There was a moment in Apple’s September product announcement event — during which they unveiled the newest version of the Apple TV, their set-top streaming device that brings Netflix, Hulu, HBO and much more to the living room TV set — when designer Jen Folse took a moment to demonstrate the voice search capabilities of the new device. Pressing a button on the remote control to activate the voice recognition service Siri, she began by saying “Show me some action movies.” Presented with a vast range of results, she then refined the search by saying, “The James Bond ones.” Siri dutifully pared down the list to show only films from the classic spy franchise. Then came the finest cut: “Just the ones with Sean Connery,” said Folse. In an instant, all the other Bonds vanished.
It was a great moment for gadget nerds — it instantly sold me on picking one up for our own house — but it was a telling moment for film nerds, too. Over a half a century after the release of Dr. No, here was the biggest company on the planet — a company that famously leaves nothing to chance during its keynotes — name-checking the franchise. And more notably, name-checking Connery, the actor that for so many still continues to be the quintessential Bond. Six other actors have taken up the 00 ranking since Connery, but none have made so lasting an impression.
None, perhaps, until now. Daniel Craig, who has portrayed the British spy in four films to date, has taken the role down a more shadowy path, reclaiming some of what was lost between the early novels and the somewhat swingy film adaptations of the past. His Bond — aided and abetted, certainly, by working with Oscar winning directors like Sam Mendes, who helmed both the newly released film Spectre and 2012’s Skyfall, and Oscar winning co-stars like Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) — has always been rougher, both around the edges and deep within. Less charming and more damaged than his predecessors, Craig’s Bond draws us in not to marvel at his smoothness, but to better examine the growing cracks in his surface.
In the new film — you won’t have to look hard to find a screening— Bond’s very livelihood is called into question by a new national security chief, who wonders if Britain still requires a secret agent program. Branching out on his own, he tracks down an old enemy’s daughter who may hold the clue to dismantling the secretive criminal organization known as SPECTRE. For fans of the Bond films, this latest installment is a nice way to bring back some of the plot points from earlier entries, giving it the feeling of coming, if not full circle, at least in a similar orbit. Whether or not Craig will return for another film is an open question at the moment (in a recent interview with Esquire, he remarked that “I have a life and I’ve got to get on with it a bit,” which ignited a firestorm of questioning among Bond fans online). But if SPECTRE proves to be his exit from the spy game, he’ll have gone out doing something nobody else has quite managed: he might, just maybe, end up nudging Connery out of the top spot in our collective memory.
Also this week: Amherst Cinema gives filmgoers a chance to introduce younger viewers to the wonderful madness of director Terry Gilliam (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) when it hosts a 10 a.m. Saturday screening of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as part of its ongoing $5 Family Films Series. Still something of a cult hit, Munchausen stars John Neville as the baron whose extremely tall tales form the basis for Gilliam’s visual flights of fancy: a trip to near-space aboard a cannonball, a balloon trip to visit the King of the Moon, and being swallowed by a whale are all par for the course for the colorful baron. Younger viewers might not be able to take it all in at once, but the earlier anyone gets to know Gilliam, the better.•
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
