Question Concerning Severine (Spoiler)
00-Agent
CaliforniaPosts: 453MI6 Agent
In the scene where Severine is shot by Silva I have always wondered why Bond waits until after she is shot to take down the bad guys. He did it with relative ease and I don't think the film presents any reason as to why he had to wait to fight back until after her death. It doesn't seem very Bondian to just let the girl die without putting up a fight. That is when I started to wonder if this has ever happened in a Bond film before.
So my question is...has a Bond Girl ever been killed while Bond stands by and watches in a film before?
I could not think of one. Bond Girls die in the films all the time, but not while Bond just stands by and watches.
So my question is...has a Bond Girl ever been killed while Bond stands by and watches in a film before?
I could not think of one. Bond Girls die in the films all the time, but not while Bond just stands by and watches.
"A blunt instrument wielded by a Government department. Hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic. He likes gambling, golf, fast motor cars. All his movements are relaxed and economical". Ian Fleming
Comments
It was my biggest gripe, soon as it happened I was like no ways!! Made me angry and was a major critiscism afterwards. Just because he did not try after he promised her, could have done everything he did before (and he had a loaded shot) and presented nooooo remorse or anything afterwards, which is crap...just think goldfingers and the mastersons! I mean at least something! uurggghh
Severine was lucky Bond didn't dump her in a skip.
Cant say I care much about remorse, makes him more like the books
................ Or personal hygiene "
I agree, then I put myself in the writers seat. When Bond first saw her at the assassination, then identified her tattoo at the casino and realized she was packing a gun, he knew she was used to people being murdered (and may have even been a murderer herself) in the past. I was at first fooled into thinking she was sort of an innocent sex slave caught up in a criminal lifestyle (because she put on a brave face as Bond said but it hid some fear). However, her fear came from being with Bardem, not from anyone else. I think they wanted to say she was as much a woman who also had blood on her hands as she was someone who was originally forced to live in this lifestyle in the beginning but then learned to profit by it immorally. Though Bond was at first upset that she was in this lifestyle and perhaps thought he could save her by getting Bardem, he probably realized after seeing her in the square tied up and beaten that though she was forced into living "by the sword" it's the life she had been in for probably most of her life and would die by the sword in a way no matter what happened. Also, as far as him killing the bodyguards before - I don't think he had the time. He didn't have the strategy worked out during the beginning of the scene. He was being detached emotionally while Bardem was chatting and setting up the killing and even through his shot at her because he was doing his calculations mentally as to how he was going to attack the goons. It's why he didn't react emotionally to her death..he had his "armor on" the whole time so he could plan his attack as efficiently as he knew how. Had he just had some idea in mind when Bardem gave him the pistol but not had it worked out all the way (which would be difficult given the stress he was under) it might have failed.
My vote goes to this proposal to solve this conundrum.
Back to my original question, I think this was a first. I guess this is just part of the reboot strategy. I can no longer assume Bond will always save the girl. IMO Severine was clearly looking for someone to save her from Silva, a man she feared. She was not a innocent damsel in distress, however I not only expected him to save her, but to turn the bad girl good because....well because he is Bond.
I think you are wrong. The Bond of the Novels is raked by remorse, particularly when he feels culpable. witness Quarrel, Kerim Bey, The Masterton sisters. The scene in question for me clearly demonstrates that the rebooted SBS hard man is a different character, more Jason Statham than James Bond. Perhaps he is the Bond for our times after all.
Could not agree with you more. Apologies, because I posted my response before reading yours. This is probably enough to consign us both to the Dinosaur park where Bond is a Byronic hero, capable of human emotion and enjoyment. I have no wish to return to invisible cars or hollowed out Volcanoes, and am all for a tough hard Bond. But one with counterbalance and a moral purpose. This scene really demonstrates how far we have come, and how much we have lost.
This is true. however, since Bond was probably mentally trying to figure out how to bide his time and stay alive until his backup arrived and knew he had to try to take out the goons before that happened, he had no time to be remorseful. He may have been so after they captured Bardem, but they chose not to show any screen time of him being remorseful about her death not in order to demonstrate he was a "SBS hard man" but only due to the films pace how how they decided to edit it.
I woudnt go that far, he shows remorse for those characters briefly after they meet their maker but then it's all forgotten about after 5 mins (well that's the way I remember reading the Flemings books I've read so far - the guy is pretty damn cold)
We can debate the intensity and duration but what is clear is that it often provides the motivation & drive to spur him on (Saunders in TND is a good example) This is very different with the CraigBond where starting with Solange he is completely disconnected and unconcerned.This is a distinctive feature of the reboot and for me goes too far into Badass Bond territory.
