Casino Royale

I've never been a big fan of James Bond, though I treasure the memory of watching Octopussy, which was partly shot in India, in a New Delhi theatre so jam-packed that we all would have died if it had burst into flames, with a crowd of people who cheered madly every time they saw a location they recognized or when a random extra they knew walked into the frame. Otherwise, I've watched them when they were on TV or when someone else wanted to rent one. The ones with Sean Connery are fun, although annoyingly sexist and a bit slow in between the action set-pieces, and the Roger Moore and recent ones are a bit ridiculous. I've never much cared for camp, so the alleged humor of a lot of the dialogue eluded me.

I've also read one Ian Fleming novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, which was pretty awful although possibly not characteristic, being narrated by a totally unconvincing woman whom Bond rescues, and which devotes about a fourth of its length to her unremarkable, yet pruriently described sex life. It further alienated me by having her think things like "Every woman enjoys a bit of semi-rape." EW.

Casino Royale, which ditches the elaborate gadgets in favor of something vaguely resembling realism, was much more to my taste. Though I loved the ways in which it is dialogue with the earlier Bond movies and the Bond iconography, it could easily be enjoyed as a particularly well-done action movie even if you've never seen a James Bond movie, or dislike the whole franchise. I suspect that the people most likely to dislike it are fans of the Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan films, which this seems a reaction against.

There are terrific action sequences, but stripped-down, relying on physical stunts (like a marvelous chase at the beginning through a Tetris-like construction zone) or old-fashioned suspense (a variant on the bomb-defusing scene, which takes place entirely in the front seat of a car with Bond on the phone to headquarters.) Judi Dench and Daniel Craig have wonderful chemistry, and I now am dying for a prequel where we see M as a young agent. There is an annoying interlude with a random Bond girl early on, but the actual female lead, though not an action heroine, is believable and not helpless. Plus, she is involved in a shower scene that is not what you would normally think a shower scene would be, and is not only the emotional center of the movie, but has now gone on my top ten list of hottest scenes ever filmed.

When I saw Casino Royale, I realized why I have never been much of a Bond fan, though I do like a good action/spy movie and enjoyed many elements of the Bond films: I never believed that Bond could be hurt. Of course you know going in that Bond won't die; but I know when I watch Lord of the Rings that the Black Riders won't catch the hobbits in the Shire, and that Boromir will succumb to temptation, and yet I still feel a terrible suspense every time I see the film. It's all in the presentation: acting, script, and direction. I never believed for a second, in any Bond movie before this one, that anything really bad could ever happen to him. And that prevented me from ever being truly engaged with the character.

Casino Royale made me worry about Bond. Daniel Craig's knuckles bleed after he punches people, and his face bleeds when other people punch him. He's not a perfectly suave and unflappably competent gentleman who can stroll out of any confrontation with his hair slicked back and a perfect quip on his lips; but that's the persona you can see him creating for himself. This is the beginning of Bond, and the Bond icon is something we see being constructed onscreen. The whole movie is about the tension between the persona and the barely-glimpsed self, between elegant poker games and men getting beaten to death in stairways. Bond is arrogant, and he makes mistakes; and his mistakes have consequences. He's sexy, and he knows it and uses it to his advantage; but he's not really conventionally handsome, not like a Teflon model. There's a line early on about the lifespan of a double-0 agent, and it echoes through the whole movie. This has got to be the only Bond movie ever where you believe that he could die.

Casino Royale

I've never been a big fan of James Bond, though I treasure the memory of watching Octopussy, which was partly shot in India, in a New Delhi theatre so jam-packed that we all would have died if it had burst into flames, with a crowd of people who cheered madly every time they saw a location they recognized or when a random extra they knew walked into the frame. Otherwise, I've watched them when they were on TV or when someone else wanted to rent one. The ones with Sean Connery are fun, although annoyingly sexist and a bit slow in between the action set-pieces, and the Roger Moore and recent ones are a bit ridiculous. I've never much cared for camp, so the alleged humor of a lot of the dialogue eluded me.

I've also read one Ian Fleming novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, which was pretty awful although possibly not characteristic, being narrated by a totally unconvincing woman whom Bond rescues, and which devotes about a fourth of its length to her unremarkable, yet pruriently described sex life. It further alienated me by having her think things like "Every woman enjoys a bit of semi-rape." EW.

Casino Royale, which ditches the elaborate gadgets in favor of something vaguely resembling realism, was much more to my taste. Though I loved the ways in which it is dialogue with the earlier Bond movies and the Bond iconography, it could easily be enjoyed as a particularly well-done action movie even if you've never seen a James Bond movie, or dislike the whole franchise. I suspect that the people most likely to dislike it are fans of the Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan films, which this seems a reaction against.

There are terrific action sequences, but stripped-down, relying on physical stunts (like a marvelous chase at the beginning through a Tetris-like construction zone) or old-fashioned suspense (a variant on the bomb-defusing scene, which takes place entirely in the front seat of a car with Bond on the phone to headquarters.) Judi Dench and Daniel Craig have wonderful chemistry, and I now am dying for a prequel where we see M as a young agent. There is an annoying interlude with a random Bond girl early on, but the actual female lead, though not an action heroine, is believable and not helpless. Plus, she is involved in a shower scene that is not what you would normally think a shower scene would be, and is not only the emotional center of the movie, but has now gone on my top ten list of hottest scenes ever filmed.

When I saw Casino Royale, I realized why I have never been much of a Bond fan, though I do like a good action/spy movie and enjoyed many elements of the Bond films: I never believed that Bond could be hurt. Of course you know going in that Bond won't die; but I know when I watch Lord of the Rings that the Black Riders won't catch the hobbits in the Shire, and that Boromir will succumb to temptation, and yet I still feel a terrible suspense every time I see the film. It's all in the presentation: acting, script, and direction. I never believed for a second, in any Bond movie before this one, that anything really bad could ever happen to him. And that prevented me from ever being truly engaged with the character.

Casino Royale made me worry about Bond. Daniel Craig's knuckles bleed after he punches people, and his face bleeds when other people punch him. He's not a perfectly suave and unflappably competent gentleman who can stroll out of any confrontation with his hair slicked back and a perfect quip on his lips; but that's the persona you can see him creating for himself. This is the beginning of Bond, and the Bond icon is something we see being constructed onscreen. The whole movie is about the tension between the persona and the barely-glimpsed self, between elegant poker games and men getting beaten to death in stairways. Bond is arrogant, and he makes mistakes; and his mistakes have consequences. He's sexy, and he knows it and uses it to his advantage; but he's not really conventionally handsome, not like a Teflon model. There's a line early on about the lifespan of a double-0 agent, and it echoes through the whole movie. This has got to be the only Bond movie ever where you believe that he could die.