4 Reasons Why Skyfall Is The Perfect Celebration Of James Bond

By JG Moore / March 4, 2013

Warning: This Article Will Contain Spoilers Once again Im late to the party in appreciating an excellent film. Some of you may remember me gushing about The Avengers after finally seeing it last September. Well its happened again, this time with Skyfall. I never got round to seeing Skyfall when it came out thanks in part to a surfeit of coursework that made me pray the Mayan Apocalypse that idiots kept prattling on about was going to happen. But last week, thanks once again to my amazing student union for screening new DVD releases free of charge, I finally got round to watching it. And, as with The Avengers, I absolutely loved it. So here are my 4 Reasons Why Skyfall Is The Perfect Celebration Of James Bond...

4. We Learn More About James Bond

First and foremost, the Bond-M relationship gets a colossal amount of development with Judi Dench practically being the films main Bond girl. While Jamess side of the relationship is somewhat underplayed, his actions throughout the film and especially Daniel Craigs performance during Ms death scene tells us all we need to know about he feels about M. And as for Ms side of the relationship, we really get taken on a proper emotional journey with it. Theres the opening scene which shows that she sees James as ultimately expendable and her offhand comment that orphans always make the best recruits also betrays an apparent lack of compassion but we also get moments that show she has great affection and trust for him such as her clearing him for active service despite the official opinion being that hes unfit for it, and all those brilliant little two-handers after he rescues her from Silvas assassination attempt. Its an incredibly complex relationship but the film handles it really well. Its not too ham-fisted but neither is it too ambiguous It hits just the right note. Theres also an interesting glimpse into Bonds psyche with MI6s psychiatric experts suggesting hes an alcoholic, his decision to give up a cushy life when presumed dead to return to MI6, and him going through a word association test with detached boredom until Skyfall is mentioned, making him unwilling to humour the psychiatrist any further. And its the introduction of Skyfall and the Bond familys gamekeeper Kincade that really helps to enhance the glimpse we get into Bonds formative years. Of particular note is Kincade reminiscing about when James hid in Skyfalls priest hole for two days after his parents died and that when he came out, he wasnt a boy any more. And although are no flashbacks to Bond as a child, were still going back to his roots in a big way. We learn the names of his parents, see where he grew up despite much the contents of the house having been removed, and explore his relationship with Kincade, the closest thing he had to a father after he became an orphan. Its only fitting that we should look at James Bonds past on the 50th anniversary and Skyfall definitely does not disappoint on that front.