Twenty-five weeks, more or less consecutively! Twenty-five Bond films! Tonight we watch the latest, which practically JUST came out.
Skyfall is great – just what we like in a Bond film. Stunning production design, exotic dangers/bad guys/ladies, beautiful people, a lush credit sequence and theme song, a lavish series of locations, yadda yadda. Sadly Bond films are getting more subtly lady-hating (that is, “subtle” if you’re the type of person that continues to pretend lady-hate isn’t real), and I gotta be honest, it’s icky to watch (great points made here – warning, plot spoilers). On a brief, somber note – sometimes it seems misogyny is here to stay, forever! I choose to believe differently, because I have to.
My kids asked me why I like Bond films. I admit, in one sense they are indefensible. In ANOTHER, I have been a cinephile my entire life and I’m not above or below watching anything. One thing I love, is delving into a genre. Even a genre that might not make sense to other people. Tonight as we draw the curtain over twenty-five weeks of viewing I can say it’s been super fun to revisit the Bonds, with all their camp, splendor, horribleness, silliness, gadgets, drama, misfires, and iconic suavity.
You can join @VFD_crow & I in our commentary at #BondBFFs on Twitter. Better yet, get your copy of Skyfall*, pause the film immediately after the MGM lion logo fades, and press play again at exactly 6 PM PST according to this site’s clock.
See you tonight!
* (My advice? Buy a legal version, and download/torrent it to put the file on the computer through VLC or some such, so streaming internet doesn’t make viewing stutter.)