The Digital Action Image of James Bond

Introduction

This essay studies the relationship between digitally enhanced films and presentations of masculinity by focusing on the James Bond series. The pace and extent of technological implementation is considered here as significant factor that drives renewed reflections of gender in the popular cinema. The James Bond series highlights this linkage by introducing novel image of heroic masculinity throughout the 2000s. Shaped by digital processes, the fresh gender image of Bond articulates the inconsistent, changeable and unpredictable nature of his foundations. On the other hand, the realistic construction of his performances operates to legitimize his masculine heroic image.

A central concern of gender studies in films is given to the heroic ideal of masculinity in Hollywood cinema, revealing the ways in which films, as cultural products, may indicate patriarchal ideas and beliefs in spectacles of physical prowess and heroic endeavor. Significant studies argue that regardless the fact that camerawork and editing mark the male body as an erotic object that provides pleasure for the gaze of the spectator by focusing, in extreme manners that are typically kept for female characters, on the unclothed physically sculpted masculinity, body-focused displays privilege the virile body with heroic attributes that both assumes and works to renew orders of gender, sexuality, social identity and authority marking patriarchal society. For example, Steve Neale's reflection on men and mainstream cinema suggests that the glamorous performance of the male movie star is marked by the extent to which he renders almost superhuman in spectacles of physical endurance.¹

These spectacles are determined through battles, fights and duels stylized to follow the cultural and mainstream cinema conventions that tend to minimize and reject any erotic expression the direct displays of the male body tend to involve. (14-15) Drew Ayers raises questions as to the possible (homo) erotic implications of the "hard body" films of the 1980s and early 1990s that feature athletically skilled male stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Dolph Lundgren as central protagonists engaged in excessive, super heroic violence that place additional emphasis on their physical competence.² However, the cinematic conventions of the hard body genre, says Ayers, present it "in a more 'masculine' way" in scenes of torture, pain, and training that reject homoerotic standpoint. (51-52)

Other scholars refer to the shift in the body-centered model of heroism since the violent spectacles of "hard body" heroes. During the 1990s, rather than hyper masculine heroism embodied by active and muscular bodies, youthful heroes perform a more average kind of masculinity both physically and emotionally. These inert and more driven by intellects than strength protagonists were followed by new heroic images of female protagonists. For example, Philippa Gates indicates on what she regards as a more positive model of male action hero.³ Gates regards this shift in the heroic identity of male heroes as reaction to changing social roles for men cultural conceptions of masculinity as slimmer, smaller and uncertain youth such as Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Titanic (dir. Cameron, US, 1997), Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix (dir. Wachowski Bros., US, 1999) and Rafe McCrawley (Ben Affleck) in Pearl Harbor (dir Bay, US, 2001) replace the older and powerfully built action heroes. The hard bodies, says Gates, "… gave way to soft hearts." (150) Lisa Funnell argues that this shift "opened up heroic space for the introduction of women as lead protagonists in the genre."⁴ (Assimilating, 66) However, although action women protagonists such as Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) in The Matrix films (dir. Wachowski brothers, US, 1999, 2003, 2003), Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux (dir. Karyn Kusama, US, 2005), and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) in Mr. And Mrs. Smith (dir. Doug Liman, US, 2005) undermine central gender binaries by challenging "traditional" roles of masculine heroism, Funnell exposes their heroic images as products of patriarchal culture and its ideals of heroism.

Although the above mentioned studies give a good picture of the Hollywood model of the heroic image as reflection of existing patriarchal conceptions, they do not engage with its transformation in the context of the technological revolution in cinema since the 1990s, when filmmakers gradually embraced digital methods as legitimate practices, particularly in the realm of special effects and evidently in action spectacles of heroic fortitude and strength. Indeed, Ayers indicates that the hard body genre was replaced by the digitally enhanced Hollywood action/adventure films that shelter the ideal of heroic masculinity with more attention on special effects, (56-58)

Gates refers to aesthetic resolutions as, for example, the more detailed visualization of events in crime scene investigations, (168-169) and Funnell overrides this issue by focusing on Hong Kong martial art tradition as a central source of influence. (Assimilating, 69) However, while these works recognize the importance of the digital revolution they avoid, to my mind, thorough discussion of the impact of digital technology on the presentation of heroic masculinity. In what ways the increasing usage of digital methods and practices affect the presentation of the heroic body image as a faithful reflection of concrete patriarchal conceptions?

The James Bond series provides a tangible illustration through which to examine the heroic image in light of the incorporation of digital intermediaries into the film series since Goldeneye (dir. Martin Campbell, US, 1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (dir. Roger Spottiswoode, US, 1997) and Die Another Day (dir. Lee Tamahori, US, 2002) that feature Pierce Brosnan as the main protagonist, to Casino Royale (dir. Martin Campbell, US, 2006), Quantum of Solace (dir. Marc Forster, US, 2008) and Skyfall (dir. Sam Mendes, US, 2012) that feature Daniel Craig. According to Umberto Eco, Bond's attraction lies in the thrill that comes from witnessing his moments of physical and emotional excitement and risk. His adventures, both heroic and sexual, are grounded in his visual appearance, movements, motivations, and behaviors, which in turn reflect the ways in which the Bond filmmakers have re-conceptualized his action-image over the years.⁵ However, while Eco identifies a repeated pattern of dichotomies that construct, among all, protagonist's heroic and gender attributes based on "a series of oppositions which allow a limited number of permutations and interactions" (147), other scholars indicate that, by the turn of the century, this construction reflects combination, mixing and merging of features that constitute a more supple rather invariant image of Bond.

