Basics of Bond

Since childhood I've usually had moments where I'll suddenly be on a 'kick'. I use this term to describe when I suddenly get it in my head to ensure that I'm well versed in a particular topic or subject. While I was growing up, this primarily meant playing nothing but the subject of my kick. At one time it may be Superman, at another it may be Star Wars. For good or for bad, James Bond has been one of my kicks as well. I grew up watching the films and as time went on, I tried to verse myself in all things James Bond. I have read through all of the novels, I've seen all of the movies and I like to consider myself as more than a regular fan.

Having watched all twenty of the previous movies I can say that the recent re-launching of the franchise with "Casino Royale" has been just the shot in the arm that the series was needing. As many fans and movie-goers felt the recent entries in the series had taken a turn for the ridiculous. Moviefans were looking to get back to a bit of reality as opposed to the fantasy world James Bond had seemed to inhabit. For a number of years, the series had at least a passing tie in to reality but about the time of "Goldfinger" the audience wanted to see bigger, better and more insane situations for Britain's superspy to extricate himself from. As a result, the plots headed off in that direction.

Interestingly enough, you can trace this in the musical stylings of the movies as well. The score is one element of a movie that is the silent actor. Along with my other aspects of my 'kicks' music was also an important part. In listening to the music of Bond, you can almost hear the transition as the music became more and more over the top. For a time there was a return to some sense of normalcy during the last two outings of Roger Moore and the two outings of Timothy Dalton. John Barry, the man most associated with the series along with Monty Norman was responsible for some of the most memorable Bond scores. At the end of his tenure, the music had returned to a bit of seriousness that had previously been missing.

David Arnold was the latest in a string of composers to take over the musical reigns of the series and with his first entry, "Tomorrow Never Dies" he quickly established that he was looking to take the series back to where John Barry had left it. His first entries were almost modern-day tributes to John Barry's style. But in interviews with Arnold, he revealed that he felt the movies were constricting in that it was almost expected that at key moments the Bond theme would come bursting through. With the new movie, with the fact that Bond is still establishing himself, it allowed Arnold to work in the theme in subtle ways yet keep some resonance with the rest of the series. Listen to the subtle way in which the title song by Chris Cornell and the score itself has subtle references to the Bond theme. Although the actual Bond theme isn't heard until almost the end of the film, it eventually comes in to tie this new movie to the rest of the series.

As a long time fan I'm happy to see the films back where they needed to be. A bit of the extraordinary with the ordinary. Seeing a hero who can take a beating and bleed is so much more realistic than seeing a hero walk out of an exploding building with nothing more than the bit of dust on the shoulders. Realistic heroes are those we can relate to. It's great to see that the character himself is returning to his original gritty roots. Here's to hoping we see many more!