Spectre 2
By Steve
- 395 reads
SEDUCTION IN SPECTRE:
Seduction for Daniel Craig's James Bond always involves a give and take. In Spectre, it's often "protection" or a kind of "life insurance" that James Bond offers in exchange for letting him have a woman sexually. At other times, Daniel Craig's Bond does not even care about sex. It's more about getting information required for the job.
In the very first sequence of Spectre, James Bond is dressed as a skeleton or as DEATH in a masquerade celebration. He is walking with a woman to her room and it seems pretty evident that he is going to seduce her. Daniel Craig's James Bond's seduction is that he is whom he appears to be. James Bond does not pretend to be anyone else. James Bond kisses the woman, but he does not seduce her for she can give her no information. Instead, he exits the room and blows away an Italian terrorist.
In the second seduction scene, James Bond attempts to seduce Moneypenny who is refreshingly played by a black woman. He calls her. She comes over to his apartment. He shows her a video of "M" asking James Bond to kill Sciarra. He offers her a drink. She refuses. James Bond no longer tries to seduce Moneypenny after she refuses his various advances, but, at the same time, his advances are a part of his makeup as a spy. To criticize James Bond as a womanizer is nonsense since it is simply a part of being a spy. If a spy cannot get the information through any other means, the spy must seduce. Also, even a woman needs to be a "manizer" in a sense.
The third seduction scene of Sciarra's wife is pure "life insurance." Somehow, this reveals a softer side of James Bond. He did kill Sciarra, but he is not going to cause the death of his wife also. He insures her life by hooking her up with Felix of the CIA, Felix will rescue her. BUT it is not only that. The other part of this seduction for James Bond is knowing what Sciarra was like by trying to understand his wife.
All these seductions, we learn, stem from James Bond's inability to protect his father from being murdered by his adoptive brother. His own brother murdered his adoptive father and he could do nothing about it. So he becomes an existential hero. He is into saving people, but he has failed at saving women. And if that is so, James Bond is really seducing women away from his brother. So one could say that James Bond is seducing women and others to what he believes to be Good. But it's tough being good. Moneypenny lives a frugal existence in a small apartment. Q is having a tough time eeking out an existence. M is about to lose his job.
James Bond's seduction of Madeleine Swann is a bit different though. He offers her "life insurance," but she refuses him. What she wants from James Bond is to let go of his identity as James Bond and to go away with her. In her eyes, she is the one saving him. She sees no end for him but death.
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