Will Skyfall be a 'patriotic' Bond film?

Napoleon Plural

I was watching From the Ashes last night, a doc about England unexpectedly beating Australia in the 1981 Ashes, and how, along with the Royal Wedding, it lifted the mood in a time of riots and recession.

Of course, FYEO was the Bond film that year, and it had that British feel, with the pts and PM Maggie Thatcher in the closing scene. I suppose Sheena Easton was that year's Adele, homegrown talent doing unexpectedly well in the US. (I think that's true.)

Skyfall has a fair bit of London in it from the shots, and of course London is the place to be this summer. It would be patriotic anyway because England are playing in Euro 2012 footie tournament, so lots of England flags, but you also have the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.

Maybe the locale of Skyfall will tap into that?

minigeff

i think EoN would be daft not to connect the dots as it were and include some of the current/soon to come 'britishness'.

However, on the flip side, if every scene or piece of dialogue has reference to the bloody olympics i'll scream my way out of the cinema.

Vandrell

minigeff wrote:

However, on the flip side, if every scene or piece of dialogue has reference to the bloody olympics i'll scream my way out of the cinema.

Amen to that!

David Schofield

No. I think those who are involved with SKYFALL are of the Guardianista set for whom "national prde", "Britishness" and "patriotism" are almost sinful.

Different filmakers, different times to 1981. Besides, we're unlikely to find anyone "doing a Botham" against the South Africans, are we, either?

Thunderpussy

I hope they don't go over board on the Patrotism,

" Last refuge of a scoundral " as Samuel Johnson would of put it. )

Moore Than

Will Skyfall be a 'patriotic' Bond film? I doubt it. Will Skyfall have 'patriotic' references? Yes.

Looking at the photo's and video from London that I have seen there is no indication of any tie in with a major event. For example, none of the extras are carrying flags. The only indication of patriotism I am aware of is the official photo of Daniel Craig's Bond standing on a London rooftop with a Union Jack flag in the background.

Daniel Craig it seems is appearing as Bond (in a video?) at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. But I doubt there will be any reference to the Olympic Games in Skyfall.

jetsetwilly

I would doubt there will be any references to the Olympics or the Jubilee - the producers have traditionally avoided anything which might date the film. (Exception: references to the Millennium Dome and the Millennium Bug in TWINE. Gee, that worked out well).

The film does seem to be more British in tone so far, but as Craig said, that's just because we've seen them filming on location in London for months. We've not seen what's going on in the stages at Pinewood. They're in Turkey now, and we've seen promo shots set in Shanghai. I would doubt this will be any more British than any other Bond film, beyond than the usual few references. Think of TSWLM - a Union Flag parachute, scenes at the Faslane submarine base, the Royal Navy, "a new era in Anglo-Soviet co-operation", "Keeping the British end up"... but would you say that film was more patriotic than any other? Eon's always been clever enough to use Bond's Britishness as an "other", as a differential from the American heroes we're used to in the cinema, but without overplaying it and potentially alienating foreign audiences. 007 is a global brand, if anything.

Ammo08

Well, I for one hope it's patriotic. You have the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics and a new Bond Film...good year for Great Britain...

Napoleon Plural

There was a good joke regarding the Dome when it broke Bond's fall 'At least someone found a use for it' but it got cut and in any case would date now as the Dome is no longer a white elephant but the 02 Arena, a good venue for rock gigs.