The Quantum of Solace: Worst Bond Film Ever?

So why do people hate this film so much? Ok, so it’s on the long side, but so’s the Godfather. It may not conform to the ‘traditional’ mould that other Bond films have, but then neither did Batman Begins. It does seem at times to be treated by its owners as a ‘Christmas tree’ on which to hang its other shiny new products in front of a global public eye. BUT... First of all this isn't a bond movie; this is the second half of the greatest bond movie ever made. What misleads people is the lack of ingenuity and freshness that has been in the franchise for too long. It was almost totally swept away with the release of Casino Royale in 2006. ‘Almost’ being the operative word, because what is clear in retrospect is that the runtime of two films was required to reboot a franchise in as much trouble as Bond.

Casino Royale needed to be the 'traditional' Bond film with the mission, the girls, the cars, the villain and, of course, the sheer opulence and glamour of the whole caper. The truth is that the visual feast that was the bloody violence and pace of 'Royale put Bond back on top where he had belonged but had been absent from for almost forty years. As soon as Roger 'the eyebrow/safari suit’ (delete as appropriate) Moore got hold of the title role, it was the end of any hope that this franchise would truly be an adult and true conversion from the written word to celluloid.

The film Casino Royale was based on the original outing for a character loved and revered by many. The book can be seen as the truest account of the character and has now formed the foundation for a fresh foray into a new mythology starting with a conclusion to the most interesting and realistic story Bond has ever taken part in on screen.

Vesper Lynd has proven the deepest most complicated character Bond has ever come up against or loved. Her death in the book was what allowed Bond to summon within him the resolve to personally see the end of SPECTRE and their devious plots around the globe. What this film does is the same writ large in glorious high definition. The enemy is now Quantum; a ruthless, faceless, business organisation that is keenly involved, not just in global terrorism, (that is simply their source of income) but in a huge plot to force the world over the brink, into chaos and to profit from it as much as possible.

At this stage in the unfurling of the plot it is unclear what their ultimate goal is, but one can easily surmise that it is bigger and more complex than any other in Bond history. If this storyline is to be followed to its inevitable conclusion there should be enough material (even for Purvis and Wade) to make the next ten to twenty years of Bond mythology safe whilst giving an ultimate motivation to enemy characters.

I would argue that as soon as SPECTRE where deemed as irrelevant to moviegoer’s lives, there was a period where the only innovation (some good, some terrible) was present in coming up with new enemies for Bond to fight. Casino/Quantum is the Bond film for the new world order that is just over the horizon where the corporation (as opposed to the nation state) is king.

As with Vesper, the other characters within this film are some of the most complex seen in any action film franchise. Their dialogue is crisp, with real emotion and back-stories written and developed by actor and writer alike. These two films represent a turning point for action franchises; after all, there are only so many times adolescent men will go to see Bond get the girl and fall out of a window all within the same thirty seconds. Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson understand the property that they inherited and they understood its limitations at the end of the Pierce Brosnan canon in 2002’s Die Another Day. Bond was still a sexist, a misogynist and no longer very funny. Bond like many movie properties needed opening up to a new audience, one that would appreciate a multi-faceted character and a world where fantasy doesn’t simply mean a woman with as few clothes on as possible.

There is no getting away from the structural facts that the film is a bit long, but can anyone identify lengths of the film that they would leave on the ‘floor? Please can someone suggest a sequence that can and should be lost? Marc Forster had a difficult job and was not the obvious choice to direct Quantum of Solace, but what he turned in was taught, edgy and emotional.

The issue of product placement on behalf of Sony Corporation is the biggest issue that can never be explained away. The brand of Bond now has (mainly due to Columbia Pictures) one of the strongest images on Earth and yes, Bond has always been a place and person in and on which all the best, most expensive products can and should be put to prove his pedigree to his superiors and to ensure that he will never be beaten. Indeed, ‘Cubby’ used the sexiness and status of Bond in the eyes of his audience to sell space in his movies in order for him to make more of them. Bond IS capitalism, pure, hedonistic, and undiluted, and this new project is merely the postmodern version of a DB5 and a packet of Lark cigarettes. Yes one can argue that it is over done, but Quantum of Solace could also be argued to be the final death throw of capitalism in its most raw form. Once again Bond is the first one in and the last one out of the most profitable gig in town.

Dolphin Rescue Penzance

On Saturday 7th March 2009 12 students from University College Falmouth and Exeter University Cornwall Campus travelled to Penzance to attend a one day course about how to rescue marine mammals or cetaceans.
The free course was held at The Silver Dolphin Dive Centre at Trinity House in Penzance and is designed to initiate volunteers into the rigors of rescuing creatures that have got into difficulties or have voluntarily beached due to ill health. The Silver Dolphin Centre co-ordinates training for the Cornish Marine Life Rescue group and has already responded to two Common Dolphins being washed up dead on Caerhays Beach. Dave Ball, the owner and instructor at Silver Dolphin said: “During this time of the year the larger Bass fishing boats come closer to the shore, especially in rough weather to escape the huge waves that the Atlantic storms bring. As they move closer to shore they dump the dead dolphins over the side and so they wash up on the beach together.” During the course the students were taught about the continuing problem that fishermen play in the lives of cetaceans around the world. Strandings and beachings in Cornwall are often horrific in nature due to the disregard with which some fishermen treat dolphins and porpoises caught in their nets. Because they don’t want damage their nets they seem to be inclined to cut fins and beaks without a thought for the fate of the creature.
The course is split into two parts; in the morning the students learned about the different parts of marine mammal anatomy, what to watch out for whilst moving the animal and the different species that are present in the water around the British Isles. The afternoon session is concerned with the practicalities of getting an eighty-kilo plastic dolphin called Bubbles back into Penzance Bay.

