SPECTRE
Director: Sam Mendes
Cert 12A; 2 hours 28 minutes
James Bond has become an icon of secular Western civilisation over 50 years or so.
This is the 24th film in the Bond series. It uses the same tried and tested formula, the maverick agent willing to move into the darkness and by his grit and skill save the world.
In this movie the threat comes from the prospect of a computerised super-surveillance system capable of controlling us all. The scenario hits the nerve of the current discussion which is so exercising government, judiciary and the public: the extent to which snooping security forces should be allowed to go in order to protect society. In contrast to this cold-blooded digital technology and its champions, the hero Bond, now ageing somewhat, is very human, vulnerable and needy in his womanising. There are the usual exciting chases, sadly loose morals and bits of gadgetry. Interestingly ‘Q’ (Ben Whishaw) has a bigger part than usual and turns up ‘on the field.’ The film ‘does what it says on the tin’, but that’s all.
No heroes?
All through history people have told tales of derring-do to inspire hope and ennoble the struggles of our lives. The world loves a hero. James Bond in all his stylish and sinful hubris is ours. But it’s all fantasy. We have become a society which lives on make-believe.
It is notable that when we read Bible history there is a sense in which we find no heroes. From Abraham and Sarah, through Samson, to King David and later the apostle Peter, every one is actually a failure, left to themselves. The world does face a terrible threat. But it is one to which most people are blind. It is the threat of sin and its consequences. And this is where ‘the man from outside’ who came at the first Christmas, the Lord Jesus, the only true hero of Scripture, enters in and conquers.