Bond and Masculinity

For example, according to Lisa Funnell, up until the 1990s the Bond series keep on featuring an older and more mature protagonist with sleeker figure as a heroic ideal that brings together muscularity with intelligence and self-restrain.⁶ However, says Funnell, an examination of Casino Royale "in relation to the established iconography of the Bond film franchise" reveals new masculine model of Bond's heroic identity which assembles the character's masculinity with feminine configurations of sexual orientations. (I Know, 456) Funnell suggests that Craig's Bond body-centered spectacles in Casino Royale that expose a muscular torso which presents ideal frames that externalize masculine potency turn the gaze to his idealized bodybuilding. The excessive directorial emphasis on this ideal body-image may associate Craig's Bond gender image with the feminine, since the position of the addressee of the gaze is traditionally occupied by female figures in Bond's films and thus associated with the feminine. (I Know, 467) Funnell regards this as a new hybrid model of gender identity, which dislocates Craig's Bond from his predecessors, tagging it "the Bond - Bond Girl Hybrid." (I Know, 456)

Katharine Cox supports the idea that Casino Royale is refashioning Bond's masculinity, as the film repeatedly juxtaposes his gender archetype with symbols that undermine the traditional hyper sexual gender image.⁷ For example, Cox indicates that Craig's Bond corporeality is often endangered and is epitomized as penetrable and abused in ways that align him with stereotypically feminine and homosexual attribute. In addition, says Cox, the relations between Bond and other male characters evoke queer connotations as, for example, when his appearance draws admiration from Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) during the torture scene, and as his interest lies with Solange's (Caterina Murino) husband Alex Demetrius (Simon Abkarian) rather than with Solange herself. (5-8) Cox views the ensuing gender identity of Bond as ambiguous. Despite Craig's excessively masculine bodybuilding, his image represents "a negotiated and an incomplete process of change that is repeatedly presented in gendered terms […] causing Bond to resemble a hybrid of gendered roles and connotations," (2) which endures into the following films.

While these works reveal the heroic and gender image of Bond as "the product of a discourse between Hollywood models of heroic masculinity and Bond generic tradition," (Funnell, I Know, 456)⁸ they make no particular reference to his image transition with the increased adoption of digital technologies into the series. In what ways the conflicted articulations of the digitally enhanced image of Bond reflect concrete foundations within actual conceptions and in what ways it acquires different sources of influence?

The penultimate film Bond Skyfall is the first film in the franchise to be shot digitally, and the first to feature over 1300 visual effects shots. At the same time, both digital and practical processes were implemented in major action scenes such as the deadly explosion in London headquarters of MI6, the casino fight in Macau, the London underground chase and the showdown at Skyfall, Scotland. According to visual effects supervisor Steve Begg these scenes reflect "a real hybrid approach to the visual effects," as they encompass live shooting as well as real-world imagery with computer-generated imagery to composite actor's performance with large scale settings.⁹ As we will see, this process involves a changing and evolving approach of Bond films' filmmakers striving for coherency, strongly determined to reproduce the impression of reality while gradually accepting digital enhancement expressive potential.

Digital Action Sequences

Victor Armstrong, a Bond series stunt double and coordinator since You only Live Twice (dir. Lewis Gilbert, US, 1967), boasts about the Bond series commitment to produce the impression of reality. This commitment, according to Armstrong, is manifested in the overt engagement in live stunts along with massive sets enhanced over the years by models and miniatures. Armstrong says: "I've always fought for taking the truth and stretching it on the screen […] delivering as much realistic action as you can […] that's what we really have to stick to with Bond."¹⁰ Armstrong's commitment to stretching the truth of action sequences on screen undergoes revision with the gradual increase in digitization since Goldeneye (dir. Martin Campbell, US, 1995). A digital-effect shot in the pre-title sequence presents the pioneering digital image of the series. Immediately after an opening shot displays an explosion in a snowy mountain with an aircraft circling above it, a computer-generated bullet is emerging out of a gun-barrel surrounded by the explosive flames, emitted towards the foreground of the screen and disappears. Drawing on Michelle Pierson, this digitally enhanced shot reproduce the impression of reality by corresponding with the "photorealistic."¹¹ According to Pierson, photorealistic aesthetics incorporate digital imagery as if it was special effects analog imagery, reproducing the look of physical objects such as models, miniatures, or animatronics through the capabilities of contemporary digital processes. Aesthetically, Pierson identifies two types of photorealism: "simulationist," which reproduce the photographic realism of the cinematographic image, and "techno-futurist," which describes hyperreal, electronic aesthetics which "can barely be imagined outside of science fiction cinema" and thus is photorealist only partially. (35) She identifies the style of CGI usage in science fiction cinema up until 1996 with the techno-futurist aesthetics that "imbued with a remarkable resemblance to objects crafted in the physical world, and on the other [hand], highlighted the hyperreal, electronic properties of objects crafted in the digital realm." (36) A temporal and narrative departure of these visuals from the action space, such as the hyper-chromatic image of the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (dir. James Cameron, US, 1991), emphasizes their astonishing magnetism. (37) It follows that of the computer-generated bullet in the pre-title sequence in Goldeneye is designed here to draw the viewer's attention as the central attraction of the shot in order to stimulate surprise and evoke awe and admiration, aiming to create the so-called shocking and charismatic impression by underlining the hyperreal nature of the CG bullet in a way that "elicit the admiring gaze of cinema audiences." (39) At the same time, rather than adopting the new digital technology as a significant procedural and aesthetic tool, the use of traditional special-effects techniques and live-action shootings dominates Goldeneye's action-scenes.¹² For example, the 220-meter bungee jumping from the Verzasca Dam in Locarno, Switzerland in the opening sequence was performed by a stuntman, and so was the longest action sequence of a tank chase, in which Bond steals a tank and pursues General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov (John Gottfried) through St. Petersburg. A trained driver maneuvered the tank with Pierce Brosnan inserted in the driver's seat to create the illusion that he was maneuvering it.¹³

