Casino Royale

When Sean Connery (arguably the “best” Bond) quit in the 1960’s – the franchise dug deep into the plot line of Ian Fleming’s book “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and produced a movie that many Bond aficionados recognize as one of the best – while introducing George Lazenby in the role. George - sadly - didn’t last and the franchise rumbled through some dreadful Roger Moore years propped up by outrageous stunts and sharply pressed dinner jackets. Pierce Brosnan rescued Bond from the dark and foreboding Timothy Dalton - so many were dismayed when he decided to hang up his Walther PPK and leave the producers looking for someone new.

So on the day after Thanksgiving – the outlaws and I headed over to the local multiplex where 4 of the 20 screens were showing Daniel Craig’s debut in Casino Royale. Glad we dropped by in the morning and bought our tickets early! If you haven’t read the books –this was Bond’s “first” mission for Ian Fleming and the producers have dropped a lot of the “givens” and started afresh with the franchise here too. Gone are Eon Productions, many of the “characters” who propped the previous movies and “in” are financial help from the Government of the Bahamas to place part of the movie there and some pretty overt product placement from Sony and Ford. Thank goodness it was a temporary aberration that had Bond drive a Ford rental, the Aston Martin (albeit Ford owned these days) gets more than a look-in with Bond winning a 1964 DB5 in a card game and later driving (and real world totaling) a DB9 later in the movie. But these little commercialization’s in the movie don’t detract from Daniel Craig’s hard edged killer which harks back to Connery in Dr No when he kills in cold blood – because that is his job.

Without spoiling the ending – this movie faithfully follows the twists, turns and doubts of the original 1953 novel. Some scenes are lifted straight from it – notably when Le Chiffre tortures Bond. Of course the movie has been brought up to date in terms of locations, bad guys and the world 53 years after the book was written. But the gadgets are believable PDA’s and computers that we all use in the real world – only a little better, the stunts are exceptionally good – and they are believable (well – just!) and the violence is not necessarily gratuitous – though people meet violent deaths when they get in the way.

Craig portrays Bond’s dilemmas as real spy world, not necessarily black and white but varying shades of grey. Not just in his conscience but in who got disposed of along the way – and should they have been. M has her doubts – Bond has to remind himself that to survive he cannot afford to have doubts. The character forms and introduces himself at the very end of the movie in the very last line – “The name is Bond, James Bond”.

Of course we really are now out of original Fleming novels so it will be interesting to see how we move on from here – but this Bond IS one of the best since the 1960’s. Perhaps reusing them realistically - as here and in OHMSS will keep the franchise strong.