The director of the 25th Bond movie, Cary Joji Fukunaga, caused a stir before its release by asking: “Is it Thunderball or Goldfinger where Sean Connery’s character basically rapes a woman?” That wouldn’t fly today, he observed.
No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as 007, long delayed by the pandemic, is accordingly very much a Bond for today. Not only is this Bond not rapacious or in any other way badly behaved, he is positively uxorious, a sentimental family man, even if he can’t actually bring himself to say that word. It is remarkable proof of Craig’s charisma in the role that he can make this regretful saint work at all as an action hero.
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