The adherence to the use of physical effects procedures and live-action shootings in Goldeneye, as well as the selection of particular editing and performance tactics, facilitates the realistic effect. David Bordwell typifies editing and performance strategies that produce the impression of reality as 'rapid editing' style and 'loose style' performances.¹⁴ 'Loose style' performances, says Bordwell, exhibits hesitant behavior and partial gestures that convey an impression of action rather than emphasizing sharp movements and expressions. This performance facilitates the realistic effect as characters are presented on screen for limited periods while they make no effort to dramatize their movements. The energetic effect is gained mostly by 'rapid editing' that alternate fast shots, insert more reaction shots, and utilize fewer and briefer establishing shots and long-held two-shots. The constant dynamics endorse the coordination of the live-action with the setting and promote the realistic impression. (397–407) Based on Bordwell, the stable and consistent dynamics of the action scenes in Goldeneye promote the synchronization of the live-action to suit the impression of reality. For example, in three short fist-fighting scenes with Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), the shape of action is a result of speed cutting, short shotlength, rare movement completion within a shot and clean exit-movements. Most shots are medium-shots, emphasizing tentative and incomplete upper-body gestures rather than the whole body; facial expressions are not exaggerated to articulate an impact. The realistic impression of continuance extreme action is gained by brief and dynamic exchange of shots that avoid unexpected correspondences of characters' performances with the setting.

As the scope of digital procedures expands in subsequent Bond films Tomorrow Never Dies (dir. Roger Spottiswoode, US, 1997) and The World Is Not Enough (dir. Michael Apted, US, 1999), Bond's action scenes are enhanced through the use of digital technics. For example, in Tomorrow Never Dies he leaps among rooftops on a motor-cycle, just above the spinning rotor of a pursuing helicopter. Based on Tony Iles, green-screen shots positioned the chopper on a rig, which was digitally removed afterwards, and its rotating blades were added using computer-generated, synchronized with actual special-effect explosions filmed during the live-action shooting to represent the rotor scraping the side of the building.¹⁵ In yet another digitally constructed scene Bond and his Bond Girl Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) are escaping from a concrete silo. According to Alan Marques, a digital reconstruction was necessary here since in live-shooting the silo collapsed when the pyrotechnics went off.¹⁶ However, regardless of the increasing usage of digital technics, the films keep on suggesting the engagement with reality as a central expressive aspiration.

Bordwell illustrates this commitment by evaluating performance and editing tactics in Tomorrow never dies, and criticizes them as sacrificing clarity in order to promote the realistic impression.¹⁷ For example, Bordwell shows how in Bond's fistfight with Elliot Carver's (Jonathan Pryce) bodyguards in the interrogation room during the symposium the filmmaker actively seeks the action to be impossible to follow, assuming that "making the action illegible is creative because it promotes realism." (Bordwell, Bond vs. Chan) We get an impression of violence, says Bordwell, since actors employ restraint and make no effort to dramatize their movements and cinematography conveys the passionate actions. For instance, immediately after bodyguard A tries to punch Bond's face but misses him and hit bodyguard B instead, bodyguard C pounds (for no obvious reason) his partner bodyguard A. Bond attacks bodyguard C and a fuzzy fight starts; at this point it is more difficult to track who hits, who is battered, and who is left out of the fight. At a certain moment the struggle proceeds behind a vague partition between the control room and the interrogation room, reflecting an obscure turmoil. Infrequent master shots, continual changes in angle and shot scale, characters' disjointed and minor actions and the blurring and smearing of their violent interactions interrupt spatial unity and produce a confusing and illegible spatial layout that make it hard to say where characters are in relation to one another or what exactly is going on. The reality effect is produced by the impression of frantic and chaotic happenings reflected mainly through editing and camerawork with shot/reverse-shot exchanging, few and brief establishing shots and more medium-shots, while actors' undemonstrative movements and controlled behavior is not defined to articulate an impact but to produce authenticity of a hard fight. (Bordwell, Bond vs. Chan)

Along with the use of physical effects procedures, actual live-action shootings and editing and performance tactics that enforce the impression of reality, publicity for the films suggested realistic authenticity as well. When making his own stunts in Tomorrow Never Dies, Pierce Brosnan's injuries were broadly published in the press in order to establish his presentation as faithful to actual events. Brosnan says: "[…] I enjoy doing the stunt work. I can do it, and I think it adds to the excitement of the character and the audience's participation in the character. It's an essential part of playing the character: to be able to fight, run and push yourself to the limit of your being, so to speak."¹⁸ Bond-crew veterans in The World Is Not Enough John Richardson (miniature effects supervisor), Chris Carbould (special effects supervisor), and Victor Armstrong (second unit director), all of whom started working on the series in its early days, defend the devotion to the analog expressions of the film, criticizing the great tendency to use computer-generated imagery as a result of labormarket pressure: "models usually look more realistic while saving money too. It's also more impressive-looking when you blow-up a model rather than do it in a computer."¹⁹

Such reluctances and hesitation about switching to digital visual-effects that could harm the obtaining of impression of reality and favoring the use of liveshooting, actual stunt work and physical effects such as models, miniatures, and onset design may explain the limited use of CGI in the Bond series in the late 1990s.²⁰

