On Javier Bardem's Role as Silva in 'Skyfall'

By: Greg Payne

I was recently in an Oscar-Winning Films class (shoutout to Professor Damico!), and I had the pleasure of taking in No Country for Old Men for a second time. While I loved that film as a whole, what I ultimately came away with above all else was a true appreciation for Javier Bardem's acting chops. He won Best Supporting Actor that year, and I'm assuming it was by a landslide. If it wasn't, it should have been.

Anton Chigurh is a marvelous villain, and Bardem's entire performance is, in a word, captivating. He turned Chigurh into a character you wanted to see on screen at all times, simply to see what he would do next. This scene alone is worth the price of admission:



I say all of this to help explain my excitement for Bardem's turn as Silva, Skyfall's chief villain. Now, I obviously don't want a duplicate of Chigurh in Skyfall. That would be doing both Bardem and the film an injustice. But I do want a villain on par with Chigurh. I want a villain just as enthralling as James Bond is. I want someone who can outsmart Bond and then, when the situation calls for it, go toe-to-toe with him in a brawl.

Bond villains used to be diabolical and sinister. Lately, they've been...um...underwhelming. Le Chiffre in Casino Royale was intriguing, but I lost all respect for him when his two terrorist buddies held him and his girl up in the hotel room. If he can't even handle guys who wouldn't be more than mere henchmen to the old school Bond villains, how is he supposed to deal with Bond himself? Sure, Bond wasn't technically even the one to kill Le Chiffre, but if he hadn't been tied to that chair, Le Chiffre's dick-crushing exercise wouldn't have gone down so smoothly.

And then there was Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace...Let's just move on.

I'm hoping Silva is a villain that I can respect. I'm hoping he's a villain that makes the stakes feel real to me. I want him to keep me guessing. I want him to be utterly unpredictable, and I want him to torment Bond in ways that we haven't seen before. Can't we all agree that Heath Ledger's turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight raised the stakes for all future movie villains? I want Bardem's Silva to surpass that.

The teaser trailer for Skyfall dropped this past Monday. We don't really get to see Silva, except for a brief glance at his shadowed silhouette as he staggers away from a burning mansion. I love that he's shrouded in mystery. The only other glance we've had of him comes from these set photos, in which he's dressed as a police officer and is sporting a blonde wig.

Needless to say, he's not looking quite as dapper in the trailer, with his hair all frazzled and sticking out at every possible angle. Notice his walk, though (1:03 mark).



Then, watch this scene from No Country. Notice Bardem's walk (1:34 mark) as he limps back to steal medicine for his messed up leg.



The walks are awfully similar, are they not? Now, this is no way implies that the two villains are even remotely similar (Chigurh is hurt in that scene from No Country, who knows what state Silva is in after he ignites that building in Skyfall), but it's just something that jumped out at me as soon as I watched the trailer for the first time. That scene from No Country popped into my head immediately. And since I'm campaigning for Silva to be as memorable as Chigurh, I'll take any comparison I can get, even if it's a simple strut through a field with a mansion ablaze in the background.

While Bond villains haven't lived up to the hype lately, they've at least been somewhat intelligent, and I think it's safe to say Silva will be supplied with considerable intellect and problem-making skills. Bardem is listed as being six-feet tall, and he's a pretty burly guy, while Craig, who's, you know, jacked, checks in at about five-feet-10, so Silva should be more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Bond if the two ever need to duke it out at one point (or multiple points) in the film. Sure, Silva will have some henchmen at his disposal (Ola Rapace plays Patrice, and I'm willing to bet he's tied to Silva in some manner), but we know those guys all get axed at some point, so there's no reason not to have Silva be combat ready.

I'm hoping for (and pretty much expecting) a twisted, sinister, engrossing, and slightly unstable villain in Silva that leaves me feeling uncertain throughout the film's run time. I don't want to be able to guess what his ultimate fate will be a mere 20 minutes into the movie. I want to look forward to see the scenes when he and Bond are sparring, whether it be verbally or physically. I want one of the best Bond villains we've ever seen on the screen. And Javier Bardem has proven already that he's the perfect man for the job.