SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: FELIX VONG ZHI WEI

STUDENT ID NO: 0318462

FILMS SELECTED: GOLDEN EYE & QUANTUM OF SOLACE

WORD COUNT: 775

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 5TH DECEMBER 2014

Golden Eye and Quantum of Solace

Who’s “James Bond”? Before I did the research of James Bond

to complete this essay I have never watched the film and I don’t

know what exactly it is. The only thing I know about James

Bond is “007” but I don’t know the meaning. It actually is the

code name of a legendary Secret Service Agent, James Bond.

James Bond is a character who always goes for dangerous

moves. The film is based on Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel, which

was the first James Bond novel. In the year of 1962 Eon

Productions released the first cinema adaptation of an Ian

Fleming novel, Dr. No, featuringSean Connery as 007. However

in this assignment our task is to compare two James Bond’s

film. There are two productions of Bond that are compared in

this essay which is “Golden Eye” and “Quantum of Solace”,

shown in the year of 1995 and 2008 respectively.

First of all, let us look at who drove the staring of “James

Bond” in both of the movies. In the 1995 production, Pierce

Brosnan is an Irish-American. In the 2008 production, Daniel

Craig, who plays James Bond in this version, receives his 007

status – “license to kill”. The most obvious thing that we could

see is that one is blonde and one is not. As you can see in the

1995 production Bond drives a very steady spy where he faces

problems steadily and didn’t show his face expression. For

example, when he escapes from the train by using weapons.

Besides that, the 2007 production, Bond stays the same

character, showing steadiness, although he fights a lot. He

doesn’t need lots of weapons like the previous version as he

mostly uses personal skills to fight with others which more

dangerous.

Next, I would like to compare the car used in the both

production. As we all know that James Bond loves Aston Martin

and in every production he owns an Aston Martin vehicle. In the

1995 version he drove Aston Martin DB5. It is the most famous

and classical vehicle driven by James Bond. In the 1995, the car

was driven in the opening scene by Bond, whilst racing with

Xenia Onatopp’s Ferrari. In 2008 version, a slightly darker

coloured Aston Martin DBS V12 that is featured in Casino

Royale is heavily damaged after a scene of car racing at the

beginning of the film in Siena, Italy.

Other than that, I would like to compare the actresses in

Bond’s film. In 1995, Xenia Onatopp, played by Famke Janssen,

is born in the Nertherlands and the 2008 version, Camille

Montes, played by Olga Kurylenko, is a French/Ukrainian

woman. They are one of the sexiest actresses in both of the

version of James Bond’s Film. In 1995 version, Xenia Onatopp

is a former soviet fighter-pilot and the best assassin working for

Janus Crime Syndicate. In a one of the scenes, she lures a

Canadian admiral on to her yatch moored off Monte Carlo.

While they were having sex, she wraps her legs around him and

crushes his chest between her thighs, achieving orgasm while

killing him. In the 2008 version, when Camille Montes was a

child, Medrano shot her father, raping her mother and older

sister before strangling them to death. To get revenge, she sleeps

with Quantum member Dominic Greeneto to get near to

Medrano. But Greene soon grows suspicion on her and plans to

kill her. Medrano kidnaps Camille in the docks, but Bond saved

her from Medrano.

Other than that I would like to compare the flight scenes in the

both 1995 and 2008 version. It indicates a big difference. In the

1995 version Bond was chased by the soldiers and he was trying

to chase the airplane and lastly got the motorcycle and hijacked

the plane by pulling out the pilot and he fall with the aeroplane

and motor like without any equipment and get in the plane lastly

he succeed in flying the plane, but in completely different ways.

In the 2008 James Bond flew the plane with Camille Montes as

they were escaping from the enemy’s shootings with missiles.

Lastly they lost control of the plane and jumped off the plane

with parachutes.

Lastly, over these two versions of films, the James Bond series

has defined the quintessential glamorized spy film. He never

fails to stop bad guys. As a conclusion we don’t just enjoy

watching the films, we have to learn that how smart and how

Bond faces every difficulty although what he faced may not be

what we are facing. But we can learn how steady and how he

solved the situation, even under extreme circumstances.