Month: August 2025

The James Bond Project #27: No Time to Die (2021)

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

This series is intended to evaluate each product of the James Bond film franchise through a feminist lens, and the relevance of the Bond archetype to shifting ideas of masculinity in the 2020s.

No Time to Die (2021, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga)

August 27, 2025

And in the end. Here we are at the final (for now) review. The final Daniel Craig performance as James Bond. The final 007 in the 59 year history to be produced by Eon Productions and anyone named Broccoli. And perhaps the last Bond film ever. Spoiler: James dies but rumors of another reboot abound. Last February, Amazon/MGM bought the franchise from Eon, so we may get another generation of 007, perhaps AI generated.

No Time to Die,  the 25th Eon Bond film, wraps up the Bond story in some interesting ways. Danny Boyle was to direct but backed out at the last minute so True Detective director Cary Joji Fukunaga took on the job. Daniel Craig, 51 at the time, who’s body had been battered by the role, reportedly said he’d rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. MGM reportedly offered him $100 for two more Bond films, which he turned down. He utilmateiy accepted a payday of $25 million for a film that would tie up the Bond story’s loose ends. We’d see some familiar faces for the last time, including Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, and Christoph Waltz as Blofeld.

NTTD doesn’t really have a Bond girl in the traditional franchise sense. For the first time, a female lead returns in a film. Léa Seydoux, who played James’ love interest, Dr. Madeleine Swann in Spectre, returns in NTTD and she has a surprise for 007. Ana de Armas, who racked up the awards as Marilyn Monroe in 2022’s Blonde, is CIA agent Paloma and she out-La Femme Nikita’s Nikita. Her action scenes are the highlight of the film.

The final installment gives us the expected Bond tropes, including our final underground lair, Bond in a tux, cool gadgets (including a glider submarine), exotic locations (Bond’s back in Jamaica!), and more than one Aston Martin. But this Bond is not the walled-off Lothario of the past six decades. Craig still plays him with smirky panache, but NTTD 007 is a family man.

For one last time, let’s plug the film into our evaluation matrix and see how the final Bond film ranks in our toxic masculinity scale.

Driver of Action – It makes sense that the final film centers on Bond himself. As Spectre ended, we have James leaving MI-6 to be with Madeline. The MI-6 crew, including Q, play small roles. There’s even a new 007, who, fittingly, is a black female, played by Lashana Lynch. Bond is reunited with CIA agent Felix Leiter, who is killed by a bad DOJ agent. The diversion from solo Bond is the scene with Ana de Armas in Cuba where they make an excellent team opening an epic can of whoop ass on Spectre.

The Role of Violence – Rogue Bond doesn’t need a license to kill, but when he’s reinstated to MI-6, his body count is off the charts. The Cuba scene with the Paloma has the highest kill rate in Bond history and in the Norway chase scene and the underground island lair of the assassin Safin (played by future Freddie Mercury Rami Malek) we see countless henchmen mowed down. Fan count is 27 killed but it felt like twice that. As usual, Bond dodges an endless hail of bullets, but one fired by Safin, finds him, leading to his death as British missiles destroy the island base.

Vulnerability – James Bond has never been more vulnerable in a James Bond film. The first part of the film, Bond is plagued by thoughts of Vesper Lynn, his previous love interest who died. Then he’s plagued by thoughts that Madeleine has betrayed him. Then he learns that that was a mind trick by Blofeld. Reunited with Madeleine, he learns that he has a child named named Mathilde. In the end he sacrifices himself to save Mathilde and Madeleine.

Sexual Potency – That’s not really the vibe in this film. The films opens with James and Madeleine, in love in Italy, including a scene in bed. He tries to make the moves on a woman in his room in Jamaica until he learns she is an MI-6 agent, the new 007 (in a scene that felt like an homage to Live and Let Die). He briefly flirts with Paloma until they get busy killing Spectre baddies. NTTD is a Dad Bond film.

Connection – Jame is fully connected to Madeline in this movie. Even in the scene where he puts her on the train after he believes she tried to kill him is full of pathos. Later in the film, he tells her, “I have loved you and I will love you.” Once he learns Mathilde is his daughter, the parent protection gene is unleashed and he is focused on saving his people. NTTD has no cute epilogue where we see he’s survived the missile strike and on a boat, drinking martinis with Madeleine. We see him blown up real good and the film ends with Madeleine telling their daughter about her heroic father.

