{"id":3247,"date":"2024-05-24T05:31:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T05:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/khabarok.com\/entertainment\/parallels-with-frankenstein-the-hindu\/"},"modified":"2024-05-24T05:31:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T05:31:07","slug":"parallels-with-frankenstein-the-hindu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/khabarok.com\/?p=3247","title":{"rendered":"Parallels with Frankenstein – The Hindu"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nSean Connery and Ursula Andress in the film \u2018James Bond: Dr. No\u2019, 1962.
\n| Photo Credit: Getty Images\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of my favourite James Bond sequences in recent times is the interrogation scene from Sam Mendes\u2019 Skyfall<\/i> (2012). The film\u2019s antagonist Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) is being questioned by M (Judi Dench), the still-formidable head of MI6. Silva holds a grudge against M because when he was an active MI6 agent in Hong Kong under her command, she betrayed him and gave him up to the Chinese government who then tortured him horribly. Even when I had watched this scene in the theatre for the first time, it struck me that the dynamic between M and Silva was intended as a nod to Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein<\/i>. The name of the film itself is the name of the Scottish castle Bond grew up in \u2014 a classically Gothic setting, it has to be said.<\/p>\n

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\nIan Fleming, British author and creator of James Bond, at his desk in his study, in 1958.
\n| Photo Credit:
\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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\nA collection of Ian Fleming\u2019s James Bond 007 books at an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London.
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\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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This parallel between the film and Shelley\u2019s novel is the cornerstone of Monica German\u00e0\u2019s excellent essay \u2018Sometimes the Old Ways Are the Best: Technology and the Body in a Gothic Reading of Sam Mendes\u2019 Skyfall<\/i>.\u2019 The essay is a part of the recently published collection James Bond Will Return: Critical Perspectives on the 007 Franchise<\/i>, edited by Claire Hines, Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy. This wide-ranging collection goes through the 007 canon in chronological order, starting with an essay about the first Bond film (Dr No<\/i>, 1962) and ending with an essay about the most recent one (No Time to Die<\/i>, 2021).<\/p>\n

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\nA still from \u2018No Time to Die\u2019.
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\nSpecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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Clash between old and new<\/h4>\n

As German\u00e0 notes in her essay, the Frankenstein parallels also work very well with the film\u2019s other overarching concern: the clash between \u201cthe old ways\u201d of spycraft and warfare vs the new ways (hacking, electronic surveillance). In the face of a technologically astute supervillain like Silva, Bond \u2018recedes\u2019 into a kind of defensive Luddism, abandoning the gadgetry that contemporary Bond fans would be used to. He even goes back to the Sean Connery-era classic Aston Martin, even as M turns up her nose at this ostentatious relic of a car. In the climax of the movie, as Silva uses his tech-wizardry in his relentless pursuit of M, Bond eventually kills his adversary with an old-school hunting knife. The essays are enjoyable not just because of the depth of the analysis but also for the way they bring together visual, textual and design elements in their readings of the 007 films. <\/p>\n

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\nA poster of the film \u2018Dr No\u2019.
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\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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Here, for example, is German\u00e0 noting the visual resemblance between Silva and the real-life hacker Julian Assange, especially their blonde hair. <\/p>\n

\u201cSeen as a reaction to MI6\u2019s merciless exploitation of its own agents, Silva\u2019s cyber-attack points to the subversive politics of data hacking, a fact underscored by Silva\u2019s alleged resemblance with WikiLeaks hacker Julian Assange. As \u2018illegal\u2019 code-cracking juxtaposes \u2018formal institutions… which were previously able to dominate access to information and… dissidents, who, with growing confidence, are able to circumvent traditional networks through technology,\u2019 the film traces a fine line, arguably, between rebellious hackers and cyberterrorists.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\nA limited edition replica of the gun from the film The Man with the Golden Gun<\/i> (estimate \u00a36,000 – \u00a39,000) alongside a first-edition book (estimate \u00a34,000-\u00a36,000) by the same name, on display at Sotheby\u2019s.
\n| Photo Credit:
\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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The editors have done a fine job in balancing the theory-heavy essays with other entries that are more focused on the praxis and politics around filmmaking. The Bond franchise itself, based on Ian Fleming\u2019s novels, is a kind of convoluted metonym for Britishness, but the business of filmmaking is rooted in Hollywood ethos \u2014 the resultant narrative tension is apparent in the films (especially in the 21st century when the scale of Hollywood means that producers are looking for \u2018bankable\u2019 stories). The British vs American clash of values is partly responsible for some of the franchise\u2019s notable misfires, like Spectre <\/i>(2015). James Smith\u2019s essay \u2018It\u2019s Always Been Me: Spectrality, Hauntings and Retcon in Spectre<\/i>\u2019 expertly dissects some of the film\u2019s narrative confusions and failures. \u2018Retcon\u2019 or \u2018retroactive continuity\u2019 is a term originating in the comicbook industry, used to describe a situation where writers on a long-running media franchise change previously-established truths or realities, thus \u2018overwriting\u2019 the works of their predecessors.<\/p>\n

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Why \u2018Spectre\u2019 misfired<\/h4>\n

Spectre<\/i>\u2019s retcon is clumsily done not just in terms of scale \u2014 every previous villain in the Bond era being revealed to be pawns of the same organisation \u2014 but also in terms of tenor. The overall direction of the Daniel Craig-era movies involved a resetting of 007\u2019s more problematic gender-related and geopolitical themes. Spectre<\/i> seems to want to undo that whole bloc of stories, but its execution is frequently subpar. <\/p>\n

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\nAn Aston Martin DB10, produced exclusively for Spectre<\/i>, and a James Bond costume on display at the London Film Museum.
\n| Photo Credit:
\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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As Smith writes, \u201cThe retcon is illustrated for the audience in other ham-fisted ways: Blofeld takes the trouble to decorate the ruins of MI6\u2019s headquarters with A4 printout photos of Bond\u2019s deceased friends and foes, unfortunately giving the sense more of a site-specific art project than some terrible act of revenge. His attempts to zombify Bond meanwhile prove strangely ineffective, Bond jumping to his feet little the worse for wear even after having a hole drilled through his brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nActor Roger Moore on the set of \u2018Octopussy\u2019.
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\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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Claire Hines, one of the editors of the book, is similarly astute in her own essay, a study of costumes and gender performance in Octopussy <\/i>(1983), one of the most visually interesting films of the Roger Moore era. I also enjoyed Stuart Joy\u2019s study of vendetta themes in For Your Eyes Only<\/i> (1981). For fans of the Bond franchise, James Bond Will Return<\/i> is a must-read. For everybody else, it presents an intriguing starting point into Bond-lore.<\/p>\n

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\nActor Roger Moore poses as 007, with a Lotus Esprit Turbo, on the set of For Your Eyes Only<\/i>, 1981.
\n| Photo Credit:
\nGetty Images\n<\/p>\n

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James Bond Will Return: Critical Perspectives on the 007 Franchise<\/b><\/i>; Edited by Claire Hines, Terence McSweeney, Stuart Joy, Columbia University Press, \u20b92,733 (Kindle).<\/b><\/p>\n

The writer and journalist is working on his first book of non-fiction.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in the film \u2018James Bond: Dr. No\u2019, 1962. | Photo Credit: Getty Images One of my favourite James Bond sequences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[2885,2886,2889,2890,2884,2883,2887,2888],"class_list":["post-3247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-author","tag-cinema","tag-frankenstein","tag-hindu","tag-ian-fleming","tag-james-bond","tag-movies","tag-parallels"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t