On Fri., Nov. 6, the latest rendition of the James Bond franchise, Spectre, hit theatres. The film’s pre-release coverage involved an influx of excitement regarding new and improved bond girls. Before the film was released, director Sam Mendes promised stronger and more involved Bond girls.
Much excitement surrounded Monica Bellucci’s character, Lucia Sciarra, as Spectre’s Bond Woman. 51 years old, Bellucci’s Lucia was Bond’s senior in the film, which Mendes so progressively described as a “Bond woman” as opposed to a “Bond girl.” Her character was a hopeful one, that is, until the film actually aired and Bellucci scored barely any screen time. In fact, aside from Lea Seydoux’s character, the rest of the women in Spectre received little screen time and served completely insignificant roles—Moneypenny staying at home while Bond is involved in a car chase, Estrella staying in bed while Bond sets off to blow up a bad guy, and Lucia serving as the broken widow, losing herself to Bond’s classically-forced sexual advances and being left in bed as Bond leaves her and promises to arrange for another man to lead her to safety.
Moneypenny, left behind while Bond embarks on action-packed escapades, also moves on from having a schoolgirl crush on Bond to having her own sex-life. After revealing to Bond that she has someone in her bed at 2 a.m., hinting at having a sex life, Bond questions her (as if it’s any of Bond’s business in the first place, I mean, she’s his bloody coworker) and she basically tells Bond to back off.
As the film opens up with a very cool scene with Bond and Estrella walking through Mexico’s Day of the Dead, I had high hopes for Estrella. Honestly, she looked like a bad-ass walking through the streets with Bond, mask on and looking as if she was two stiletto-steps away from assassinating someone. Instead, the two lead the camera to a hotel room, where, after being led-on by Bond, she is abandoned and left on the hotel room bed while Bond walks quickly out the window. She disappears from the film altogether after that.
Now enter Madeleine Swann, Bond’s ongoing sidekick throughout Spectre. Madeleine’s character was a step up from the typical Bond girl. She’s gun-savvy, clever, independent (before Bond steps into her life) and actually saves Bond’s life twice throughout the film—once when she shoots Bond’s attacker on a train, and another when she saves Bond from Oberhauser. She’s a woman who knows how to use a gun, great, but does that make her a well-rounded female character?
Madeleine’s character is strongly dependent on the male characters around her. First, her life relies on her father’s ability to keep a secret. Once her father passes, her life lies in the hands of Bond. Her father’s legacy places a target on her back, so, after trading his promise to keep Madeleine safe for some information, Bond serves as her chief guardian. She simply cannot survive without him, and he reminds her of this as often as he can. Like many “strong female characters,” (a term that I hate and will discuss in another article) Madeleine lacks agency and significance. Her decision-making does not help to advance the plot whatsoever.
Madeleine serves to give the audience a shallow glimpse into Bond’s nearly nonexistent heart, with questions like “Is this really what you want? Living in the shadows? Hunting, being hunted? Always alone?”
In the end scene, Bond and Madeleine give us a walk-off-into-the-sunset scene, though what makes this scene interesting is that the two walk away hand-in-hand, side-by-side, signifying some sort of equality between the two.
All in all, I truly don’t understand the hype surrounding the female characters in this film. I mean, this is the James Bond franchise we are talking about—a franchise that has been founded on a misogynistic, hyper-macho, disrespectful-to-women character with cheesy pick-up lines. We can’t really expect the franchise to suddenly redeem itself for the way it’s treated women in the past—it would be more productive to just stop making Bond films altogether, because Bond’s character is super out-dated, and, according to how much the film made on opening weekend, apparently many people have stopped caring.