GOLDFINGER (1964, GREAT BRITAIN), SKYFALL (2012, GREAT BRITAIN)

Doesn't it seem like British movies have a distinctive air of, for lack of another word Britishness? 

But exactly HOW British are they?

How British is it? Month (Post 10 of 10)

Goldfinger & Skyfall

Goldfinger

Of all the James Bond movies made during its fifty year history, the one that has made every edition of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book is Goldfinger. Hard to argue the choice. It is probably the most famous Bond film and may have the most famous Bond villain and theme song. It has great gadgets including the debut of the sexiest Bond woman since Ursula Andress, I'm talking about Bond's Aston Martin with all its accesories including the passenger ejector seat. (I wonder if Bond will use that ejector seat at some point in the movie...Hmmm.) Goldfinger also has Pussy Galore! and of course, the original Bond, Sean Connery.

What's interesting about watching Bond over the years is with each new Bond film, you want to see what's new, but it's more important to see what's old. By this I mean that we expect certain things to happen in a James Bond movie and we're disappointed when it doesn't. Like having a different actor play CIA guy Felix Leiter in every Bond movie. Maybe that's not the best example, but I'll try some others for Goldfinger below.

Bond is going to have a big action scene before the opening credits.  JB blows up a drug warehouse in Latin America in the first scene of the movie.

Those hard to resist opening credits and song. As the credits roll, we are going to hear the latest Bond theme song with silhouetted women and guns and knives and 007  in the background. The opening images are covered in gold in Goldfinger.The title song by John Barry and sung by Shirley Bassey may be the most famous James Bond theme of them all.

Bond is going to his boss M who gives out his assignment. "Your adversary is not to be taken lightly, 007."

M's office assistant Moneypenny is going to flirt with JB. Lois Maxwell played this role for 25 years in James Bond movies

He meets up with Q, who shows off his assorted gadgets that Bond will use later in the film. Q usually seems irritated with Bond for not taking his gadgets seriously enough.

Bond will tussle with a villain or two before disposing of him and making a pun. "Shocking!" Bond quips after a foe. is electrocuted

Bond will sleep with a woman early on that has some relation with the mastervillain and she will not survive for very long. Jill Masterson's golden death is a great example.

We meet the mastervillain who is always in love with the sound of his own voice instead of killing Bond when he has the chance.  As Auric Goldfinger would say, "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die...But let me go into great detail about my plan first." 

We will often meet a sidekick of the villain who Bond will have to do battle with. The metal hat throwing Asian strongman Oddjob from Goldfinger. A later film example is Jaws of The Spy Who Loved Me.

Bond will engage in high speed chases on several different continents. Bond is chased by Goldfinger's men in Switzerland.

There is a big finale in which Bond will ultimately thwart the villain's nefarious plan. Goldfinger didn't really think he could get away with breaking into Fort Knox, did he?

Bond will go off into the sunset with a beautiful woman. Whether they be named Pussy Galore, Honey Rider or Octopussy

Oh, and hopefully Bond's Aston Martin  (BMT 216A) will come into play. And yes he does use the ejector seat on an unwanted passenger!



In the updated 1001 Movie Book, a new Bond movie is listed, The most recent release, Skyfall. I've slacked off on my Bond viewing in recent years (though I've seen all almost all of them over the years) but thought it would be as good a time as any to watch the latest Bond Adventure. I wasn't blown away with Casino Royale (the newer one, not the old Woody Allen one) and I haven't even seen Quantum of Solace, but let's see how Skyfall meets our Bond criteria.

Bond is going to have a big action scene before the opening credits.  Skyfall has a most exciting action scene involving Bond chasing a mercenary through the streets of Istanbul culminating with a battle on top of a train ending with Bond getting shot and falling into a hundred feet to his death...Now, you know he isn't really dead, don't you?

Those hard to resist opening credits and song. The title song sung by Adele is very nice and Bondonian. The opening credits are clever images of graphics, dragons, ladies, guns and knives with James Bond in the middle of it. We've frankly progressed a long way from  silhouetted models

Bond is going to his boss M who gives out his assignment. M has been Judi Dench for the last twenty years or so, but I still admit I think of M as being Bernard Lee. But I will say that by the end of my viewing of Skyfall, I now think of Judy Dench as being M.

M's office assistant Moneypenny is going to flirt with JB  Not exactly, but the charcter of Moneypenny does come into play.

He meets up with Q, who shows off his assorted gadgets that he will show off later in the film. This was an interesting twist in Skyfall. Q is no longer the seemingly always aged Desmond Llewleyn. He is now a computer geek, who looks like a 19-year-old version of Bill Gates who thinks that he could do more from his computer over espresso than Bond can do in the field in months.

Bond will tussle with a villain or two before disposing of him and making a pun.  You didn't really think the mercenary who tried to kill Bond at the beginning of the film would last too long, did you? The puns seem to be at a minimum here. I did really like the later scene when Bond has to dynamite his childhood home and matter of factly states that "I always hated this place." 

Bond will sleep with a woman early on that has some relation with the mastervillain and she will not survive for very long. Just don't get too attached to the character of Severin. That's all I'm saying. 

We meet the mastervillain who is always in love with the sound of his own voice instead of killing Bond when he has the chance. I liked Javier Bardem's villainous Silva, an-ex agent turned evil, who seems too...love to talk and talk about what he is going to do to Bond and to her majesty and England and everyone else.

