New Bond Film Raises Old Issue

Yes, Daniel Craig has breathed fresh life into one of my favorite franchises that had gone seriously stale. For this I am grateful. The casting of Craig, however, may have been one of the few things the producers have done right in far too long.

The link above leads to an article about a mayor of a small rural town in Chile who drove onto one of the sets for the upcoming Bond film. The very first thing that struck me was the number and quality of the qualifications laid on this man before the article even got underway:

Yes, he is a mayor. That should suffice. Why is it necessary to indicate that the town is small? Why should it matter that it is rural? Does this reflect on the film? No, it belittles the man. To what end?

The title of the article titillates, the adjectives add fuel to the intended fire, and what should be the heart of the matter is buried so far down the article that many readers will, in all likelihood, never get there.

So what is the point? Yes, I seem to have buried it as well... The point is that this public official was making a political protest over the all too common practice of using one country's scenic locales to depict those of another country. The problem here is that this particular piece of land has been the bone of contention between two neighboring countries for over a century. How is it that the filmmakers failed to know this? Did they knowingly proceed? Somehow that seems worse, the willful fanning of controversial political flames.

A second point, more than merely secondary, is that the increased police presence in the town because of filming is reminiscent of one of the bloodiest and most brutal dictatorships in recent Chilean history. Again, the filmmakers seem callously, arrogantly oblivious of the society in which they are working as guests.

How is it that foreign filmmakers carry such clout that a man of such stature as a local mayor should be treated as a common criminal by police officers acting merely as hired security? In the United States, they would be off duty, moonlighting, without the authority necessary to arrest intruders. They would simply be present to deter or detain, as need be. True, Chile is not the U.S., and even in this country no one is above the law, but since when is protecting a film set license to oppress others, as this mayor has described? Of course, since when does a public official feel the need to make a spectacle of himself in order to make a point? Oh wait... I can answer that one...