Bond with the best

By Ervell E. Menezes

‘Spectre’ is the 24th Bond movie and it lives up, even surpasses its predecessors, with Daniel Craig making it his very own role!

It all begins in Mexico City where they are observing ‘Day of the Dead’ parade and James Bond (Daniel Craig) and his girl enter Room 237. The girl waits on the bed; Bond climbs out of the window, on to the parapet, jumps across buildings, then zeroes-in on two men planning to blow up a stadium.

Then follows the 12-minute action sequence of Bond chasing one of them who jumps into a waiting helicopter and the in-copter fight is graphically shot by an expert team. Marco Sciara is killed, Bond steals his ring and goes to Rome, unauthorised, to attend his funeral. Here he meets his sedate widow Lucia (Monica Belluci, who at 50 is the oldest in the cast) who tells him about Spectre, the criminal gang for whom her husband worked.

Using the ring, Bond enters a secret Spectre meeting and spots Spectre leader Franz Oberhauuser, who has many aliases one of them being Ernest Starvo Blofeld (Christopher Waltz). His dad is said to have raised an orphaned Bond.

Bond then flies to Austria to meet White, a Spectre-man dying of thallium-poisoning, who before dying asks him to rescue his daughter Dr Madeline Swann (Lea Seydox).

There is a slow buildup to the eventual villain Blofeld, who somehow lacks the bite of former Bond villains, like Dr No for instance. The Bond-Madeline romance is also succinctly handled. From being opposites, the bonding (purely accidental) is palpable with Seydoux virtually growing in the role, so unlike the lead role in ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’. 

Thomas Newman’s music is resounding, right from the opening “Writing on the Wall” to the Bond bars that hold the film’s identity. Hoyte van Hoytema’s camera constantly caresses, be it breath-taking aerial shots or long shots. They also provide visual relief.

Lush locales (from London to Tangiers to…) and fetching robes (one shot of Seydoux in a flowing gown, is worth going a long way to see) are other embellishments. If one could pick holes - it is its 148-minute length; ‘Dr No’ was 109 minutes.

Kudos Sam Mendes for maintaining the Bond authenticity, which seems to be growing. Satiating fare, indeed!