Licensed to win

I was a little surprised that the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, was honoured in the round with a BAFTA last Sunday.  I know it is the 50^th anniversary and so there might be a little nostalgia at such an amazingly successful British-based franchise, but was Skyfall really the ‘Outstanding British film of the year’?  Were their seriously no other contenders that could match it in this category?

Admittedly, it is touched by genius at times.  When Bond is chasing the escaped Silva into the depths of the London Underground, it is as if he is descending into hell to chase his quarry, as indicated by the increasingly synchronised numbers on the Tube carriages.  Of course, he loses to Silva in this territory and so must take higher ground, eventually defeating Silva in an old chapel.  Perhaps I am reading too much into this but the picture’s producers are very intelligent.

This is also the first film in the 50 years to use the f-word (a dubious distinction), but, of course, just the once, to qualify for the 12A rating, rather than a 15 sanction.  I know this technicality from the 2005 film Be Cool, a semi-sequel to Get Shorty, in which John Travolta’s Chili Palmer says “you can only use the f-word once to get a 12A rating and I say ‘fuck that’.”  It is the only explicit mention of the f-word in the entire 12A-rated movie.

The ravings, as from Barry Norman, that this is the best Mr Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang release to date are a little wide of the mark.  Better than Goldfinger or Goldeneye?  Better than From Russia With Love or The Living Daylights?  Better indeed than Craig’s debut in the tuxedo with the official Casino Royale? (Incidentally, the colossal waste of talent in the original CR now seems matched by the recent Movie 43). In my opinion, no.  Skyfall is a very good outing for 007 but it falls short of greatness, which a second viewing reveals.  The background music was a worthy BAFTA triumph.  Roll on the Oscars and their tribute.