We will often meet a sidekick of the villain who Bond will have to do battle with. Doesn't apply as much here. In later films (later films=post-Timothy Dalton era), it seems lots and lots of the supervillains henchman have to go down to satisfy the action quota.

Bond will engage in high speed chases on several different exotic locations. Istanbul, Shanghai etc.

There is a big finale in which Bond will ultimately thwart the villain's nefarious plan. (Blowing up Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons and I think Downton  Abby, I think was what Silva was planning to do. That's not quite right, but its something along those lines. And you know he will not ultimately succeed!

Bond will go off into the sunset with a beautiful woman. Not this time. M's maternal relationship with Bond is explored at the end of Skyfall, bringing the M character full circle.

Oh, and hopefully Bond's Aston Martin  (BMT 216A) will come into play.  When Bond breaks the Aston Martin out of mothballs here, it's like the return of an old friend for the audience. M even jokes about not wanting Bond to use the Aston ejector seat on her.

It all comes home at the end when Bond has to return to his childhood home of Skyfall. There are really some great scenes of poignancy here that are unusual for a James Bond movie.

James Bond has been on film for 50 years and Skyfall was a great trip for newer fans and a nostalgic journey for older fans. Bond is getting old and feeling it, but he gets to prove that he's still got it. And Daniel Craig is Bond now...at least for the time being.. 

Skyfall

How British Is It?: It's James Bond! How can you get more British than James Bond?

Ranking of Britishness from 1 to 10 is...007!

THE WAR GAME (1965, GREAT BRITAIN), CULLODEN (1965, GREAT BRITAIN)

Doesn't it seem like British movies have a distinctive air of, for lack of another word Britishness? 

But exactly HOW British are they?

How British Is It? Month (Post 9 of 10)

The War Game & Culloden

The War Game

This Peter Watkins double feature begins with The War Game, a film about the aftereffects of thermonuclear war in Britain. It is an odd hybrid of a documentary and a fictional movie. The movie is not pretending to be real and continues to tell us that this is what could happen or these were the effects of the aftermath of Dresden or Hiroshima and it could happen here. Yet the style is done as a straight BBC report which includes interviews with those in this fictional community and The War Game gives us black and white images are disturbing enough that you may forget what you are seeing isn't really happening. 

Watkins also used a similar approach in Culloden about the ill-fated battle (or slaughter) of Scottish rebels against superior English forces. We are introduced to several involved in the battle as if we are there (in 1746). We learn the motivations of different players in this battle through introductions and extended interviews with some of the players. On the Scottish side, we see how arrogant military leadership directly leads to the death of hundreds. On the side of her majesty, we see how abusive the victorious can be. 

Culloden

But how British is it? British yes, but the harsh themes explored by Watkins in these films are sadly universal.

Ranking of Britishness from 1-10: The War Game is about a 6.
Culloden is half British, so I'll give it a 5. But I'll give it a 5 for its Scottishness as well. I guess you could call that  a 10!

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951, GREAT BRITAIN), THE LADYKILLERS (1955, GREAT BRITAIN)

Doesn't it seem like British movies have a distinctive air of, for lack of another word Britishness? 

But exactly HOW British are they?

How British is it? month (Post 8 of 10)

The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers

The Lavender Hill Mob

It's a funny thing about going through the films on this list. I like to watch a few things that have a certain theme and move on to the next thing. But how do I choose what to look at next? Well, sometimes these films just drop in your lap. I was in a Pawnshop and saw as part of a Hitchcock DVD collection that included Blackmail, Sabotage, and The 39 Steps. Three 1001 movies in one!

I also had a friend who is a big Ozu fan and insisted that I watch his collection. Ok, I guess I'll check out some Ozu. I had another friend who mentioned having a DVD Alec Guinness collection. The titles The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers went off in my head. So I asked to borrow them. Why don't I watch more British films? I asked. Well, thank you. I think I will.

How British is it? Something about these British Ealing caper movies that seem...I don't know really British! But what is it, exactly? Is it Alec Guinness? Yes, but that's not quite it. 

What about the uniquely British supporting cast like Stanley Holloway or Peter Sellers? Yes, but that's still not quite it. 

Is it the distinct dialogue, uniquely British, differentiating it from non-English caper movies such as The Killing or The Asphalt Jungle? Yes, that's close. 

But I think it's when they get out in the streets. The neighborhoods, the trolleys, driving on the wrong side of the road, people on bicycles. Just that feeling you get from looking at the screen and your surroundings. Now that's British!

The Ladykillers

Rating for Britishness from 1-10: A solid 8 for both films.

ODD MAN OUT (1947, GREAT BRITAIN)

Doesn't it seem like British movies have a distinctive air of, for lack of another word Britishness? 

But exactly HOW British are they?

How British is it? Month (Post 7 of 10)

Odd Man Out

Suspenseful drama about an Irish revolutionary and his dealings with various people who are trying to either hurt, help or use him. Odd Man Out's many late night street scenes definitely reminds me a great deal of Carol Reed's later classic, The Third Man.

But how British is it? Irish revolutionaries? Yet, the film isn't really about that. It even says so in the film's opening scroll. British pubs and horse drawn carriages? There's a bit of that. But it's really just another example of film noir and how the odd man out gets used and misused. The setting for this could easily be transferred elsewhere.

Rating for Britishness from 1-10: I liked this film, but I can only give it a Britishness rating of about 6.