Toxic Masculinity Scale: 1

Summary: NTTD might score higher because of the constant explosion of gun violence, but paternal Bond levels all that out. Even the title sequence steps back. Over a great Oscar-winning theme song by Billie Eilish, instead of the titles being projected on the bodies of nude women, it’s over Bond and his weapons. It should also mentioned that the credits included the names of many women, not just hair and make-up and casting. For reasons that might be sad (the end of Eon Bond films), we finally get a more human model of masculinity from Ian Flemming’s iconic character.

No Time to Die’s release was held up by the COVID pandemic. Principle photography wrapped in October 2019, but post-production was shuttered during the lockdown. The final Eon Bond film had its world premiere on September 28, 2021 at London’s Royal Albert Hall and landed in a market where most theaters were still closed. A month later, the global deaths from COVID-19 topped 5 million.

Because of the nature of corporate ownership of film franchises, nobody really lamented No Time to Die as the LAST JAMES BOND MOVIE EVER. In fact, “Bond 26” is currently being written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and Dune director Denis Villeneuve is tapped to direct. Who will play the new Bond? Rumors are floating about Kick Ass star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I’ve been routing for Idris Elba, but he might be a little old. Could it be a person of color? Or even a woman? I mean, why not? We can only hope the new Bond is a healthier versions of masculinity that is both vulnerable and lethal. He (or she) still has a license to kill, after all.

The James Bond Project #26: Spectre (2015)

The James Bond Project #25: Skyfall (2012)

The James Bond Project #24: Quantum of Solace (2008)

The James Bond Project #23: Casino Royale (2006)

The James Bond Project #22:  Die Another Day (2002)

The James Bond Project #21:  The World Is Not Enough (1999)

The James Bond Project #20:  Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

The James Bond Project #19: GoldenEye (1995)

The James Bond Project #18: License to Kill (1989)

The James Bond Project #17: The Living Daylights (1987)

The James Bond Project #16: A View to a Kill (1985)

The James Bond Project #15: Never Say Never Again (1983)

The James Bond Project #14: Octopussy (1983)

The James Bond Project #13: For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The James Bond Project #12: Moonraker (1979)

The James Bond Project #11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

The James Bond Project #10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

The James Bond Project #9: Live and Let Die (1973)

The James Bond Project #8: Diamonds are Forever (1971)

The James Bond Project #7: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

The James Bond Project #6: You Only Live Twice (1967)

The James Bond Project #5: Casino Royale (1967)

The James Bond Project #4: Thunderball (1965)

The James Bond Project #3: Goldfinger (1964)

The James Bond Project #2: From Russia With Love (1963)

The James Bond Project: #1: Dr. No (1962)

The Real Trauma of Trump 2.0

~ Randy Blazak ~ 1 Comment

From The Blazak Report, August 11, 2025.

NOTE: This piece was originally provided to paid subscribers to The Blazak Report on Substack.

August 11, 2025

Unpacking the impact of traumatic events on our brains is an adolescent science. We’re just beginning to understand the ways acute and chronic trauma affects how the parts of the brain work. Much of what we do know is because of the courageous sharing of war veterans. This journey of understanding is detailed in the highly readable book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by V.A. doctor Bessel van der Kolk. But the short version is that trauma can freeze the brain in the fight/flight/freeze mode. Our amygdala hijacks our prefrontal cortex and we are forever on the battlefield.

Fortunately, we’ve also learned that people can heal their deepest traumas. Once PTSD officially became a diagnosis in 1980, treatment plans followed. But the hard truth remains that it is next to impossible for trauma to heal when there are new attacks coming in. An open wound will never heal when it is constantly being picked at. And that brings us to the trauma of Trump.

So much of our nation’s history has been a piss-poor attempt to heal the scars of the past. The Black Lives Matter uprising of 2020 was a desperate plea to heal the racial wounding by American police. We clearly diagnosed the problem and began implementing treatment in the form of meaningful reforms and prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion as American values. And then in 2025, it went all off the rails.

Donald Trump is the abusive husband, standing at the door, threatening his immigrant wife with violence if she leaves. Or if she stays.

There are so many groups who are suffering residual trauma from Trump 2.0.

First women. Trump’s Supreme Court rolled back women’s reproductive rights in his first term. While out of office he had to face a jury of his peers for one of his many sexual assaults and America still elected the “Grab ‘em by the pussy” rapist. His war on women has only ramped up in his second term, shored up by a cast of misogynists, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who belongs to a church that thinks women should not have the right to vote. The gang of Epstein pedophiles roams free, protected by the GOP. How can girls and women feel safe knowing the federal government has been taken over by incels?

