Monday, November 12, 2012

Skyfall

Within the last couple of days I read an account of a funeral at which the deceased wishes were expressed that those attending should go see Skyfall. Perhaps he was just a James Bond fan, but maybe he had something like this in mind. The review by Mark Judge encourages me to think Daniel Craig has gone full Sean Connery:
Young people are feckless, inconclusive, and incapable of perseverance and self-reliance. Young males are especially bad–and they are excessively effeminate to boot.

That’s a major takeaway from Skyfall, the new James Bond film. The film is arguably the most conservative film since 300. It doesn’t argue that there are marginal differences between the generations; it holds that younger people are epicene and clueless. ....

.... “Youth is no guarantee of innovation” Bond tells the young Q when they first meet. The new Miss Moneypenny, played by Naomi Harris, is several years Bond’s junior, and she is put on desk duty because she’s a bad shot. M, played by the elderly Judy Dench, shows more courage and determination than MI6 agents more than half hear age.

I’m usually wary of arguments about “the feminization of culture.” I don’t like them because behind them is the assumption that women are not incredibly powerful, which is a fallacy easily refuted by anyone who has a mother, sister, or wife.... And as a teacher I know that people who criticize kids usually don’t know any. But there is something going on in Skyfall that is an important defense of experience and traditional manhood. Frankly, the film expresses a rebellion against today’s young males forgetting what it is to be a man, whether it be the ability to couple noble purpose with raw strength or just the proper way to shave. ....

It’s important to observe that James Bond is a man in a very broad and wonderful sense. He isn’t a Jason Bourne brute or Bruce Willis knucklehead.... Bond knows his drinks, he can quote literature, and his suits are top of the line. He’s a gentleman. But, as Skyfall shows with uncompromising clarity, he is also a man. Without apology, in fact with a great deal of pride, he is a man.
Manfall: James Bond Battles the New Wimpiness « Acculturated

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