Hello and welcome back to Favourite Character Praise Friday!
This is one of my absolute favourite posts to write and I hope you enjoy my
picking apart of my favourite characters enough to stick around while I examine
my next victim, I mean, character. Don’t worry, I do not rank these characters
in a particular order, it just so happens that some characters are better worth
sharing praise for at a different point in time to others! Remember, every
fifth instalment is Least Favourite Character Praise Friday, so keep an eye out
for me probing at characters I can’t stand and raving about how well they were
written in order to evoke such a reaction.
So, who is the subject of my next Favourite Character Praise
Friday?
Rick Ford from Spy!
Warning: This will contain spoilers!
Spy was a film that I first watched about two years ago and
had be crying with laughter for the entire time. As a casual fan of James Bond,
and other spy-centric series’ like Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls’ series,
watching a film blatantly mock the tropes of such an established type of story,
was hysterical.
I really enjoyed watching the film, particularly Ford,
acting in an exaggerated caricature of a rogue operative.
The thing I loved most about Ford, was how self-assured he
was. Although the film, probably doesn’t do his prowess justice, due to it
focusing on Susan Cooper, he is able to infiltrate a variety of different
events and institutions throughout the movie, across multiple countries in
Europe. His skills in espionage are not to be disputed, although his disguises
are not the most desirable. However, unless you’ve watched the film multiple
times, the odds of you spotting Ford prior to Susan doing so herself, is
immensely low. The only reason I can anticipate where to look for him is because
I’ve seen it numerous times. He is well-aware of his abilities as a spy and
knows he can use many covers and infiltrate spaces with relative ease:
something he points out to Susan when he initially goes rogue and breaks into
her hotel.
I love that despite his bravado he does happen to have a
clear flaw to him, which is the same trait that makes him so easy to humour –
his ego. Ford is very full of himself due to him having done a large volume of successful
missions. However, he is clumsy and makes mistakes. The fact that he’s gone
rogue has probably influenced this as he can only rely on his own intuition.
Ford demonstrates that his reputation is well-placed. He has a great ability to
acquire intel' and is relatively inconspicuous, however, his belief that he is
incredible does lead him to falling short. He’s tailed by a terrorist in Paris,
who switches out his Louis Vuitton backpack for one with a bomb in it. He would
have died due to believing that he was at the top of his game as a pavement
artist and only survived because Susan stepped in and helped him. However, this
makes him a character that is easy to relate to, despite how much of a
caricature he is. Everyone has made mistakes when they’ve perceived they’re at
the top of their game. Ultimately, it makes him easier to relate to.
The last thing I love is how iconic his comedy is. When it
matters most for creating a mood, Ford was usually the butt of the joke, from
the moment where the ally is to dramatically appear on the scene, and he gets
himself trapped in the door and falls over due to slippery shoes, to when, at
the end he claims that “sometimes a man’s got to be at sea” and takes off in a
speedboat, on what ends up being a lake, instead of open waters. Ford is one of
those characters that can always be relied upon for humour. He tends to be the
butt of the joke even when he’s excelling at his job. Susan mocks him at the
Casino De Rome, when she attempts to infiltrate the space, and she calls him
out for his poor concealment of a weapon. It happens again when she happens
upon him at the disco where Rayna Boyanov is due to meet with a buyer for the
nuclear bomb. He tends to think big, dramatic and disposable, like the
conventional Hollywood spy, and he is an amazing commentary of the archetypical
rogue in this instance!
Please, if you have opinions on Rick Ford, feel free to
share them with me! Don’t forget you can check out my previous Character Praise
by looking through the hashtags below.
And remember!
Per Aruda Ad Astra
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