Mission:Impossible’s Ethan Hunt is probably most renowned for being one of the best looking spies in the espionage film category; Ethan Hunt was played by none other than Tom Cruise with the help of his A-list star reputation gave the film a huge boost in advertising. This is because the viewer saw Tom Cruise as a great actor, and there fore would think that the film will be good. Mission: Impossible was a remake of an old 1960s American series of the same name. Tom Cruise and co-producers Paul Hitchcock, Elias Badra and Paula Wagner decided to take the concept of the series and shoot it more into modern times so as to appeal to a younger generation and also to people who had seen it before. By doing this they expanded their target audience to appeal to more people.
Mission:Impossible was the first film Tom Cruise starred in with Brian De Palma as director. Brian De Palma is widely known in the film industry at being able to take a film and make it look dark and mysterious, which I believe is a key feature that a spy film needs as everything is done in silence and undercover. The way Brian De Palma used camera angles and exposure to show how someone is feeling made the film unique to any others, like the moment when Sarah gets stabbed and all you can see is the side of her face that’s crying and distraught. How Brian De Palma used the lighting on the canal front as the man got stabbed through the gate was brilliant as most of his face was concealed, he was still a little bit visible, and so adding a sense of mystery to the scene. I believe the small extract of Mission:Impossible that I saw had a good balance of being glamorous and yet the camera angles still made me feel like the gritty and dangerous job it is.
I do believe the use of the ear receiver which the characters use to communicate with each other and the glasses with the camera in gave a glamorous fell to the film as well as the girls saying “I have nothing to wear”, I believe this line portrays women like they have to look good for the men and to be a distraction to their enemies, they also have enough money to buy a new outfit every time they go out. In the opening scene you can tell it is a spy film almost straight away, as the writing and the location gave it away. Kiev is near Russia, in which the whole conception of the Cold War began. Also the use of Russian dialect in the opening scene reinforces my view. The use of gadgets gives a glamorous feel to the film as it is something extraordinary that you can’t buy in shops. Also the gum which is actually explosive was quite a neat little addition which helps to reinforce this common perception.
The first thing to say about James Bond is what isn’t glamorous? Until Casino Royale, James Bond was a very cliché 1950’s spy who had the gadgets, the girls and the car. In this film director Martin Campbell takes on Bond in his true form with a new, more real Bond to play with. In Casino Royale the main objective of the film was to move away from the common perception of James Bond being glamorous, so he decided to make the film more dark and mysterious by using camera angles, exposure and lighting much like the way Brian De Palma does in the Mission:Impossible series.
I have chosen a scene in which Bond is fighting a man in a grimy bathroom which led Bond onto the path of becoming a 007. In this scene Bond looks considerably bigger and fitter than the other man, who looks quite weedy compared to Bond, which puts the image into the viewer’s head that Bond is almost superhuman. Bond is beating this man up only taking one or two hits for every ten of his own. He throws him into a sink which shatters with quite a loud bang, which suggest that spies have to be super fit for their career or else they would be useless in sticky situations, I believe this was over dramatised to add drama to the fight scene and to engage the viewer.
When Bond is in the office with a man he refers to as Trident, I noticed that at all times his face is half concealed which I believe shows mystery and a want of not being seen by anyone, Bond also comes across as a very cold and heartless person with no feelings at all. Bond is wearing black, which is a good colour for keeping out of sight during the darker hours of the day. I believe James Bond has been portrayed as very glamorous in the past with actors such as Sean Connery and Roger Moore, but now Martin Campbell has decided to throw a new more real Bond at us with less gadgets and more gritty reality, this is to throw us away from the common perception of spies being glamorous, and to wean us off our addiction to the media. Martin Campbell also over dramatised the bathroom to make it feel like you’re in the bathroom with them watching Bond assault this man.
I have come to the conclusion that Casino Royale reinforces the common perception of spies being glamorous by the physicality of Daniel Craig. The explosion in the embassy adds to my point before because Bond sets it off without thinking twice and without having to have any consequences, but there isn’t enough gadgets in the film, compared to Mission:Impossible. Mission:Impossible is in every way glamorous, the big explosion of the car and Jim falling of the bridge are all over dramatised deaths to capture the viewer’s imagination. Overall I think spies are portrayed as glamorous but in the film industry, especially in Mission:Impossible but now there is a bigger calling for more realistic spy movies, for the viewer to embrace the real work that these dark and mysterious people do on a daily basis.
