GoldenEye: Short skirts and women in power

I’m going to have to agree with Lindsay about Brosnan’s sex appeal. I’m not sure what it is, but he’s got some sort of spark that screams, “I’m James Bond and I’m going to save the day.” Sexiness aside, there’s just some things within the Bond franchise that don’t get better with time. Like, for example, the fact that Bond seems to have a kink for rough, forceful make out sessions. While he didn’t throw Natalya into a haystack like Moore or literally rip her clothes off and throw her onto the bed like Dalton, Brosnan didn’t have a problem pulling her close and promptly shoving his tongue down her throat without warning. Of course, Natalya fought back at first, but who can resist Bond’s forceful charm for an extended period of time?

What struck me as odd is that Natalya, aside from managing to keep all of her clothing relatively clean no matter how many explosions she survived, was wearing a skirt. In Russia. In the middle of winter. Really? I don’t care if she had tights on underneath; if Boris had to wear a parka just to leave the original facility, how did Natalya not automatically freeze to death when she left in her skirt and sweater? Throughout the film, various characters complained about how cold it is in Russia and how unnaturally long the winter lasts. Apparently she didn’t get the memo and thought skirt season was a go.

I absolutely loved the fact that not only was M a woman, but she was a woman who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind and tell Bond what she really thought of him. When she called him a “misogynistic dinosaur,” I just about died of joy. For once a woman wasn’t seduced by the elusive Bond and managed to get into a position of power in her own right.

I also want to mention at the very end when Bond and Alec are dueling at the top of the satellite thing and Bond kicks Alec off the platform. He could have let him fall to his death and that would’ve been the end of it. However, Bond makes a point to reach down, at first apparently to save Alec like all good guys seem to want to do. Instead, he deliberately lets him go with Alec knowing full well it was Bond who was killing him out of revenge. Moore would never do something like that and I’m not sure Connery would either. It’s cruel, calculated and deliberate, characteristics we usually see from the villains.