M is a Double Zero
Jordana Willner
December 1999
M is for Masterful. Meticulous. Mysterious and mature. M is also the mainstay modern manager who gives James Bond his bi-annual performance review and quarterly profit sharing check.
M, presumed male in the first seventeen James Bond movies, experienced a stylish rebirth in Bond #18, 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies." In a clever casting twist, Oscar-winner Dame Judy Dench debuted as a ramrod straight, no-nonsense M, the female boss of Hollywood's greatest secret agent. Dench's M knew the spy business cold, and her femaleness was neither detraction nor delay when it came to making the tough calls that endangered lives and risked world annihilation. Making that scamp Bond answerable to a serious I've-seen-everything-you-have-to-show matron was a delicious reversal of formula, and she wore her pants better than any other spy boss in the business.
Which was not too farfetched in a film series notorious for mixing misogyny with reverence. Building on a history of tough female nemeses and sidekicks, #18 was the best yet. Each female character was an improvement on the last, showcasing womanhood as an ongoing ascension to greatness. With Michelle Yeoh, a compelling young sidekick whose intelligence, athletic skills, and spy acumen made her a worthy professional partner for Bond, and led by M, older and grayer than Yeoh but every bit a powerhouse woman, #18 celebrated brains and abilities as a sturdier pair of female assets than bond girl Teri Hatcher’s spectacular natural set.
Thus Dench's anticipated return in Bond #19, "The World Is Not Enough," was as welcome a reprisal as Pierce Brosnan's mature and thoughtful 007. But whatever points were won by the initial casting of the Lady M were flatly undone when #19 reduced her from law enforcement manageress-of-the-year to a gullible, emotionally overwrought mother figure with bad instincts and no judgment. Enter M #19: Licensed to be a Pill.
Here, M is for mistake. Marginal. Middle-aged and matronly. Like a frail female cliché, M abandons her hard-nosed professionalism for interpersonal fretting and fist-clenching. Referencing motherly guilt, her instincts go the way of her concentration, and she dumbly steps in a trap that any mindless Bondette could avoid. Klutzy M even fails miserably at a dungeon break, using the same reach-through-the-bars-method once employed with far greater success by the Brady Bunch kids. So inert is M that she, head of the vaunted double-0 organization, must join the queue of tear-stained, death's door damsels rescued by the ever-resourceful 007.
Granted, given the series’ long, celebrated history of such Bondian heroics, no one expects a referendum on feminist depictions in film when buying a ticket for a James Bond movie. Yet with the fifth and arguably best Bond actor ever, a huge budget, and a talented supporting cast, weakening M's viability is a serious affront, far worse than the much-publicized casting of mouthwatering but stilted Denise Richards as a post-adolescent nuclear physicist who dresses like a tawdry camp counselor.
While M's descent into menopausal mediocrity is hardly the smoking gun to indicate the degrading and limited Hollywood view of adult women, it’s particularly pathetic to see a team choke on its own formula when they possessed all the makings for freshness. Judy Dench alone is a force for male reckoning, having proven her talent for deadpan, razor-sharp leadership and autocracy not only in her first run as M, but in her Academy Award winning portrayal of in “Shakespeare in Love’s” Queen Elizabeth I, history’s quintessential female leader. Plus, with their tradition of hard-living women who are as brilliant and resourceful as the hero himself, the Bond team displays a disturbing lack of consistency with their own product by featuring a character so unskilled and unmotivated in the pursuit of her own survival.
Viewers who are not outraged by M’s meltdown will at least be bored by her incessant pacing and tsking. Where she could be a true supporting figure, she instead appears as a middle-aged woman slowing down the fun, and in Bond’s world of fast gadgets, fast women, and fast action, an old lady who can’t keep up is an unwelcome liability. And an unnecessary one. Why go to the trouble of casting a powerful older woman only to undo any implications of maturity and vitality? A traditionally stuffy white male M with no allusions to modernity would be far preferable to the damage done by #19’s reinforcement of the tired female stereotypes of vulnerability and dependency.
Not surprisingly, M’s breakdown is only one element of #19's plot that is uncreative and disappointing. With a story line that ignores #18's clever acknowledgment of the power of information, #19 tells a well-worn tale of oil, nukes, and submarines. So much money and talent in a campy but beloved film tradition should be worthy of far more innovation. Yet Bond's creators apparently tripped on all their old scripts; they couldn’t resist re-filming old scenes of Bond on skis and boats, and they couldn't conceive of an older female character who doesn't require salvation at the hands of the hero.
Bond will be back soon in his 20th film adventure. By then, perhaps intelligent filmmaking will prevail and M will once again be a maven with moxie. Until then, any one of the Golden Girls could kick her ass. Shaking and stirred, M is a mess.
*******************************
Correction: "GoldenEye," 1995, was Dame Judi Dench's debut film in the role of "M." Thus "The World is Not Enough" was her third Bond film, not her second as written above.
