Beginner’s Bond: Casino Royale
“Beginner’s Bond” is a series all about closing the largest gap in my personal cinematic history: the James Bond franchise. I am watching all of the movies in order for (mostly) the first time, and writing down my reactions here. Last time, Die Another Day (2002) closed the book on the Pierce Brosnan era of Bond with a 50/50 record: 2 hits and 2 misses. Today we’ll see Daniel Craig don the dinner jacket for his first outing as 007 in the 2006 movie Casino Royale.
Along with GoldenEye before it, Casino Royale was the rare Bond movie I saw in a theater during its original release. Like many film students about to drop their major in 2004, I watched Layer Cake over and over. Although I had seen Daniel Craig in other movies before, this was the performance that made him stand out as a compelling actor who could command a screen all by himself. Two years later, I went to see Casino Royale because it was a Daniel Craig movie, not a Bond movie. I only recall thinking it was a fun action movie at the time. Let’s see how it looks two decades later.
This film opens in black and white with the grain turned all the way up, the camera tilted at an odd angle like some French arthouse movie. We see our new James Bond make the two kills required to earn his promotion to 00 status. The first is a wet, sloppy and brutal mess—a murder too obvious to sweep under the rug. The second is what we expect from 007: quick, clean, professional. Perfect cloak and dagger tradecraft. Bond admits the second one was much easier.
And then we get one of the more imaginative title sequences of the series. Instead of writhing naked women, we’re treated to colorful silhouettes of men in suits fighting with playing card elements. The sequence is inspired by the original cover design of the 1953 novel, and it is a gorgeous piece of animation. Didn’t really care for Chris Cornell’s song, but it wasn’t distractingly terrible. Of course, the rest of the movie is in color. But we get the black and white message—this Bond is way more serious and dark than your daddy’s 007.
A bomb maker who also happens to be a parkour champion leads 007 on a daring chase through a building under construction. In addition to some amazing stunt work, we see that this brand new Bond is still more blunt instrument than precision blade. He commandeers a bulldozer in pursuit of of his target, wrecks a construction site, shoots his way through an embassy, even literally barrels through a wall at one point. This Bond has the relentless drive and indomitable will we’ve come to recognize in the world’s greatest secret agent, but none of the finesse years of experience will bring. After winning an Aston Martin in a high-stakes poker game, James uncovers a terrorist plot to blow up a new prototype jetliner and just barely manages to avert it in an elaborate action set piece that would serve as the finale for any other movie. This explosive market manipulation scheme was the brainchild of Le Chiffre, enigmatic banker to bad guys around the world, who has now lost a lot of villain money. He organizes a big poker game with a $10 million buy-in in a desperate bid to recoup his losses before his clients come for his head.
Even though James basically committed an act of war on the grounds of a foreign embassy, 007 is apparently the best poker player at MI6, and so he is dealt in. While gambling in casinos is a frequent part of the series since the very beginning, this is the first time I can recall the game being material to the plot. Bond’s actual mission is to beat Le Chiffre at poker, so that the baddie banker will be broke and willing to squeal all his secrets to MI6 in exchange for protection from his irate clients. When the stakes of the poker game escalate, so does the tension of the plot. As we draw closer and closer to the final hand, increasingly dangerous obstacles try to knock Bond out of the game, ranging from a double bluff to men with machetes. Although he wins at poker, Bond ends up naked and tied to a chair while his balls get tortured. Not exactly a banner moment for 00 section.
While this is the most raw and unrefined version of James Bond I have yet seen, it is also the most vulnerable. He is not yet the cold blooded killer who enjoys his work enough to make pithy puns about it, which leads to him being open with Vesper Lynd, and that runs counter to everything we think we know about the character of 007. James hands over his heart in a way he never has before. He even planned to resign from MI6, abandon his duty to run away with Vesper and try to live happily ever after. Since Vesper is played by the captivatingly beautiful Eva Green, I can’t really blame him. Unfortunately, that means she must inevitably betray Bond and suffer a rather dramatic death as a result. Definitely the kind of weapons-grade heartbreak that creates the type of emotionally unavailable serial playboy James Bond will become. Casino Royale is a surprisingly well-constructed character study for a secret agent man origin story.
Since this was Daniel Craig’s first mission in the tuxedo, we have to ask—is he James Bond? There’s no doubt he looks the part, with the piercing blue eyes and chiseled superhero physique. He looks competently vicious in the fight scenes and he really does wear the hell out of that dinner jacket. This version of Bond is probably the most realistic, a tortured soldier teetering on the moral edge of becoming a professional killer, unsure if he truly wants to make that transition. Honestly, it feels quite similar to what Timothy Dalton was attempting to convey with his performance back in the 1980s. The major difference being that Daniel Craig’s portrayal was actually supported by the rest of the movie. He has wit, but no jokes. He’s unstoppable, but not invincible. There is no superhuman henchman to be found, and the most outlandish gadget brandished in Casino Royale is a portable defibrillator that saves Bond from a poisoned martini. That’s as grounded as the series has been since Dr. No, when all MI6 issued their top agent was a silencer for his pistol. But a brand new baby Bond still learning to be the perfect gentleman killing machine for queen and country is a new perspective on the character, and I have no doubt Daniel Craig will find lots of interesting ways to play in that space over the next four movies.
My personal accepted James Bond film theory, back in the before times when I was an ignorant fool who had only seen two Bond movies, was that there was more than one Bond. I figured James Bond 007 was just a codename handed down to different operatives when it became “available.” That was why he was always played by different guys over the years—one day 007 goes on his last mission and a new agent gets promoted into his place. When I saw that Dame Judi Dench was once again playing M, I saw that as proof of the theory. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond no doubt died heroically in the line of duty, and now M was annoyed at having to train a new 007 played by Daniel Craig. It’s a fun idea, but I have since stumbled across posts revealing that all of that is explicitly contradicted by the later films. I’m not sure why they would do that, but I hope it’s at least entertaining.
In short, I would call Daniel Craig’s debut as James Bond a rousing success. It will be interesting to see if 2008’s Quantum of Solace can surpass the very high bar its predecessor has set.