Next immigrants. So much for the pledge for Trump just going after the “worst of the worst.” Children with cancer, nursing mothers, and any brown person within ICE’s reach has been grabbed by masked goons and sent to disgusting internment camps or Central American gulags. Legal residents, asylum seekers, dreamers, veterans, and, yes, citizens have been caught up in ICE’s “one-shade-of-not-white fits all” mass deportation plan, as Stephen Miller screams for more. The anxiety of my students, some DACA, some from mixed-status families, some just Hispanic, is palpable. Many immigrants are refugees from violent police states like El Salvador and Syria, carrying massive trauma loads of their own, hoping to find peace and safety in the United States. And now masked men with guns are smashing their car windows and ripping them away from their families.

Veterans are also on this list. We got the memo after the Vietnam War that we need to take better care of our veterans, recognizing the scars of service run deep and long. What was derided as “shell shock,” is now viewed as the very real journey of living with PTSD. Tom Cruise movies aside, we had a national call for healing in a rare example of bipartisanship. Right or left, we all agree that we need to do everything possible to support our veterans. Since January, the cuts by Pvt. Bonespurs and his fellow civilian Elon Musk have devastated struggling vets. They include $30 billion from disability benefits and $1.6 trillion in health care cuts for vets over the next ten years. Most recently, Trump is denying early retirement for transgender members of the Air Force. Why? Because he can. It should be noted that not a single member of the Trump family has served in the military. Not one. He has referred to them as “suckers and losers.” Their wound has been ripped back open by a rich brat from Queens.

We could go on and on. Trans people because of his childish “there are only two genders” executive orders. Native Americans because of his war on tribal sovereignty. Protestors because MAGA officials have promised to use lethal force against them and “put them in trauma.” And all queer people and people of color because of his undoing of decades of progress by ending federally funded DEI programs. And there are so many more. I have a Latina green card holder in my life and she recently told me that she “low grade hates white people” because they are completely oblivious to the stress she must endure every waking hour living in Trump’s America. I totally get it. I mean, wouldn’t you?

Trump and his MAGA masters are driving America into a new Dark Ages. The last Dark Ages was centuries of the most brutal torture. More than princes and princesses, it was random drawing and quartering. The amount of new trauma that’s coming our way while Trump and his goons golf on New Epstein Island may not be survivable. And that’s their goal, because the traumatized are less likely to fight back.

That’s why we have to fight now.

Raising a Daughter in Epstein’s America: Cozy Turns 11

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

August 17, 2025

Eleven years ago today, I was driving west on the Sunset Highway like a bat out of hell. Andi was in labor and we had to find some place to have this baby. We had planned a natural birth in a bathtub birthing center, but our daughter Cozy had started to poke her head out and said, “Nope!” and was retreating back into the security of the womb. The nearest hospital had no room at the maternity inn, so my barely mobile wife, her mother, and the midwife hopped in the Prius and headed west. St. Vincent hospital was on the very edge of town and I was assured that it was still in Portland. This child would be born in Stumptown.

Fortunately, Cozette was born at 9:25 pm in Portland, Oregon, not Beaverton, during the second term of Barrack Obama. That night seemed like the most perfect exhausting evening on earth. Our daughter was here and the world was hers. Little did we know what was ahead.

I had hoped for a girl because I want to help put strong women into this world, who aren’t saddled with the marginalizing messages girls have typically gotten from their dads growing up. This was a feminist household. But easier said than done. We are always working against our patriarchal programing. And then came Donald Trump to make everything so much worse.

Cozy turned two during Trump’s first campaign for the White House. She was too young to hear the reports of the man who would be king bragging about grabbing women, “by the pussy,” and all the credible reports of sexual assaults by the alleged billionaire. (He still hasn’t released his taxes.) She never heard how he talked to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Although, she did put the ballot in the box for me and shouted, “Hillary!”)

Cozy was in first grade on January 6th and already knew Donald Trump was a very bad man. But it was his second term that made things the most challenging. The constant news coverage of Trump and his pedophile ring has just filled the air with the most disturbing sex talk. I can’t even listen to NPR with her in the car. But she already knows it all.

