Monday, November 16, 2015

Spectre

Yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Graybeard and I went to one of the local multiplex theaters to see Spectre, the latest film in the James Bond series.

It's an entertaining movie in the sense of lots of action, lots of chases, lots of splosions, lots of your typical James Bond movie stuff: Bond can do anything; survive just about any fall, or any attack, and jump into any handy, random aircraft and fly it.  What no one I've seen has talked about is that it has a strong libertarian theme: at its core it's about the overreaching surveillance state.  They never mention SPECTRE exactly in the context of the old movies, as the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, but the last few Bond movies have been a total reboot of the 60s movies. We met the new Moneypenny, M, Q, and the whole crew in Skyfall.  It's the 60s reimagined in the 21st century.  I think what this means is that by the time they set Bond's whole world up again, Daniel Craig will be too old to play him! 

Which is probably OK, since Craig thinks Bond is a jerk, and is always implying he doesn't like playing the character.  And, of course, he's one of the hypocritical Hollywood types who openly hates guns yet has to make so very, very much money pretending to use one.  Hate to make you do an unpleasant dance as we shower you in money, little dancing monkey.  Considering that he was credited as a producer, he probably isn't doing these little tantrums to bargain for more money from the next film. 

Short version: the British government is moving to eliminate the "00 program" and fold it into other surveillance systems.  The new administrator, "C", wants to do everything via the omnipresent surveillance systems and drones instead of field agents.  Spectre is behind that, and uses that data to do their moneymaking businesses: prostitution, sex slavery, smuggling, counterfeit drugs, and so on.   As counterpoint "M", the head of the program is fighting for the judgement of field agents like 007 to make the life or death decisions instead of computer systems.  A pivotal scene is Spectre running a false flag terrorism operation to get that nation to join the worldwide linking of all intelligence streams.  C mocks the idea of democracy several times, and gives the usual leftist views that only the enlightened geniuses like him should run everything. 

Surprisingly libertarian or conservative views for Hollywood.  I wonder if it was accidental?

1 comment:

  1. I didn't realize Craig is another Neeson. As good as both actors are, I refuse to spend any more money enriching the two hypocrites.

    I've read that Kevin Costner has been quoted as saying Americans don't need guns, unless maybe they are old, non-functioning heirlooms. Another hypocrite who has made millions not just with guns, but by playing the "good" guy defending himself and others against the bad guys. Something it would seem he doesn't actually believe in either. Well, I won't have to listen to his whiney voice anymore, if that is how he feels.

    ReplyDelete