Bond is back! Quantum of Solace proved to be an excellent Bond movie, well worth the ticket price, but this James Bond is a different sort of hero. No longer is he the Bond we’ve grown to love through countless USA network James Bond Marathons. He has less sex, makes fewer jokes, and manages to rip or bloody all of his clothes. Long gone is the untouchable Bond, who’s jokes are told through a smile while simultaneously winning the girl’s heart, killing the villain and saving the world.
Bond now has a real grit. He is fueled by revenge and carries a darkness about him. But along with this darker persona comes real humanity.
Our new Bond leaves a wake of destruction behind him as he kills and/or destroys most everyone who gets in his way. People are expendable to him, unless they exhibit one quality: despair.
At the end of the movie (**SPOILER** I’m about to give away part of the move.) Bond finds his friend Camille huddling in a smoke and fire-filled room, crying at her impending death. When she was a child, her mother and sisters were raped and murdered, and their murderer set their house on fire. Camille escapes with burns on her back and a heart full of rage. Now in the burning room, in this place of terror, she gives up. She cannot fight any longer. Her will had been fueled by a deep motivation of revenge, but in the face of her greatest fear she collapses. Here, Bond finds her. Now, if I were James Bond in this scenario, I would either run for my life or heroically save the day while maintaining my emotional distance from this pain-stricken woman and keeping my clothes crisp and clean. But instead, Bond enters the room and huddles with her as she cries. He holds her close as the fire leaps around the room. He acknowledges death, and faces it willingly to be with Camille as she dies, so that she feels safe and loved.
And this points to Jesus. When we are in our dying moments – whether real physical death or the pangs of life that feel like death – Jesus comes close. He huddles with us in our pain and brokenness and loves us.
Our new Bond is one who weeps with the dying and comforts the broken-hearted. But, unlike Jesus, he makes people drink motor oil.
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Mr. Bourgeois:)
Excellent post my friend! Never before have I thought James Bond showed Jesus like characteristics (except in his ability to kick some serious “a” of course:)). Very profound. That scene in the movie is extremely powerful.
I can’t wait to see it again!
Thanks.