Skyfall, James Bond's Resurrection, and 21st-Century Anglo-American Imperial Nostalgia

Containing the Spectre of the Past: The Evolution of the James Bond Franchise during the Daniel Craig Era

“…The connective tissue in question instead acknowledges the anguish of growing old, with Craig's frequently traumatised (even if then always revitalised) physical frame coming to stand, in Marouf Hasian Jr. and some other commentators' view, as 'a characterological symbol of British weakness and decay'. 35 In linking the most recent Bond films to questions of national identity, those recent observers build upon a longer-term critical legacy. As James Chapman and numerous other critics have argued since the original 1950s and '60s publication of Ian Fleming's novels, 'the [Bond] books and films… attempt to mediate the decline of British power by creating an imaginary world in which the Pax Britannica still operates'.…”