‘Kingsman’ – ‘Skyfall’

Comparison

Recently, in class we were able to watch the British movie Kingsman: The Secret Service which was released in January 2015. The film involves several big name actors including Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson and Michael Caine and was directed by Mathew Vaugn and based on the 2012 comic books of the same name by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons. In this essay, I will be comparing ‘Kingsman’ with another British film, which, also is one of our MS4 case studies; Skyfall. This is the 23rd film in the James Bond series and was released in 2012. The film recruited Daniel Craig as Bond and also stars Judi Dench. It became the highest grossing film in the UK at the time generating over $1,000 million.

First of all, I was able to identify that both of the movies ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ and ‘Skyfall’ explore similar themes and ideas, however it can also be identified how they differ at times as well. Both films are British made, follow Todorov's theory and overlap in genres such as Spy and Action films. However, Kingsman  can also be be listed as a comedy due to certain parts of the film being solely for humour, such as the idea of the influential character’s heads exploding in a firework display manner. Contrastingly, Skyfall explores a genre of its own in that it could be classed under Thriller or Adventure. Despite both films being Action, Skyfall seems to conform to the genres conventions more with significantly more car chases and explosion than Kingsman, none the less Kingsman does include several such as the police car chase at the beginning of the film. Amongst similar themes between the two are saving the world and becoming a hero. Both main protagonists Bond and Eggsy, although very different, succeed in 'saving the world' as it were.

Secondly, masculinity is a strong theme in both of the film. This is because both of the protagonists are males and the villains both of which are trying to save or change the world. Masculinity is more so shown throughout Skyfall rather than Kingsman which does show masculinity but the males are far from being the only ones able to fight and defend themselves. In Kingsman some stereotypical traits of masculinity are put into the female characters as well as the males. Both Bond (Daniel Craig) and Harry Hart (Colin Firth) are shown to represent the dominant ideology, white, middle class, middle aged, straight males.

However, to contrast, the two films overall convey opposing political views. Both films showcase the dominant ideology. With Bond being a white, heterosexual, middle aged man, clean shaven and in a suit. He is also a protagonist with great power, skills and authority suggesting the dominant ideology is the criteria for his abilities. Similarly, Harry Hart is of the same nature however Kingsman is about embracing 'Eggsy' a boy despite his low social class being able to become/ being considered for a Kingsman. Vaugn here conveys social realism through Harry Hart's left wing political views and through the film in general including characters of a working class - unlike Skyfall. 

Lastly, there are also positive representations throughout Kingsman with disability represented through Gazelle who has blades for legs. She uses this in her favour as she fights offthe kingsman and protects Valentine, although failing to do so against Eggsy in one of the final scenes. In addition, there is also a positive representation of females throughout as Roxy a woman, much smaller in weight and height than the other contenders, manages to win the position of Lancealot showing capability over men who are suggested to be seemingly more able. On the other hand, Skyfall over sexualises women as the mysterious lady is tied up and a game made of trying to knock the whiskey from her head. Bond's colleague Eve Moneypenny is also shown to shoot Bond instead of the opposition. In addition to her being shown to not be able to do what she aimed to do, she becomes a sexual object. A scene by which Bond is shaving, a masculine act, she takes over shaving him suggesting women are below men, before he unbuttons her blouse without consent.