At 10, I got my puberty memo, so I knew Cozy was already in the zone. I bought a supply of menstrual pads for when it officially gets here, but the fact that the style among her and her friends is the visible bra strap means we’re fully in it. I knew it was coming, just not this soon. And now the normal relatively innocent adolescent sex chat has been colonized by the flood of chat about Epstein’s rape of underage girls and the protection of those fellow child rapists by the President of the United States.

I keep flashing back to the days when the GOP was the “party of values” and rich Republican ladies would clutch their pearls over the lyrics in rap music. Now the GOP has become the Guardians of Predators and I’m doing everything I can think of to protect my child from them. We’ve hit the point where children are safer with priests than they are with Republicans. It’s a race to the bottom with Trump, and the old man is in a full on sprint.

Maybe the whole “innocence of youth” thing is a myth. There are kids shooting up schools, after all. But I had a naive hope that I could save my daughter from the reality of our sick culture that elevates rapists and refuses to punish wealthy white sex predators for a few more years. She knows she’s a target. There’s no way in hell I would leave my daughter alone in a room with the President or any of his uber creepy MAGA cult. (Many of Trump’s white nationalist following believes the age of consent should be 14 so men can marry children, so there’s that.)

If there’s any silver lining to this disgusting state of affairs, is that Trump’s rape culture has forced us to talk to our daughter about sexual safety early and often. And Cozy is clear on her boundaries. She’s already shut a classmate down who sent an inappropriate text. It’s horrible at age 10 she had to but she knows how to protect herself. But the other side is the non-stop sexual content she must see as she endlessly scrolls through her TikTok. I want to believe it’s all Taylor Swift but I know it’s mostly Sabrina Carpenter. Our baby is surfing in a sea of sexual messages, and not all are affirming.

Tonight, Cozy will celebrate her birthday with a big overnight party. They will want to keep me and any other adult at arms length. May they all be safe, happy, healthy and live with ease. Welcome to adolescence, Cozette. I am still here to protect you, but I’m going to let you start to lead.

The James Bond Project #26: Spectre (2015)

~ Randy Blazak ~ 1 Comment

This series is intended to evaluate each product of the James Bond film franchise through a feminist lens, and the relevance of the Bond archetype to shifting ideas of masculinity in the 2020s.

Spectre (2015, directed by Sam Mendes)

August 7, 2025

Yeah, it’s a formula, but when it works, you are in for a wild ride. There is not a scene or line in Spectre that one can not see coming from Sean Connery instead of Daniel Craig. The second half-century of Bond begins where we saw 007 50 years, locked in a death match with Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The long legal dispute between Eon Productions and screenwriter Kevin McClory finally resolved, we are gifted classic Bond that reunites these iconic arch rivals. Director Sam Mendes is back at the helm after Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, 2011) backed out of the project. Here we go.

Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort, himself) has replaced Judi Dench as M after Dench’s M was killed in Skyfall. Craig (46) is still doing his own stunts and tore his meniscus during filming. Brief love interest Lucia Sciarra, played by Italian actress Monica Bellucci, 50, would have been the first time a “Bond girl” was older than Bond himself. But the true “Bond girl” of the film is psychologist Madeleine Swann, played French actress Léa Seydoux, 30. The twenty-first century Blofeld is played by Christoph Waltz, the break-out star of Inglourious Basterds (2009), who completely owns the role.

Spectre has all the staples you want in a Bond film; Bond in a white dinner jacket, Bond fighting inside a careening helicopter, Bond battling a mute assassin on a moving train, Bond going rogue, the classic Aston Martin, and Blofeld’s pussy cat. There are exotic locations that range from Mexico City’s Day of the Dead celebration (with 1500 extras) to a (not underground) lair in the Sahara desert. Shot on 35mm film but shown in IMAX theaters, Spectre makes the most of the Bond spy formula in a gift for 007 fans that also departs from the formula in some important ways.

The plot revolves around Blofeld’s SPECTRE (also back after legal wrangling) controlling the data flow from the first world’s intelligence agencies, making Blofeld the Big Brother for all intel on Earth. Ernst is watching you. Monneypenny is back behind the desk in M’s office but she and Q are secretly helping James. (We’ve seen this film before.) Bond has been left breadcrumb’s by Dench’s M and has bailed from MI-6 to find out about the conspiracy that threatens the global order. But on the way to beat Blofeld, something happens to Bond. Something we haven’t seen since 1969.

Let’s plug Spectre in to the matrix and see what happens.

