Whilst investigating the deliberate sinking of a Royal Navy
ship in the South China Sea, Bond’s attention falls on media baron Elliot
Carver and his organisation.
Considering the film is fifteen years old, there’s an
amazing kind of prescience to it: given recent revelations about the role of
the media and their underhanded tactics to get stories, the scenario presented
here (whilst overblown) is at the very least plausible. The Bond films of the
1990s all took place in a kind of heightened reality, so a desire to start a
war for ratings fits in to that quite well.
Jonathan Pryce is brilliant as Carver, a total sociopath and
megalomaniac willing to create a war situation for ratings and prepared to
eliminate anyone who betrays him- including his own wife. I especially love his
opening scene, deliberating about using the word ‘killed’ or ‘murdered’ in the
headline- a man who knows the power of words. There’s also a certain amount of
glee in his briefing where he sends his ‘golden retrievers’ to do his bidding
and the showdown between Carver, Bond and Wai Lin in Saigon is also brilliantly
played. Pryce took over the role after Anthony Hopkins dropped out of the role.
Michelle Yeoh is similarly great as Chinese agent Wai Lin
who is running a parallel investigation to Bond’s into Carver. Wai Lin is a
tough and proficient agent, more than capable of looking after herself (ably
shown when she takes on a bunch of goons) and fully equipped with a range of
nifty gadgets. Yeoh’s interplay with Brosnan is particularly good.
Teri Hatcher shines as Paris Carver, Elliot’s wife and
Bond’s old flame who got ‘too close for comfort’ to 007. After meeting again in
Hamburg, Paris decides to help Bond bring her husband down- and pays the
ultimate price. There’s a vulnerability to Hatcher’s performance which is
particularly affecting. There’s a lovely cameo by Vincent Schiavelli as Dr.
Kaufmann- a small but very memorable role as Paris’ assassin. It’s a scene
played with some menace but also some humour, which I think is a fair
description of the script as a whole- good work by Bruce Feirstein.
There are some great action set-pieces- the sinking of the
HMS Devonshire and Bond’s investigation of the sunken ship, the fight at the
Hamburg printing press, the HALO jump, the motorcycle chase through Saigon and,
of course, the sequence with the remote controlled BMW- all directed with flair
by Roger Spottiswoode and ably supported by David Arnold’s superb score.
A triumph all round.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Tez
