The structure can't work--but it does work
NMercurio
Posts: 9MI6 Agent
There are plenty of top-notch reviews on this site. Here, instead, is one man's take on the most serious charge leveled against, for my money, the greatest Bond film of them all. The charge: the structure is fatally flawed--the second act goes on too long, the third is too short and feels almost tacked on.
I'd been concerned about this, going in. But as I left the theater on Friday, I turned right back around and bought another ticket. And I loved it all over again. For me it worked just splendidly.
And yet I was curious. So I went back on Saturday and this time, watch in hand, I watched.
After two viewings that whipped right along, despite the formidable length, I'd divided the film as follows:
Act 1: Ends at the Miami Airport. Le Chiffre's ruin. The set up for the card game.
Act 2: Ends with Bond's torture and Le Chiffre's death.
Act 3: Begins with Bond's recovery and growing love for Vesper.
But the third time, as I watched, I began to think: It can't work, though it did work twice and though it's just as thrilling the third time around. Here is why it 'couldn't' work.
Act 1: 60 minutes long.
Act 2: 55 minutes long.
Act 3: 30 minutes long.
Times are as close as I could get in a darkened theater with an unillumined watch.
It would seem that some critics, at least,are dividing the film the same way. But here's a modest proposal for reconsidering CR's structure, one that will show the filme to be more balanced, and far better paced, than some think:
Pretitle: sequence: 5 minutes.
Titles: 5 minutes.
Act 1: 50 minutes ending with the scene at Miami airport. The card game, again, must be played.
Act 2: 45 minutes, ending with Le Chiffre's defeat. The card game and the dramatic steps to it are the entire act. The second act's ten minutes shorter, thus, and still neatly studded with action: the African warlord's attack on Le Chiffre, the magnificent stairwell fight scene, Bond's poisoning.
Act 3: 35 minutes, BEGINNING with Bond and Vesper's celebration dinner. Mission accomplished, they're just starting to admit the real depths of their feelings. The third act now acquires classical proportions, no longer something just tacked on and almost devoid of action. Action? A short but thrilling car chase and the torture scene neatly balance the action-packed close, the set pieces framing a jewel of a tale of true love and betrayal.
The structure's a ten out of ten in my book, along with the everything else.
I'd been concerned about this, going in. But as I left the theater on Friday, I turned right back around and bought another ticket. And I loved it all over again. For me it worked just splendidly.
And yet I was curious. So I went back on Saturday and this time, watch in hand, I watched.
After two viewings that whipped right along, despite the formidable length, I'd divided the film as follows:
Act 1: Ends at the Miami Airport. Le Chiffre's ruin. The set up for the card game.
Act 2: Ends with Bond's torture and Le Chiffre's death.
Act 3: Begins with Bond's recovery and growing love for Vesper.
But the third time, as I watched, I began to think: It can't work, though it did work twice and though it's just as thrilling the third time around. Here is why it 'couldn't' work.
Act 1: 60 minutes long.
Act 2: 55 minutes long.
Act 3: 30 minutes long.
Times are as close as I could get in a darkened theater with an unillumined watch.
It would seem that some critics, at least,are dividing the film the same way. But here's a modest proposal for reconsidering CR's structure, one that will show the filme to be more balanced, and far better paced, than some think:
Pretitle: sequence: 5 minutes.
Titles: 5 minutes.
Act 1: 50 minutes ending with the scene at Miami airport. The card game, again, must be played.
Act 2: 45 minutes, ending with Le Chiffre's defeat. The card game and the dramatic steps to it are the entire act. The second act's ten minutes shorter, thus, and still neatly studded with action: the African warlord's attack on Le Chiffre, the magnificent stairwell fight scene, Bond's poisoning.
Act 3: 35 minutes, BEGINNING with Bond and Vesper's celebration dinner. Mission accomplished, they're just starting to admit the real depths of their feelings. The third act now acquires classical proportions, no longer something just tacked on and almost devoid of action. Action? A short but thrilling car chase and the torture scene neatly balance the action-packed close, the set pieces framing a jewel of a tale of true love and betrayal.
The structure's a ten out of ten in my book, along with the everything else.
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