However, the increased assimilation of digital techniques in the series gradually transformed its aesthetics. Rather than Goldeneye's "techno-futurist" aesthetics, the digitally enhanced Tomorrow Never Dies exemplifies the "simulationist" aesthetics as typified by Pierson, to produce an impression of reality by simulating the aesthetics that has traditionally been produced by physical methods. The "simulationist aesthetic," says Pierson, is "entirely geared toward reproducing the photographic realism of the cinematographic image." (35) This simulation reproduces physical objects through digital processes that invisibly incorporate digital imagery as if it was special effects imagery of the analog period. The impression of a real, analog (and photographed) space (which in fact is a computer-generated space) renders visual coherency that directs spectators to the action. (40) For example, in Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond and Wai Lin jump off a 32-storey building. They control their fall by grabbing an advertising banner hung from the top of the building which rips and peels progressively, slowing down their descent. This scene was constructed by a computer generated combination of green-screen live shots, photography, actual models and miniatures, as well as digital color adjustments, lighting and motion simulation.²¹

Using digital layering techniques that steadily replaced in-camera optical effects that place actors or sets against a different background during live-action shooting or in post-production, enables the successful integration of characters within digitally constructed as well as physical backdrops, as green-screen shots are combined with both actual and virtual elements. Drawing on Pierson's terminology, the multifaceted compositions of the digitally enhanced jump scene of Bond and Wai Lin is directed to produce the impression of reality by simulating the look of special effect scene that might otherwise have been created with stunts, models or miniatures. Computer manipulations have enabled the compound and coherent arrangement of computer generated imagery, live shooting and actual scenery in ways that produce an impression of realistic continuity and authenticity rather than discontinuity and intricacy. In Tomorrow Never Dies, the simulationist style of Bond and Wai Lin's jump is directed to reproduce the photographic realism of the cinematographic image, which is different from the techno-futurism style of the computer-generated bullet pre-title sequence in the earlier Bond film Goldeneye which uses gleaming and dazzling image as a central attraction that brings to mind hyperreal aesthetics. Rather than being associate with what Piersons suggests as "the presentationist style of exhibition that was so much a part of art-and-effects direction just a few years earlier," (40) the compound visual structure of Tomorrow Never Dies' jump scene is associated here with what Pierson suggests as the end of the "charismatic phase of digital reality." (39) Assembled by both actual and virtual elements, the coherent and continuous cinematic space of Tomorrow Never Dies focuses rather than distracts spectators from the action by deflecting their attention from discrete and dazzling elements transplanted in the shots and directing it through the continuous and consistent action. Consequently, the impression of reality is enforced.

The move from careful and discrete deployment of digital technology towards a combination of multiple digital techniques in Die Another Day (dir. Lee Tamahori, US, 2002) marks a significant transformation in the aesthetics of the series. In interview for Die Another Day's DVD special features, director Tamahori lauded the contribution of the digital procedures that gave him tools that were not available in the analog systems. He proclaims that a new era for Bond was brought about by digital technology, as it offers endless and effortless opportunities to heighten the effect of action sequences. Tamahori says: "The great thing is that before you could not see any kind of pre-visualization about what it was going to be like until you sent it to the lab. A week later maybe you got one dissolve back but here I could do nine layers of dissolves and cross and does all that stuff."²² Indeed, in in Die Another Day, digital compositions of photographed, modeled, and computer-generated elements encompass major scenes, from stunts and live-action presentations to complete environments. Digital visual-effects supervisor Mara Bryan says: "I've got more shots in the end sequence of this film than I had in the whole of the last Bond [The World is not Enough], which had 250 CGI shots compared to 680 in Die Another Day."²³

Bryan refers to the Tsunami surfing scene that exhibits Bond rescuing himself from the Icarus's beams. Plethora of digital visual-effects practices such as computer generated imaging, 'universal-capture' techniques, digital color grading, digital wire removal and blue-screen shootings illustrate the expanding collapse of the (CG) iceberg that Bond spectacularly avoids by gliding and surfing through the (digitally constructed) huge sea waves.²⁴ Despite the extensive use of computerized procedures, this digitally amended scene desires to enforce rather than distracts the impression of reality by displaying what Stephen Prince calls 'perceptually realistic' imagery.²⁵ According to Prince, "perceptual realism" refers to filmmakers' attempt to build imagery compatible with the spectators' experience and understanding of three-dimensional space, light, color, texture, movement and sound in daily life. This compatibility can encompass CG images that may be referentially fictional but perceptually realistic. Prince says: "when lighting a scene becomes a matter of painting pixels, and capturing movement is a function of employing the correct algorithms for mass, inertia, torque, and speed (with the appropriate motion blur added as part of the mix), indexical referencing is no longer required for the appearance of photographic realism in the digital image." (32-33) Thus, the Tsunami surfing scene in Die Another Day reflects an attempt to be compatible with the spectators' experience and understanding by embedding computer-generated imagery into live stunts, matching in detailed accuracy physical settings, actors' performances, camera movements and perspectives. Indeed, according to Editor Christian Wagner, "the finished result is that you believe that those icebergs are sitting suspended in that water. Each iceberg, depending on its size, has a certain weight and you can feel the volume and you can see the base of the iceberg through the water and through the interaction, and it really is quite stupendous."²⁶

