1. Less Reflexive And Less Nostalgic
This will sound somewhat contradictory because one of the most successful elements of Skyfall was the way that the film referenced the entirety of the Bond franchise in a way that was touching yet not overtly sentimental. As Ryan Gilbey's
review of Skyfall in the New Statesman noted, one of the clear themes of the film was nostalgia. Consider all of the references to previous Bond films in Skyfall: the Aston Martin complete with machine guns in the grille, the Walther PPK/S 9mm palm-reading pistol, Q's joke about an exploding pen, some previous Bond filming locations (such as Turkey), and the autobiographical Skyfall Lodge in Scotland. The emblematic scene of Q and Bond meeting at London's National Gallery and viewing J. M. W. Turner's masterpiece The Fighting Temeraire (1838) gives us a clear impression that Mendes and the Bond writers are more than a bit interested in exploring a reflexive Bond that is perhaps at times too nostalgic but which is all the while engaging. In many dramatic senses, the film's use of Bond's pastin both the comedic exploding pen joke and the serious autobiographical locale of Skyfall Lodgeprovides clarity for the film's triangle of M, Silva, Bond. Quite literally, Silva represents MI6's past, as does M who has been asked to retire. Bond tries to maintain his sense of loyalty to MI6's mission, even in the face of Silva's challenges to him and his repudiation of M and all that MI6 represents. Silva, perhaps, is the most reflexive of all of the Bond villains for he challenges everything that is Bond. At the same time, he is clearly OK with the idea of dying along with M when he asks her to kill them both with his gun. Ultimately, the nostalgia and self-referencingwhich some critics and fans have said was too excessive at timesdraws the triangle story to a close as it does the career of Dench as M. For obvious reasons, then, this level of reflexivity and nostalgia may not be fitting for Bond 24. This, for me, is the most exciting anticipation that I have for the next film. What directions will Mendes take? Will he give us more of the inward, troubled Bond? Will he bring us Blofeld as some rumours have suggested? Will Bond 24 return to the theme of Bond saving the world from certain destruction? What do you predict?
Scott A. Lukas
Contributor
Scott A. Lukas has taught anthropology and sociology Lake Tahoe Community College for sixteen years and in 2013 was Visiting Professor of American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He has been recognized with the McGraw-Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association (2005), the California Hayward Award for Excellence in Education (2003), and a Sierra Arts Foundation Artist Grant Program Award in Literary–Professional (2009). In 2006, he was a nominee to the California Community College Board of Governors. He is the author/editor of The Immersive Worlds Handbook (2012), Theme Park (2008), The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nature, and Self (2007), Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade, (co-edited with John Marmysz, 2009), Recent Developments in Criminological Theory (co-edited with Stuart Henry, 2009), and Strategies in Teaching Anthropology (2010). His book Theme Park was recently translated into Arabic. He appeared in the documentary The Nature of Existence and has provided interviews for To the Best of Our Knowledge, The Huffington Post UK, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and Caravan (India).
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