldenEye debuted in 1995. Has it really been that long ago that Brosnan picked up the mantle? Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby and Roger Moore had all worn the mantle, with Moore carrying it for the longest stretch, but it was time for a new Bond and Pierce Brosnan was his name.

This film also saw the introduction of Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Izabella Scorupco, Alan Cummings, Joe Don Baker along with Robbie Coltrane and Judi Dench into the Bond films history. Coltrane would reprise his character in The World Is Not Enough, and Dench is the new “M,” Bond’s superior at MI6. Also notable is the theme song GoldenEye, sung by Tina Turner and written by Bono and The Edge, of U2. Additionally noteworthy: this is the last Bond film to be viewed by its namesake producer, Albert R. Broccoli.

The storyline is true to Flemming’s style- On a mission in the USSR, Bond thinks his cohort, Agent 006, has been killed by a Soviet officer. Nine years later he may have the opportunity to avenge that killing while pursuing the theft of the access codes and keys to GoldenEye, a secret Russian space-based EMP generating satellite. Judi Dench acquaints herself well taking up the role of M, going head to head with the Bond mystique and establishing the rules of operation as the new head of MI6. The first woman to hold that position. There are ruffled feathers abounding!

Sean Bean is wonderful as the one-time cohort, Agent 006. As 007 comes to know his real motives and agenda, a battle of wits is set in motion and a friendship is irrevocably destroyed. Famke Janssen is top notch as bad girl villain, Xenia Onotopp, jet fighter pilot, race car driver and vicious lovemaking assassin. It’s hard believe that this hellcat would become Dr. Jean Grey of The X-Men, years later.

GoldenEye is action-packed fun. From high explosives and higher-still dangling heights, to car and tank chases through the streets of St. Petersburg, you’re drawn into the drama and the thrill of the hunt. Alan Cummings is cut to the T as the computer geek Boris who is made to pay for his bad boy hacker attitude. And the Bond penchant for notable quotes that play on the sexual edge are wonderfully on display here. There’s one especially wicked I’ll let you find for yourself.

One thing you will note watching GoldenEye is that being Bond is a physically demanding calling. Heck, being in a James Bond film as a villain, femme fatale or even Bond’s love interest, will likely place you in some very demanding situations. Ms Janssen is seen actually driving a speeding Ferrari as it careens seemingly out of control. Brosnan’s commitment to the role is also demonstrated early in some of the opening fifteen minutes of the film. I wouldn’t spoil it for you but do note that he’s doing those stunts himself and a few times, you do hear him grunt at the impact.

Pierce Brosnan held the James Bond mantle from 1995 to 2006. That’s quite a record. As Daniel Craig takes the helm, may he be blessed with strong writing, good direction and stamina. Agent 007 is always in need of those straits. To paraphrase the British, “Long live Agent 007, Pierce Brosnan! All hail Agent 007, Daniel Craig!”