The thrill is in the chase

Forty years after Sean Connery debuted as secret agent 007 in Dr. No, the James Bond franchise certainly doesn’t show any signs of dying another day – certainly not any day soon.

Many reasons have been cited for the enduring appeal of the James Bond films, with "sex, sex, sex" being one of them, acknowledged by no less than Die’s... James Bond Pierce Brosnan in a recent TV interview. ("Sex, sex, sex" has also been the bone of contention of those opposing the Bond films’ seeming glorification of casual sex–but that is another story.)

There has also been, of course, the bevy of beauties–Bond Girls, they are called–starting with bombshell Ursula Andres. Halle Berry pays the latter and James Bond’s 40th anniversary a homage of sorts in the scene where she emerges from the sea, a re-enactment of Ursula’s beach scene in Dr. No.

Luckily for them, the James Bond producers have consistently chosen Bond Girls who are not only beautiful, they boast of a certain allure described in the vernacular as"may dating." Line up the Bond Girls from Claudine Auger to Daniella Bianchi, Britt Ekland to Jane Seymour, Barbara Bach to Sophie Marceau, and you have an international assembly of high-wattage charisma. One can even forget these actresses’ other film outings, but their turns as Bond Girls always stick in the mind.

As for Halle Berry, choosing her to play Bond Girl Jinx in Die... has been one of the most inspired cases of perfect casting–and timing. After her historic Academy-Award win early this year, movie-watchers at first wondered if it was wise of Halle to follow up her Monster’s Ball role playing a Bond Girl. Many saw it as a "demotion" for Halle who with an Oscar had secured her reputation as a gifted actress. In Die…, Halle proves she is a career-savvy actress as well with a gut feel of the fans’ tastes.

Perhaps, being all too aware of the Bond films’ long-running, worldwide popularity, Halle figured she would secure her place as a box-office heavyweight with this one. Smart move indeed–Die… is a virtual showcase of Halle’s A-list star wattage. There’s no denying this the moment she appears in an orange bikini. Halle Berry’s presence jolts you to attention. She makes kicking ass look easy, too. One of the film’s merits, as even the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has noted, is that Jinx is an equal–as opposed to being merely an "ornament"–of James Bond.

Proof that Halle’s sass has paid off: talks already have it that Jinx is spinning off into a movie of her own. Hurray for equal rights advocates and hurray for the producers who, sensitive to the changing times, cast a woman on equal footing with Bond.

A bonus in this film is that there’s an obvious chemistry – although not necessarily the romantic kind – between Pierce and Halle, unlike, say, what Anne Heche and Harrison Ford sorely lacked in Seven Days, Seven Nights or what Stephen Baldwin and Cindy Crawford failed to generate in Fair Game.

The gorgeous Rosamund Pike is also perfectly cast as Halle’s foil. Where Halle comes off as earthy, Rosamund is ethereal. Where Halle is fiery, Rosamund seems cool. Or so she makes us think.

Another aspect–one dares say the best aspect–that works well for Die... is its heart-pumping, breath-taking chase scenes. So much so that one doesn’t have to dwell much on the film’s plot which centers around a disgruntled Oxford and Harvard-educated Korean military man "dying another day" and resurfacing as a Caucasian diamond magnate (played by Toby Stephens, Dame Maggie Smith’s son) out to wreak worldwide havoc with a satellite so powerful it can blast missiles and mountains of snow just like that.

It is to the producers’ credit that they have continually upgraded the Bond tradition of spectacular chase sequences, updating the gadgets and gimmickry (Bond’s Aston-Martin even goes invisible here) and thinking of the most far-out venues with every film. One is wont to regard Die...., like its predecessors, as actually a string of elaborate sequences showing off James Bond’s uncanny ability to escape seemingly impossible situations.

James Bond films are in this sense the ultimate escapist fare in that viewers can relate to the way the secret agent escapes by the skin of his teeth each time; the villains may put James Bond–and the audience along with him–in perilous situations but one can be sure there will always, always be a way out.

From the crash-bang-boom chase of tanks over mine-fields in Korea; to the one which makes Ice Age’s snow and mountain-cracking sequence look downright pre-historic; to the car race over a frozen lake and a building carved out of ice; to the climactic scene involving a crashing, disintegrating airplane and a hurtling helicopter–it’s non-stop, adrenaline-pumping action all the way. One can thrill to the chase scenes even more in cinemas that offer Dolby sound. This technology, so sharp and so defined, makes viewers feel like they’ve stepped into the scenes themselves.

Inevitably (or intentionally?) buried amidst all the action is James Bond the person, who beyond his suave-ness, womanizing, and love for martini (shaken but not stirred, please) and cars, audiences still don’t know much about. Not that this matters, apparently. What is not known about him may even contribute to the James Bond mystique.

Lest one forgets–there’s the soundtrack to boot. Madonna does better than her predecessors including Shirley Bassey (Diamonds are Forever) and Paul McCartney (Live and Let Die) by not only singing the film’s title tune, she does a cameo as the villain’s fencing instructor.

Since Die... has been rated PG-13, just a few points for parents tagging their teen-agers along. There are graphically violent scenes here, among them Halle Berry shooting a man point-blank in the head and one where she kills another by hurtling a knife to his neck. There’s even a brutal scene of parricide. And then there’s the casual sex, as casual as casual can be, with James Bond bedding two women he knows virtually nothing about (but that, die-hard Bond fans will argue, is what makes Bond, Bond).

That said, however, mature viewers can savor Die Another Day for the slam-bang, high-tech escapist fare that it is. As Bond himself said, the thrill, really, is in the chase – especially if one doesn’t get caught.