December 1999
M is for Masterful. Meticulous. Mysterious and mature. M is also the mainstay modern manager who gives James Bond his bi-annual performance review and quarterly profit sharing check.
M, presumed male in the first seventeen James Bond movies, experienced a stylish rebirth in Bond #18, 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies." In a clever casting twist, Oscar-winner Dame Judy Dench debuted as a ramrod straight, no-nonsense M, the female boss of Hollywood's greatest secret agent. Dench's M knew the spy business cold, and her femaleness was neither detraction nor delay when it came to making the tough calls that endangered lives and risked world annihilation. Making that scamp Bond answerable to a serious I've-seen-everything-you-have-to-show matron was a delicious reversal of formula, and she wore her pants better than any other spy boss in the business.
Which was not too farfetched in a film series notorious for mixing misogyny with reverence. Building on a history of tough female nemeses and sidekicks, #18 was the best yet. Each female character was an improvement on the last, showcasing womanhood as an ongoing ascension to greatness. With Michelle Yeoh, a compelling young sidekick whose intelligence, athletic skills, and spy acumen made her a worthy professional partner for Bond, and led by M, older and grayer than Yeoh but every bit a powerhouse woman, #18 celebrated brains and abilities as a sturdier pair of female assets than bond girl Teri Hatcher’s spectacular natural set.
Thus Dench's anticipated return in Bond #19, "The World Is Not Enough," was as welcome a reprisal as Pierce Brosnan's mature and thoughtful 007. But whatever points were won by the initial casting of the Lady M were flatly undone when #19 reduced her from law enforcement manageress-of-the-year to a gullible, emotionally overwrought mother figure with bad instincts and no judgment. Enter M #19: Licensed to be a Pill.
Here, M is for mistake. Marginal. Middle-aged and matronly. Like a frail female cliché, M abandons her hard-nosed professionalism for interpersonal fretting and fist-clenching. Referencing motherly guilt, her instincts go the way of her concentration, and she dumbly steps in a trap that any mindless Bondette could avoid. Klutzy M even fails miserably at a dungeon break, using the same reach-through-the-bars-method once employed with far greater success by the Brady Bunch kids. So inert is M that she, head of the vaunted double-0 organization, must join the queue of tear-stained, death's door damsels rescued by the ever-resourceful 007.
Granted, given the series’ long, celebrated history of such Bondian heroics, no one expects a referendum on feminist depictions in film when buying a ticket for a James Bond movie. Yet with the fifth and arguably best Bond actor ever, a huge budget, and a talented supporting cast, weakening M's viability is a serious affront, far worse than the much-publicized casting of mouthwatering but stilted Denise Richards as a post-adolescent nuclear physicist who dresses like a tawdry camp counselor.
While M's descent into menopausal mediocrity is hardly the smoking gun to indicate the degrading and limited Hollywood view of adult women, it’s particularly pathetic to see a team choke on its own formula when they possessed all the makings for freshness. Judy Dench alone is a force for male reckoning, having proven her talent for deadpan, razor-sharp leadership and autocracy not only in her first run as M, but in her Academy Award winning portrayal of in “Shakespeare in Love’s” Queen Elizabeth I, history’s quintessential female leader. Plus, with their tradition of hard-living women who are as brilliant and resourceful as the hero himself, the Bond team displays a disturbing lack of consistency with their own product by featuring a character so unskilled and unmotivated in the pursuit of her own survival.
Viewers who are not outraged by M’s meltdown will at least be bored by her incessant pacing and tsking. Where she could be a true supporting figure, she instead appears as a middle-aged woman slowing down the fun, and in Bond’s world of fast gadgets, fast women, and fast action, an old lady who can’t keep up is an unwelcome liability. And an unnecessary one. Why go to the trouble of casting a powerful older woman only to undo any implications of maturity and vitality? A traditionally stuffy white male M with no allusions to modernity would be far preferable to the damage done by #19’s reinforcement of the tired female stereotypes of vulnerability and dependency.
Not surprisingly, M’s breakdown is only one element of #19's plot that is uncreative and disappointing. With a story line that ignores #18's clever acknowledgment of the power of information, #19 tells a well-worn tale of oil, nukes, and submarines. So much money and talent in a campy but beloved film tradition should be worthy of far more innovation. Yet Bond's creators apparently tripped on all their old scripts; they couldn’t resist re-filming old scenes of Bond on skis and boats, and they couldn't conceive of an older female character who doesn't require salvation at the hands of the hero.
Bond will be back soon in his 20th film adventure. By then, perhaps intelligent filmmaking will prevail and M will once again be a maven with moxie. Until then, any one of the Golden Girls could kick her ass. Shaking and stirred, M is a mess.
*******************************
Correction: "GoldenEye," 1995, was Dame Judi Dench's debut film in the role of "M." Thus "The World is Not Enough" was her third Bond film, not her second as written above.
posted by jmw at 10:52 AM
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