Dead City courtyard scene has similar elements, but it's still very very different. Like pointed out earlier, It seems that Bond doesn't know what to expect having just met ex-MI6 agent who's responsible of attack against MI6 HQ. He doesn't have much time to think while putting his sunglasses on (and obviously activating the Q-branch radio), listening Silva's talk when he sees Severine in the middle of the yard tied up and Silva says something like:
“When a thing is redundant, (Silva raises his hand, points his fingers towards Severine and says “pop”) it is... eliminated.”
Ok, so why doesn't Bond let it rip and try rescue her while Silva places a shot of Macallan on Severine's head??
Well there's four guards/goons surrounding him excluding Silva and they are too far from Bond for him to take action, I think Bond is just trying to buy time, figure out how to capture Silva by playing his sadistic game.
Silva lets Bond start the game, Bond misses, bullet hits the concrete and it's only a few seconds after that when Silva raises his gun and shoots Severine “I won, what do say about that?” - “Waste of good Scotch” and then Bond gets his witty one-liner moment plus access to a gun from goon behind him.
Quote from page 94 of Skyfall On Set book by Greg Williams:
“in a flash Bond has attacked, pivoting and grabbing the guard's gun hand, twisting it back and firing, killing the guard, grabbing the gun free, spinning to the other three guards, killing them all –
So fast and brutally efficient it takes our breath away. Bond at his best.”
And now all who's seen this knows – that’s the way Silva wanted it, to get captured by MI6.
Not only Bond couldn't save the poor Severine, but he also delivered Silva's sinister plan back to England.
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Formerly known as Teppo
Perhaps there was more with Severine that was cut out of the movie and that suggested she was not only duplicitous but a less sympathetic character.
The funny thing is that she and others keep saying that she's patterned after Xenia Onatopp, but to me her character is essentially a reinvention of Maud Adams' The Man with the Golden Gun kept woman. She's also dispatched with little sympathy, but that movie developed her character more, and by the time she's killed, it's obvious that she is both doomed and that Bond does not trust her. Here, though, we get little.
Yes in Goldfinger (at night in woods) Bond tells Tilly M. to run for it and Oddjob throws his hat and breaks her neck.
SF-Bond to Severine -"I like you better, without your Beretta!"
Bleuville. (Have now seen Skyfall 4 times with various relatives.)
If Bond can call up 3 rescue Helicopters with his "new" Radio transmitter, why not
do the same at Skyfall lodge? instead of putting the head of MI6 in mortal danger.
He should be fired and jailed for that !
Bleuville. JB-"A Gun and a radio-not exactly Christmas is it?"
Silva- "Phew! All this running around - it's Exhausting!".
..and if how is it there is a digger on the back of a train for Bond to use when it's clear from the later scenes it could not have gone through those tunnels?
Bond ditched all techy stuff so Silva could only track him by spotting the car. Going to Skyfall was Bond's way of getting ahead of Silva, by stripping out all the tech stuff that Silva hacked in order to be a very naughty boy. Bond points this out when M asks when they're going, Bond replies "to the past", as in as Kincade puts it "sometimes, the old ways are the best". C'mon guys it's really not that hard to spot the old school/new school thing going on.
As for the digger, the train didn't go through any tunnels with the digger on board, and while it was parked up, it was all folded away. When Bond leaves it, the jib is extended and its parked on top of 3 VW beetles, making it look taller.
Case closed.
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I think Bond does feel some remorse seeing Solange's corpse in CR (watched it last night), Craig plays Bond covering it up almost entirely. Almost.
As for letting "the girl" die,... two words, folks. Fiona Volpe.. Slamming the folder with the red star on it closed with that one.
I too am disappointed with Sévérine's departure from the story, but don't honestly know what the writers would do with her once Silva's caught.
As I am disappointed that the DB5 is the GOLDFINGER gadget-stewn model, which is totally anachronistic, and I have no idea how Bond would have it in a garage somewhere. Did Dimitrios have a Q-branch DB5? Did Bond save the THUNDERBALL DB5 from the scrap heap, years before becoming a double-O? Bah ... cannot let logic ruin a nice touch. Even if defies logic.
“It reads better than it lives.” T. Case
You are right about the digger. In it's original position, the cab was no taller than the top of the train and the arm was extended and down so it would of course been able to pass through the tunnels after leaving the city. Thanks.
I don't mind if the likes of the digger might not of made it through a tunnel.
If it means we get a fantastic "Kick ass" stunt sequence. -{
I'll forgive them anything if they keep the action moving along. :007)
Agree, the height of things in general is best avoided as a subject altogether
I don't really see that, as Fiona was an out-and-out femme fetale plotting to kill Bond, whereas Severine is not.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
You're being very Naughty :007) Opening old wounds.