Image courtesy of: www.visitshetland.com

Despite the weather and the high tide the team managed to release the dummy twice: once from the Western beach slipway and the rocks on Battery Road beach and attracted quite a crowd of curious onlookers.
The team at Silver Dolphin has been saving cetaceans for almost ten years. The Dive centre is run as a business and the cetacean rescue service was formed as a charitable part of the thriving business.
Arranged by Jill Dunn, Community Action Coordinator, the one-day course was filmed by two MA students keen to capture one of the more unusual activities of the young student volunteers.
A mass-stranding course was held on 30th July last year at Marazion. It was a great day giving those that attended, the opportunity to learn what should be done if a mass stranding occurred. This was in response to the worst recorded mass stranding in UK history on 9th June when 26 animals died in Porth Creek near St. Mawes on the Fal estuary.
SILVER DOLPHIN DIVE CENTRE
COMMON DOLPHIN FACTSHEET

The Modern Face of Feminism

As a 24 year old man working on a dissertation looking into the institutions and structures that formed the environment capable of sending Barack 'the feminist' Obama to the White House and having just heard this piece on Radio 4 this morning, I can say that the state of sexual equality never ceases to worry me.
Katharine Whitehorn always raises such well thought out, well reasoned points of view that this piece brings little surprise in that department, but it is amazing to me that someone that got so high in one of the most misogynistic industries is willing to merely report its current status. Regrettably, media being my industry of choice (this time at least), I feel a great responsibility to bring equality to an otherwise sexually biased world. The big problem for any male feminists out there is that anyone seeing this (and the election of the 'first feminist') as a call to arms have to be aware of what post-modernism has done to the feminist movement.
It's true that some ‘modern’ feminists such as Rebekah Wade see female public nudity and celebrity bad behaviour as “the pinnacle of achievement”, but doesn’t it ring hollow with anyone that this comes from people who have sacrificed little in their lives and have only made it to their glass ceilings at the say so of their pay masters.
‘Glass Ceiling’ is a term that always makes me think. Surely to many of these so-called ‘modern’ feminists that glass would have to be one way. Any woman that gets to the ‘top’ of their game are unable to see that as long as you have a superior, how are you at the top of their game? Being unable to see the glass ceiling that is so obvious to so many (whether they mention it to their prisoners or not) makes their ensnarement in this trap all the more shameful.
Mrs. Whitehorn’s assertion that girls believe that behaving as badly as boys ‘empowers’ them is a truism in all regards, but doesn’t explain how and why this is the case. Of course, like everything, the state of young feminism has come about through the complexity of modern life and our inability to change the collective mentality at opportune moments in history.
The wonder of Radio 4 reared its head again this morning during the following programme: Broadcasting House. Towards the end, during the general interest section, Paddy O’Connell met with Vince Cable in his role as President of the Twikenham Bee Keepers Association. In closing, Paddy mused that the bee colony has been admired and studied for hundreds, if not thousands of years and that at the head of every colony is a matriarch that has absolute power and the men are only good for reproduction and work. The connection between the two programmes; doesn’t it make anyone think that there is more to life than sex and work?
ORIGINAL STORY: WOMEN ON TOP

A Foray Into the Web Community

After attending the third lecture in my Publishing module and discussing the benefits to future job applications of blogging, I have decided to start blogging anew with the addition of joining forums all over the web.
Last night I joined www.landyzone.co.uk mainly because I intend to take Katy and myself on an overland expedition to either Cape Town or Vladivostock. Since I was a small boy I have wanted a Land Rover to carry out just such an adventure and this is the beginning of that adventure.
To date I have looked into equipment ranging from main form of transportation to high tech gadgets to help make hunting game easier. In this vein, I discovered this fantastic website: http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/ They are a silicon valley company who have figured out how to shrink Lithium-ion batteries and make them far more powerful and more stable in a high drain application such as propelling you and your bike along at up to 60mph. I have a vivid image of me riding silently through the bush after our next few meals on four legs.
I have also looked into a Kinetic Energy Recycling (KER) system for attaching to the big landy in order to charge batteries and electronic equipment.
These two small parts of the adventure are in my head sloshing around with all the other stuff.
Katy and I are off to see Vicky Christina Barcelona tomorrow after spending the day at Leap so expect a review over the weekend.
Back to the Paella! And to searching for the next Forum to join!