Driver of Action – Unlike Skyfall that gave ample screen time to Dench, Spectre is back in the lone rogue spy narrative. M, Moneypenny, Q and MI-6’s Bill Tanner are the support team and Felix Leiter is mentioned but never shown. 007 has no female or male partner in this film. The center of the eye’s gaze.

The Role of Violence – Bond only kills a few dozen people in this film, including a bunch of Blofeld’s henchmen (it’s a dangerous job), assassin Marco Sciarra (by throwing him out of helicopter in Mexico City), and assassin Hinx (played by professional wrestler Dave Bautista), who he throws out of a train. Madeleine does press him on his chosen life as a killer, to which he replies, “It was that or the priesthood.”

Vulnerability – This is a tough one. We get the obligatory Bond being tortured scene and 007 keeps his wits. But we also get Blofeld claiming to have been behind the suffering of Bond’s losses, including M, Vesper Lynd, Bond’s love interest from Casino Royale (2006), and (unmentioned because Craig is leading a “reboot”), James’ wife Tracy, from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). “I am the author of all your pain, James.” Even so, Bond never breaks. It is not until he develops an emotional attachment to Madeleine, which magically creeps out at the end of the film, that we that 007 has a soft white underbelly.

Sexual Potency – Here’s our Lothario. The first scene of the film has a masked Bond ushering a beautiful woman into a hotel room in Mexico City, she removes her mask and we think Spectre is going to begin with a bang, but 007 escapes out the window to do some assassin work. Then, in Italy, he sleeps with the wife of the assassin he killed in Mexico. Finally, after an epic fight scene on a train, all juiced up on adrenaline, he beds Madeleine. It’s like the old song goes, “Fuckin’ and fightin’, it’s all the same.”

Connection – This is where the franchise takes a left turn. Bond, apparently, has fallen in love. It’s so slight, it’s barely noticeable until the final scene. When Blofeld is drilling into James’ skull Madeleine tells him that she loves him. That gives Bond the jolt to go apeshit and save the day (and the girl). Later, she says she doesn’t want any part of James’ action hero lifestyle (her father was an assassin, after all) and they calmly walk way from each other. But when Blofeld captures her and forces James to save one more damsel in distress, I guess he decides he loves her and, like James f’ing Bond, saves her and gets Blofeld. Instead of killing him, he says, “I’ve got something better to do.”  Then he throws away his gun and walks away with Madeline. The epilogue scene is not them in a boat, but James and Madeline driving away in the restored Aston Martin, presumably leaving MI-6 to be with the woman he loves.

Toxic Masculinity Scale: 2

Summary One does not expect James Bond to leave the life of a spy for love. Even when George Lazenby’s Bond got married in 1969, 007 was still 007-ing. But Madeline’s pressuring James’ being “always alone” created a crack in his iron wall, apparently. So we get Bond riding off into the sunset for a new life. No more killing and random hook ups, right? Right?

This installment has plenty of gifts for longtime 007 fans, including a modern Aston Martin DB10, Q’s exploding watch, finding out the Blofeld’s father raised an orphaned James, learning how Blofeld got the facial scar associated with Donald Pleasence’s performance of the character, and the return of Blofeld’s white Persian cat (“Hello, pussy,” says 007). While the plot is purely Bond by the numbers, the scope of Mendes production is as satisfying as it needs to be.

Spectre opened in London on October 26, 2015 the same day as a massive 7.5 earthquake struck the Himalayas. The film opened to mixed reviews but record-breaking box office receipts. The theme song, written and performed by Sam Smith, won both the Oscar and Golden Globe for best Theme song. The film’s ending had some asking if Spectre was the end of the 53-year-long 007 franchise, but Craig’s Bond had one more outing up his tuxedo sleeve.

