Some of the Bond movie enthusiasts I spoke with said they were disappointed with the New Bond movie, 'Skyfall'. I think they have their valid reasons to be.
Traditionally, Bond movies were always about what Bond did and how cool he looked doing it, especially with the guns, gadgets and girls. The new Bond is no longer about being 'cool'. The new Bond is about being 'real' the authentic, broken guy who needs help just as everyone of us do. I think this metamorphosis of the Bond movies says something about the changing trajectory of human needs. Traditionally, human need for movies as titillating entertainment was to see popular movies as an escape from the dreary realities of life and have a good time. Now, that is changing movies are increasingly seen as avenues of seeking depth and meaning within the dreary realities of life itself.
I want to do three things in this post.
1. I want to offer a key difference between the traditional and the new Bond movie.
2. Point at the broader scope of this Bondian Metamorphisis that involves other superhero movies too.
3. Offer one key insight into trajectory of human psychic needs which I believe is driving this Bondian Metamorphisis.
A key difference between the traditional and new Bond movies is the focus on the vulnerable side of the Bond. The movie delves into the depths of Bond's insecurities and how it is related to 'Skyfall', his childhood home. Which Bond movie has attempted to expose Bond's insecurities? In Skyfall, when 'M' dies, the Bond hugs her and grieves for her. I don't know if any Bond in the prior movies ever had to bother with that tender emotion of 'grief'. This is not a sudden metamorphosis, it started with the 'Quantum of Solace' (which incidentally is another movie the traditional Bond enthusiasts did not like). In 'Quantum of Solace' the Bond shows himself a man with a 'heart', he goes after the guys who killed his girl in the prior movie, which the traditional Bond never did. There was a distinct change in Bond characterization which I wrote about
here. I should say that I liked to new Bond in 'Quantum of Solace', I like him more now in 'Skyfall'.
The old Bond was as a man with great style but as Chesterton would call him, 'a man without a chest' - zero depth. The new Bond on the other hand, is a man with a heart who is affected by the sharp edges of life and who is driven by deeper and meaningful life experiences than just guns, gadgets and girls.
The Bond is not the only Superhero movie where the story delves deeper into the human soul and attempts to unravel the mystery and meaning behind things. This trend is apparent in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies too. The Batman does not just come to do cool stuff, much of the movie focuses on who he really is and what part of his soul drives him to do what he does. From the trailers to the next version of the
'Superman' movie, it looks like the Superman movie will take the psychological plunge too. Interestingly, even the Supervillians in these Superhero movies have become people with deep souls, albeit sick ones. In traditional Bond movies, the Supervillian, for some inexplicable reason, is intend on World Domination. In 'Skyfall', the Supervillian Silva isn't so. Rather, Silva is a 'hurt soul' seeking his revenge for M's old 'sins'. In the 'Dark Knight Rises', Bane is a Supervillian - the movies goes into his soul to explain the cause of its twisted nature. With these supervillian's one almost gets to have some pity for them. One gets to see a part of their soul that is soft and tender seeking love and acceptance as anyone else. The Supervillian is just trying to cope with the dreariness of life, albeit the wrong way. Hence,
these new Super Hero movies aren't just about providing a good time enjoying the titillating entertainment, but delves into deeper meanings behind things.
I think there a key reason behind this new need for depth and meaning in action movies is that as a society people increasingly crave more for meaning than superfluous titillation. Fredrick Neitzche in his book 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' has a poem about the 'Superman'. He believed if evolution created man from the ape, then naturally it would create a Superman from man. And the last of the (current) man-species he called 'lastman' in his poem. The lastman's last achievement would be to invent happiness...
'We have invented happiness,' say the last men, and they blink.
Indeed, in ushering the age of materialism, the modern man has invented happiness. All it take is a click of a button or the swipe of a card. We live in a world of titillation at our finger tips. Nirvana's song
Teen Spirit epitomizes this when it says 'here we are now, entertain us'. Inventing happiness is the height of materialism.
Neitzche was prescient in his prognosis that man will invent titillative happiness. But he is wrong in that after finding this titillating happiness, the lastman will be stuck in the evolutionary ladder and 'blink'. The Lastman isn't a man on the evolutionary ladder, paving way for a higher being.
Contrary to Neitzche's belief, instead of becoming obselete in an ocean of titillating happiness, the lastman (in the fallen image of the 'Everlastingman' - G.K.Chesterton's Christ) realizes the bankruptcy of his predicament and yearns for something in life beyond titillating happiness. He looks for depth. He craves meaning in spite of dreariness.
This change of trajectory seeking deeper meanings isn't noted only by the Hollywood Script writers and Directors. In fact, it has been happening in Music industry for a long time now. Much of Rock music from Rolling Stones to Pink Floyd expressed the need for deeper meaning. In fact, sociologist/futurists predicting future economic trends notice it too. In the book
'A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future', the author talks about the importance that search for 'meaning' will take in people's lives. The author quotes the astute psychologist Victor Frankl,
"It is not so much that people try to seek pleasure and avoid pain, but that they really are in search for depth and meaning".
The Age of materialism perfected the art of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, we had 'invented happiness'.
We realize that it does not satisfy. We have begun moving into the post-materialistic age of search for meaning. Back in the day, movies were made for audience who looked to materialism, and movies as an expression of materialistic titillation as diversion from the dreary realities of life. People were just there to have a 'good time'. But now, that we have lived through the age of materialistic titillation and found it to be the empty thing that it is, things have changed.
We don't just need a 'good time', we need a meaningful time. In this Bondian Metamorphosis, we are seeing the grounds shift away from the age of materialistic titillation to one of seeking meaningful experiences.
So yes, traditional Bond enthusiasts will be disappointed with this trend. But they need to remember the pendulum swings both ways. After having swung for too long into joy-ride of materialism, it is beginning to lose inertia and is starting to trend towards the depth and meaning-ride of the age of post-materialism. The 'Skyfall' Bond gives a glimpse of how entertainment of the Post Materialism age will look like. From the looks of it, it looks like it will have a lot more mystery, meaning and depth, kind of like life itself.
