|
|
| weblog/wEssays | home | |
|
Central Casting, Department of Acceptable Evil August 23, 2005 
One of the pleasures of the indefatigible James Bond series is the foreknowledge that some variation of
standard Bondian setups are sure to make an appearance in each new entry: gimmicky gadgetry in Q's lab
blowing up a dummy in fiendishly morbid fashion, the exorbitant wealth and malice of the villain, the pining of Ms.
Moneypenny for a good romp with the ever-unattainable James, and
my personal favorite: the moment in which
the heretofore supremely confident evil mastermind finally reaches the boiling point when Bond has once
more slipped from his minions' grasp.
Various actors have expressed this final frustration in myriad ways--some seething, some explosive, some menacing. My
favorite amidst a very talented field is the scene from Tomorrow Never Dies, in which Jonathan Pryce
(Elliot Carver), his cool aplomb
finally shattered, shouts to his neo-Nazi head thug, so ably played by blondie Gotz Otto: "Oh, and Mr.
Stamper--could you please kill Mr. Bond?"
The deftness here, of course, is the delivery as a sort of afterthought, when killing Bond is essential
to getting on with his masterplan to take over the world media, which is, as the movie premise has it,
the same thing as taking over the world proper. Phrasing this imperative as a polite request perfectly captures
the character's desperate attempt to control his overwrought fury at Bond's
continued existence--and adds immeasurably to the pleasure of a moment we knew would arrive: the villain's
explosive frustration that, despite the best efforts of his lackeys, Bond refuses to die.
It's always amusing to consider the agonies of the casting department--do we dare use an ethnic character for
the evil mastermind?--and it seems the producers of Tomorrow Never Dies called Central Casting,
Department of Acceptable Evil. The Head Snake is Anglo-Saxon, so no one can complain about ethnic profiling; the Head
Henchman is safely neo-Nazi--the proof being blond hair and a vaguely German accent; the
bloodlessly evil Doctor Torture is also Nazi-inspired, as evidenced by his precise manner of speaking and German accent;
and the evil computer geek, who, it is noted, started his career as a student radical at Berkeley, gasp!, is
swarthy and carries the Indian-sounding surname of Gupta, safely non-Arab, non-Asian, non-African-American and non-Hispanic.
What would central casting do without proto-Nazi characters? The world of global film distribution needs non-controversial evil-doers, and thank goodness the collective memory of World War Two guarantees that a somewhat Germanic accent, blond hair and chiseled, frowning visage sends the message loud and clear--this guy is evil. The mastermind, however, must be Anglo-Saxon, for any number of semiotic reasons; Nazis are evil, but they take orders, and Anglo-Saxons make such frightfully believable monomaniacal madmen. * * * copyright © 2005 Charles Hugh Smith. All rights reserved in all media. I would be honored if you linked this wEssay to your site, or printed a copy for your own use. * * * |
||
| weblog/wEssays | home |