Next: No Time to Die (2021)

The James Bond Project #25: Skyfall (2012)

The James Bond Project #24: Quantum of Solace (2008)

The James Bond Project #23: Casino Royale (2006)

The James Bond Project #22:  Die Another Day (2002)

The James Bond Project #21:  The World Is Not Enough (1999)

The James Bond Project #20:  Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

The James Bond Project #19: GoldenEye (1995)

The James Bond Project #18: License to Kill (1989)

The James Bond Project #17: The Living Daylights (1987)

The James Bond Project #16: A View to a Kill (1985)

The James Bond Project #15: Never Say Never Again (1983)

The James Bond Project #14: Octopussy (1983)

The James Bond Project #13: For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The James Bond Project #12: Moonraker (1979)

The James Bond Project #11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

The James Bond Project #10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

The James Bond Project #9: Live and Let Die (1973)

The James Bond Project #8: Diamonds are Forever (1971)

The James Bond Project #7: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

The James Bond Project #6: You Only Live Twice (1967)

The James Bond Project #5: Casino Royale (1967)

The James Bond Project #4: Thunderball (1965)

The James Bond Project #3: Goldfinger (1964)

The James Bond Project #2: From Russia With Love (1963)

The James Bond Project: #1: Dr. No (1962)

The James Bond Project #25: Skyfall (2012)

~ Randy Blazak ~ 4 Comments

This series is intended to evaluate each product of the James Bond film franchise through a feminist lens, and the relevance of the Bond archetype to shifting ideas of masculinity in the 2020s.

Skyfall  (2012, directed by Sam Mendes)

July 31, 2025

Daniel Craig is back for his third stint as Bond, a little older, a little more beat up in a film that further tweaks the 007 formula. There are some classic staples here, including James gambling in his tux, James under the ice, James fighting on top of a moving train, James in rooftop motorcycle chase, exotic locations, random hook ups, and the Aston Martin, but American Beauty (1999) director Sam Mendes brings enough innovation to Skyfall to bring a bolt of electricity to the franchise, marking its fiftieth anniversary.

The most obvious shift from the formula here is that Skyfall is as much a Judi Dench movie as a Daniel Craig movie. M’s outsized role is fitting as it would be her last in the franchise. (She dies.) Also different is the strange twist that there really is no “Bond Girl” in this film. There’s not even a leggy woman on the movie posters! French actress Bérénice Marlohe’s character, Sévérine, almost plays the part, but she’s only briefly in the film. (She dies.) The most exciting addition is the return of Miss Moneypenny and this time she has a first name (“Eve”), she’s an action hero, and she’s black. We also get a Millennial Q, who has no time for gadgets.

The cast of Skyfall is robust, with 28 Days Later’s Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as head of intelligence Gareth Mallory, and Albert Finney as the housekeeper at Skyfall (a part Sean Connery was considered for as a nod to the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. No). The role of Bond Bad Guy went to No Country for Old Men break-out star Javier Bardem. Bardem dyed his hair blonde for the role, drawing comparisons with Julian Assange. Bardem also plays his character, Raoul Silva, as “gay” against James’ straight man role, although when Silva is sexually suggestive with James, Bond replies, “What makes you think this is my first time?” I remember the internet chat asking if 007 has been bi all these decades.

The flimsy plot follows a former MI-6 agent who is revealing the identity of fellow agents because M sold him out after Hong Kong was returned to China. Skyfall is the first Bond film to actually be partially filmed in China with segments in Shanghai and Macau. (Other locations include Instabul and Scotland). What the film lack in sense it make up for in bombast, including seeing our man James finally get shot, twice. (Although he does get winged by a speargun in 1965’s Thunderball.) But being shot clean through, and falling off a massive train bridge can’t kill Bond. He plays dead for a few months and then comes back to save the day.

Twenty-first century Bond has been described as “cool, not camp.” Let’s plug Skyfall’s 007 into our evaluation matrix.

Driver of Action – Skyfall is as much about M and her past choices as it is about James Bond. We do get some Bond backstory (and even see his parents’ grave), but this film is built on M’s career as spymaster in a changing global political landscape. We even get Judi Dench shooting at henchmen! Moneypenny also takes on a sidekick role often reserved for Bond girls. Is Eve Moneypenny Skyfall’s Bond girl?

The Role of Violence – An A.I. source says Bond kills 23 people in the film. It’s hard to tell because Bardem (as bad guy Silva) has so many henchmen. (Why, we don’t know.) Bond kills all of them. He also drops an assassin from a Hong Kong skyscraper. It’s interesting that everyone Bond shoots dies, but he bounces back from being shot like a Phoenix on coke.

Vulnerability – We do get a bit more of Bond’s soft white underbelly in Skyfall. Besides the backstory of James the orphaned child (not much emotion shared here but M quips, “orphans make the best recruits), we get a window into “dead 007,” as James lets the world think he’s dead as a means of retirement. He’s in some Black Sea coastal village, doing shots on the bar with the boys and a scorpion on his hand, having drunken sex, and letting his rock hard body atrophy with self indulgence. It’s not very believable but it sets up his comeback. When M asks him where he’s been, he replies, “Enjoying death.” Later, he states that his hobby is, “resurrection.” But there are plenty of allusions to spycraft being a “young man’s game,” and James being past his prime. (Craig had two more 007 films on his contract.)

