Moon'saBalloonRaker
[spoilers follow]
As we've noted, Bond films often have an element of the pantomime, but at last we've come across a film that is a pantomime start to finish. The baddie is a preposterous queen, who plans to destroy all human life because of course he does. HIs sidekick is Jaws, whom we met in the previous episode (the next for me) and who is bizarre and indestructible.
Meanwhile, we have Aladdin, with his magic watch. Often in pantomimes, a woman will play the lead and pretend to be a man (gender confusion is a staple of the genre) but in the Bondamime, there is absolutely no confusion. Bond is a man. Women are not safe around him. Quite literally in the case of the Rio station woman whom Bond sexually assaults. This is our first incidence of outright assault, and I fear it won't be our last. I want to keep this light but I think it's appropriate to stop and say something.
I'm by no means a social justice warrior, although I do believe there should be justice, and one element of that is that I oppose the patriarchal system we live in. I believe strongly that women should have the right to physical integrity, and should expect to be asked for enthusiastic consent to intrusions on that integrity. The Bond films partly helped build that culture, that system, that I oppose. That does make them problematic. I suppose you can handwave that away but saying, yeah but I am *aware*, I *see* it. But of course that really doesn't change that these are not just documents of a culture but fuel to sustain it. And like many men of my age, I find I am encumbered with a whole suite of concepts and feelings that I have to try to subdue or rid myself of or mitigate, and enjoying these films was a part of the process of acquiring them.
And in fact, watching films like Moonraker today, the sexist framing does tend to poison the viewing experience. But I don't think it's much fun to continue to harp on it, so I won't.
What I will do is say that within Moonraker's narrative structure, going to space is not even weird. *Of course* Bond goes to space. Why wouldn't he? The whole thing is playing straight but is clearly a massive joke. Weirdly the action is a bit flat. There's a scrap on a cable car that works and a guy in a samurai costume that I can't begin to explain but the fight's kinda fun. The space stuff is dull. And so I'm sad to say is Jaws. Once you've ascertained you can't hurt the dude and that he's three times stronger than Bond, there's very little fun to have out of him. Contrast that with some of the hard villains that Connery comes up against.
So is this any good? Well, it's a sort of fun. Whether you rated it would depend on how much disbelief you're willing to suspend. And whether you buy Lois Chiles. For once, it's just about plausible that she likes Bond, and she seems up for a zipless fuck, so all's good there. And I guess she's borderline sparky so I think you could give the movie a pass on the girl side of things. The script is horseshit but Drax is fun -- awesomely deadpan and campy both at the same time. I'm going to say C. It's not close to the worst but it's so silly you can't really get into it. I'd really like not to have watched the last five minutes though. Q doing a shagging pun is not his finest moment.
posted by Dr Zen @ 8:06 pm
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