At the same time, the digitally enhanced Tsunami surfing scene reflects Andrew Darley's observation regarding the spectacle nature of digital imagery in general.²⁷ This nature presents a new aspect to the aesthetics of the series. According to Darley, high degrees of surface accuracy of digital displays (e.g., upgraded color, enhanced shape and heightened contrasts) in films just as in other computer based media such as video games produce an excessiveness which creates seductive and magical power which intensifies their impact. (84-87) Darley says: "[…] this imagery far exceeds that form which it has been drawn (i.e. its original image sources or models): it is ultra-detailed, exaggerated – hyperrealistic. There can be no doubting the enormous power to arrest and delight the eye that such 'impossible photography' possesses." (99) Therefore, in the self-rescue scene from the Tsunami surfing, 'impossible photography' grants the scene its power to capture and please spectators' eyes using high degrees of surface accuracy achieved by hyperrealistic imagery that far exceeds its original image sources. Upgraded color of the stormy ocean, the heightened contrasts between the image of Bond's body and the environment he encounters, the enhanced shape of the exaggerated waves and icebergs, and the ultradetailed paraglide generates the seductive and magical power of Bond's action-body and intensify his larger-than-life endeavors impact. This ultra-detailed, exaggerated – hyperrealistic presentation brings a new dimension to the Bond series by providing new expressive intentions on the part of the filmmakers aiming mainly at heightening the impact of the action: to envision and shape invented, virtual worlds rather than reproducing actual and physical worlds. Functions on an expressive rather than a realist level, Bond image is placed in the heart of the Tsunami surfing spectacle. His gestures, movements and facial expressions assimilated in the a continuous setting of the raging sea aim to amplify the dangerous forces of nature and thus further magnify his sharp instincts, physical force, balance, courage, fortitude, and extremely energetic and vigorous body as he manages to overcome all obstacles and bring himself without harm to safe ground. The desired outcome is not only an increased impression of heightened reality, but also an intensification of Bond's efforts and exertions. This requested effect illustrates Lisa Purse indication that the potential impact of the digital bodies of "virtual" heroes on spectators is not determined by their validity as a realworld fact.²⁸ Rather, says Purse, when the digitally enhanced action-body functions as perceptually real by removing and erasing any sign of their complex composition of visual elements, the digital enhancements provide an "empowering vision of a human functioning at the extremes of what is physically possible" that produces an emotional impact through character's heightened performance and not through realworld indications. (8)

The stylistic display that produces general impression of an invigorated action, extraordinary physical activities and unusual heroic accomplishments In Die another Day reinforces Bond's competences and reestablishes his supremacy as masculine hero. Consequently, it reapproves common perceptions of images of men in mainstream cinema that implicate concepts of aggression, power, omnipotence, mastery and control to an extraordinary degree in spectacles of masculine fortitude and strength and reflect actual concepts of gender and heroism embedded in the patriarchal culture. The image of Bond in the Tsunami maelstrom becomes pure voyeuristic spectacle by witnessing his struggles of the great forces of nature. Rather than functioning as a fetishistic object of erotic display, the scene visual style designed to diminish any erotic element that direct display of Bond's body may promote, as the long-lasting spectacle that suspends the storyline drive exhibits no obvious intention of focusing on the pleasure of the display of Bond's body through cinematography and mise-en-scene. Rare close-ups and medium shots of specific body parts are used, and camerawork usually avoid scanning his figure by panning along the length of his body. The use of long and medium shots place his body in the middle of the visually intimidating Tzunami storm, intensifying the drama around Bond rather than directing an explicit erotic gaze at his body. Therefore, In the digital era, though the passage of the Bond series from analog Bond to digital Bond, and nevertheless the new expressive intentions on the part of the filmmakers to simulate virtual worlds rather than reproduce real world, Die Another Day follows the cultural and traditional mainstream cinema conventions by emphasizing real-world gender conventions and reassuring Bond's traditional masculine heroism in much the same way the Hollywood cinema has traditionally presented the heroic action image.

Realistic Performance

While Die Another Day encompasses extensive usage of digital procedures and prominently exhibits digital aesthetics while keeping on illustrating the traditional spectacle of masculinity, the subsequent Daniel Craig's Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall present a more traditional approach to the use of digital intermediaries while indicating on shifted generic formulas that transform the image of Bond as an action hero.

According to Alain Bielik, who reports behind the scenes of Casino Royale, the producers' categorical requirement that the film will go "back to basics" led to extensive physical effects usage and limited usage of digital effects, "bringing the franchise back to its hard edge, low-tech From Russia With Love days."²⁹ However, while indeed less digitally enhanced shots up to 580 shots were featured compared to 680 shots in the previous Bond film Die Another Day - Casino Royale still incorporates digital procedures in main action scenes. For example, the first part of the opening chase sequence in which Bond chasing a terrorist in a construction site was performed by a stunt team that used rigs, cables, safety harnesses and airbags deleted manually in post-production with careful reconstruction of background by hand. CGI was used to extend the construction site and create the correct aerial perspectives, and digital green screen shots were used to exhibits the fight between a cobra and a mongoose which were shot separately and then digitally composited with the background plate. The following action scene that presents a car chase at Miami airport where a terrorist is aiming to impede an introduction of a new airplane to the media presents a busy international airport environment by incorporating physical models such as a miniature hangar and practical aircrafts models, live action plates with a real Boeing 747, air traffic lights and stunt car with CG hangars, terminal buildings and car as well as green screen shots of human extras running around and additional motion captured CG extras added to the airfield using digital matte painting layering procedures. A third action sequence which exhibits buildings sinking into the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy was produced by incorporating live-action plates with full scale model footage of a water tank and 1/3-scale miniature representing the sinking buildings. Then, digital images of debris, dust and dirt were carefully blended in. The head of CG Ditch Doy explains that the key challenge was to obtain a realistic environment and dynamics by creating "a perfect blend" between CG textures and images and live-action plates "to make it look like all these separate elements had been shot at the same time." Visual effects supervisor Steve Begg favors "this kind of mixture of low tech and high tech" with follows the producers' demand that the digital work remain unnoticed.³⁰

