[This was a piece I wrote a few months ago, when the latest Bond flick had just hit the screens.]Well, the consummate businessmen that they are, Warner Bros have pulled it off once again. They’ve made yet another commercially viable James Bond flick by reading the pulse of the market and dressing up Bond in the manner that sells to this grim post 9/11 movie watching generation that seeks the same themes of trauma and soberness that has engulfed international media ever since the incident. The point of this write up is to scoff at the self-righteous Sunday newspaper movie critics whose favorite pass time is to champion the cause of neo-realist, serious, grim, artsy, small budget cinema and lambaste big movie houses for churning unaesthetic obscenely expensive movies that kill the spirit of cinema and blah! The bottom line is that like in any industry, commerce drives movie making too. If there is money to be made by making so-called puritan movies, Warner Bros and Co. will make those movies and laugh their way to the bank. Aesthetics, movie making craft, sensibility and all the associated b.s. that movie critics used throw in your face is not pristine anymore, if plain vanilla is the flavor of the month, so be it; Rich Daddy is going to serve you all the aestheticism you want and rake in the moolah too. Purity of art is a myth; anybody can be co-opted for the right price.
Epilogue: It is no wonder that Martin Scorsese’s recently released, “The Departed”, has proven to be a big hit at the box office. Incidentally, Martin Scorsese belongs to the breed of film makers whose work has always pleased the critics but never fired at the box office. For once, Scorsese has got his timing right, “The Departed”, is his largest commercial success till date.
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