The Anti Bond

Before Daniel Craig, the James Bond franchise was all bombast, misogyny and on the nose. For crying out loud, characters had names like Pussy Galore. The films, the writing and the sets were absurd and consistently so to their credit. Still, that type of absurdity is best left to the creators of Archer. Newer editions, primarily Casino Royale and Skyfall, have improved the franchise and taken it from homo erectus to Neanderthal. Even Quantam of Solace is a far cry from most of the Bond entries. Sidebar: Skyfall may make a list in the future of favorite villains. How good are Javier Bardem’s villains?

I bring up Bond to juxtapose one of my favorite anti-Bond films, The American. Whether Corbijn setout to make an anti-Bond film I wouldn’t know, but that’s certainly the lens of which I view the film. George Clooney quietly plays an assassin and not once does he walk into a bar, flash his cufflinks, order a shaken martini (What?!), chat up the villain’s girlfriend and state his entire name.

Clooney’s only love interest is with a hooker. He pays her and she speaks just average English. Everything is quiet and he doesn’t walk with the confidence of a man that lives without fear. His job ensures his endangerment and his body language shows it. The film isn't without its flaws, but it's a better study of how the life of an assassin might be lived. 

Any further talk of the film would contain spoilers, so I will leave you with the following: For the men out there that still need their inner teenage boy fix, there are boobs. The women in the film, Violante Placido and Thekla Reuten, are gorgeous and their performances are graceful and understated. And for the women, George Clooney’s bare ass makes an appearance on occasion.