meaning to see for a while. A good part of the film was made in Chile,
but was set in Bolivia, which teed off both the Bolivians and the
Chileans. It would not be inaccurate to say that both countries (and
the Peruvians, too) have something of a neurosis about the Atacama
desert (where Bond 22 was filmed), since the Bolivians and Peruvians
lost a big chunk of it to the Chileans in the "War of the Pacific" of
1890-ish.
Sometimes, the "War of the Pacific" is called the "Saltpeter War," but I
actually prefer the "Bird Shit War," which is think is both more
descriptive and more poetic.
I enjoyed Daniel Craig's performance as Bond. I didn't see the last
film--Emily said she thought he played a very angry James Bond, but at
least in this film, his performance struck me as more human and a bit
more serious than Brosnan, whose Bond I also liked. But I think I'm a
fan. I think Timothy Dalton still is the best James Bond, but time will
tell...
I should admit that the movie was a little difficult for me to follow,
but this really had more to do with the fact that it was a
German-language version with (badly translated) Spanish subtitles. I
don't know any German, so the only way I know that the film was badly
translated is that the subtitles included Spanish words that, to my
knowledge, do not exist.
I happen to believe that every James Bond film should have skiing, which
Quantum of Solace lacked. A shame.
But I thought the portrayal of Bolivians and Bolivia really were quite
good (though they were really a pretty marginal part of the story).
Bolivians protested the film, fearing it would portray them as corrupt.
Of course, the film portrayed everyone as corrupt, including the US,
members of the British political class and secret service, and, at least
in a way, Bond himself. The portrayal of Bolivian government personnel
was, admittedly, less than kind, but the portrayal of the Andean people,
I thought, was actually pretty complimentary. And realistic.
No comments:
Post a Comment