Sexual Potency – Is the Bond “rule of 3 back”? Old Bond is still Horny Bond. While he’s “dead” we see drunk James having sex a local (or maybe she’s a contractor for Halliburton, we don’t know). Later, he climbs in the shower with sex-trafficking victim Sévérine, which seems just a tad misogynistic. I mean, c’mon James. Then he watches as she’s murdered by Silva. The big question is if 007 sleeps with Moneypenny after she shaves his face, while he’s clad only in a towel. It’s implied that, after 50 years of sexy banter, he seals the deal. There is an implication that Moneypenny with a gun is closer to his equal, even if she does shoot him on accident. But the message is consistent, that Bond is sexually irresistible to beautiful young women. (James sleeping with M would’ve made for a better film.)

Connection – The connection Bond has to M drives the film. Not only does he come back from the dead to help her, but he takes her to his childhood hiding place to keep his “mum” safe. The job of protecting and vindicating M is the framework of this episode. The connection with Moneypenny is noteworthy as is his lack of connection with the new, younger Q. Dench’s M dies in Bond’s arms, saying, “I did get one thing right.” Her trust and faith him were justified and now death has ended that bond.

Toxic Masculinity Scale: 3

Summary Bond’s interaction with Sévérine is highly problematic. Maybe we’re more sensitive in a post-Epstein era, but it should be clear that you don’t show up naked in the shower of a woman who is clearly a traumatized sex trafficking victim. Maybe it’s business as usual in a Bond film, but the scene was more anger-inducing, than “sexy.” However, the fact that Skyfall is really an M-centered film, with 007 in a supporting role, elevates the film as portraying a gender dynamic unique in the 007 canon.

For the 50th anniversary of Eon’s Bond franchises, there are familiar friends, like a title sequence featuring female bodies (and an Oscar-winning theme song by Adele), sharp dry quips from James (“Only a certain kind of woman wears a strapless dress with a Beretta 37 strapped to her thigh.”), and the return of the Aston Martin, along with the Bond theme music. (When Silva’s men blow up the car, 007 goes Rambo.) There’s even a glimpse of the vintage of the Macallan scotch Silva pours for Bond, 1962. Easter eggs aside, Bond’s emotions are still restrained but M (Dench) reveals the truth behind James masculine stoicism.

Skyfall premiered at Royal Albert Hall on October 23, 2012, while Hurricane Sandy was lashing America’s east coast. The film, as articulated by M, shares that the cold war world that produced Dr. No in 1962 now exists “in the shadows,” without clear enemies but with a new climate of danger. Mendes as director was an inspired choice to frame the action in service to M instead of Bond. Mendes would direct the next Bond as well as the Oscar/Golden Globe winning 1917 (2019). Medes is now directing four biopics on the members of the Beatles. For the kick-off of the next half-century of 007, Mendes would soon bring back a familiar foe to Bond’s universe.

Next: Spectre (2015)

The James Bond Project #24: Quantum of Solace (2008)

The James Bond Project #23: Casino Royale (2006)

The James Bond Project #22:  Die Another Day (2002)

The James Bond Project #21:  The World Is Not Enough (1999)

The James Bond Project #20:  Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

The James Bond Project #19: GoldenEye (1995)

The James Bond Project #18: License to Kill (1989)

The James Bond Project #17: The Living Daylights (1987)

The James Bond Project #16: A View to a Kill (1985)

The James Bond Project #15: Never Say Never Again (1983)

The James Bond Project #14: Octopussy (1983)

The James Bond Project #13: For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The James Bond Project #12: Moonraker (1979)

The James Bond Project #11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

The James Bond Project #10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

The James Bond Project #9: Live and Let Die (1973)

The James Bond Project #8: Diamonds are Forever (1971)

The James Bond Project #7: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

The James Bond Project #6: You Only Live Twice (1967)

The James Bond Project #5: Casino Royale (1967)

The James Bond Project #4: Thunderball (1965)

The James Bond Project #3: Goldfinger (1964)

The James Bond Project #2: From Russia With Love (1963)

The James Bond Project: #1: Dr. No (1962)