Bond Retrospective: "Casino Royale"
Released: 2006
Actor: Daniel Craig
Villain: Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen)
Henchman: no major henchmen except maybe Mathis
Allies: Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright)
Bond Girl: Vesper Lynd (Eva Green)
First Appearance: Daniel Craig as Bond
Notable Abscences: Moneypenny, Q, gadgets
Precredits sequence: Bond completes his two kills, earning him 00 status.
Plot: Bond is chasing a hired goon who's involved with a large terrorist organization. After a chase, Bond kills him, and finds out from his phone about a code word, ellipsis. Using M's computer, he tracks the text to Nassau, Bahamas (not seen, I think, since LALD), where he finds the hired man was in league with Dimitrios. Bond follows Dimitrios's trail, earning an Aston Martin along the way, and eventually has to kill him. Following the trail, he ends up in an airport, where a huge airline company is releasing their biggest plane. Le Chiffre, the financier for this large organization, is planning to bomb the plane to make money off their decline in stock. Bond stops it, and Le Chiffre loses a lot of money. To make up for it, as he owes many people their cash, he sets up a high stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. Bond, as the best player in MI-6, is sent there to win and retrieve the money. The cost is, if he loses, the UK finances terrorism. The CIA sends Felix Leiter. Vesper Lynd is sent to accompany Bond as the treasury representative. Bond loses the first round of the game, and Vesper refuses to buy him back in on account of his ego. Leiter, however, buys him in, with the agreement that the CIA apprehends Le Chiffre. After surviving a poisoning attempt by Le Chiffre, he wins the name. Le Chiffre captures him and Vesper, and while torturing Bond, is killed by the organization. Bond thinks Mathis sold them out, and he's arrested. Bond falls in love with Vesper, and resigns to be with her, but she betrays him by giving the winnings to an oddly spectacled man. She dies in the ensuing confrontation, and M finds out that she was working for the organization to save her kidnapped lover, and likely gave the money to spare Bond's life. She leaves a hint for Bond to find Mr. White, which he does at the end.
Thoughts: it's been only six years since CR was released, but it is quite arguably the best Bond movie to date. It does draw some of its strengths from its predecessors. We appreciate the raw, unrefined Bond because we've seen the experienced hard edge of Connery, the suaveness of Brosnan. We embrace the darker tone, something we haven't really seen since Dalton. Gone is the campiness and overt humor of Moore. And we finally have a return to a more emotional aspect of Bond, not seen significantly since Lazenby. But this film takes these various aspects of the character through the decade, and uses it to craft such a excellent film, with the character as its focus. The plot is simple enough, not world-threatening, and compared to many of his other missions, relatively minor. Yet, we see a Bond we haven't quite seen before. Bond is not an experienced fighter, and is more of a brawler. Bond doesn't know what his favorite drink is, yet. Only at the end, does he learn how to introduce himself in the way we're used to. But perhaps the biggest thing is, Bond finally learns who he can trust: no one. That's a quality of the character we've seen before, the ruthless nature. Not evil, but not forgiving in the slightest. And now we know why. Bond seemed to truly fall in love with Vesper, and truly trusted her, only to have that trust shattered. That changes a man, and is such a key point of the character, and it's the biggest strength of the film, in my opinion; the fact that they chose that to be the one big change in the character from start to end. Of course, the name at the end, and the familiar theme, was just icing on the cake. Lynd was a pretty good Bond girl, matching wits with Bond. Her feelings for him, and regret at betraying him, is well conveyed. The action was on point, especially the parkour chase at the start. The precredits sequence was good, showing us a rare pre-007 glimpse at Bond, and bringing us into the famous gun barrel. And the titles were stellar, again by Daniel Kleinman, and such a welcome departure from the silhouette dancing girls. Even the hold em game was filmed with such tension, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Classy, stylish, character-focused, nuanced, and brilliant, this is the Bond film to beat, in my opinion, by a long, long shot.