In Quantum of Solace, director Marc Forster's character-driven vision to "explore the personality of Bond's character on screen" led him to illustrate Craig's Bond performance with great details.³¹ For example, in the fight between Bond and the contact-agent in the lavatory in the pre-title opening scene, characters' performance emphasizes the action, heightens the sense of danger, and generates excitement by graphically exploiting facial expressions (through zooms) and physical gestures (through medium shots) which emphasizes a tougher, harder, Bond. Forster's motivation to make "great action scenes" led him "to make sure the action is character-based […] in the way that an actor playing character in a scene has to be an integral part of how the character would react, actions scenes have to be built the same way. The character should keep in character, and the action should project his character […] it's got to be motivated correctly."³² Digital practices enabled Forster to realize this aspiration, which indicates the desire to gain the maximum energetic impression of action by focusing on the characters' performances, illustrating movements and facial expressions to convey an impact. For example, Ellen Wolff provides the detail practices used to enhance the skydiving scene of Bond and Camille (Olga Kurylenko).³³ An array of 16 cameras captured Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko performing a skydive suspended in the air by powerful fans in a giant wind tunnel, creating a three-dimensional virtual image of the pair performing a variety of moves that would have otherwise been impossible to achieve. The digital enhancement enabled an effective management of size, light, angle, and speed in order to enhance the powerful struggle with the wind rippling the characters' faces, combining a real dive with virtual gliding simulation in ways that could barely be accomplished with a stuntman and film camera. David S. Cohen reports that the process enabled the visual effects supervisor Kevin Tod Haug to re-imagine the characters by making computer-generated versions of them. High-resolution digital doubles could be tracked onto selected shots as needed, and then matched with the actors' appearances in terms of face, hair, and clothing, against modeled computer-generated backgrounds. The sequence's environment is a combination of synthetic elements, including the plane, clouds, light, and smoke. It includes matte-painting and digital-still photography stitched together and projected onto 3D sky domes in ultrahigh resolution, like a cyclorama.³⁴

Skyfall, the latest film in the series, keeps on focusing on Craig's Bond physicality while deliberately disguising digital enhancements. In his review of the not yet screening film,³⁵ Matthew Klekner quotes Editor Stewart Baird who says that although there are many effects shots in the film, "I hope it won't look like a heavy effects show. The goal is to be invisible." (73) This invisibility ensures that Skyfall produces the desired "kinetic energy" of the action while conveying clear comprehension of events. (74-75) For example, in the opening pre-title sequence Bond chases an aggressor and faces him on the top of a train as it passes over a railway bridge. Bond's colleague agent Eve (Naomie Harris) shoots and misses the attacker who escapes with the names of secret NATO agents, while Bond falls off the bridge and goes missing. Ian Failes comprehensive review of the significant digital processes that were used to enable full-sized shots of the rivals describes how digital wire and rig removals processes supported the presentation of real-bodies in action, and practical shots of the digger bites into the top of the train were visually composite with CG imaging to allow establishing shots of the speeding train destruction.³⁶ As Eve hits Bond, his fall was filmed on one plate with a stuntman attached to a set of cables miming having been shot on the actual bridge in Turkey, while Daniel Craig was filmed against green screen on a second plate. Visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst explains that, among all, in order to blend those two plates together a CG head of Daniel Craig was used for a replacement on the stunt performer, digital process removed all of the rigging attached him, a transition conducted to a full CG double, a CG bridge was generated and digital matte painting of the valley was stitched together with footage of actual rivers in the area.³⁷ While digital technologies have transformed the resources by which Craig's Bond films are produced, the films carry on the traditional photorealistic style rather than accepting the visual style embraced in Die Another Day. Instead of effects-heavy spectacles, the digital enhancements are hidden to conceal all traces of their extensive usage. At the same time, Daniel Craig's pro-filmic body, his actual, real-life physical figure occupies the center of the frame for substantial screen time as, for example, in one major action scene in Quantum of Solace. The scene begins with Bond's breathtaking pursuit of the bomb-maker, Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan), which features the Parkour method of physically demanding free-running, jumping, and climbing to efficiently overcome obstacles along a route of a danger-ridden labyrinthine construction site and atop 130-foot cranes. Bond and Mollaka's ensemble performance, as they jump, hit the ground, roll over, leap, twirl and somersault, beat and get beaten, is illustrated by long camera shots and medium shots exploit their entire bodies, and zooms that allow a close examination of facial reactions, creating orchestrated interrelations that amplify and exaggerate the scene motion-arousing features. The camera work and editing style accord with director Forster's declaration: "cutting fast to make up for a lack of excitement in the action isn't what either of us wanted."³⁸ Instead of supporting an impression of action using speed cutting, short shot-length, rare movement completion within a shot and clean exit-movements, more shots are long-shots and characters are presented on screen for extended periods, emphasizing the whole body. Forster chooses to convey Craig's Bond's vigilance, initiative, and energetic appeal by focusing on his impressive physical capabilities.

Rather than explicit use of computer enhancements to generate excitement and pleasure, Craig Bond pro-filmic, actual body is vividly emphasized as spectacle of physical endurance and mastery. How this reconsideration of means in relation to Bond's body image presentation should be explained?

