James Bond

[pepper]

The new James Bond film is very, very cool. It was a bit like an AU James Bond movie as written by a really good fanfic writer. Let me explain.

I presume there is James Bond fanfic out there, but I don't intend to read it, because I suspect it'll mostly be guns and girls and guns and fast cars and guns and supervillains taking over the world and guns and gimmicky henchmen. And did I mention guns? The fanfic I like - the fanfic I admire - is all about characterisation, and adding to the TV show / movie / book / whatever. Because, on film, often there isn't time to do more than hint at the world behind or beneath the action.

Imagine a fanfic by a really good writer. It's AU James Bond - AU because they've really futzed with the timeline (more than James Bond films usually do). He's present-day, but just starting out in his career as a spy. We see his first kills.

It has most of the fun stuff that you associate with James Bond movies (odd names, odd-looking bad guys, fantastic action sequences, bombs, casinos, vast amounts of money... etc etc). It has less of the usual gadgets, but to be honest they were beginning to get a bit ludicrous in recent years (invisible car? Puh-lease). It's humorous, but not really because of any smart one-liners as he kills some random henchman. It has cars (to the point where I was muttering, as they rolled one, "Don't hurt the pretty car!"). It has beautiful girls, of course, but James falls like a box of rocks for one of them.

What struck me most about it - and what made me think of fanfic - is the behind-the-scenes nature of a lot of it. We see some of what makes James into a superspy, a double-O. It's mostly not very pretty (the tux thing, however, was adorable). We see him in the casino, doing the suave, sophisticated, vodka martini thing - but five minutes before that, we saw him washing blood from his hands, applying ice, and downing a huge glass of brandy to steady his nerves after killing a guy with his bare hands. We see him building up, demolishing, and rebuilding his emotional armor.

That's sort of the reason I read fanfic, personally. I like the exploring of emotions and reasons and history - all the where-they're-going and why-they're-like-that.

There was a plot to the film, a reason for all the running around and shooting and steely looks across the poker table... but to be honest I can't remember it. I never can, with James Bond - I don't honestly care about the latest-supervillan-with-one-eye-trying-to-wipe-out-the-human-race-with-golddust-from-space, or whatever the hell. It's all McGuffins to me. But for once, I've come away from a James Bond movie feeling like the main character was actually affected by everything that happened to him - that it changed him, that he was a different person by the end of the film. It makes it a much more satisfying experience.

edit: Whilst we're on the subject of Casino Royale, will someone please tie me to a chair and beat me with twigs until I finish a damn story. But not, I hasten to add, naked, and not with a knotted rope. Because, ow. You could tell who'd read the book when they brought out a wicker chair and half the audience sucked in a sharp breath. 

Comments

gateworld fanfic??

[jewelsdelphina.livejournal.com]

Do you know what happened to the gateworld fanfic? Months ago when they re-formatted most of the site, the fanfic search engine/database went down. It doesn't seem to have come back up, any idea why? I'm kind of glad it did, that's when I found fanfic.net and found thousands more stories. I just wondered what happened...

Re: gateworld fanfic??

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Uff. No, I wish I did know. I've stopped looking there for the moment. It probably says somewhere on the forums, but I haven't looked there in a while.

I recommend Heliopolis, whilst we wait, though: http://www.sg1-heliopolis.com/main.php

Re: gateworld fanfic??

[jewelsdelphina.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they just didn't have enough server/disk/etc. space and stopped entirely. I've been too lazy to search their forums. I've been to heliopolis before. I think I like ffic.net the best though. :)

Re: gateworld fanfic??

[jewelsdelphina.livejournal.com]

ps. apparently my work website screener thing now thinks heliopolis is porn. Hee hee. Well, some of it could be construed that way.

Re: gateworld fanfic??

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, the adult site is not exactly suitable for work...

Huh.

[shinysilvergrl.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll actually go see it. I could live with the guns and the explosions and the cars and the gadgets, but I kind of can't stand Bond, usually, because of the constant womanizing. But if it's not as bad in this one, and he's actually got some (GASP!) depth, perhaps I'll see it.

-sil

Ack

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

I don't promise you'll like it. I usually kinda like Bond films, so I'm probably a bit warped that way anyhow. Mind you, I don't really like Bond as a person. I think I like it for the nostalgia more than anything. But in this one, the woman standing up to him doesn't feel quite so tokenistic - and he's the one offering to give it all up for her. And there's angst, and feelings, and buildings sinking into Venetian canals...

It doesn't end well, though, so he'll probably be back to the womanizing, martini-swigging, smart alec we all know and... find slightly repulsive, next time.

Love your icon. Heh.

Heh

[shinysilvergrl.livejournal.com]

Love Cleolinda. She's the author of "Movies in 15 Minutes", and she's got scads of great icons that she's made...like this one. :)

-sil