(no subject)
Piggybacking off of this, because I like explaining how I perceive Bond in my head to the audience who may largely be going "WTF?", my favorite movie moments?
--that requires remembering, and I'm still rotten at it despite taking ginkgo biloba daily. There is, however, a moment I can speak of, which defines what James Bond is to me, as a spy: The Living Daylights, when Bond has to shoot the "sniper" to save General Koskov. Everything relies on that moment, doing everything right, precisely, because everything relative to that moment is on the line. The mood of the scene implies that it's not just everything at that moment: the world is resting on Bond's shoulders, and he has to do the right thing---in secret. Nobody will notice if someone in a room high above the street stops moving because of a bullet. Nobody will notice that the man crossing the street is crossing over to safety, defection, betrayal--win one for the Western team, lose one for the East. Of course we know James Bond isn't always the covert agent he's supposed to be, and that that moment in The Living Daylights is a rare one of actual secrecy, but something about that moment rings more true to me than any other moments in the Bond series. That is him, for me. That is what he does. He's under a lot of pressure to get it right or risk jeopardizing everything, and because he is Bond, you know that he will get it right, but not in the way he's supposed to (he'll always do his own thing, a constant improviser).
And the music from that scene sums it all up pretty well, too. I think that's my favorite Barry track.