One of my passions in life is James Bond. 2012 marks 50 years since the first Bond film Dr. No was released, and as a result, my flatmate and I have begun the process of watching all the films again in order. Having watched Sean Connery introduce 007 to the big screen with Bond’s introduction to his first onscreen love interest Sylvia Trench and to the world with those immortal words “My name’s Bond, James Bond”, Dr. No, as ever, was an enjoyable way to begin the process. But the fun really begins with From Russia With Love.
From Russia With Love (1963) is the second instalment in the franchise and is generally considered to be one of the best. Dark, energetic and full of Cold War imagery, it must rank as one of the best spy films ever made. The story was chosen to come second in the film franchise partly because of the novel’s popularity with President Kennedy, who died a month after the film premiered.
The film features extensive scenes shot in and around Istanbul, and the audience is treated to a brief scene overlooking that wonderful city in the shimmering sun with the noise of the call to prayer. This type of scene is a staple of films using the Middle East or the Arab world as a location. I can think of two Bond films that use this cinematic ‘technique’. In The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), a shot of Cairo is used with the sound of the muezzin’s call echoing across the city in the background. In Timothy Dalton’s first Bond film, The Living Daylights (1987), the same is done over Tangiers.
What does such a ‘technique’ add to a film? Is it a way to make the audience feel as if they were part of the adventure? Is it a way to experience the ‘exotic’? Or is it just a way of differentiating Muslim cities apart from Western cities? This last explanation might sound a little sinister as it implies that filmmakers want that distinction to be made, maybe to echo prejudices that (Western) audiences might already have. Instead, surely it can be seen as an attempt to get audiences to immediately identify a different culture through a stereotype. In the case of From Russia With Love, the call to prayer immediately brings the audience to the conclusion that Turkey is Islamic (even though Islam does not feature as a major plot point – albeit for a murder that takes place in a mosque).
Other Bond films make use of (stereotypical) cultural symbols to help the audience identify with a new location or plot point, often negatively. Roger Moore’s first 007 outing Live and Let Die (1973) delves into the world of voodoo and tarot reading. The credits sequence features devilish imagery of skulls on fire with Paul McCartney and Wings singing their famous song in the background. Before this, the audience sees a Mi6 agent being the victim of a ritual voodoo murder in which he is tied to a frame before being bitten by a snake wielded by a goat-clad priest. All these scenes do is to highlight something different – something dark and suspicious, a world apart from our own.
Octopussy (1983) is another example – littered with stereotypes aplenty that are designed to make us really believe that Bond is in India. Sword eaters, buildings called ‘Monsoon Palace’, villains with beards, sadhus lying on beds of spikes and walking on hot coals all feature, as well as appearances by a tiger and various Indian elephants. The Moore films all featured quips and tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted 'humour' such as this, but one can’t help feeling that the sight of Bond giving money to his Indian allies saying “This will keep you in curry for a few weeks” crosses the line. It’s probably the most culturally insensitive thing said in a Bond film since Dr. No, where Bond asks his faithful ally Quarrel, a black CIA operative, to “fetch my shoes”.
Stereotypes help us to identify cultures within the mass media. They should be used sparingly, maybe to set the scene. However, when you have an aging British agent telling his Indian colleagues that they should use the money to buy curry, one can’t help feel that the filmmakers were clinging to antiquated notions of imperialism with the master (the Brit) and the ruled (the Indians). It’s not just the Bond films that use stereotypes to ‘set the scene’. Many films do it but does that make it right?
It’s 2012: the year of the London Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and 50 years of James Bond on film. In November, the 23rd Bond film, Skyfall, will be released, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Helen McCrory, Ben Whishaw, Albert Finney, Rory Kinnear and Dame Judi Dench. As coincidence would have it, some of the film is to be shot in Istanbul. I wonder if there will be a short scene featuring a lovely shot over Istanbul’s majestic skyline complete with the sound of a muezzin calling the faithful to prayer?
No comments:
Post a Comment