Casino Royale



Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright, and Judi Dench.

Released November 2006.

James bond earns his 00 in the opening. In Africa, Le Chiffre receives money to invest for an African rebel leader and puts it into aerospace shares, in Skyliner. Bond is tasked with tracking a bomber in Africa and kills him, after a chase, though he was told to bring him in, alive. Clues lead to a greek man, in the Bahamas. Bond seduces his wife and wins his car, n a card game. He then tracks him to Miami, where he prevents the destruction of a Skyliner plane, costing Le Chiffre money. he sets up a high stakes Texas Hold-Em card game, at Casino Royale, in Montenegro. Bond is tasked to wipe Le Chiffre out and is accompanied by Vesper Lynd, of the Treasury. Bond gets the upper hand early and Le Chiffre is almost killed by the African leader, though he lets him continue. His bodyguard spots Bond, who is forced to kill him. When play resumes, Le Chiffre has been tipped off about a tell and Bond is losing. Vesper refuses further funds and another player, Felix Leiter, comes to his aid. Leiter is with the CIA, who also want Le Chiffre wiped out and neutralized. Bond is winning when he is poisoned. he gets to his car and injects and antidote and uses a defibrillator, then passes out. Vesper attends to him. He returns to play and wins. he and Vesper celebrate and she is kidnapped from the hotel. Bond pursues, then sees Vesper, lying in the road, bound, and swerves to miss, rolling his car. he is taken prisoner and tortured, to reveal the password for his account. A man called Mr White comes along and kills Le Chiffre, but leaves bond alive. He wakes up in a hospital. he resigns to go off with Vesper and then learns, from M, that the money was never deposited and knows vesper betrayed him. He follows her for the handoff and kills the man, but Vesper traps herself in an elevator, which plunges under water and drowns. m reveals that she was a traitor, under duress, and Bond acts unaffected. He locates and captures Mr White.

Essentially, this is a remake, both of the Climax Theater teleplay and the campy 60s film, though somewhat more faithful to the source. Not entirely, though. In the original novel (the debut of Bond), Le Chiffre is the paymaster for SMERSH operations; but, has been diddling the accounts. Bond is there to wipe him out; but, loses. felix Leiter, the CIA man, gives him funds to continue (with a note that says "Lend Lease," after the WW2 program where neutral USA lent the UK old weaponry and equipment, in exchange for leases on foreign bases) and Bond wipes out Le Chiffre. Instead of attempting to poison Bond, one of Le Chiffre's men has azip gun (in a walking stick) pointed at Bond's back, ordering him to lose. Bond tips his chair backwards, suddenly, and knocks away the weapon. Later, Vesper is kidnapped and the road accident occurs, putting Bond in Le Chiffre's hands. he is tortured and is saved by a killer from SMERSH, who cuts a cyrillic letter in his hand, for "spy", which Bond later has to have a skin graft, to cover. vesper is a traitor, there, working for the Russians.

Here, the opening elements are new, as are the post torture scenes. The center section follows the novel (apart from the African bodyguard spotting Bond) relatively closely. The torture of Bond is as inthe book. Fleming had a thing for this sort of scene and sadistic torture is an element of several of the novels. In his personal life, Fleming and his married lover (and later wife, after she was divorced from her her previous husband) engaged in a BDSM relationship. The scene reads as nasty as what's on screen. In the novel, it is mentioned that Bond earned his 00 by killing a Japanese spy, from a distance, on the 36th floor of the RCA building, in NYC, and a double agent in Norway (during the war).M is Sir Miles Meservey, a retired admiral, who was based on Fleming's boss at Naval Intelligence, Rear Adm. John Godfrey, while the M name was derived from C, head of the Secrutiy Service, so-called because of legendary head of that service Mansfield Smith-Cummings, who signed orders with a large "C", leading the that becoming the name for the head of the service).

In the film, Judi Dench is back as M, who distrusts Bond and uses him reluctantly, because he tends to be rather blunt in achieving his ends and she also considers him to be mentally questionable. The film basically revolves around Bond proving himself to become the agent we know from the original series. For several years there was talk of showing Bond's early days and that was the genesis of this project, combined with Sony purchasing MGM, giving them rights to Bond and the film rights to Casino Royale, so it could become an "official" Bond film. Neither Q nor Moneypenny appear in this film. desmond Llewelyn had passed away after the premiere of TWINE and John Cleese did not return after DAD. Q will turn up, as will Moneypenny, though in revised roles.