Lisa Purse discusses cinematic bodies and the modes of digital imaging and animation involved in their presentation. According to Purse, in digital cinema, the pro-filmic body and its evident materiality and consistency of form is perceived as the reliable site to locate heroic identity. Purse states: "The pro-filmic body is the most effective embodiment of such visual integrity: it appears perceptually real in almost all circumstances and operates to "guarantee'" that the physical exertions displayed on screen have at least a correlative in the real world." (16) The explicit use of digital simulation may not have the same guarantee, since the potential malleability of virtual characters raises concerns around the changeable nature of their heroic quality. This idea may explain why filmmakers increasingly implement digital processes in Craig's Bond films while making great effort to conceal them. The digital compositions indeed endow the action scenes with up-to-date flair (since reliant on traditional special-effect work might look outdated), but their disguise reassure spectator's impression of genuine physical work and exertion. The presence of the pro-filmic actor is emphasized in order to construct Bond's reliable and stable heroic integrity. "Such a body serves as the site at which fantasies of empowerment are made physical, so that the action hero's displayed corporeal form functions simultaneously as pleasurable spectacle, as the driver of the action movie's narrative of becoming, and as the object of the spectator's sensory, experiential processes of identification." (22-23)

At the same time, this presentation of the heroic body may challenge common perceptions of images of masculinity embedded in the patriarchal culture and signified in mainstream cinema. The digitally improved, extremely ritualized and long-lasting moments of spectacles that present magnificent and eye-catching performance by focusing on the pleasure of the display of Craig's Bond pro-filmic body not only maximize the attraction of Bond and promote his immense valor, but also restore pleasurable look at his heroic body in action. Rather than displacing the gaze from Bond's body by locating it more generally in the cinematic space and distance the spectator from the potential eroticism aroused from the presentations of the male body, Craig's Bond empowered and intensified body image attracts the eye, charm, and thrill the spectator. The fetishistic pleasure rests upon direct displays of Craig's Bond body restores its eroticism. Presented as the object of fetishistic looking, Bond's body is feminized, marked as the object of another male look, and advances (homo) erotic implications. Therefore, the body centered action scenes that visually locate Craig's Bond body in the heart of the action modify his heroic construction by altering the spectator's pleasurable engagement with the spectacles of reinforcement and exertion such presentation offers, and reflect changing concepts of gender and heroism in the Bond series.

Conclusion

This stylistic display of the male body in action, which reinforces his physical competences and reapproves his supremacy as an ultimate virile icon but undermines traditional conceptions of masculine heroism, is evident in narrative construction as well. By narrative, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall exhibit the reinvention of the Bond character as a tough, even violent, vengeful loner and darker-toned super-spy, who further rejects the corrupt and hostile social order, motivated ambivalently between state justice and personal justice. This style is preannounced in the revision of the opening gun-barrel sequence in Casino Royale, which serves as a precursor for a re-conceptualization of Bond characterization. The film presents the beginning of Bond as Agent 007 and discards the continuity of the Bond series in order to launch its characters, timeline and backstory. Unlike previous installments, the gun-barrel sequence does not open the film as a stand-alone segment but as a prologue for the following events. A meeting between Bond and Fisher (Darwin Shaw), a double agent, is accompanied by the film's theme song and incorporated into the narrative: as Fisher pulls the gun to shoot Bond's back, Bond spins around to outshoot him first. The frame shifts instantly to the gun-barrel perspective, a monochrome computer-generated rifling. A concluding faster-than-ever blood-flow runs down the frame after Bond's gunshot. Bond's new identity is established here as well as the change of the nature of his mission a more aggressive, cruel and threatening persona, striving for retaliation. Quantum of Solace is the direct sequel to Casino Royale. In this film, Bond aims to avenge the death of his beloved, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), and his character keeps on presenting bitter, brutal, and tougher loner. Skyfall set up the events that turned Bond into his 007 identity in Casino Royale and reestablishes his personality as a wounded, independent and self-reliant orphaned who returns to Skyfall, his family estate and childhood home in Scotland where he experienced an unresolved childhood trauma, pursuing revenge.

Bond's new characteristics established in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall as isolated and ruthless avenger, endowed with physical power and follows personal motivations is compatible with Robert Arnett's assertion that the nature of the renovated Craig's Bond corresponds to the superhero genre conventions.³⁹ Focusing on Casino Royale, Arnett finds that the film's narrative structure embraces the model of superhero films such as the X-Men (2000; 2003; 2006) and Spider-Man (2002; 2004; 2007) film series. Those films, says Arnett, feature a protagonist with special 'powers' and a duty to save the world. As an agonizing figure, he strives to fit in with 'normality' while at the same time making super-heroic efforts to mend injustices caused by society. Through actions of violence and death along with a romantic subplot, the superhero undergoes a change, through which he establishes the unique abilities that define him, reflect his personality, and aid him throughout his quests. Arnett parallels the narrative pattern of Casino Royale with the superhero genre conventions and indicates that Craig's Bond experiences a distinctive transformation which characterizes superheroes' narrative pattern. Through the course of transformation he struggles with obstacles and conflicts culminated as he inserts himself into an underworld conducted by Le Chiffre, as he is captured and tortured by this villain, and by the death of Vesper Lynd. These events, say Arnett, catalyze Bond's transformation into the new identity. From a self-interested, missionoriented professional to a vulnerable, compassionate, morose and wounded warrior. Craig's Bond no longer represents a conservative hero defending a status quo, but powerful and motivated super-spy bent on a revenge-quest. (9-10)

