Red, Bond, Blue: red and blue in the new 007

Unpublished article - Anaïs Sierro

Dying can wait is a farewell to the actor Daniel Craig as much as to James Bond and everything he stood for. An interpretation of two colors - red and blue - present in filigree throughout the new 007 gives a better understanding of what can engender this feeling.

We've waited so long for him. Now it's here. The 25th^th opus of the James Bond saga and the one that bids farewell to its now historic interpreter, Daniel Craig. The Spectre, the Aston Martins, the «so-British» humor and the legendary chases of the past 50 years are all here. The MGM studio, recently acquired by Amazon, wanted to reinvent the character and the visual identity of this universe. A single watchword: the XIX^th century. Among these changes, let's start with this one: never before have we been so immersed in the emotions and personal life of James Bond, who turns out to be madly in love with just one woman and father.

The other major update is the arrival of contemporary colorimetry and graphics. Right from the opening credits. First, it pays homage to the very first credits of James Bond versus Dr. No, with large, animated dots of color, very '60s. But then, above all, it reveals two colors that will reappear sporadically throughout the film: red and blue. From calibrated atmospheres to the clothing of MI6 members in certain scenes, via the vials of the lethal weapon Heracles. It's worth asking what this choice and its symbolism are all about.

Ordering Bond

James Bond may be best known for his secret agent number, but historically, he was a former commander in the Royal Naval Reserve during the Second World War. So it's impossible not to see in the blue and red an obvious nod to the colors of the Royal Navy, and, by extension, those of the British flag. Union Jack. And while it may seem like a simple nod to the spy's past, it's nothing of the sort. Right from the start, «retired» James Bond introduces himself as Commander Bond, working for the CIA. And this is an important detail: the man not only wears a different suit, but also adopts different habits, such as drinking whiskey instead of «Vodka Martini with a shaker and not a spoon». Macallan whiskey has been present in several Bond opuses, but often when Bond is off-mission or «on retreat». Proof that the secret agent is presented here far removed from his double agent status.

Read also | The color yellow in the series Breaking Bad

With the loss of his serial number, assigned to the new MI6 agent Nomi (Lashana Lynch), his spy suit consigned to the closet and his character stripped of his mythical characteristics, James Bond has been sadly trivialized and demystified. And for purists, that's hardly acceptable. 

Even if the production shows a desire to make him more human as soon as Daniel Craig, the Bond commander in Dying can wait is disappointing. Too human, too monogamous, too responsible, too uncharming, too flirtatious, too playful... Where has Ian Flemming's 007 gone? We're touched by the character and his story, but it has no place in a James Bond opus. Being contemporary, yes, because that's part of the James Bond story, especially in the problematic. But wanting to be too contemporary, no. One suspects a certain desire to appeal to a wide audience. Even to its detractors. Which is even worse, because James Bond is a myth that challenges morality and is therefore open to debate. It's fiction. And fiction, it should be remembered, has its own reality, embodying an imagination and a bias. 

Hot-blooded, cold-blooded

The symbolism of red and blue doesn't stop there. We suspect a link with the colors that symbolize blood in all anatomy textbooks. The metaphor would be red for hot-bloodedness and love, and blue for cold-bloodedness and phlegm. Once again, this nuance introduces us to James Bond's dual personality in this opus. For a double agent, it's pretty obvious, we might say with an attempt at «so british» humor. Let's see why it's not necessarily a good choice.

Bond's cold-bloodedness is more than evident in the opus' many battles, which is not to our displeasure. We love the charm of the endless chases and the hand-to-hand combat, each more perilous than the last. And if the latter are increasingly Hollywood-style, we're able to accept it, because a few codes remain. The modesty of the violence, recalling the ban on showing a drop of blood in the first Bond opuses, but also the implausibility of the ability to always get away with it and the Bondesque humor with pre-mortem punchlines scattered here and there: we love it and we want more.

Hot-bloodedness, on the other hand, is more problematic. For it refers to love, to the «human» side, to morality. And, tragically, to the new side of James Bond: the loving, sensitive, reasonable man. In fact, from the very first minutes, the screenwriter offers us a scene of Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) and James Bond in a beautiful Aston Martin, in love on a road in the setting sun, and where James Bond even refuses to accelerate, because why hurry... But yes, why should we have hurried when the film lasts almost three hours and one less kitsch scene wouldn't have changed the quality of the film at all? Answer: to avoid several laughing reactions from the audience. And when the story takes Swann away from 007 and introduces a James Bond girl, Paloma (the excellent Ana de Armas), with mythical codes, but far more powerful, we're satisfied. The film's best moment. Too short. Too quickly forgotten, drowned out by the Americanization and humanization of the rest.

Craig's bow, Bond's too 

All the same, we come away moved, dazzled, but terribly disappointed. Disappointed and sad. Sad to see what makes James Bond with actor Daniel Craig go down the drain. Sad that so much more quality could have been packed into a 25-minute film.^th opus. In addition to the mediocrity of the script, other disappointments include the actress Léa Seydoux, who doesn't bring her A-game here, the overly simplistic death of Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) and the weakly exploited character of Safin (Rami Malek). All of this, however, is made up for by excellent cinematography, which once again doesn't disappoint. And a little thematic joy: the reference to the god Heracles and his death. The myth is well and truly established.

Write to the author: anais.sierro@leregardlibre.com