Actor: Daniel Craig
Villain: Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen)
Henchman: no major henchmen except maybe Mathis
Allies: Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright)
Bond Girl: Vesper Lynd (Eva Green)
First Appearance: Daniel Craig as Bond
Notable Abscences: Moneypenny, Q, gadgets
Precredits sequence: Bond completes his two kills, earning him 00 status.
Plot: Bond is chasing a hired goon who's involved with a large terrorist organization. After a chase, Bond kills him, and finds out from his phone about a code word, ellipsis. Using M's computer, he tracks the text to Nassau, Bahamas (not seen, I think, since LALD), where he finds the hired man was in league with Dimitrios. Bond follows Dimitrios's trail, earning an Aston Martin along the way, and eventually has to kill him. Following the trail, he ends up in an airport, where a huge airline company is releasing their biggest plane. Le Chiffre, the financier for this large organization, is planning to bomb the plane to make money off their decline in stock. Bond stops it, and Le Chiffre loses a lot of money. To make up for it, as he owes many people their cash, he sets up a high stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. Bond, as the best player in MI-6, is sent there to win and retrieve the money. The cost is, if he loses, the UK finances terrorism. The CIA sends Felix Leiter. Vesper Lynd is sent to accompany Bond as the treasury representative. Bond loses the first round of the game, and Vesper refuses to buy him back in on account of his ego. Leiter, however, buys him in, with the agreement that the CIA apprehends Le Chiffre. After surviving a poisoning attempt by Le Chiffre, he wins the name. Le Chiffre captures him and Vesper, and while torturing Bond, is killed by the organization. Bond thinks Mathis sold them out, and he's arrested. Bond falls in love with Vesper, and resigns to be with her, but she betrays him by giving the winnings to an oddly spectacled man. She dies in the ensuing confrontation, and M finds out that she was working for the organization to save her kidnapped lover, and likely gave the money to spare Bond's life. She leaves a hint for Bond to find Mr. White, which he does at the end.
Thoughts: it's been only six years since CR was released, but it is quite arguably the best Bond movie to date. It does draw some of its strengths from its predecessors. We appreciate the raw, unrefined Bond because we've seen the experienced hard edge of Connery, the suaveness of Brosnan. We embrace the darker tone, something we haven't really seen since Dalton. Gone is the campiness and overt humor of Moore. And we finally have a return to a more emotional aspect of Bond, not seen significantly since Lazenby. But this film takes these various aspects of the character through the decade, and uses it to craft such a excellent film, with the character as its focus. The plot is simple enough, not world-threatening, and compared to many of his other missions, relatively minor. Yet, we see a Bond we haven't quite seen before. Bond is not an experienced fighter, and is more of a brawler. Bond doesn't know what his favorite drink is, yet. Only at the end, does he learn how to introduce himself in the way we're used to. But perhaps the biggest thing is, Bond finally learns who he can trust: no one. That's a quality of the character we've seen before, the ruthless nature. Not evil, but not forgiving in the slightest. And now we know why. Bond seemed to truly fall in love with Vesper, and truly trusted her, only to have that trust shattered. That changes a man, and is such a key point of the character, and it's the biggest strength of the film, in my opinion; the fact that they chose that to be the one big change in the character from start to end. Of course, the name at the end, and the familiar theme, was just icing on the cake. Lynd was a pretty good Bond girl, matching wits with Bond. Her feelings for him, and regret at betraying him, is well conveyed. The action was on point, especially the parkour chase at the start. The precredits sequence was good, showing us a rare pre-007 glimpse at Bond, and bringing us into the famous gun barrel. And the titles were stellar, again by Daniel Kleinman, and such a welcome departure from the silhouette dancing girls. Even the hold em game was filmed with such tension, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Classy, stylish, character-focused, nuanced, and brilliant, this is the Bond film to beat, in my opinion, by a long, long shot.
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