The novel portrayal of Craig's Bond has common ground with the superheroes genre by visual means as well. Aaron Taylor investigation of comic books superheroes such as Superman, Spiderman, and Batman indicates that as part of the presentation of superheroes' bodies as "bodies beyond limits—perhaps without limit," the presentations of idealized sculpted bodies capable of impossible displays of athleticism, fitness and ability produce the dualistic nature of superheroes bodies.⁴⁰ On one hand, their shaped figures share the same appeal of the bodybuilder's form, as their musculature and gender differences are visually emphasize using anatomical exaggeration and physical emphasis in order to construct their super-sexuality "according to highly visible binaries." (345) On the other hand, visual fragmentation as well as full-body shots of their physicality reassemble, glorify, and magnify their super heroic bodies in ways that position them as objects of desire. This presentation, says Taylor, disrupts conventional categories of gender since the super heroic body turns feminine. This dualistic nature "points to potential bisexual reader subjectivity… a polymorphous sexuality or at least a sexuality that dualistic logic cannot constrain… What may be emerging is the ultimate androgyny of the super body… unconstrained by verisimilitude, the bodies represented in superhero comics are malleable, plastic, and subject to all kinds of wild reconfigurations and metamorphoses." (347) The fact that superheroes may not be vulnerable to sexual seduction and does not indulge in any short-term sexual relationships, and their erotic impulses are channeled into violent struggles that leave no place for passionate relationships, is another indication for the blur of stable boundaries of sexualized identities. (358) Therefore, Taylor reads "muscle-bound heroes and bodybuilders" as bodies that reevaluate the ideal of physical perfection, "playful distortions of idealized physiques" that indicate of multiple physical potentials and gender possibilities "which denies fixity and exposes the artificiality of enforced male/female differentiations." (357-358)

The dualistic nature suggested by Taylor can be integrated into the body presentation of Craig's Bond as well. On the one hand, it is possible that due to filmmakers' realistic determinations Craig's Bond image extend visible sexual difference that reveals the efforts invested to create more sexualized the exaggerated anatomies. Additional emphasis was put on Craig's bodybuilding, developed muscles and body toning with stronger, swifter and noticeably faster fighting skills.

Furthermore, the productive media discourse around the extra effort Craig placed into physical preparations for the role, his bodybuilding trainings, chest and arm circumference, weight and body fat, and even the change of his hairstyle, indicates on an attempt to anchor the concrete body of Daniel Craig as the actual source for the new Bond in public mind.⁴¹ On the other hand, by objectifying Bond's body in ways that the previous Bond films objectified women, and by subduing his masculine desire, his image destabilizes the privileged position of the traditional masculine hero.

In Casino Royale, for example, medium shot stresses his excessive masculine appearance as he emerges half naked from the water prefacing his exploitative seduction of the stunned Solange, the mistress of a villain, and positions his body as a visual spectacle, which Vesper loudly objectifies during their first meeting by referring to his "well-shaped arse." Funnel regards this erotic positioning of Bond as replacing the traditional position of the female character as an object of the gaze, and associates the visual presentation of Craig's Bond with the famous Bond Girls Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) in Dr. No (dir. Terence Young, US, 1962) and Jinx (Halle Berry) in Die Another Day who appear from the sea dressed in a revealing swimsuit in front of the amazed Bond. Funnel says: "through the intertextual referencing of renowned Bond Girl iconography, exemplified through Bond's double emergence from the sea, Craig's Bond is positioned as a visual spectacle and aligned with the Bond Girl character type rather than with his Bond predecessors in the filmic franchise." (267) The subsequent Quantum of Solace and Skyfall (dir. Sam Mendes, US, 2012) illustrate an even more radical transformation of Craig's Bond ambiguous gender image. Camerawork and editing tactics repeatedly post his impressive bodybuilding as the subject of the gaze and fetishize him as a fantasy object. This position is established in Quantum of Solace by several medium shots in the Grand Hotel scene that highlight his masculine upper body as he welcomes Giancarlo Giannini (Rene Mathis) to the hotel room in a shot that, again, evokes queer connotation; and during the bed scene with Fields, who is less revealing than him. In Skyfall, during the shave scene with Bond girl Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Harris is fully dressed and Craig is unclothed while cinematography directs the gaze from her flamboyant outfit to his well-shaped naked figure.

Additionally, his intimate relations are not vulnerable to sexual seduction as he does not indulge in any short-term sexual relationships, although his predecessors were usually involved in such interrelations. For example, in Quantum of Solace, throughout his quest to revenge Vesper's death, his emotional involvement with women shows restraint rather than indulgent. The relationship with the Bond girl Camille is never fully consummated, and with agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) he becomes intimate only to gain her loyalty. In skyfall, no actual engagement in a physical relationship is ever conducted between Bond and Eve, and the bath scene with Severine (Berenice Marlohe) represents impassive sexuality and unreadable erotic urges that produce indefinite manliness.

By placing bond actual-body in the center of digitally enhanced spectacle that entitled with realistic authenticity, Craig's Bond filmmakers reinforce the impression of a masculine body beyond restraints with reliable heroic integrity grounded in physical reality. The ensuing heroic image has both indexical connections to an external, actual-world referent which is the pro-filmic body of Craig himself, as well as virtual, unstable foundations as his digital action body image is an integral part of heightened computer simulations. Consequently, his gender identity entails fluidity and changeability rather than being solid and stable reflection of concrete patriarchal conceptions of ideal masculinity.

Ultimately, the most digitally advanced latest Bond film Skyfall presents the most significant distancing from Bond's solid and stable masculine heroic identity. According to Tricia Jenkins, this identity was established in Goldfinger (dir. Guy Hamilton, US, 1964), where he becomes "more masculine, more sexually desirable, more heterosexual than the others around him."⁴² While Casino Royale launches the process of Bond's gender transformation, Skyfall asserts his gendered reconfiguration.

The nature of Bond's desires is overtly questioned when his adversary, the flirtatious Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), unbuttons Bond's shirt and peels it back, caresses his neck, strokes both of his upper legs and remarks "first time for everything." Bond's smile and his response "what makes you think this is my first time?" suggest his super-body androgyny and potential bisexual subjectivity.

Notes