007 is not a sentimentalist by nature, and neither are his creators. Barring the one reoccurrence of shiny-toothed henchman Jaws and the odd sneaky reference to the death of Mrs Bond, who met an untimely demise at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (at the beginning of For Your Eyes Only, 007 lays flowers on her grave), Bond films tend to have all the memory recall of an elderly goldfish, casually returning to a default setting once the supervillain is safely 6ft under. It is only natural, Bond creator Ian Fleming didn’t do ‘back story’, instead preferring to keep his man and his text baggage free, so why should the films?
What makes Quantum of Solace something new is that it is the first Bond film to follow on sequentially from the last. It begins 10 or 20 minutes – ‘the figure keeps on changing,’ says Daniel Craig – after Casino Royale leaves off, with James still on the trail of those behind the death of Vesper (his love interest from the previous film).
According to Craig, this time we’ll see a very different Bond: ‘He’s had his heart broken. Here’s this person who always wins at cards, always thinks he knows what the other person is thinking and knows how to deal with people, and this woman comes along and turns him upside down.’ It is an interesting prospect. In the past 40-plus years, 007 hasn’t exactly grown as a character, the full body and personality make-over being the closest thing to emotional development. Craig’s Bond is certainly darker and arguably more in tune with the cold, hard weapon of Fleming’s steely prose than at any time since the early days of Sean Connery, but in going back to basics the actor also claims to have found more in the novels than just a nasty streak. ‘I haven’t shied away from that at all,’ he says, ‘but with the Ian Fleming Bond – I’ve read most of the books now – I kept coming away thinking he’s romantic, he’s an incredibly emotional role, he’s confused and not at peace with himself. I think that’s interesting, so I want to put it in the movie.’
Whereas Casino Royale made a pilgrimage back to Fleming’s hallowed text, in spite of its name (Quantum of Solace was a short story in the 1960 For Your Eyes Only collection), this is an entirely original script. Like Casino, though, it continues in a similar vein, dispensing with the traditional supervillains of old, opting instead for the more identifiable modern enemies of greed, capitalism and terrorism – a product of a world where spies and the war on terror are once more the topic of conversation. Mathieu Amalric’s faux environmentalist comes closest to winning booing rights, but there is little of the gadget-heavy, eyebrow-raising frippery which characterised, say, the Roger Moore era. The very mention prompts a gasp from the normally composed Craig, followed closely by a swift defence of the great Roger Moore; but he refutes claims that some of the joy has gone out of the series. ‘Everybody has their own technique and method, and this is mine,’ Craig argues. ‘That doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of levity and fun, I think they’re there, we just don’t write them on the page. We don’t write the gags, the gags occur.’
As to reprising his role, ‘it was a lot easier to step into,’ he claims with hindsight, although the actor admits that he’s had to get fitter. Ladies might bemoan that some of the beef has gone, replaced instead by a leaner cut – a forgivable continuity error, Craig cheerfully argues – but it was necessary in order to push himself as hard as he did and to get his face on camera as much as possible in the stunt scenes. ‘Audiences know when it’s a stunt man and when it’s not,’ the svelte looking actor reasons.
A similar toning process went on with the script. A bigger challenge to the writers has been how to develop those characters around 007. Interestingly, Judi Dench’s M has become much more integral to the stories, far more so than Bernard Lee’s shrewd but deskbound civil servant of earlier years. Having moved beyond the frisson of attraction which her character enjoyed with Pierce Brosnan’s Bond (another avenue thankfully never explored with Lee), the pair have developed an oddly tense mother and son relationship.
‘I wouldn’t argue with that,’ says Craig. ‘I think what Judi represents – there is a reason why she plays queens – is a matriarchic command that is innate as well as this beautiful cheekiness, which she has in bucketloads. I think that if you’re going to be James Bond, and this representation of what we think a male hero is about, you need that balance, and she is that balance.’
All Oedipal issues aside, the role of ‘the male hero’ is very much something which comes under scrutiny. Craig claims that this movie tries to make Bond’s attitude to women seemingly more ambiguous – something it can hardly be considered in the past. ‘It softens, it hardens, you’ll think one thing and it’ll be another. We’ve tried to make a movie that will hopefully keep you guessing,’ he says without a trace of Bond-esque innuendo. With the glamourous Gemma Arterton’s Agent Fields and Olga Kurylenko’s Camille providing the usual distractions, we’re not quite sure how much guesswork will be involved, but we’re intrigued to find out.
For many years the Bond role was considered a poison chalice by actors. Following the success of Sean Connery, the careers of George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton all went into sharp decline after their stints as 007 (and for some, during). It was a hoodoo arguably only Pierce Brosnan has since broken, but for Craig it is a useful tool. He recently used his 007 clout to get another project, Flashbacks of a Fool, off the ground, a small British film starring himself and directed by his friend Baille Walsh. He is clearly proud of it, although, following mixed reviews, admits that the Bond name may have hindered its success. ‘The problem is if I hadn’t been James Bond, there perhaps wouldn’t have been much attention on it, and it would have been perceived in a different way,’ he argues.
Craig is certainly now an important voice within the framework of the Bond franchise. As well as taking a hand in the story and helping orchestrate the look of the past two films, he claims to have had an increasing say in the direction of the series. ‘Once I made the decision to do it, I wanted to obviously be involved in as much of it as possible,’ he admits. ‘That doesn’t mean that I want control and to make huge decisions, but I want to be able to have a say… It’s my job on every level to encourage – like do we want Marc Foster to direct this movie? And I’m like, yes, we do… I can’t make the decision, but on some level I can certainly make the phone calls.’
Of course, the perks are more than just professional. The glamour of Bond is often in the setting. ‘We wanted to get this one out on location to get that epic feel,’ he explains. Amidst dodging unwanted press attention, jumping from one 60ft building to another (‘wired up,’ he stresses), and mastering injuries – he quickly produces a bandaged finger: ‘There’s a piece my flesh still on the 007 stage somewhere. They couldn’t find it, so they had to stitch it up’ – filming at Chile’s European Space Observatory provided a brief moment repose in all the madness. ‘It was the most amazing place I’ve ever been to in my life,’ Craig reveals. ‘I sat outside with my girlfriend, with a beer, and we just looked at the stars. It was one of those moments that you don’t get that often.’
The immediate future holds something similar for the much in demand actor, who claims that he has nothing lined up but ‘a beach towel and a large cocktail’. By the sounds of it, he’s earned it. As is traditional, nothing is yet confirmed as to whether he’ll continue in the role, but like death and taxes, just one other thing is guaranteed in this life, James Bond will return.
Quantum of Solace is released in cinemas across the UAE on November 6
