Bond Films: Casino Royale

Casino Royale is the first of the Daniel Craig Bond films, and the first in the EON line to start with Bond's first mission - it's been adapted before, but nothing most people today would have seen). It was formally described as a reboot, which addresses some problems with Bond continuity, keeping the character firmly in the present while acknowledging elements of his past in a more nuanced way that Bond coming across old props in The World Is Not Enough. Casino Royale came out 4 years after its predecessor, and was the first under new creative leadership. Is quality is a result of this deliberate attention to what works and what doesn't in the series.

The basic plot of Casino Royale is: after earning his 00 status taking down a mole in Prague, Bond is dispatched to capture a bomb maker in Africa. After shooting up an embassy and killing the target, Bomb is criticized but turns up clues to a financier named Le Chifre. Le Chifre is a banker to the criminal underworld, and turns a profit shorting successful stocks and orchestrating events that will turn tragedy into profit. Unfortunately for him, Bond prevents a bombing of a new airliner, and Le Chifre loss over $100,000,000 of his clients' money, and so he puts together a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro. Bond is paired up with Vesper Lynd (the girl) from the Chancellory of the Exchequer's office, and off they go to win a poker game. In the course of the game Le Chifre is assaulted by one of his more militant clients, whom Bond later kills, and Bond himself is betrayed and also poisoned. However, he wins, and in short order Vesper is kidnapped and used to lured him into a trap, after which he is tortured in a very novel way by Le Chifre - who ins short order is killed in front of Bond's own eyes by a shadowy man. Bond and Vesper recover together in a hospital, and decide to escape together, to give up their government jobs and sail the world. However, Vesper absconds with the money, leading to a shootout in a Ventian build as it collapses into the sea, wherein Vesper drowns. Bond later learns that she betrayed him at the casino and in the end because her lovel was being held by the mysterious bad guys who killed Le Chifre, and Bond hunts down a man identified by her for him in her cel phone, and kills him. Bond is cold and trusts no one. This is the beginning of James Bond, agent 007.

Casino Royale was quite impressive when it debuted, and stands well on its own and within the Bond canon. It sticks within the rules of the series but brings us new surprises, notably that Bond is not totally on top of his game; he slips and nearly falls, he makes noise during a quiet snatch, and he lowers his guard and falls in love. He hasn't earned the trust of his superiors yet, and he's a bruiser: he takes hits as hard as he dishes them. He relies less on gadgets, other than commonly available text messaging. Indeed, one of the challenges for the series is that technology that would have seemed outlandish when it started is in the hands of everyday, normal consumers today.

What really struck me when I first saw Casino Royale, and when I re-watched it for this blog, is that it takes a turn into being chick flick Bond. While this Bond knows what he wants, he's not a jerk about it, and certainly, the shots of Daniel Craig arising from the ocean wearing nothing but swim trunks is fair turnabout on Halle Berry and numerous other girls over the series' history. However, in the final act, when Bond is opening up to Vesper, and he says, "I have no armor left", and some more beautiful words, those baby blue Bond eyes staring at us, OMG, ladies, swoon. This is a Bond we girls want to be with, and not just as a buddy, or conquest. This is Bond the boyfriend-material.

The best Bonds have emotional stakes that are high and are personal. When I saw Casino Royale the first time, I haven't seen most of the early films, and this chick-friendly approach was novel to me. However, I now know that it reflects the best Bonds, where there is real chemistry and emotional risk for Bond - On Her Majesty's Secret Service, From Russian With Love, and, later, even Skyfall. Bond does his best when he has something to love, and it has to be personal. After all, the world is not enough.