5.2 – Review and discuss own choice of British film productions and world film productions

Review of British or World film features 

Skyfall, Sam Mendes, UK, 2013

Skyfall is a 2013 British action film directed by Sam Mendes and is the 23rd canonical film in the James Bond series. Daniel Craig reprises the titular role for the third time, with new faces such as Javier Bardem as suave villain Silva, and Ben Whishaw as young techie Q.

The film marks the 50th anniversary release of the first ever Bond movie, Dr No. We begin in Turkey with a chase by car, motorcycle and train which ends with Bond plunging into a gorge after failing to retrieve a worldwide list of MI6’s special agents. Presumed dead, Bond returns to London after the Milbank headquarters are blown up, killing MI6 employees. The explosion drives MI6 underground and here Bond is restored and reinstated to find the villain who planted the bomb and penetrated MI6’s computers. Bond is sent east to Shanghai and Macau where he discovers menacing maniac Raoul Silva whose motive is revenge against MI6 for not appreciating him. Returning to London, Bond gains logistical needs and gadgets from Q before returning to his childhood home in the Scottish Highlands with M for the final showdown.  

Those who are familiar with the Bond franchise have come to expect the usual niche elements - the credits sequence, the girls, the cars, the locations, the stunts, the villains, the gadgets – but to appeal to viewers old and new they need to be presented in a fresh and surprising way.

Roger Deakins previously worked on the cinematography for films such as The Shawshank Redemption and the Coen brothers’ Fargo, and has an excellent eye for Skyfall’s composition. For example, in Shanghai Bond hitches a ride under an elevator to track down an assassin. The decision to film in a glass filled room implies that this is a film about reflections, and the past of Bond himself. Most of the film takes place in Britain. Bond chases Silva on foot through the London Underground, and sits with Q in the National Gallery, before driving his Aston Martin to the water colour twilight hours of the Scottish moors.

Bond wouldn’t be Bond without action, but the camera doesn’t need to be moving for the action to be exciting. In an interview with Den of Geek, Sam Mendes said, “The action is moving, and the camera moves with it. It’s not just moving for the sake of moving.” The Academy Award-winning song ‘Skyfall’, sung by Adele, plays in the opening title sequence and the motif can be heard throughout Thomas Newman’s soundtrack. The classic Bond theme also features when the Aston Martin DB5 appears, a humorous nod to the original Bond films.

Regarding Skyfall’s script, Daniel Craig had a big input in regards to narrative structure. He wanted to explore more of Bond’s backstory, to show the audience he wasn’t portraying a one-dimensional character fighting baddies and chasing girls, but a real person with a backstory; a childhood and a past. Another decision Craig made was in regards to Q. In previous films and adaptions, Q is portrayed as much older, but casting Ben Whishaw meant the character became more relatable to the younger tech-savvy audience.

Skyfall is the highest grossing British film in the UK and the highest-grossing in the series. The film won two BAFTA Awards, two Academy Awards and two Grammys, and it’s easy to see why. It’s all you could want from a 21st Century Bond: appealing to the older generation by respecting traditions but adds in new thrills for the younger generation with complex characterisations, beautiful cinematography, and a dash of British humour.