Skyfall: 007 Successful Transformations of Bond Lore

4. The Archetypal Villain

I have to admit, the first quarter of this film didn't quite do it for me. All the pieces were there: car chases, casinos, well-tailored suits, impossibly sleek set design, a villain's evil lair, and (of course) a damsel in distress. But in the dusty, back corner of my mind I couldn't help but thinking, "Jesus, this is almost too formulaic." Enter: Javier Bardem. For me, he made the film a standout in the long line of movies, and not just another 'Quantum of Solace.' His mincing, almost whimsical turn as Raoul Silva, a disgruntled MI-6 agent and cyber-terrorist cheekily towed the line between nihilism and narcissism. Silva possessed the typical qualities of a Bond villain €” the exotic base of operations, unlimited resources, and even the physical deformity often found in some of Bond's most memorable foes. The 'Skyfall' script, however, stripped the elements of their hermetically sealed sheen. Silva's private island lair was simply an island abandoned after he used his tech savvy to convince inhabitants that it was unsafe to live there because of a chemical spill. It wasn't a space station. It wasn't a series of underground tunnels, complete with monorail system. It wasn't a Shangri La. It was an island €” a crumbling, dilapidated, haphazardly abandoned island. It wasn't a monument to his brilliance, it was a testament to the islanders'stupidity. The fact that they believed him even surprised Silva himself €” "It's amazing what you can do with a computer," Silva says. In addition, Bardem's Silva didn't have metal hands, or metal teeth, or a bullet in his brain or even a third nipple, but his deformity is the most haunting of any Bond villain. It's revealed only once, when confronted by M, his "mother" as he calls her. Silva swallowed an arsenic capsule when he was tortured by the Chinese government, lodged in his back left molar. He expected a quick death, but, as he says, "Life clung to me, like a disease." Upon removing his prosthetic dental plate, we see the result of the botched suicide: a toothless Silva, his left cheek languishing and stretching lazily down his face. Bardem hauntingly deplores Dench's M, his "mother," to, "Look upon work." And just ask quickly and shockingly as it came, it went. They didn't exploit it. It was at the core Bardem's character, but below the surface. It wasn't just a cheap, campy freak show fun. At the end of the scene I found myself as slack-jawed as Silva.