Jul 19, 2012

Latest Skyfall Videoblog Focuses on Bond's Aston Martin DB5

The latest Skyfall videoblog posted on 007.com focuses on one of my favorite aspects of the James Bond legacy, and one that I'm very happy is included in Skyfall: the classic Aston Martin DB5. Through behind-the-scenes footage and a little bit of film footage that we've already seen in the trailer, we get to see the most classic of all Bond cars in action. After waxing nostalgic about owning the Corgi toy we all played with as kids, director Sam Mendes intriguingly states that the last part of Skyfall, featuring the DB5, "deliberately, very consciously could have taken place in 1962." Forgiving the nitpick that that clearly isn't quite true since the DB5 itself wasn't unveiled until '63, that's a very interesting statement. And after hearing it, I look at that footage differently. Yes, the Tom Ford suit that Craig is wearing, despite a decidedly modern cut, has a very retro appeal in keeping with the suits Sean Connery wore back then. And the two locations we see the Aston in are both reminiscent of Goldfinger, the film in which it made its stunning, unforgettable debut. The Scottish highlands recall the Swiss mountain roads on which Bond pursues Goldfinger's Rolls Royce with the aid of Q's homer, and first encounters Tilly Masterson, and the London warehouses recall the narrow streets of Goldfinger's Zurich industrial complex in which Bond demonstrates the car's lethal gadgetry. All in all, it strikes me as a subtler and more appropriate homage than Marc Forster's blatant oily appropriation of that film's Golden Girl imagery in Quantum of Solace, and a nice way to mark the franchise's 50th anniversary.

Needless to say, all of this certainly serves its marketing purpose, and makes me all the more excited for Skyfall! It's a pity that there's no new Aston Martin in this film (since the 3-picture licensing deal EON signed with Ford prior to Die Another Day expired with Quantum of Solace, and Ford no longer owns the famous marque), but I'm very glad that Mendes found a way to keep the association going between the character and the car by giving the DB5 what looks to be its most screentime since GoldenEye (when the licensing deal for a modern car was with BMW). As previously noted, the license plate here is back to the classic Goldfinger nomenclature of BMT 216A after a BMT 214A plate in the Pierce Brosnan era and Bahamas plates the first time we saw this vehicle in the Craig era in Casino Royale. Anyway, have a look:

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