One of the big elements of the film is the early parkour display, when Bond chases the African bomber. The bomber is portrayed by Sebastien Foucan, one of the people responsible for popularising parkour, outside of France. Foucan took part in a documentary, showcasing him running through London, jumping off of and onto objects, leading to being cast to perform in the film. His style was referred to as "freerunning," rather than the French parkour. parkour was originally developed in the French army, as a way of training soldiers to find the most efficient way of overcoming obstacles. In the modern world, it turned into a sport that split into factions. one group placed emphasis on style in performing stunts and jumps, while the other was built more around efficiency. Parkour was also displayed in the French action film B13 (Banlieue 13 or District 13), as well as Luc Besson's Taxi 2. This helped set off any number of idiots into becoming objects of derision on Youtube videos.

The early part of the film is a bit disjointed and the airport stunt show seems to be a diversion, existing mainly to set up le Chiffre's need of the poker tournament. The original card game, in the novel was baccarat, where the object of the game is to defeat the banker with 2 or 3 cards, adding up to 9 (or higher value than the banker, but no greater than 9), a game played in European casinos, similar to Blackjack. As such, poker seems a bit less exotic and classy; but, it reflected the growth of Texas Hold-Em in international tournaments and casinos. Still, Bond playing poker vs baccarat (or chemin de fer) seems a bit lower class.

Product placement is once again all over the film, though more high end products than anything else. The BMW deal was long over, returning Bond to English cars, while also high end Rolex and Omega watches. Bond uses more modern firearms, carrying a Walther P99 throughout the film...



The P99 had been seen in the series since TND, with Pierce Brosnan, as it was the latest generation Walther, of the period, with greater firepower than the PPK, which looked outdated in modern action films. Eon had dabbled with newer weapons for Bond, as Roger Moore carried a Walther P5, in Octopussy (as well by Sean Connery, in never Say Never Again), at Walther's insistence, as they were promoting the new pistol. However, Bond reverted to the PPK in subsequent films, until TND, when Brosnan picks up a P99, from Wai Lin.

After a long search, it was announced that Craig had won the role, setting off a s@#$storm, in certain quarters of fandom, over Craig being fair haired. It proved a minor distraction. Craig had been around a while; but, gained his first major notice for Layer Cake, the first film directed by Matthew Vaughn, playing a very Bond-like crook. Craig proves to be a tough, ruthless Bond, with much in common with the literary version. Personally, I thought he was good here; but, he is too serious in subsequent movies and seems a bit more middle class than Bond should be. It seemed like the producers were going out of their way to make Bond tougher than other action heroes, when he is supposed to be stylish. Craig never really pulls off the stylish part, to me, despite the clothes, cars and accessories. He seems more like an ex-SAS officer who probably came from a more humble background, while Bond was part of the upper crust, in keeping with many of the SOE and OSS types of WW2 (including people like Christopher Lee).

Eva Green is fine, as vesper, though it isn't a particularly strong role. There are a couple of really great scenes that do more for the character than the entire rest of the film. She did look like she could use a sandwich or two (par for the course with modern actresses). Mads Mikkelsen made for a good and icy Le Chiffre, which helped the film quite a bit. Jeffrey Wright is the second person of color to play Felix Leiter, after Bernie Casey, in NSNA. He would return for Quantum.

On the whole, it's a darn good film and by far Craig's best, for my money; but, 9/11 heavily informs it, which, for me, robs it of what differentiates Bond. Even the novels are fantasy and this is so deadly serious. Connery used to get off a joke or two. Craig makes quips, though never delivered with quite the same effect. The 9/11 metaphor becomes a major issue in the Craig films, which makes them feel more formulaic than even Moore's films. Modern audiences don't seem to mind; but, I find that the loss of the fantasy element of Bond and the over emphasis on stunt sequences prevents the series from ever being as good as the Connery era. Those films had style, spectacle, charm ; and, above all, story. Your mileage may vary.

David Arnold was back to do the music and Chris Connell did the theme song, "You Know My Name." It's fine; not a favorite. Really not enthused by any of Craig Era songs; but, I haven't thought much of any of them since Goldeneye. They all seem rather by-the-numbers, to me.

The film did what it set out to do, which was reboot the Bond franchise for a new audience, starting with the earliest material. It introduces a younger Bond, who is finding his way. it also set up an international organization for Bond to fight, other than the Russians or SPECTRE. However, it became obvious that no one had really planned out how they would continue, as Quantum makes a hash of the group and SPECTRE reveals that they were mostly a smokescreen. Here, at least, the mysterious Quantum, and Mr White, suggest something to give the series a jolt. Shame it didn't payoff later (agin, your mileage...etc). The film also marked a return for Martin Campbell, who launched the Brosnan Era, with Goldeneye. In my opinion, he was second only to Terrence Young among the Bond directors. Sadly, he didn't return, for more.